A measure (SB 440) prohibits requiring any employee to refer to another person using that person’s preferred pronouns if such pronouns don’t correspond to that person’s sex at birth. Job applications in public workplaces may only ask an applicant whether they are male or female and may not provide a nonbinary option.
All Else
Holocaust Memorial Is Dedicated in Tallahassee
Floridians visiting the Capitol can now see the names and faces of Holocaust survivors who moved to Florida featured on a memorial unveiled Tuesday.
Is Mike Waltz Out of His Depth? Ex-Flagler Congressman May Have Violated Espionage Act with Leak
Mike Waltz, the former congressman representing Flagler County and the 6th Congressional District, whom Donald Trump tapped as his national security adviser, is at the center of the gravest scandal facing an administration embroiled in controversies since its first day, 64 days ago. Waltz may have violated provisions of the Espionage Act that control national defense information.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, March 25, 2025
The Flagler County School Board meets at 1 p.m. in an information workshop and again at 6 p.m., Budgeting by Values, where people are the happiest (and the least happy).
AdventHealth Palm Coast Earns National Recognition for Senior-Friendly ER
AdventHealth Palm Coast is making emergency care safer and more effective for older adults. The hospital earned the Age-Friendly Emergency Department designation from the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), recognizing its commitment to meeting the unique needs of seniors.
What You Should Know About What TikTok Calls News
Here are three crucial things to know about news you get on TikTok: What videos count as news, how they got to you, and what you should do when you see them. These are three of what media researchers know as the “5 C’s” of news literacy: content, circulation and consumption. While they can be applied to any kind of news use, they are especially important for TikTok, where anyone can create content, and the algorithm decides what we see.
Flagler Sheriff Staly Exploring Deployment of Drones as First Responders: A ‘Much Cheaper Helicopter’
The parking lot of the Flagler County Sheriff’s Operations Center last week was transformed into a showplace for Axon, the Arizona-based technology company whose tasers, body cams, car cameras, simulators, interview rooms and real-time crime center equipment and software redefined policing in the past years. It continues to do so with new products–among them, the drone as first responder, which Sheriff Rick Staly is studying for possible deployment in Flagler County.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, March 24, 2025
A new flag flies above the Flagler Beach Police Department, the Bunnell City Commission meets, the Flagler County Beekeepers Association, Sheldon Cooper’s fun with flags, Omar el Akkad’s fear of flags.
Americans Still Believe They Live in a Compassionate Country
A new study on the state of compassion in America by the Muhammad Ali Center, which the late boxer co-founded 20 years ago in Louisville, Kentucky, to advance social justice, found that the desire to help others still animates many Americans despite the nation’s current polarization and divisive politics. Cities with high compassion scores have more community engagement and civic participation than those with low scores.
Can Democrats Get Their Act Together Before Its Too Late?
For more than a century, Democrats were the party of slavery, states’ rights, and Jim Crow, but, gradually and imperfectly, became the party of civil rights, voting rights, and workers’ rights, switching places with Republicans, who once had a strong streak of social progressivism. For 30 years, Florida elected New South governors such as Reubin Askew, Bob Graham, and Lawton Chiles, leaders who believed in education, open government, protecting the environment — crazy stuff like that. Where are they now?
Florida Senate Releases Plan to More Easily Finance Massive Exodus to School Voucher
With massive growth in school voucher programs, the Florida Senate on Friday released a plan that, in part, would seek to address funding concerns as students move between schools. The Senate Pre-K-12 Education Appropriations Committee is scheduled Wednesday to take up the bill (SPB 7030), which would make changes affecting public schools and voucher programs.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, March 23, 2025
‘Violet’ at City Repertory Theatre, “Warbirds Over Flagler” fly-in at the Flagler Executive Airport, Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village, a conjunction between David Copperfield and Willie Nelson.
Bill Making It Easier for Exonerated People to Be Compensated Moves to Senate Floor
Legislation to help Florida exonerees seeking compensation for their being wrongly imprisoned is bound for the Senate floor after receiving uniform support through three committee stops.
The Hidden Epidemic of Violence Against Nurses
An alarming 8 in 10 nurses face violence at work. As a result, health care workers are more than four times as likely to be injured by workplace violence than workers in all other industries combined. Despite these staggering numbers, the full extent of this epidemic may not be fully understood because nurses and other health care workers chronically underreport violent encounters.
Clinton Huggins, 1971-2025
Clinton Huggins, loving husband and dad, passed away on March 18, 2025 at the age of 54, but his larger-than-life persona and ability to spot fish in tannin-stained water will never be forgotten. Commissioner Leann Pennington and her son, Clint, sincerely thank the many friends, family and residents who have reached out to express their condolences and offered support during this devastating time.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, March 22, 2025
‘Violet’ at City Repertory Theatre in Palm Coast, “Warbirds Over Flagler” fly-in at the Flagler Executive Airport, Gamble Jam, The Flagler Wellness Expo, George Hanns’s one-liners are still sharp.
Why Forecasting A Tornado’s Strike Zone Is Still Elusive
Pinpointing exactly where a tornado will touch down – like those that hit states including Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama on March 14 and 15 – still relies heavily on seeing the storms developing on radar.
A Moratorium Won’t Help the Crappy Utility ITT Left Palm Coast. Painful Rates Might.
There’s no question that water and sewer rates in Palm Coast are among the most expensive in the state. That was true even before the City Council this week approved the sharpest and fastest rate increase in the city’s 25-year history. But neither a building moratorium nor blaming the City Council is a solution for a problem seeded by ITT, the original owner of the utility.
Board Approves New Tattoo Parlor for Palm Coast’s St. Joe Business Center
Tattoo artist and business owner Ryan Sherwood had a much easier time than a self-storage facility when he requested a special exception from the Palm Coast Planning Board to open a new tattoo parlor and art gallery in Unit Seven of the St. Joe Business Center, off Palm Coast Parkway. The board voted unanimously to grant the exception.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, March 21, 2025
‘Violet’ the musical opens at City Repertory Theatre in Palm Coast, J.S. Bach is 340 years old and we celebrate with the Art of Fugue, the Friday Blue Forum and Free For All.
Stetson Opera Theatre Presents Mozart’s ‘Marriage of Figaro’ Friday and Sunday
Stetson University’s School of Music invites the community to experience Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s beloved opera, The Marriage of Figaro. The Stetson Opera Theatre will stage this classic comic opera with performances on Friday, March 21, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, March 23, at 3 p.m., at University High School in Orange City, Florida.
President’s Defiance of Court Order Fuels a Constitutional Crisis
The president is flouting U.S. District Court Judge James Bloasberg’s order that planes carrying deportees must return to the United States. The subsequent legal back-and-forth, which is still going on, intensified so quickly and dramatically that many legal scholars say the U.S. is past the point of a constitutional crisis, as the Trump administration appears to be defying a federal court order, for which Boasberg may hold the government in contempt.
County Attorney Al Hadeed, Stalwart of Environmental Stewardship and Local History, Is Retiring in August
County Attorney Al Hadeed announced his retirement come August. He had been the county attorney for nearly a decade until the commission in a dubious move ended his contract in 1998. A different commission re-hired him in 2007. His retirement will remove the single-most important store of institutional memory from county government, though his signature achievements would fill volumes.
No Outright Indications of Mechanical Failures in Plane Crash That Claimed Pilot’s Life in West Flagler
A preliminary investigation of the Feb. 14 plane crash that took the life of pilot 75-year-old Thomas Harvey in western Flagler County reveals that the plane had followed a normal flight path until it suddenly began to drop rapidly, at more than 200 feet per second before impact. There was no evidence of a fire on board and “no indications of a flight control anomaly were discovered,” according to the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report, suggesting that Harvey may have suffered a medical episode.
City Repertory Theatre Takes Trip to Matters of Faith and Race with ‘Violet’ Musical
In “Violet,” a musical that opens Friday at Palm Coast’s City Repertory Theatre, it’s 1964, and Violet is about to travel by bus from her North Carolina home to Tulsa, Okla. The play’s themes are reflected in music that spans gospel, Memphis blues, bluegrass and jazz, with the cast singing to recorded backing tracks. Christian faith is an ongoing theme, as is race, judgment and life’s scars, visible and invisible.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, March 20, 2025
Shawn Peter Cona on trial over written threats, Town of Marineland commission meeting, The Bronx Wanderers at the Fitzgerald Performing Arts Center, following the logic of going childless as an ethical choice.
Israeli Politics Kill Gaza Ceasefire
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sought to blame Hamas for the resumption of fighting that killed more than 400 Palestinians on March 18 – “only the beginning,” Netanyahu warned – the truth is the seeds of the renewed violence are to be found in Israeli domestic politics.
Flu Deaths Near 7-Year High As Anti-Vaccine Disinformation Spreads
Flu-related deaths hit a seven-year high in January and February, the two months that usually account for the height of flu season, according to a Stateline analysis of preliminary federal statistics. There were about 9,800 deaths across the country, up from 5,000 in the same period last year and the most since 2018, when there were about 10,800.
13 Applicants, Including Several Familiar Names, Apply to Fill Palm Coast Council Seat Vacated by Stevens
Thirteen candidates have filed for the District 3 seat on the Palm Coast City Council that Ray Stevens resigned at the end of February. The list includes several familiar names, among them Dave Ferguson, a former appointee to the council, Dave Sullivan, who just ended two terms on the County Commission, Cornelia Manfre, who has had three unsuccessful runs for a council seat or the mayorship, Mark Stancel, who lost a primary vote to Stevens by two votes, and Andrew Werner, who lost to Stevens.
Florida Senate Proposal Would Raise Speed Limits to 75 on Interstates
Highway speeds could increase under a bill that has started moving forward in the state Senate. The Republican-controlled Senate Transportation Committee on Wednesday approved a wide-ranging measure (SB 462), filed by Sen. Nick DiCeglie, R-Indian Rocks Beach, that includes boosting the maximum speed on interstates and Florida’s Turnpike from 70 mph to 75 mph.
10 Years on, Palm Coast Finally Breaks Ground on Nerve-Center Maintenance Facility’s $12 Million 1st Phase
Palm Coast hosted a groundbreaking for what will eventually be a nearly 100-acre maintenance facility gathering public works, stormwater and utility departments in one location off U.S. 1, to the northwest of the city. The $12 million phase is the first of three. The City Council in 2016 set the project in motion, but funding has been a challenge, as has the criticism of the project.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, March 19, 2025
The Palm Coast Planning Board meets, the Palm Coast administration and members of the council break ground on a new maintenance facility, the William McKinley tariffs in a very different era.
Palm Coast Government Clears Annual Financial Audit Without Internal Weaknesses
The financial audit did not reveal any material weaknesses in internal control or instances of noncompliance. All funds are in compliance or exceed the fund balance policy, reflecting the City’s commitment to sound financial management practices.
Anti-DEI Rules Are Gutting Educators’ Free Speech Rights
The Trump administration’s attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion have continued in the form of a “Dear Colleague” letter from the Department of Education to educational institutions – from preschools through colleges and universities.. The directive the letter infringes on free speech, misunderstands the law and undermines education.
Florida Attorney General Threatens Removal of City Council Members Who Blocked Cooperation with ICE
Attorney General James Uthmeier is threatening three Fort Myers city council members with removal from office after they refused Monday to deputize police officers to participate in immigration enforcement. Uthmeier, who became the attorney general a month ago, warned the council that Gov. Ron DeSantis could remove them from office if they didn’t allow the city police to question people about their immigration status and detain those subject to deportation.
Palm Coast Adopts 31% Water and Sewer Rate Increase Over 3 Years, Scaling Back Spending to $512 Million
The Palm Coast City Council today in a 3-1 vote approved a 31 percent water and sewer rate increase to be phased in five increments through October 2028, and to finance a half-billion-dollar spending plan to improve the city’s utility infrastructure, some of which is overcapacity and outdated. The plan scales back an earlier proposal that would have increased rates 36 percent. The new plan calls for one bond issue of $292 million.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, March 18, 2025
The Palm Coast City Council meets at 9 a.m., with an expected pro-Mayor Norris rally preceding it, Random Acts of Insanity at Cinematique, how the Washington Post is dying at Jeff Bezos’s hands.
Mayor Norris In Pattern of Offensive Behavior Toward Staff Since November, Internal Complaints Show
Several city employees and directors have filed a series of complaints and memos to Human Resources documenting behavior by Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris they considered rude, demeaning, offensive, abusive, harassing and inappropriately interfering with administrative duties, in violation of the city charter. The complaints were filed well before three City Council members called for an independent investigation of Norris over his overstepping his authority.
Ellianos Coffee Finally Opens Palm Coast Drive-Thru on SR100
Ellianos Coffee, the Italian-styled drive-through that seemed to be forever under construction in Flagler Plaza on State Road 100 (between Flagler Dental and Suterra Wellness, the medical pot shop) is finally open. The Southeast-spreading brand announced the opening today in a release. The drive-through serve coffee, energy drinks and a quick-service menu.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, March 17, 2025
The Flagler County Commission meets in the evening, the East Flagler Mosquito Control District meets in the morning, and the histories and pleasures of Calvados, drink of the gods on Mont-Saint-Michel.
Corporations Are DEI’s Great Hope
Whether the many attacks on DEI – first from right-wing bloggers, then from the Supreme Court, and then from the president – will affect the makeup of Fortune-level boards in 2025 and beyond remains to be seen. But so far, these boards are diversifying and seeing the value in DEI.
Florida Lawmakers Are About to Roll Back Rural Protections in Favor Of Developers. Don’t Let Them.
The Florida Legislature is once again trying to push through legislation that would take away the rights of area citizens and local government to have any voice in the management of rural and agricultural lands. It is crucial that citizens contact their legislative members and demand that these egregious measures be stopped immediately.
The Sun Is Setting on Government Transparency in Florida
Florida, the “Sunshine State,” once known as a beacon of government transparency, is growing ever darker, and the clouds are spreading throughout the United States. Legislators have passed more than 1,100 exemptions to the Florida Sunshine Law, and growing.
None of Florida’s Cities Are Among the Happiest
All the warm weather, vast beaches, travel opportunities and booming business doesn’t seem to provide extraordinary happiness in Florida. A new study by WalletHub, a personal finance company, shows Florida doesn’t have many cities that are among the happiest in America.
Florida Law Banning Kids off Some Social Media Prevails as Judge Refuses to Block It
A federal judge has rejected a request to block a 2024 Florida law aimed at keeping children off some social-media platforms, ruling that industry groups did not show they had legal standing to challenge the measure.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, March 16, 2025
‘The Drowsy Chaperone,’ at St. Augustine’s Limelight Theatre, Farmer’s market at European Village, the pandemic of backing in, how parking lots have ruined the urban landscape.
The Women Behind the Babylonian Captivity
The church may not have seen women as equals, but nevertheless, their work was key to the workings and finances of the papal court and its surroundings. The fact is made obvious in the archives by simply following the money. It was hardly glamorous work but necessary for the functioning of the papal court.
Federal Appeals Court Upholds Florida Ban on Under-21s Buying Long Guns
A U.S. appeals court has once again upheld Florida’s 2018 law barring people under age 21 from buying long guns, rejecting a challenge by the National Rifle Association. But Florida’s attorney general says that if the case is appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, his office won’t defend it.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, March 15, 2025
The Saturday Flagler Beach Farmers Market, Democratic Women’s Club of Flagler County meeting, Coffee With Commissioner Scott Spradley, ‘The Drowsy Chaperone,’ at St. Augustine’s Limelight Theatre.
Stetson Survey Finds Puerto Rico and D.C. Get Statehood Support, Canada and Greenland Do Not
With the current debate over U.S. expansion, a new survey by the Center for Public Opinion Research (CPOR) at Stetson University finds that Americans remain deeply divided on the prospect of adding a 51st state if it’s not Puerto Rico or Washington, D.C.