Daily Briefing

The Palm Coast City Council talks about a new franchise fee (or tax) on your utility bills, the Flagler County School Board meets (bring Dramamine), To Kill a Mockingbird’s birthday.

The County Commission sets its maximum property tax rate after a budget discussion, the Flagler Playhouse is holding auditions for Hello Dolly, Donna Tartt on Charles Portis, why people love their Donald.

Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village, Grace Community Food Pantry distribution, the debate over cluster bombs and the US refusal to sign a treaty against their use.

The Saturday Flagler Beach Farmers Market, Gamble Jam, The god-awful Ziegfeld follies, from the Narrative of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw.

The arm-wrestling challenge between Mayor David Alfin and Dr. Stephen Bickel, launching the Food-a-Thon, a growth moratorium in Zephyrhills, Roger Angell’s martinis.

Heat index values up to 109 today, a relatively quiet day on the local beat, thoughts on artificial intelligence and Night of the Living Dead.

The Palm Coast Code Enforcement Board meets, Separation Chat, Open Discussion, the Flagler County Republican Club meets, Thoughts on God ordering Abraham to kill his son.

America’s birthday, but also Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, though the parade in Flagler Beach and the fireworks at the airport will celebrate only the former. Frederick Douglass on the 4th.

Warning: heat index will reach 109 today, most government offices (but not all) are closed, the EPA’s National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution.

The reprehensible Clarence Thomas, Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village, eulogy for America’s current direction, a few moments with Cornel West.

The Flagler Beach All Stars hold their monthly beach clean-up, Sunshine and Sandals, the Supreme Court upends decades of civil rights progress, Lyndon Johnson on affirmative action.

Before the heat dome, Pastor Charles Silano on the new poverty class, the Blue 22 Forum, Einaudi in concert, the culmination of the backlash against affirmative action.

A dangerous dog appeal hearing in Palm Coast, the Flagler County Public Library Book Club meets, Elegy for Hill City, Kansas.

Jamier T. Lee-Bright, who shot his dog, is sentenced, Separation Chat’s Open discussion, chess club for teens, the Canadian fires devouring an area the size of Ireland.

Docket sounding for Damari Barnes, The Flagler Beach City Commission shortlists candidates for city manager, the Palm Coast council meets, John Reed, big Bill Haywood and the Wobblies.

The Flagler County Beekeepers Association meets, the Bunnell City Commission meets, trying to figure out Taylor Swift and her Swifties.

Belle Terre Swim & Racquet Club Summer Open House Weekend continues, is the word “cracker” derogatory? Bach’s Partita No. 6, Ulysses Grant writes his father.

Reflections on Orhan Pamuk’s “Nights of Plague,” and more Pamuk, Gamble Jam at Gamble Rogers, the Saturday Flagler Beach Farmers Market.

Incoming Superintendent LaShakia Moore on Free For All, John Updike on his dancing days, going Kwak, John Mulaney on his addiction, Scenic A1A Pride.

The Flagler Beach City Commission holds a pair of meetings, one of them in the “shade,” to discuss legal strategy, history of the Pledge, Cormac McCarthy.

Flagler Beach’s joint-government meeting on the future of the city’s tourism management, Florida Speaker of the House Paul Renner at Flagler Tiger Bay, St. Augustine’s inglorious racial history.

The school board and the Palm Coast City Council have meetings, Career Shadowing for Flagler County students at FPC, debating the spread of tipping, Food Truck Tuesday.

The Flagler County Commission meets, the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s salvo against zealotry in our governments, an opening shot from Charles Portis.

Suicide and homicide rates among young Americans at decade high, Gavin Newsom on Hannity, more guns means more violence.

Rat Pack Universe, a fund-raising concert for arts in education at the Flagler Auditorium, John Wayne speaks to Americans of tomorrow, Francis Parkman speaks of pre-Americans of yesteryear.

Brendan Depa in court for a competency hearing, David Ayres discusses growth in Flagler, Rebuke to a Dog Poisoner, Ferris Bueller’s day at the museum.

Drug court, Magna Carta’s anniversary, Franz Liszt’s Consolations, Matthew Yglesias on how politics at its best just isn’t necessarily all that entertaining.

Marc C. Gordon in court, Separation Chat’s open discussion, weekly chess club, a farewell to Cormac McCarthy, with a few dissenting words.

Nysean Giddens in court, the Palm Coast City Council talks referendum and recall procedures, St. Mary’s Missionary Baptist Church in St. Augustine, Bruce Catton’s Civil War.

The county commission holds a budget workshop, what if the moms for bigotry held a “festival” of their own, the Bunnell City Commission meets.

Pride Fest’s Vigil for Pulse Victims, Wanda Sykes’s crush, Al-Anon Family Groups, Joseph Epstein on Donald Trump’s bug.

Flagler Pride Fest, celebrating National pride Month, at Palm Coast’s Central Park in Town Center, celebrating Saul Bellow’s birthday, Gamble Jam.

Burlesque and drag night at Coquina Brewery in Flagler Beach, Christian Boyd, is sentenced, Flagler Pride’s Erica Rivera on Free for All Fridays, the surprising Justice Roberts.

Drug Court, the Flagler Beach City Commission meets, Library Director Holly Albanese speaks to the The Palm Coast Democratic Club on the ongoing assaults against the freedom to read, Canada’s horrific C-18 bill.

The Palm Coast Code Enforcement Board meets, Separation Chat, Weekly Chess Club for Teens, Schubert’s 13th piano sonata, Henry Adams has contempt.

The Palm Coast City Council, the Bunnell Planning Board and the school board all meet, the Boys of Pointe du Hoc on the commemoration of the Normandy invasion.

The County Commission starts its budget discussions, The Astronomy Club of Palm Coast meets, Ron DeSantis is all in on creating an autocracy, Roth’s “Dying Animal” on film.

Cecile Robilliard on flute, Palm Coast Farmers’ Market, what makes you a conspiracy theorist, and 2023 on pace for a record-breaking year of mass killings in the United States.

Sunshine and Sandals Social at Cornerstone, The First Saturday Creative Bazaar Arts and Craft Market, Nate Persily on Alex Jones type conspiracists.

Emergency Management Director Jonathan Lord on Free For All Fridays, First Friday in Flagler Beach, the irony of Student Safety Month, Edward Gibbon on Christianity’s effect on progress.

Two Florida medical boards look to curtail transgender treatment, the New College of Florida board meets, on the verb “rootle,” a Knausgaard bit.

Weekly Chess Club for Teens at the county library, Separation Chat by the Atlantic Chapter of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, where has Clint Eastwood been, when Keith Jarrett trashed Wynton Marsalis.

Flagler Palm Coast High and Matanzas High School graduations, docket sounding in court, the Newseum’s demise and its last exhibit, on LGBTQ rights, as Target caves to the fanatics, the poisons of Alex Jones’s algorithms.

Palm Coast and county government hold Memorial Day ceremonies at 8 and 10 a.m., Walt Whitman on soldiers in battle, looking at Vermeer anew.

Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village, the Ron DeSantis legislative scorecard, “Shenandoah,” the anonymous traditional, for brass, Willa Cather’s “Double Birthday.”

The City of Palm Coast Public Works Department hosts its Touch-a-Truck event, Gamble Jam, Rachel Carson and the sense of childhood wonder.

The Scenic A1A Pride Committee meets, the Blue 22 Forum meets, The Economist asks whether DeSantis can beat Trump, book-banners’ deepest fears.

The Monserrate Teron trial enters its fourth day, the Flagler Beach City Commission meets, Tina Turner, loving the internet.

The Monserrate Teron trial enters its third day, Separation Chat, Veterans Creative Expression Workshop, Open Discussion Neil Gorsuch’s skewed perspective on civil liberties.

The Teron trial enters its second day, the Palm Coast City Council begins its budget overviews, Robert Caro on the New York Public Library, Alberto Manguel on the library of Alexandria.