Florida voters in 2004 approved a constitutional amendment that requires parents to be notified before their minor daughters can have abortions. But an appeals court ruling released Friday shows how far teens can go to challenge the law–and preserve their privacy when seeking an abortion.
All Else
No Thanks: Bunnell Votes 4-1 to Return Old Courthouse to the County, Citing Costs and Liabilities
The stunning reversal culminates months of doubt and disappointment about the building on city officials’ part as they discovered a structure in more serious disrepair than the county had let on and tallied far more expensive bills ahead than the city could afford, if it were to keep the building.
House Balks at $2 Million-a-Year Tax Subsidy to Daytona Speedway as Other Breaks Advance
Funding for Daytona International Speedway and a temporary tax break on gym memberships could be casualties when the House and Senate meet next week on their opposing packages to complete Gov. Rick Scott’s $500 million election-year tax cuts.
Trap, Neuter and Return: Feral Cat Program Makes Progress in Flagler Beach, But Not in Palm Coast
The Flagler Humane Society is on pace to trap, neuter and return some 600 cats in Flagler Beach through a program that avoids killing the animals, though not without creating frictions among some residents. Attempts to to bring the TNR approach to Palm Coast continue to falter.
Rocky Mountain High or Reefer Madness? Legal Pot Comes with Risks
Legal pot is attracting new and possibly naïve users — creating risks that some don’t bargain for. Second, the public health system’s desire to protect people may be well-intentioned, but regulation and efforts to track the health effects have a ways to go.
Palm Coast Voters Lose Again: The City Of Low Turnout Gets a Spoiled Election
Even if Palm Coast and Supervisor of Elections Weeks work out their differences, as it now looks like they have, voters have already lost as this months-long manufactured controversy will become election campaign fodder for candidates who don’t have anything more substantial to offer.
Replacing Salisbury Steak With Sardines, Florida Prisons’ Kosher Option Raises Hackles
Inmates contend that the peanut butter, sardines and cabbage served up daily by the Florida Department of Corrections are designed to discourage them from signing up for the kosher meals or to punish inmates if they do, and that the chow is far from what a federal judge had in mind last year when she ordered the state to start serving kosher meals to inmates.
Casino Legislation Is Dead This Year, But So Is Proposal to Report Injuries and Deaths of Race Greyhounds
Florida will remain, along with Alabama, the only state that does not require require greyhound tracks to report dog injury and deaths. Also ended is a sweeping gambling overhaul that would have authorized two Las Vegas-style casinos in South Florida.
Open Skateboard Rinks to Scooters and Bikes? County and Flagler Beach Propose More Permissive Rules at Wadsworth
The proposal is dividing officials and parents, some of whom like the broader allowance, some of whom consider it an invitation to accidents and lawsuits. The Flagler County Commission got in on the discussion earlier this week because the park belongs to the county, though it’s been run and policed by Flagler Beach for 10 years.
Palm Coast Prepares to Run Its Own Elections, But Cost Would Rise and Turnout Drop
Supervisor of Elections Kimberle Weeks and Palm Coast have been in talks to resolve their differences, but in case they don’t, Palm Coast is planning on running its own elections in 2014, with paper ballots and at a single location only, which would most likely hurt turnout significantly.
Corruption Theorem: Money as Speech and the Supreme Court’s Death Blow to Democracy
We’ve come a long way from the days of Lawton Chiles, who won his election for governor despite limiting contributions to $10 a pop. There is no longer any bidding limit on the vast auction block American politics has become since, writes Martin Dyckman.
Health Groups Oppose Bill Banning E-Cigarettes to Minors, Calling It a Stealth Favor to Big Tobacco
The American Lung Association of Florida and other groups are fighting the measure because it would also ban local efforts to restrict the sales of cigarettes and other tobacco-related products.
My Agreement Or Else: Elections Supervisor Weeks Bluntly Rejects Palm Coast Proposals
Reaffirming a stalemate, Weeks’s refusal to conduct the Palm Coast elections on any terms but hers means the city may have to go it alone, triggering costs and confusion.
Scoring the Legislature at the Half-Way Mark
With the two chambers working in tandem on most issues, Gov. Rick Scott was able to sign a series of bills into law this week. They included a bill, dubbed the “Florida GI Bill,” aimed at making the state more military friendly; a package of bills aimed at keeping sexually violent predators locked up; and a bill that will roll back motor-vehicle registration fees.
Lawmakers Poised to Kill Florida KidCare Expansion for 25,000 Children of Legal Immigrants
The proposal (HB 7 and SB 282) would eliminate a five-year waiting period for lawfully residing immigrants to be eligible for KidCare, a subsidized insurance program that serves children from low- and moderate-income families. Senate President Don Gaetz would vote against it.
As Baker Acting of Children Soars, Flagler School Board Grapples With Perceptions of “Outrage”
Baker Acts involving children in schools has reached 32 so far this year, three times more than last year, prompting one school board member to call herself “outraged” at the police-led manner in which most such Baker Acts are carried out, even with teens and younger children.
Internet Café Crackdown: Gambling Task Force Serves Search Warrants in 5 Counties as Businesses Skirt Ban
The Legislature essentially banned such businesses last year, but some continue to operate under different guises. At one point at least seven of the gambling parlors had been operating in Palm Coast, but none in Flagler Beach or the unincorporated part of Flagler County.
The Ten Tenors Renew Their Vows With Flagler in Two Broadway-Themed Shows at the Auditorium Saturday
The Ten Tenors have been coming to the Flagler Auditorium for a dozen years, ever since they sprung out of Australia to set out on what’s become an increasingly popular, worldwide phenomenon.
Lifelong Republican Turned independent: Howard Holley Launches All-Business Bid For County Commission
Howard Holley, a Hammock business executive, would face Flagler County Commissioner Frank Meeker in November if Meeker doesn’t have a primary opponent, no black candidate and no independent candidate has ever won a county commission seat.
Obamacare Tally: Florida Subsidies Average $3,000, But Some Families Complain of Costly Exclusion
And yet only one in four Floridians who qualifies for a subsidy had enrolled in a plan by March 1, leaving 1 million eligible residents uninsured. A mother describes how the law’s employee-insurance provision barred her family from subsidies.
Rick Scott’s Dilemma: Helping Undocumented-Immigrant Students Or Sticking to His Base
While Scott has repeatedly said he supports a proposal to end annual 15 percent tuition hikes, he’s remained mum about the portion of the bill that would grant in-state tuition to undocumented students, or Dreamers.
Weeks Against the World: Elections Supervisor Holds Out on Palm Coast Elections Despite Secretary of State’s Admonition
The only higher official who hasn’t yet told Flagler County Supervisor of Elections Kimberle Weeks to move beyond her feud with the Palm Coast City Council over the city’s 2014 elections is Gov. Rick Scott. Sill, Weeks remains obstinate as time runs short for Palm Coast to decide who will run its 2014 elections.
News-Journal’s Mark Lane, Chronicler of the Darwinian, Will Try to Explain Florida In Library Talk Friday
Lane will be bringing his wit, observation and histories to the Flagler County Public Library in Palm Coast on Friday, April 4, at 2 p.m., for a talk entitled, “Trying to Explain Florida in Print.” The free talk is hosted by the Friends of the Library of Flagler County.
Farewell To Bookstores:
Why I Won’t Miss Books-A-Million
The closure of Books-A-Million is not as bad as it sounds: the chain bookstore was not living up to its billing as a cultural hub, and bookstores these days are becoming irrelevant thanks to Amazon, audio books and Google, which make the world’s libraries immediately accessible at a click.
Chris Christie’s Hormonal Problem
Would someone please call Chris Christie and tell him that if he thinks he could be President of the United States, he doesn’t have a prayer. By insinuating that the lane closings were the handiwork of a woman suffering from a romantic setback, Christie’s lawyers have ensured that he will be scorned by every woman who has had to endure the canard that women are ruled by their hormones and their feelings.
Flagler-Palm Coast Under Tornado Watch Until 5 PM Saturday
The National Weather Service placed Palm Coast and Flagler County under a tornado watch Saturday through 5 p.m., along with five other counties along a broad southwest to northeast band of severe storm activity.
Jacksonville Zoo Mourns Loss of 1-Day Old Gorilla Born to First-Time Mother Madini
It is with great sadness that Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens announces the passing of a gorilla infant born Thursday night (March 27). The infant was born to first-time mother, Madini, and first-time father, Lash.
As March 31 Deadline Nears: Going Without Health Insurance Will Likely Cost You At Tax Time
If you thought you could get health coverage later this year, you may not get that chance until November, which means that you’ll most likely have to pay a penalty of 1 percent of your income at tax time, even if only a single member of your family is not insured. Penalties rise in subsequent years.
Bunnell Cop Michael Stavris Is Arrested on Charges of Computer Porn Involving Underage Boys
Michael Stavris, an officer with the Bunnell Police Department, was jailed Tuesday evening on two charges of computer porn and a charge of criminal use of someone else’s personal information following a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation into several instances where Stavris is accused of soliciting naked images from underage boys.
Judge Refuses to Revoke $400,000 Bond on European Village’s Would-Be Shooter; Bova Behaves
Daniel Noble, accused of attempted murder in the March 15 European Village incident, was in court today, as were the men who disarmed him, as prosecutor tried unsuccessfully to revoke his bond. Joseph Bova, the accused murderer of Mobil Mart store clerk Zuheily Rosado, was also in court, subdued this time, and is scheduled for a pre-trial hearing in May.
Now Leery of Old Courthouse, Bunnell Fears Money Pit and Talks of Giving It Back
With two commissioners ready to give back the old courthouse to the county, Bunnell opted Monday to get more solid bids on what it would cost the city to turn the problematic building into its city hall, but the city administration drew a bleak picture of finances that cannot bear new burdens regardless.
For 2nd Time in 5 Days a Deputy Is Involved in Serious Crash, But No Report Yet from Sheriff
Monday’s crash took place at the intersection of U.S. 1 and Grand Reserve, within the city limits of Bunnell, where a sheriff’s deputy rear-ended another motorist. The motorist was reportedly cited, and the sheriff’s office, not the Bunnell PD or FHP, investigated the crash.
Measure to Cut Local Red-Light Camera Revenue Falters as Cities Cry Foul
A lawmaker had initially proposed that the state ban new red-light cameras while reducing the fine from $158 to $83, eliminating the money local governments could collect. The outcry from local governments over his initial proposal to eliminate the money demonstrated that the issue is strictly about money, he said.
The Problem With “Step Up for Students,” Florida’s Voucher Jockey
Step Up For Children CEO Doug Tuthill is shameless about the way his organization–the administrative agent for Florida’s school voucher program–spends lavishly on political races, which may explain why a Senate proposal to vastly expand the voucher program this year foundered.
Palm Coast Cancels Special Meeting as Conflict With Elections Supervisor Again Flares
Tuesday’s special meeting between the Palm Coast City Council and Elections Supervisor Kimberle Weeks was to have ironed out a mutual agreement for Weeks’s office to run the city’s municipal elections this year. Weeks, however, is demanding that the city approve the agreement she drafted without such a meeting, and virtually without changes, something to which the city is not likely to agree before the April 2 deadline set by Weeks.
Brianna Bellon, 23, Is Killed in Late-Night Wreck South of Mondex as Car Rolls Into Canal
Brianna Bellon, 23, a resident of Beach Village Circle in Palm Coast, was killed late Sunday night as the car she was either driving or riding in with two men rolled into a canal in an isolated part of Flagler County, south of the Mondex. Zackariah Holden and Corey Doyle-Carlson, both 23 and both of Palm Coast, were not injured.
Spurred By Judge Craig’s Drubbing of Palm Coast, Rep. Hutson Calls for Repeal of Red-Light Cameras
Calling himself “in complete opposition to the use of red light cameras in Florida,” Rep. Travis Hutson, whose district includes all of Flagler County, took the unusual stop of criticizing Palm Coast’s method of unduly punishing vehicle owners who are cited even though they may not be driving the cited vehicle. He called attention to two measures that would repeal ca,eras or change the rules in drivers’ favor.
Sheriff’s Citizens Advisory Council More PR Than Input as Few Citizens and Board Members Show Up
Flagler County Sheriff Jim Manfre created the Citizens Advisory Council to give residents’ complaints about the Sheriff’s Office a way to be heard directly and transparently. But two of the three council meetings were not advertised and none of the meetings has produced much more than PR for the sheriff.
Judge Craig Indicts Palm Coast’s “Bad Faith” Red-Light Cameras and Exposes City’s Legal Flaws as He Contests Violation
In a half-hour hearing before Palm Coast’s red-light violations officer, Flagler Circuit Judge Dennis Craig on Thursday ridiculed the city’s guilty-until-proven-innocent standard as well as the council’s claim that cameras are intended to improve safety. The city dismissed his citation not on the grounds he raised, but by inventing a case of “prudent” driving that the evidence did not show.
Chris Goodfellow, Author of Theory Gone Viral on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Is a Marineland Resident
When Chris Goodfellow, a retired pilot in Marineland, wrote a 1,000-word blog post debunking many foul-play theories on the fate of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, he did not expect the post to be picked up by media and bloggers around the world, though his theory has now influenced the debate on the missing Boeing.
Heroes Who Foiled European Village Attack Are Jailed on Disorderly Conduct and Battery Charges
The three men who foiled an alleged armed attack at European Village Saturday night–Vassili Mironov, Roman Dubinschi and Joshua Auriemma–were arrested early Wednesday morning after a fight in the parking lot of Finn’s bar in Flagler Beach.
As Flagler District Prepare to Offer Voluntary Pre-K at all 5 Elementary Schools, Board Questions Raising $60 Fee
The half-day VPK programs are free, but many parents opt to leave their children for longer hours that coincide with extended-day care before and after school, at a cost of $60 a week. District administrators are looking to raise that fee to accommodate the expansion of VPK.
Marketing 2 Go, Palm Coast Pioneer in Social Media, Celebrates 4 Years in Business
It was four years ago this month that Cindy Dalecki launched Marketing 2 Go, her own start-up in the emerging but often intractable world of social media–a world almost everyone needs, especially in business, but few understand, and fewer still can navigate to their advantage.
After the Attack: A Pit Bull Owner Speaks In Defense of Second Chance Rescue
In the wake of a pit bull’s–or a pit bull mix’s–attack on two young children at Second Hand Rescue last week, a dog owner who took possession of a pit bull that had been rescued and rehabilitated by Second Hand Rescue writes in defense of the Bunnell animal shelter.
Unemployment Spike to 9.3% in Flagler Masks Larger Labor Force, More Job Creation and Flurry of Development Ahead
Flagler County’s January unemployment is up sharply from from 8.8 percent in December. but in a brighter sign, the county’s labor force also added some 400 people, there was a net gain of some 200 jobs, and numerous commercial, residential and government construction projects suggest that the county’s economy is brightening.
Saviors of European Village: How Vassili Mironov and Friends Prevented a Bloodbath
In their first interview just back from the hospital, Vassili Mironov and two friends describe how they neutralized the assault-rifle-carrying Daniel Noble Saturday night at European Village, as Nolan was threatening to shoot into the crowd.
Shots Fired and 2 European Village Patrons Stabbed after Uzi-Wielding Man Enters Europa Lounge Restaurant
Daniel Noble, a 37-year-old Palm Coast resident, is at the Flagler County jail on an attempted first-degree charge and three aggravated battery charges after he walked into a restaurant at European Village with a rifle late Saturday night (March 15), where two patrons jumped on him, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office said.
If It’s Economic Growth You Want, Raising the Minimum Wage Crushes Wall Street Bonuses Every Time
If the $26.7 billion Wall Streeters pulled in on their bonuses last year had instead gone to minimum wage workers, our economy would be expected to grow by about $32.3 billion — more than triple the $10.4 billion boost expected from the Wall Street bonuses.
Flagler Kills Together:
Bill O’Reilly’s Re-Assassination of JFK
Bill O’Reilly’s “Killing Kennedy,” this year’s choice for the annual Flagler Reads Together event, is not the usual O’Reilly polemic and provides in parts a fair summary of Kennedy’s presidency and the assassination, but it also has many flaws, writes Pierre Tristam.
Pit Bull Mix Bloodies 3- and 5-Year-Old Children and Their Mother In Two Vicious Attacks at Second Chance Rescue
The 5-year-old girl and her 3-year-old brother were in a van at Second Chance Rescue, waiting for their mother, when the pit bull jumped through a window and attacked the children, and did it again after the children’s mother had dragged it away, jumping in through an open door. All three were severely injured.