Presidents need to use both intuitive and deliberative decision-making. The ability to make smaller decisions effectively using intuitive decision-making frees up time to concentrate on larger ones. However, the decisions that make or break a president are exceedingly complex and highly consequential, such as how to handle climate change or international conflicts. Here is where deliberative decision-making is most needed.
All Else
DSC Launches Online Engineering Technology Bachelor of Science Starting This Fall
Daytona State College will begin offering a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Technology, Industrial Engineering Technology concentration (BSET-IET) degree that can be taken fully online beginning Fall 2024.
In Sharp Retreat, Flagler Rejects Countywide Beach Tax to Focus on Barrier Island Only, and on Informing Public
A week after approving a plan in principle that would have imposed a new tax on almost all residents countywide to raise $7 million a year for beach protection, the Flagler County Commission today stepped back sharply from that plan, acknowledging that it had not done the necessary “outreach” to the public or to other local governments to ensure its success.
Sheriff: Increase School Board’s Cost Share of Campus Deputies to 60%, Lower County’s Share to 40%
The Flagler County Sheriff is recommending to the County Commission that the 50-50 cost share for school resource deputies, or SRDs, between the School Board and the County Commission be changed. Staly is recommending that the School Board shoulder 60 percent of the cost, adding $300,000 to the district’s budget, while lowering the county’s responsibility an equal amount.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, June 10, 2024
Heat index values up to 105. Trial week, but nothing high profile. The library board meets. Clay Jones turns the tables on those countries. The Bunnell City Commission meets, and living in a city of 100,000 without a museum or a bookstore. That’s Palm Coast.
State Laws Like Florida’s Are Threatening Academic Freedom
Over the past few years, Republican state lawmakers have introduced more than 150 bills in 35 states that seek to curb academic freedom on campus. Twenty-one of these bills have been signed into law, several of them in Florida. Taken together, this legislative onslaught has undermined academic freedom and institutional autonomy in five distinct and overlapping ways.
Beverly Beach’s Frank Gromling Is Re-Appointed to Florida Council on Arts and Culture
The Beverly Beach artist and business owner Frank Gromling, who formerly owned an art gallery in Flagler Beach and wrote FlaglerLive’s Coastal View column, was reappointed to a third two-year term on the 15-member Florida Council on Arts and Culture.
In Florida and Elsewhere, New GOP Rules Hostile to Voter Registration Threaten Fines and Criminal Penalties
Republican lawmakers in Florida , Alabama, Georgia, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, and Texas have enacted a variety of voter registration laws over the past four years. The measures add new requirements around registering and communicating with voters and threaten hefty penalties for violations. The stated goal of the new laws is to prevent fraud, but in the absence of any evidence of more than very rare fraud some voting rights groups contend their real purpose is to dampen participation by likely Democratic voters.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, June 9, 2024
9th Annual FUN-Raiser Festival at the Florida Agricultural Museum, Donald Duck’s birthday, an FDR Fireside Chat from 1934 on the legitimate object of government.
Germany Lowers Voting Age to 16 for European Election
Ahead of the European parliament elections in June, Germany has lowered the age limit on participation to 16. This makes it the largest of just a handful of states in the EU to allow people under the age of 18 to vote. Austria, Belgium and Malta have already enfranchised 16 and 17-year-olds, and Greece is to allow anyone turning 17 in 2024 to participate in the June vote.
Florida Supreme Court Refuses to Reinstate Monique Worrell as State Attorney
The Florida Supreme Court has upheld Gov. Ron DeSantis’ suspension of Orlando-area State Attorney Monique Worrell, concluding that his decision was reasonable based on allegations he spelled out when relieving her of her duties. The decision was 6-1, with Justice Jorge Labarga the lone dissenter.
Justice Clarence Thomas Acknowledges He Should Have Disclosed Free Trips From Billionaire Donor
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas acknowledged for the first time in a new financial disclosure filing that he should have publicly reported two free vacations he received from billionaire Harlan Crow. The trips include vacations in Indonesia and at the exclusive, men’s-only Bohemian Grove retreat, which were first reported by ProPublica last year.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, June 8, 2024
The third annual Hang 8 Dog Surfing Competition in Flagler Beach, Juneteenth Community Festival at Carver Center, AAUW’s monthly meeting, Mia Bella Academy of Dance Spring Recital, a stroll down the WPA Guides to America.
The Anti-Democratic Tactic Behind Trump’s Post-Conviction Rhetoric
Rhetoric strengthens or erodes democratic institutions and can prime an audience to expect or accept violence. Regardless of how someone feels about the legal arguments made during Trump’s trial, Trump’s attempts to prevail in the court of public opinion continue his campaign to discredit democratic institutions and threaten anyone who gets in his way.
Flagler County’s Beach Protection Tax: Right Idea. Wrong Execution.
The county has the right idea: we need a new tax to pay for expensive beach protection, or we’ll lose the beach. But the county’s execution is hurried, the plan is poorly thought-out, it is riddled with holes and inconsistencies, and it has included zero public participation and zero preparatory discussions with other governments. That’s a recipe for failure, deservedly so: the county is taking the public and its sister governments for granted, if not punting to the cities to do the heavy lifting.
Six Flagler Residents Among 9 Sentenced to Federal Prison in Conclusion of Multi-State Drug-Trafficking Conspiracy
The United States Attorney’s Office, Middle District of Florida has announced that all nine individuals charged as a result of “Operation Ice Man” have been sentenced to prison. Each defendant was found guilty by a jury or pleaded guilty for their role in a multi-state drug trafficking conspiracy that spanned from Mexico to California, Arizona, central Florida, and Flagler County.
FPC’s David Halliday, a Finalist for National Coach of the Year in Track and Field, Reflects on 30 Years’ Inspiration
David Halliday, one of Flagler Palm Coast High School’s most successful, if not its most successful, coach over the past 20 years, is one of eight finalists for the Coach of the Year in Track and Field award by the National High School Athletic Coaches Association. The Florida native reflects on a 30-year career that and a coaching philosophy summed up by the sort of humanism and commitment he tries to impart on his students and athletes.
‘It Can Happen Here’: Emergency Management Director Warns Against Hurricane Complacency in Flagler Ahead of Busy Season
There’s a dangerous myth in Flagler County, and the longer people have lived here, the more they start believing the myth, and spreading it: that Flagler County is immune to hurricanes. Jonathan Lord, Flagler County’s emergency management director, says ahead of what has been predicted to be the busiest hurricane season in memory that Flagler County is at risk of getting a direct hurricane hit, even a Category 5 hurricane, as any other coastal community in the state.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, June 7, 2024
Elizabeth Tremoglie’s sentencing, First Friday in Flagler Beach, “Textured Turtles”, Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens, Updike’s and other telephone poles.
The Divided, Violent Country Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s 1st Woman President, Has Inherited
This was the largest election in Mexico’s history, with more than 98 million citizens registered to vote. It was also the most violent election, with more than 30 politicians killed. The new president will now face two major challenges: confronting the rampant violence in Mexican society and increasing militarisation of public life, and the deterioration of checks and balances on executive power.
Expect Delays on Palm Coast Parkway Eastbound Near Hospital from Lane Closure on June 14
On Friday, June 14, 2024, the City of Palm Coast’s Stormwater & Engineering Department will be repairing a portion of the roadway near the new AdventHealth Palm Coast Parkway hospital, requiring an eastbound lane closure.
Parents Sue Florida Board of Education Over Policy Denying Them Right to Challenge Book Bans
Three parents of children attending Florida public schools filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Florida Board of Education on Thursday, claiming that a 2023 education law discriminates against parents who oppose book bans and censorship.
Sprawling Vacation Rentals Becoming a Nuisance to Palm Coast Residents. City’s Answer: ‘Our Hands Are Tied.’
As resident after resident complained about short-term renters next door–the noise, the partying, the traffic, the garbage, the unexpected–the Palm Coast City Council chambers Tuesday evening sounded more like a scene transplanted from the County Commission a decade ago, or legislative committees in Tallahassee every year since. But the legislature just passed a new law that forbids cities like Palm Coast from imposing stricter regulations on vacation rentals than they would on permanent residents.
Ex-Marine Had It In for Sheriff Staly As He Compared Son’s Arrest to Donald Trump’s in a ‘Dying’ America
Robert Shawn Detherow, 55, threatened to dismember the sheriff’s deputy taking him to the Flagler County jail after he held off deputies in a six-hour standoff Wednesday, three days after posting a series of video exhorting people to join him to pray, to confront Sheriff Rick Staly, who he said should be arrested, and to ward off a civil war in the United States. He was upset over his son’s arrest in March, which he compared to the arrest of Donald Trump.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, June 6, 2024
A rally for Women’s Reproductive Rights is scheduled from 4 to 5 p.m. at the northwest corner of Belle Terre and Pine Lake Parkways in Palm Coast, the Bible’s bestselling 1950s.
Rangers Led the Way in the D-Day Landings 80 Years Ago
Among the 150,000 soldiers who landed on and fought across the hostile beaches of Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944, were 1,000 members of a new, specially trained unit – the U.S. Army Rangers. Most of them fought across the German beachfront defenses, supported by nearly 7,000 naval vessels and 11,000 Allied aircraft. More than 200 Rangers fought vertically – up the sheer cliff face of Pointe du Hoc.
‘Crows and Ravens’ Workshop and Book Signing by FlaglerLive’s Rick de Yampert June 22 at Vedic Moons
Rick de Yampert will talk about that feisty raven and other crazy corvids when he presents his workshop “Crows and Ravens: Birds of Myth and Magic” from 2-3:30 p.m. Saturday June 22 at Vedic Moons – Ayurvedic Wellness, Metaphysical Shop & Herbal Apothecary, 4984 Palm Coast Pkwy NW, Unit 4-6, Palm Coast.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, June 5, 2024
A special magistrate hears Flagler County Code Enforcement’s case for demolishing the Old Dixe motel, The Atlantic Chapter of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State hosts an open, freewheeling discussion, remembering the September 1938 New England hurricane.
Yes, Donald Trump Has a Point About Political Prosecution
New York’s prosecution of Donald Trump can be, and has been, characterized long before today by some as a “political prosecution” because of the strong belief that a case on an allegedly false record would never have been brought if Trump were not running for president. Justice Jackson warned that such a case, without an apparent victim, could undermine the public’s perception of the prosecution’s legitimacy.
Flagler Seeks New Countywide Tax of Homes and Businesses for Beach Protection, But Cities’ Support Is Key
In a “dramatic change for the county,” the County Commission on Monday agreed unanimously to seek a new levy on residents and businesses to pay for $7 million in annual beach reconstruction and protection–for ever. It is the county’s surrender to an unavoidable reality: to preserve the beaches, considered to be Flagler County’s greatest asset, residents across the county will have to shoulder a share of the cost in the same way that they pay for garbage services and stormwater protection.
For Flagler County, New Tax to Raise $7 Million a Year to Preserve Beaches Concedes Realities of Climate Change
Monday’s milestone by the Flagler County Commission–seeking a new funding mechanism to rebuild and maintain the county’s 18 miles of beaches–was the culmination of a four-year process. It would put in place a method to pay for expected beach maintenance for decades as the county faces a new reality of rising seas and relentless erosion. Here’s how consultants arrived at the proposal, and what it would pay for.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, June 4, 2024
The Residential Drainage Citizens Advisory Committee holds its inaugural meeting, the Flagler County School Board and the Palm Coast City Council meet, a $2-a-cup lemonade stand appears on Belle Terre Parkway.
When the Racist Immigration Act of 1924 Closed America’s Door
One hundred years ago, the U.S. Congress enacted the most notorious immigration legislation in American history. Signed by President Calvin Coolidge, the Immigration Act of 1924 dramatically reduced immigration from eastern and southern Europe and practically barred it from Asia. The new law was unabashedly racist, seeking to roll back the demographic tide. One of its sponsors, U.S. Rep. Albert Johnson, warned the House Committee on Immigration that “a stream of alien blood” was poisoning the nation.
Down-Ballot Effect in Florida of Trump Conviction Is Unlikely, But It’s a Fund-Raising Boon to Ex-President
Political experts don’t anticipate last week’s conviction of former President Donald Trump in New York will create significant down-ballot momentum — either way — for candidates in Florida. Fundraising has ratcheted up after Trump’s conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records, but experts in Florida pointed to issues such as voters already having their minds made up.
DeSantis Endorses Leek as Hutson’s Replacement, and as John Morgan Sneers
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday endorsed House Appropriations Chairman Tom Leek, R-Ormond Beach, in a Northeast Florida Senate race, days after high-profile attorney John Morgan publicly criticized Leek.
Covenants May Be Hurdle to Palm Coast’s Plan for YMCA on Town Center Land Pledged for the Arts
As Palm Coast government plans for a long-awaited YMCA in Town Center, albeit without a pool for now, a covenant restriction requiring the land to be used only for arts and cultural purposes may stand in the way. It isn’t an immovable restriction. But to get around it, the city may either have to pay back some state grant money that helped build a stage there, or it would have to use creative–to not say Orwellian–maneuvering that would allow it to redefine Y spaces as an arts and culture venue.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, June 3, 2024
John Cascone plea hearing, the Flagler County Commission meets, the miserable history of Baruch Goldstein and Gush Emunim, terrorists among Israeli settlers.
For American Jews Protesting For Palestinians, It’s a Matter of Jewish Values
One of the American rabbis told reporters at Democracy Now! that this was the only way she could imagine marking Passover, a holiday that celebrates the story of liberation from oppression and slavery. Marching to the gates of Gaza with food for starving Palestinians was consistent with Passover’s imperative to invite the hungry to every table.
DeSantis Says New College Is Now Like When ‘Founding Fathers’ Went to School
Speaking Saturday at New College in Sarasota, DeSantis boasted that the school has been wrested away from “the Left,” and is now akin to places that the property-owning white men who established the United States learned.
Sea Level Rise Make Florida’s ‘Beach Renourishments’ More Frequent, Expensive and Vain
The barrier islands keep moving, which foolish humans label “beach erosion” as they keep trying to bend nature to their will by trucking or dredging in lots of sand from somewhere else for millions of dollars. The Corps of Engineers, the government agency in charge of playing in such big sandboxes, always claims they’re “saving” the beach from disappearing. They aren’t. They’re just saving a lot of people’s investments as “fiscal conservatives” spend tax money on beaches sure washed away in the next storm.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, June 2, 2024
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village, a very special place for developers, those upside down flags protesting the Tump verdict and reminders from Woodie Guthrie and Voltaire.
Mary McLeod Bethune, The Unifier
Mary McLeod Bethune rose to become one of the most influential Black women of the 20th century. In 1904, she founded a small school for girls in Daytona Beach. That school later became Bethune-Cookman University. While living in Washington, D.C., where she moved to work with the Roosevelt administration and National Council of Negro Women, she worked alongside Carter G. Woodson, the founder of what we now know to be Black History Month,
Flagler Sheriff Offers Vacation Watch Program for Your Home
Through this community safety program, each household can receive up to 20 vacation house watch checks per year. During these checks, the uniformed FCSO Citizen Observer Patrol members survey the outside of the home to make sure it is secure. If anything looks suspicious the C.O.P then notifies the homeowner.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, June 1, 2024
Her Turn Women’s Surf Festival at the pier, Flagler Humane Society Hosts Special Adoption Event, Sunshine and Sandals Social at Cornerstone, Coffee With Commissioner Scott Spradley.
The ‘Model Minority’ Myth Harms Asian Americans
May is Asian and Pacific American Heritage Month, a time when Americans celebrate the profound contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders – a group that is commonly abbreviated as AAPI – to U.S. society. The focus on AAPI communities this month provides an excellent occasion to push back against a stereotype that has long misrepresented and marginalized a diverse range of people: the myth of the “model minority.”
Lured by State’s $3,000 ‘Civics’ Bonus, Thousands of Florida Teachers Train in Christian Nationalist Tenets
Training materials produced by the Florida Department of Education direct middle and high school teachers to indoctrinate students in the tenets of Christian nationalism, a right-wing effort to merge Christian and American identities. Thousands of Florida teachers, lured by cash stipends, have attended trainings featuring these materials.
James Michael McGill, 33, Arrested for Possession of Child Sexual Abuse Materials After Kik CyberTip
James Michael McGill, a 33-year-old resident of 16 Kaywood Place in Palm Coast, was arrested Thursday on 10 counts of possession of child sexual abuse material and booked at the Flagler County jail on $150,000 bond.
Think Your Land Can’t Be Sold Without Your Knowledge? Palm Coast Lot Owner Found Out Differently.
A Palm Coast property owner was shocked to fine that a lot he owns in the L Section had been put up for sale without his knowledge. It is now a common fraud that’s catching many property owners by surprise, that title companies are battling, and that the Florida Legislature attempted to address, but a bill doing so died in the last session.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, May 31, 2024
Reflexins on Trump’s guilty verdict, Her Turn Women’s Surf Festival in Flagler Beach kicks off, the Blue 24 Forum, U-2’s anthem for the day, what George Wallace has in common with his felon descendant.
Prosecuting Former Leaders Is Not So Rare Elsewhere
While charging a former president with criminal offenses was a first in the United States with Trump, in other countries ex-leaders are routinely investigated, prosecuted and even jailed.