The Palm Coast City Council talks property taxes and the potential sale of the Palm Harbor Golf Club, the LAPD’s shameful apology for a humanist tweet, Budgeting by Values: a free virtual class to learn budgeting skills at Flagler Cares.
All Else
Christianity Has Long Revered Saints Who Would Be Called ‘Transgender’ Today
There are at least 34 documented stories of transgender saints’ lives from the early centuries of Christianity. Originally appearing in Latin or Greek, several stories of transgender saints made their way into vernacular languages.
60 Missing Florida Children in ‘Critical Danger’ Rescued in Largest U.S. Operation
Federal, state, and local officials say 60 children ranging in age from 9-17 have been recovered in what an official called the “the largest in the history of the United States Marshal Service.”
“Operation Dragon Eye” involved 20 agencies and more than 100 people, recovering 60 missing children in “critical danger.” Eight people arrested face various charges, including human trafficking, child endangerment, drug possession, and drug trafficking.
Still on Warpath, Palm Coast Mayor Files Records Requests Targeting City Manager’s Communications
In an unprecedented inquisition into the city’s top staff by its own mayor, Norris filed a public record request, seeking to know every communication Acting Palm Coast City Manager Lauren Johnston has had with Chief of Staff Jason DeLorenzo, local developers, county and sheriff’s officials, local media and others, from the day of his election–Nov. 6–to the present. It is unusual that an elected official would seek with such sweep what amounts to an interrogative of his own city manager’s administrative paper trail, especially in light of his recent censure.
Proposed Rezoning to Industrial of 1,842 Acres in Bunnell Will Be Reduced by About 500 Acres and Its Uses Restricted
The proposed and controversial rezoning in Bunnell of 1,842 acres from agricultural to industrial will be reduced by about 500 acres and designations limited to light industrial and heavy industrial, dropping the previous request for agricultural community industrial, the attorney for the landowners said today. The owners are also pledging to make the rezoning conditional on permanent restrictions, so such uses as landfills, fuel depots and hazardous chemical processing would be prohibited. Public opposition had cited all three among its concerns. The “voluntary restriction list” is in the works.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, June 23, 2025
The Bunnell City Commission takes on the rezoning of nearly 1,900 acres to industrial, the Flagler County Beekeepers Association meets, visiting the caves of Altamira and Lascaux, and that first moment when Maria Justina encountered the bull.
‘Jaws’ and Those Two Musical Notes that Changed Hollywood
Two simple notes – E and F – have become synonymous with tension, fear and sharks, representing the primal dread of being stalked by a predator. And they largely have “Jaws” to thank. Fifty years ago, Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster film – along with its spooky score composed by John Williams – convinced generations of swimmers to think twice before going in the water.
Court Strikes Down Law Requiring Posting of 10 Commandments in Classrooms
The 5th U.S. Court of Appeals, often described as one of the most conservative courts in the nation, found the law unconstitutional because it violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which bars the government from endorsing a religion or creating laws that favor one religion over another.
This Will Not End Well
We’ve been here before. It’s never ended well. It’s never ended, period. A few bunker-busters aren’t about to end it either, whether they have Fordow’s Mount Doom in the bag or not. The opposite always happens in the Middle East the moment Israel and the United States substitute barbarism for diplomacy. Always. There’s not been a single exception to the rule since 1956, the last time the United States intervened to stop Israeli aggression on a neighbor.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, June 22, 2025
Gamble Jam for musicians of all ages and just about all instruments, at Gamble Rogers Recreation Area, Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village, David Foster Wallace’s commencement and Kenneth Fearing’s Big Clock.
How School Choice Went from Minority Boost to Middle Class Hand-Out
School voucher programs had been pitched as a tool to provide children from low-income families with quality education options. They have now evolved into subsidies for middle-class families to send their children to private and parochial schools, redirecting money from public schools, many of which are serving Black students, while ironically adopting language from civil rights activists pushing for equal access to quality education for all children..
DeSantis, Appeasing Conspiracy Theorists, Signs ‘Chemtrails’ Bill
Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed controversial legislation that bans weather geoengineering and prohibits what conspiracy theorists call “chemtrails.” The bill, sponsored by Republican Sen. Ileana Garcia, will require the Department of Environmental Protection to track and investigate complaints from residents about suspected weather modification or suspicious activity.
Ex-US Attorney Roger Handberg Joins GrayRobinson in Orlando as Litigator
Former Middle District of Florida U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg has joined GrayRobinson in its Litigation practice. Handberg, who will be based in GrayRobinson’s Orlando office, brings more than two decades of experience in high-stakes white-collar defense, government investigations and complex litigation to the firm. GrayRobinson is frequently the firm Palm Coast government retains for special cases; the firm is representing the city in the Splash Pad case. It represented it in last year’s charter-amendment case. It is representing it to defend against Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris’s lawsuit against his own city.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, June 21, 2025
The Saturday Flagler Beach Farmers Market, the Democratic Women’s Club of Flagler County meets, what Hallmark birthday wishes sound like in China, a few words about the Chinese Exclusion Act now that these laws are back in vogue.
Jason DeLorenzo, Palm Coast’s Chief of Staff and Target Mayor’s Attacks, Leaving to Be Assistant City Manager in Palm Bay
Jason DeLorenzo, Palm Coast government’s community development director and chief of staff for the last six years, previously a city council member for five years, and one of the administration’s most institutionally versed and versatile executives, will be leaving City Hall July 11 to be the assistant city manager in Palm Bay in Brevard County. The move up for DeLorenzo is a huge loss for the city administration, and a portend of a brain drain exacted by Mayor Mike Norris’s continued scorched-earth assaults on the city administration.
Smartphones vs. ICE
Across the United States, Latino organizers are raising their phones, not to go viral but to go on record. They livestream Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, film family separations and document protests outside detention centers. Their footage is not merely content. It is evidence, warning – and resistance.
U.S. Conference of Mayors in Tampa Will Take Up Resolution Critical of ICE Raids
The U.S. Conference of Mayors is holding its annual meeting in Tampa this weekend, and one of the resolutions they are poised to vote on calls upon federal authorities to focus their deportation actions on convicted criminals, and not on undocumented individuals who “contribute to their local communities.”
New Teen Driver Requirements, Including 6-Hour Course and Real ID Rules, Take Effect July 1
Beginning July 1, new requirements go into effect for Florida teens ages 15 to 17 seeking a Class E Learner’s Permit. These changes, enacted by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV), are aimed at enhancing driver education and safety for new motorists.
Palm Coast Planning Board Rejects Rezoning That Would Allow Concrete Mixing Plant on Hargrove Grade, Citing Pollution
The Palm Coast Planning Board rejected a request to rezone 37 acres on Hargrove Grade on the west side of U.S. 1 to heavy industrial so a national could build a concrete mixing plant there. The land includes 10 acres of wetlands, overlaps within the protection zone of two public well sites that furnish water to the city, and would not be far from acreage zoned for a hospital or a medical building. The batch plant would be the only one in Palm Coast. Those factors, along with traffic, noise and pollution, played into the reasoning of board members and members of the public who opposed the rezoning.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, June 20, 2025
The Friday Blue Forum, Michael Martin’s Ellis Island ancestry, the opening Genesis-like lines of “The Columbia History of Literature.”
Is Israel’s Bombing of Iran Illegal?
This is not the first time Israel has advanced a broad interpretation of self-defence. In 1981, Israel bombed Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor, which was under construction on the outskirts of Baghdad. It claimed a nuclear-armed Iraq would pose an unacceptable threat. The UN Security Council condemned the attack. As international law stands, unless an armed attack is imminent and unavoidable, such strikes are likely to be considered unlawful uses of force.
Double-Edged Resolution Calling on Mayor Norris To Do Better Falls Short at Flagler GOP After Sharp Debate
In a remarkable display of the polarizing effect Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris is having within his own party–and the party’s own internal strains– the Flagler County Republican Party could not agree on a double-edged resolution about Norris at its monthly meeting last week. The voice vote was not a failure of support for Norris, exactly. It spoke more about the party, its fractured membership and its complicated relationship with Norris.
Democrat Josh Weil Running for Senate in Bid to Unseat Ashley Moody
After boosting his profile during an unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. House, Democrat Josh Weil announced Wednesday that he will try to unseat U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., in 2026.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, June 19, 2025
Model Yacht Club Races at the Pond in Palm Coast’s Central Park, the Library of America delivers a new Wendell Berry, who speaks with Bill Moyers and gives us a few lines about Old Jack.
Tourism Invasions Provoke a Backlash
Large-scale protests have made Barcelona synonymous with social resistance to the negative impacts of predatory and extractive tourism, but it is far from alone: popular destinations such the Canary Islands, Málaga, and the Balearic Islands have all seen massive protests against the excesses of tourism over the last year.
Historic Telesurgery Connects Central Florida and Angola in Medical Breakthrough
In a groundbreaking medical milestone, Dr. Vip Patel, founder and medical director of the Global Robotics Institute at AdventHealth Celebration, successfully performed a robotic prostatectomy on a patient located in Angola, Africa — while operating from the Nicholson Center in Celebration, Florida. The procedure spanned nearly 7,000 miles, making it the longest distance telesurgery ever completed and setting a new global benchmark in surgical innovation.
Charter Review Committee’s 5 Slots Draw 27 Applicants With Variety of Backgrounds Except in Age
After a slow start, the call for applicants to Palm Coast government’s Charter Review Committee drew 27 candidates by the time the window closed at 5 p.m. this evening, 11 of them over the weekend. The applicants bring a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. The council wanted choices. It now has them and then some but for its pronounced boomer skew.
A Commissioner Is Surprised That Closing Palm Coast Library Is Among Options After Questioning Need for 2 Branches
With County Commissioner Pam Richardson questioning the necessity of one library and Commissioner Kim Carney questioning its staffing requirements, the future of Flagler County’s two county libraries is uncertain. The Palm Coast library isn’t going away, and the new South Side library, called the Nexus Center, will open later this summer. But how either will be managed is unsettled in a way that the local library system hasn’t ever been before, with Richardson at one point ready to stop construction on the new building and Carney promising not to add a single employee to staff it.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, June 18, 2025
Paul Peterson at Flagler Tiger Bay Club, the Flagler County Contractor Review Board meets, Weekly Chess Club for Teens at the library, Margolis & Cox’s dishonest cherry-picking quote from Martin Luther King’s “The Other America.”
Extremists Like the Minnesota Shooter Are Not Lone Wolves
The threat of domestic violence and terrorism is high in the United States – especially the danger posed by white power extremists, many of whom believe white people are being “replaced” by people of color. extremists are almost always part of a pack, not lone wolves. But the myth of the lone wolf shooter remains tenacious, reappearing in media coverage after almost every mass shooting or act of far-right extremist violence. Because this myth misdirects people from the actual causes of extremist violence, it impedes society’s ability to prevent attacks.
Palm Coast Launches Government-Wide Risk Assessment to Drive Efficiency
In response to City Council direction and residents’ calls for continual advancements, the City of Palm Coast will conduct an Entity‑Wide Risk Assessment this summer. National consulting firm Plante Moran has been selected through a competitive Request for Proposals (RFP) process to lead the effort.
Palm Coast Approves Sharply Increasing Development Impact Fees on Builders, Citing ‘Extraordinary Circumstances’
With some pushback from the Flagler Home Builders Association but notable unanimity from the dais and no complaints from the public, the City Council today approved sharply increasing fire, parks and transportation impact fees in hopes of further shifting the burden of development toward new residents. Last year the council did likewise with water and sewer impact fees.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Food Truck Tuesdays in Palm Coast’s Town Center, the Palm Coast City Council meets, the indifference of Americans as Israel bombs Iran, as John McCain sang about it, Andre Gide gliding on ice.
Israel-Iran ‘Threshold War’ on Brink of Nuclear Escalation
Israel’s conflict with Iran represents far more than another Middle Eastern crisis – it marks the emergence of a dangerous new chapter in nuclear rivalries that has the potential to reshape global proliferation risks for decades to come. What began with Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and other targets has spiraled into the world’s first full-scale example of a “threshold war” – a new and terrifying form of conflict where a nuclear weapons power seeks to use force to prevent an enemy on the verge of nuclearization from making that jump.
Florida Was Set to Shield Lawmakers’ Home Addresses Before Minnesota Assassination
Florida lawmakers in April overwhelmingly passed a bill (SB 268) to create a public-records exemption that would prevent the release of home addresses and telephone numbers of legislators and members of Congress. Also, the exemption would apply to the governor, lieutenant governor, state Cabinet members, county commissioners, property appraisers, elections supervisors, school superintendents, school board members, mayors and city commissioners.
A Democratic Lawmaker Is Assassinated. Right-Wing Influencers Vomit Disinformation.
Immediately after Minnesota House Leader Melissa Horton’s assassination, right-wing influencers marred Hortman’s death and smeared Gov. Tim Walz on a pile of lies. In a different, saner world, they would be humiliated and slink away. But the smart money is that during the next moment of national crisis and mourning, they will again lie for profit.
Plan to Save the Beaches Still Elusive With No Solid Alternative to Sales Tax, But Commissioners Agree to Keep Talking
Flagler County commissioners agree that the county’s beach-management plan must include all 18 miles of beach, and do not dispute its $120 million cost over the next six years. As accomplishments, that was no small thing today for the issue that has most vexed and divided the commission’s five members. But with three commissioners still opposed to increasing the county sales tax, a funding plan remains elusive. Without it, the rest is moot as a viable beach well into the future.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, June 16, 2025
The Flagler County Commission meets in workshop at 9 a.m. to discuss the beach management plan, what may be a do-or-die meeting, Charles Van Doren and the great game-show fraud.
How Orwell’s ‘1984’ Explains the Debasing of History to Control You
When people use the term “Orwellian,” it’s not a good sign. It’s a term used primarily to describe the present, but whose implications inevitably connect to both the future and the past. The president has revealed his ambitions to rewrite America’s official history to, in the words of the Organization of American Historians, “reflect a glorified narrative … while suppressing the voices of historically excluded groups.” Such ambitions are deeply Orwellian. Here’s how.
Flagler County Government’s Leadership Academy Graduates 12
Twelve executives, managers, and professionals graduated from the Flagler County Local Government Leadership Academy at a special ceremony at the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office Operations Center on Thursday June 12th at 4:30 p.m.
Maga Servility Ends in Humiliation for Santa Ono and UF
The trustees liked Santa Ono; Ron DeSantis liked him, especially since Ono, who was once all-in on diversity at UM, recently pulled a 180, loudly recanting his climate change-admitting, student protest-allowing progressive ways and parroting the governor’s War on Woke nonsense like a DeSantis Bot. It wasn’t enough. Poor old weathervane Ono fell victim to a nasty social media campaign against him, led by such intellectual giants as Don Trump Jr., who squawked “WTF!” on the twixter; New College trustee Christopher “They’re eating the cats!” Rufo, Sen. Rick Scott and the congenitally absurd Rep. Byron Donalds.
Jim Guines, Mentor, Maverick and Force to Be Reckoned With on Flagler County School Board for 11 Years, Dies at 93
Jim Guines, the forceful, witty, always independent and at times unpredictable member of the Flagler County School Board for 11 years until 2007–the man many had known as Smokin’ Jim for his storied barbecue–died this morning (June 15) at 93 after battling many illnesses and what Lawrence Durrell called “the slow disgracing of the mind.”
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, June 15, 2025
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village, memories of Louis Robilliard’s musician family, a few words from Solzhenitsyn.
DeSantis Signs Warrant for Eighth Execution of the Year
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed a death warrant for a man convicted of murdering two people in 1993 in Duval County, setting the stage for a potentially record-tying eighth execution this year.
Stomping on a Senator: Another Dangerous Shift in American Democracy
Democratic leaders and a lone Republican senator decried the treatment of U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla of California and called for an investigation after he was removed from a press conference with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Political polarization and a shift in American political decorum may have contributed to the shocking moment of an American senator being forcibly removed from a press conference.
Four ‘No Kings’ Protests of Trump’s Authoritarian Swerve Draw Upward of 1,000 in Palm Coast and Flagler Beach
Demonstrators by the hundreds in Palm Coast and Flagler Beach this morning peacefully but loudly, festively and–for Flagler County–massively transformed major intersections, a bridge overpass and a 1,000-ft. stretch of State Road 100 in Palm Coast into the largest anti-Trump protests to date. The size of the protests surprised even organizers and frequent participants, two of whom, after attending every protest this year on State Road 100, said today’s was more than double any previous one.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, June 14, 2025
No Kings Rally in Palm Coast, a Legacy of Care: Flagler Cares’ 10-Year Celebration at the Palm Coast Community Center, Peps Art Walk in Flagler Beach, Enrollment Day at Daytona State College, American Association of University Women (AAUW) Monthly Meeting, a sublime juxtaposition about the new world, Wendell Berry on militaristic morons.
Daytona State College Keeps Tuition and Fee Rates Flat for 15th Consecutive Year
Recognizing the need to keep college affordable for all students, Daytona State College is freezing tuition and associated fees for the upcoming 2025-26 academic year. This marks the 15th consecutive year of no increases in tuition and associated fee rates. The DSC District Board of Trustees approved the tuition freeze Thursday at its regular monthly meeting.
For Gen Z Militaristic Flag-Waving Rings False
Saturday’s military parade will occur amid bleak times for the U.S. military, as it experiences a multiyear decline in recruitment numbers. In the face of a pandemic and a strong civilian job market, the Army, Air Force and Navy all missed their recruitment goals in 2022 and 2023. In 2022, the Army missed its quota by 25%.
American Intifada
Of course the intifada against the ICE invasion doesn’t have that much to do with saving migrants from the raids to ethnic-cleanse the country of darker skins lacking a paper or two. Or at least not as much to do with it as even the protesters would have you believe. These are proxy protests. And they’re overdue.