The number of people insured under the ACA in each state varies. But the state with the largest number of residents on marketplace insurance plans is Florida. About 4.7 million Florida residents are covered through these plans, representing 27% of the state’s under-65 population, compared to the national average of 8.8%. Of those on marketplace plans, 98% receive a subsidy at some level. There are several reasons why this rate is so much higher in Florida than elsewhere.
All Else
Free the Food Trucks: Palm Coast Will End Strict Regulations on Popular Roving, Popup Businesses
Palm Coast is ready to make it easier for food trucks to sell in the city–at public parks, in commercial parking lots, on private property–with basic permitting. Council members don’t yet agree on the details. But they all agree that regulations must be loosened, that food trucks be more accessible on public and private grounds, that the city control them with a much lighter hand, and that local food trucks be given preference.
Marketing 2 Go Offers Hands-On AI Training Course for Business Leaders Nov. 6 and 12
Marketing 2 Go, a full-service marketing agency serving Flagler and Volusia County and beyond since 2010, will host a four-hour hands-on artificial intelligence training program designed specifically for business leaders on November 6 and 12 for $199 per person.
Parents Each Charged 4 Days Apart With Felony Child Abuse Involving Same Autistic Teen Son
Jason Joseph Reed, 42, of Raeland Lane in Palm Coast, was arrested on Oct, 21 and charged with felony child abuse following an incident captured on internal video and involving his autistic teenage stepson. Four days later, Jason’s wife Janet Lynn Reed, 41, was arrested on an identical charge following a different incident with her son, who will be referred to here as Tom (a pseudonym). Tom was taken to the hospital after the second incident.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, October 29, 2025
Another Clay Jones special on his recovery and a rewind to those Obama years, weekly chess club for teens at the county library, Frances Fitzgerald on a 2008 letter imagining Obama’s America in 2012.
Democratic Lawmakers Urge DeSantis To Declare Emergency and Buy Supplies for Food Pantries
Florida Democrats in the Legislature are imploring Gov. Ron DeSantis to declare a state of emergency and use state money to buy food and direct it to food pantries as nearly 3 million people lose access to a federal food assistance program.
Trump Scrapped Detailed Annual Food Insecurity Report, Making It Harder to Know American Hunger
The Trump administration announced plans to stop releasing food insecurity data. The federal government has tracked and analyzed this data for the past three decades. Food banks relied on the data to understand who was most likely to need their help. The data also allowed policymakers to see the big jump in need during the Great Recession starting in 2008. It also showed a slight decline in food insecurity with the rise in government assistance early in the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a Flagler First, Three Former FPC Students Are Its Teacher, Employee and Rookie of the Year
In what appears to be a first in the county’s history, three former Flagler Palm Coast High School students–Alex Giorgianni, Calvin Grant and Madison Mead–have been named the school’s Teacher of the Year, Employee of the Year and Rookie Teacher of the Year. FPC Principal Bobby Bossardet celebrated the occasion in a schoolwide.
Palm Coast Will Not Join 25 Local Governments in Lawsuit Against SB180, Which Disables Development Regulation
The Palm Coast City Council today said it is declining to join a lawsuit by 25 other local governments against a new state law, known as SB180, that has sharply restricted governments’ regulatory authority on local development. Bunnell, Flagler Beach and county government have also declined. Council member Theresa Pontieri pushed back against Mayor Mike Norris’s suggestion to join the lawsuit, saying the city should not risk its political capital by alienating lawmakers whose help and appropriations it needs, at a time when lobbyists are near certain that the law will be amended by next March.
2.9 Million Floridians Will Lose Food Stamps Benefits Saturday if Shutdown Doesn’t End
Nearly 3 million Floridians who rely on federal food assistance will see their benefits end in November due to the federal government shutdown. Florida has the fourth largest SNAP enrollment nationwide with 2.94 million relying on the assistance for their food security, behind California, Texas, and New York. Nationwide, 41.7 million people rely on SNAP benefits, August 2025 data show.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, October 28, 2025
The Palm Coast City Council and the School Board hold meetings, the latest Israeli theft of Gaza, the Flagler County Affordable Housing Committee, Budgeting by Values: A Free, Virtual Class to Learn Budgeting Skills at Flagler Cares.
Trump and Congress Continue to Be Paid
Some members of Congress are asking for their salaries to be withheld during the government shutdown, while federal workers on Friday missed their first full paycheck since many operations closed on Oct. 1. With no movement toward a deal to end the shutdown, the House remained on a prolonged break from Capitol Hill, the Senate left for its usual long weekend and President Donald Trump prepared to depart for a trip to China, where he will likely focus much more on foreign policy and tariffs than the funding lapse.
Workplace Exhaustion’s Connection to Extremism
A new study of 600 employees suggests burnout may quietly fuel worrying attitudes – specifically, the potential justification of violent extremism – towards the perceived source of their distress. In the study, employees made daily notes of their burnout symptoms, emotional states, and violent extremist attitudes. On days when employees felt more burnt out, they reported significantly more sympathy toward extremist ideas, such as justifying violence against perceived injustices.
Bankruptcy Judge Rejects Marineland Sale for Now, Ordering Community Bidder to Be Considered
Displeased with the way a community bidder was locked out of the process and concerned about the fate of the historic treasure and its animals, a federal bankruptcy judge in Delaware this afternoon refused to approve the $7.1 million sale of the Marineland Dolphin Adventure property to a developer and ordered the debtors’ attorney to have discussions with the lower bidder, Jack Kassewitz, a dolphin specialist proposing to save the facility as an oceanarium.
Florida Cabinet Questions Voucher Dollars Going to Muslim Schools, But Not Christian Schools
All three members of the Florida Cabinet are questioning the legality of the state voucher system that has steered taxpayer-funded scholarships to private Islamic schools that they contend undermine “Western” values. Attorney General Uthmeier, Chief Financial Officer Ingoglia, and Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, all Republicans and allies of the governor, spoke against extending vouchers to the Hifz Academy and Bayaan Academy, Islamic schools in Tampa now accepting these scholarships.
Arlene Volpe, Quiet Force Behind Culture and Gargiulo Art Foundation’s Heyday in Palm Coast, Dies at 85
Arlene Volpe, the organizational force behind the Gargiulo Art Foundation as it fostered a rich art scene in Palm Coast and Flagler County for two decades, died on Oct. 4 in North Carolina. Volpe had been for 50 years Tom Gargiulo ‘s partner, and with him a champion of local arts and a key hand, for 21 years, behind the annual naming of the Flagler County Artist of the Year.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, October 27, 2025
The Bunnell City Commission meets and will discuss the possibility of having voting districts in the city, Pasco County library director Sean McGharvey reminds us of library’s jazziness, a few words from Bertrand Russell.
Speaking Spoofs to Power: Those Inflatable Costumes at Trump Protests
activists taking part in protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) across the United States have donned inflatable animal costumes. The aim is to disrupt the Trump administration’s claim that the protests are violent “hate America” rallies. The result is a sight to behold, with many encounters between police and protestors going viral. Whether they know it or not, these costumed activists are contributing to a rich history of using humour and dress to mobilise against and challenge power.
When Florida Sends Goons to Intimidate Government Critics
Retired Florida resident James O’Gara sent a postcard to Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, saying simply, “You lack values.” Soon after the postcard, two guys in armored vests emblazoned “POLICE” showed up at the O’Gara home and asked if James O’Gara had mailed that little missive to Tallahassee. They didn’t identify themselves, but the O’Garas checked with Largo police and found out the men were from the Department of Financial Services’ investigations unit.
Bill Would Require Florida Landlords to Keep Rentals Well Air Conditioned
Winter Haven Republican Rep. Jon Albert’s measure (HB 241) would require sufficient cooling for rental properties, such as permanent or securely affixed appliances, such as central air systems, packaged thermal air conditioners, mini-split heat pumps, and window units, if local codes permit. Landlords would be obligated to provide and maintain cooling equipment that is capable of keeping the indoor air temperature of habitable rooms below 82 degrees Fahrenheit when the outdoor heat index is at or exceeds 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, October 26, 2025
‘The 39 Steps,’ at the Daytona Playhouse, Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village, Gamble Jam, Hendrik Willem van Loon’s prejudices, Sam Cook’s Wonderful World, bubl-shaped church spires’ history.
From Albert Speer to Donald Trump
the Trump administration is mobilizing heritage and architecture as tools of ideology and control. He is seeking to roll back inclusive historical narratives at U.S. parks and monuments. And he is reviving sanitized myths about America’s history of slavery, misogyny and Manifest Destiny, for use in museums, textbooks and public schools. Dictators, tyrants and kings build monumental architecture to buttress their own egos, which is called authoritarian monumentalism. They also seek to build the national ego – another word for nationalism.
Floridians Are Hurtling Towards Economic Disaster
Florida is the second most distressed state in the union in terms of its residents’ debt obligations. The state saw a 23% increase in the share of people with distressed bank accounts between 2024 and 2025, the data show. In addition, Florida holds the sixth-highest overall share of people with accounts in distress, at 7.3%. In human terms, this financial distress looks like a sharp increase in bankruptcy filings; residents with accounts in forbearance or deferred payments; America’s lowest average credit scores; and higher prices for groceries, rent, mortgages, gasoline, and health care.
Trump Endorses Randy Fine, Sharply Steepening Hill Climb for Gambaro and Furry
President Donald Trump is giving his “Complete and Total Endorsement” to U.S. Rep. Randy Fine. Challenger Charles Gambaro, currently a Palm Coast City Council member who had a role in the final months of the first Trump administration, recently expressed confidence that Trump would endorse him over the former state lawmaker, but clearly that’s not coming to pass. Will Furry, the Flagler County school board member, is also among the numerous candidates running against Fine.
Palm Coast Council’s Ty Miller Appointed to Transportation Planning Board’s Executive Committee
Following a nomination by Flagler Beach City Commissioner Rick Belhumeur, Palm Coast Council Member Ty Miller was appointed by unanimous vote of the Volusia-Flagler Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) board to serve on the TPO’s Executive Committee. In addition to this leadership role, Miller also serves as a TPO Board Member, with Vice Mayor Theresa Pontieri serving as an alternate on the Board.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, October 25, 2025
Palm Coast Founders’ Day, the Saturday Flagler Beach Farmers Market, Peps Art Walk, Rick Belhumeur’s birthday, Thornton Wilder’s ‘Our Town,’ at Limelight Theatre, ‘The 39 Steps,’ at the Daytona Playhouse.
Homeward Bound Program Helps Promote Commercial Truck Driving Training at FTC
Now in its fifth year, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO) Homeward Bound program at the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility is helping Flagler Technical College (FTC) put a “face” on workforce training in Flagler County.
What would Mark Twain Think of Donald Trump?
Mark Twain would have found Trump the showman – the pre-2016 version – a fascinating figure. He would have been appalled, however, by much about Trump the president. Imagining how Twain would view Trump is timely because when some have tried to look to history for an equivalent political moment, they’ll sometimes point to two decades – the 1880s and the 1900s – that happened to also be important in Twain’s life and career.
Florida Judge Rules Concealed Weapons Ban for Under-21 Unconstitutional
Siding with a 19-year-old man who was spotted with a gun in his waistband, a Broward County circuit judge Friday ruled that a state law barring people under age 21 from carrying concealed weapons violates Second Amendment rights.
Tired of County’s Internal Conflicts and ‘Politics,’ Flagler Beach Is Ready to Raise Its Property Tax for Beach Protection
Flagler Beach Is ready to raise its property tax and dedicate the new revenue to beach protection in the city as a blunt message to the county: We’re doing our part. Now do yours. The move is not in defiance of the county so much as a challenge to it to get its management plan in order and to stop using Flagler Beach as a scapegoat to veil its own internal conflicts.
Only Two Residents Unaffiliated with Charter Review Show Up at Latest Community Workshop
Only two residents unaffiliated with the charter-review process showed up at Thursday evening’s community workshop designed to solicit ideas and input from residents about the ongoing rewrite of the Palm Coast City Charter. It was the second of four such scheduled workshops. Another is scheduled for tonight at 6 at the Palm Coast Community Center. The first, on Sept. 29 at the Southern Recreation Center, drew barely a dozen people, though they were engaged and proposed several changes. Not so on Thursday.
At His Memorial, Sheriff’s K9 Kyro ‘Nubs’ Is Remembered for His Fierce Loyalty and Love of Challenges
First Baptist Church of Bunnell was the site of two funerals for law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty in 2021. Today, the church was against the site of a memorial for a fallen officer. For the first time in Flagler County’s history, it was for a K9, a police dog, the first to lose his life in the line of duty: K9 Kyro, nicknamed “nubs” for the tail that had to be amputated from his tendency to be overexcited, died from an undetected heart ailment on Oct. 14.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, October 24, 2025
The Florida Ethics Commission meets, Sheriff Staly discusses open carry on Free For All Fridays, Acoustic Jam Circle At The Community Center In The Hammock, Wikipedia’s unsung heroes.
Bear Warriors United File Injunction to Halt Bear Hunt
Arguing that Florida’s decision to hold a bear hunt in December is not based on “sound” science and research, the group Bear Warriors United, a conservation group, asked a judge for an emergency temporary injunction to halt the hunt.
The Disgraceful History of Erasing Black Cemeteries
Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground, the largest burial ground for enslaved and free people of color in the United States, has witnessed deliberate acts of violence. As the historian Ryan K. Smith writes, Shockoe “was not, as some would say, abandoned – it was actively destroyed.” In recent years, similar threats to Black cemeteries and questions about preservation have been reported at the Whitney Plantation in Louisiana, the Morningstar Tabernacle No. 88 in Maryland and a rediscovered graveyard in Florida, among many others.
Critical After February Crash, Daniel Waterman, 22, Died on Oct. 8. His Pregnant Girlfriend Is Accused of Causing the Crash.
Last Super Bowl Sunday, the day Leigha Mumby, 24, discovered she was pregnant by her boyfriend, Daniel M. Waterman, 22, Mumby drove her Honda into a tree on I-95 in Palm Coast, seriously injuring herself and critically injuring Waterman, who was hospitalized since and who died on Oct. 8. Mumby was charged with a second-degree felony when an FHP investigation determined she had intentionally caused the crash. The charge may be aggravated, now that Waterman has died. His family is seeking custody of the child.
DeSantis Ridicules Spate of House Proposals to Cut Property Taxes as ‘Political Game’
Florida House members have proposed seven constitutional amendments for the 2026 ballot that would slash the state’s property tax. Gov. DeSantis dismissed them all, saying that “placing more than one property tax measure on the ballot represents an attempt to kill anything on property taxes,” and describing it as “a political game, not a serious attempt to get it done for the people.”
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, October 23, 2025
The Flagler Beach City Commission meets this evening, Model Yacht Club Races in Central Park, Trump protests are three times as voluminous as in his first term, Peter Paul and Mary blow in the wind.
Flagler OARS Hosts Peer-Based Recovery Support Training
Flagler OARS (Open Arms Recovery Services) will host a comprehensive two-day training focused on supervision of peer-based recovery support services Feb. 11-12, 2026, at SMA Healthcare in Bunnell.
The Great Louvre Heist and Security Challenges to Museums Everywhere
On Sunday October 19, criminals managed to steal eight pieces of extremely valuable jewelry from the Louvre Museum’s Gallery of Apollo, in Paris. The robbery highlights long-standing issues for criminology in the field of cultural heritage, as museum security has to address traditional and emerging threats as well as a range of symbolic visions and criminal dynamics. From a security point of view, there are five key ideas that can help us understand what the flaws were in the Louvre, as well as how, and why, criminals target museums.
Flagler Commission Was Ready to No-Bid Sell Parkland for a Parking Lot. Then the County Attorney Intervened.
A church in Espanola wants to buy a sliver of county parkland, rezone it, and convert it to a parking lot. The Flagler County Commission was prepared to do that without a bid, without hearings, and no public notices beyond cursive ones embedded in commission meeting agendas. The County Commission shrugged off the proposal’s implications as it almost certainly would not had a similar proposal involved , say, the popular Wadsworth Park in Flagler Beach or Princess Place Preserve. But Espanola is a poor, neglected area of the county with a significant Black population and a typically invisible political constituency.
With Grave Concerns About Traffic, Palm Coast Approves Shopping Rezoning That’ll Add 1,000s of Cars to SR100
With grave concerns about its traffic impacts on already-congested State Road 100, the Palm Coast City Council on Tuesday approved on first reading the rezoning to commercial uses of a 39-acre parcel just west of the BJ’s Wholesale shopping center. The rezoning is ahead of the development of that tract into a companion shopping center called Flagler Landing, with a “170,000 square foot big-box discount superstore,” in the description of the developer’s attorney–that is, very likely Walmart–and a half dozen satellite businesses.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, October 22, 2025
Kermit Booth, the former Palm Coast resident and Volusia schools employee, is in court (he faces two capital charges of sexually abusing a girl), Weekly Chess Club for Teens at the public library, Aristophane’s Acharnians.
The Real Reason Conservatives Are Furious About Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Gig
The spectacle of a Spanish-speaking rapper performing during the most-watched sporting event on American TV is a direct rebuke of the Trump administration’s efforts to paper over the country’s diversity. Beyond that, there’s his gender-bending wardrobe. He has slammed the Trump administration’s anti-immigration policies. He has declined to tour on the U.S. mainland, fearing that some of his fans could be targeted and deported by ICE. And his explicit lyrics – most of which are in Spanish – would make even the most ardent free speech warrior cringe.
Judge Rejects Wife-Murderer’s Claim that Stand Your Ground Would Have Exonerated Him
No Stand Your Ground defense would have been valid, no ineffective representation was provided, no appeal for a new trial was granted. That’s the summary of a 24-page order a judge filed in Keith Johansen’s claim that he was poorly represented at his murder trial four years ago and should get a new one. Johansen is the 43-year-old former Palm Coast resident serving a life sentence for killing his wife Brandi Celenza at their F-Section home in 2018, after nights of demeaning her, humiliating her and threatening her, at times with a gun.
Court Increases Legal Fees Owed ‘Conversion Therapists’ to Nearly $900,000
Palm Beach County and Boca Raton governments are required to pay about $885,000 in attorney fees and other legal costs after a battle about bans on the controversial practice known as “conversion therapy,” a federal appeals court ruled Monday.
County Votes 5-0 to Rename Operations Center Sheriff Rick Staly Law Enforcement Center
The Flagler County Commission on Monday approved renaming the two-year-old Sheriff’s Operations Center off Commerce Parkway after Sheriff Rick Staly. The complex, officially at 61 Sheriff E.W. Johnston Drive, will be known as the Sheriff Rick Staly Law Enforcement Center. Chief Mark Strobridge initiated the proposal in recognition of Staly marking 50 years in law enforcement–a celebration is schedule for Nov. 4–and Commissioner Leann Pennington fronted the renaming at the commission two weeks ago. Commissioners voted 5-0.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, October 21, 2025
The Palm Coast City Council meets at 9 a.m., Food Truck Tuesdays in Palm Coast’s Central Park, Flagler Beach United Methodist Church Food Pantry morning hours, the reliably revolting Randy Fine on Saturday’s protests.
The Pentagon’s Unprecedented War on Press Freedom
Throughout modern American history, reporters who cover the Pentagon have played an invaluable role shining a light on military actions when the government has not been forthright with the public. Free press advocates warn that recent changes in a Pentagon policy threaten journalists’ ability to cover the Department of Defense. That’s because it could curb their rights to report information not authorized by the government for release. That’s a big step toward outright censorship.
Cops Charge Woman Over Inflated Weenie
Jeana Renea Gamble, 61, was charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct for wearing an inflatable penis costume at a No Kings demonstration. Video of the arrest posted to Bluesky showed three officers holding her to the ground amid criticism from spectators. The video went viral over the weekend and led to widespread criticism of the officers.





















































