Rev. Beth Gardner, the pastor at Bunnell’s First United Methodist Church, heard the news of Leonard Lynn’s murder 10 minutes before services Sunday. He had been a member of her church community–as was his murderer, Erick Niemi.
All Else
District Throws In Towel on School Uniforms, Largely Relaxing Policy For Simplicity’s Sake
For high school students in Flagler schools, specific color restrictions will be gone, as long as students wear solid colors and sweatshirts and other “outerwear,” including all sorts of logos, will be allowed, making the policy look more like the pre-uniform dress code than not. Restrictions would still be in place for younger students.
FHP Director Julie Jones Is Shocked, Shocked to Hear of Troopers Issuing Fake Tickets
Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Executive Director Julie Jones said she expects the agency will look into allegations of bogus tickets, described last week by a handful of former and current troopers during an administrative hearing on the firing of former FHP Trooper Charles Swindle.
Flagler Emergency Director Warns: Forget Hurricane Predictions. Just Be Prepared.
As forecasters predict a busy hurricane season–18 named storms, nine hurricanes, four major ones–Flagler’s Emergency Operations Director Troy Harper warned against basing preparedness on predictions and actively developing a disaster plan instead, whether at home or in one’s business.
Flagler Middle & High School Principals Plead With Voters: Give Us Back Those 45 Minutes
Flagler County’s four secondary-school principals say restoring 45 minutes to the school day, or the equivalent of a month’s worth education, is indispensable if the district’s students are to excel consistently.
Florida Government’s DCF Looks to Religious Organizations to Recruit Foster Parents
Looking for foster parents, DCF Director of Faith Based Development Erik Braun told child welfare professionals at a conference that Florida has 12 million residents affiliated with a Catholic or Protestant church, 1 million Jews and 400,000 to 600,000 Muslims.
Flagler County Will Buy 11 Billboards on A1A and I-95 and Eliminate Most of Them By 2016
The Flagler County Commission agreed to buy 10 billboards on A1A and one on I-95 for $140,000, and eliminate all but three by 2016, retaining the one on I-95 and two on A1A to promote the county’s tourism and economic development efforts.
Leonard Lynn Murdered In Savage Beating Three Days Before Authorities Found Him
According to his confession, Erick Niemi knocked Leonard Lynn’s head against the floor and choked him for 1 to 2 minutes Wednesday, killing him then–and, until his arrest Saturday night, remaining in the house for three days after Niemi had locked the lifeless body in a bedroom.
Flagler Scrapes Up a Few Acres of Preservation Despite Demise of Florida Protection Program
Even though it’s not been a good few years for land preservation in Florida, two areas tagged by environmentalists as Jewels of Flagler County were expanded with recent purchases as those who work to set aside land for the future struggle with diminishing budgets amid great opportunity.
Man Is Killed at 26 Ryken Lane in Palm Coast, Suspect Charged With 2nd Degree Murder
Leonard Lynn, 76, was killed at 26 Ryken Lane in Palm Coast. Erick Niemi, a roommate, has been charged with second-degree murder. The murder was discovered Saturday evening. Niemi was picked up not far in the van he’d allegedly stolen from Lynn.
Between Fleeting Time and Family Feel at Matanzas High’s 2013 Commencement
Some 340 students graduated from Matanzas High School Friday evening in a ceremony that emphasized the school’s successes and the connections of the student body with its extended families.
Flagler Tea Party Spreads False and Misleading Claims as It Declares Against School Tax
The Tea Party’s opposition to the referendum is based on flawed, misleading or outright false information, which the school district has been at pains to counter or correct. The fate of the June 7 referendum may hinge on the district’s success—or failure—in that counter-offensive.
Planning for Flagler’s Future, County Talks Library Repairs, New Fire Station and Jail
Expanding an overcrowded county jail, building a modern new sheriff’s operations center, upgrading an inadequate drainage system as urbanization changes the rural character of Flagler and improving fire and emergency medical response west of U.S. 1 were featured in the first of four strategic-planning sessions by the county commission Thursday.
FPC Graduates Are Urged: Don’t Just Show Up. Know the Why of Your Life’s Purpose.
For Flagler Palm Coast High School, a day that began with a bomb scare ended with the graduation of some 450 seniors at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach Thursday evening, with Katie Young delivering the Commencement Address and Lynettt Shott watching her first graduating class as FPC’s new principal.
George Zimmerman’s Murder Trial of Trayvon Martin: About Race, Pure and Simple
The George Zimmerman trial starting June 10 isn’t about self-defense or vigilantism or gun rights. It’s about race, pure and simple, argues Steve Robinson. For proof, we need look no further than at the strategy being pursued by Zimmerman’s defense.
Hasty Citizens Property Insurance Deal Draws Howls as Scott Signs Bills by the Bushel
The announcement of the bill-signing came as a Citizens committee discussed efforts to try to steer policies into the private insurance market — and a controversial deal approved last week that could funnel up to $52 million to St. Petersburg-based Heritage Property and Casualty Insurance, which would take out as many as 60,000 policies from Citizens.
11th Grader Admits to Bomb Threat at Flagler Palm Coast High School
An employee who’d been off Tuesday and Wednesday heard a phone message Thursday that referred to a bomb threat on the FPC campus, but the threat was for last Tuesday. The sheriff’s office recommended against evacuating the school and treated the matter as a “suspicious incident,” through the school was to be searched and a bomb squad called in.
Palm Coast’s Jim Landon Gets Top Career Award from Statewide Association
It is indicative of the persistent pettiness of the rivalry between Flagler County and Palm Coast that when the county sent out the announcement of its own deputy administrator receiving a state award earlier this week, it left silent the—somewhat more significant—award that went to Jim Landon, the Palm Coast City Manager.
FHP Troopers Speak of Unwritten Directive to Ticket Lawmakers Less Harshly Than Other Drivers
A sheriff who appeared at a hearing for a trooper fired over for being lenient toward a lawmaker said it’s a “common practice” that legislators have been given leniency on state highways, the same as law enforcement officers regularly waive rules for other law enforcement officers as a “professional courtesy.”
Property Appraiser Gardner: Correcting the Record on School Taxes and the Referendum
In an endorsement of the half-mill school tax levy, Flagler County Property Appraiser James Gardner responds to claims that the school district has “continually increased our taxes. Based upon factual information, this is simply not true.” He shows why.
Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down Scott’s Drug-Testing of State Workers as Too Broad
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals declared an executive order by Riock Scott to drug-test 85,000 state employees and all job applicants as mostly unconstitutional, but left room for a lower court decision to be rewritten to allow for certain employees in certain categories to be drug tested–essentially restoring Florida’s drug-testing standard to what it was before the governor’s executive order.
Elmer Carroll To Be Killed at 6 p.m. as Stay Is Denied; Exonerated Men Will Deliver Petition to Scott
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday denied the last appeal by Elmer Leon Carroll to stay his execution, On Thursday, Herman Lindsey and Seth Penalver – the 23rd and 24th men exonerated from Florida’s Death Row – will deliver a letter to Gov. Rick Scott, asking him to veto the Timely Justice Act, which will fast-track executions.
A State Leadership Award for Sally Sherman, Flagler’s Deputy County Administrator
Flagler County Deputy County Administrator Sally Sherman received the Assistant For Excellence In Leadership Award Friday (May 24) in Orlando at the annual meeting of the Florida City and County Management Association.
Surveillance Drones Give Germans Bad Memories
Railway operator Deutsche Bahn wants to police its rail yards with tiny drones to fight graffiti, triggering a debate in a country where clandestine surveillance is a strongly emotional issue. Florida banned police surveillance by drone this year, absent a warrant.
The Military’s Sexual Assault Crisis: Our Women in Uniform Deserve Better
There were 3,374 reported cases of sexual assault in the military in 2012, and 26,000 assaults likely went unreported. Those shameful numbers don’t have to speak for themselves, argues Martha Burk, but most of the victims were afraid of being punished by superiors if they reported what happened.
Radiology Associates’ Al Falco Is Named Fellow at National Conference
Al Falco, CEO of Daytona Beach-based Radiology Associates was awarded the highest honor in the field of Radiology business management – Fellow of the Radiology Business Management Association (RBMA), for his significant contributions to the RBMA and his profession.
81-Year-Old Stabs His Caretaker in a Clash Across the Street from Mayor’s House
August T. Lindquist, 81, was jailed on an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge Monday night after stabbing his caretaker outside his home on Flintstone Court, across the street from Palm Coast Mayor Jon Netts’s home. Linsquist is in the early stages of dementia, when violent outbursts are not uncommon.
Palm Coast Mayor Netts Would “Violently Protest” Raising Red-Light Fines From $158
New legislation gives local governments like Palm Coast authority to raise red-light camera ticket fines to $408 if a drivers contests the ticket and loses. Netts’s opposition signals a slight but discernible shift in the mayor’s thinking about red-light cameras.
Wanted: Flagler and Florida Foster Parents
With new legislation reforming Florida foster care, good foster parents will be more in demand than ever. And current foster parents say new ones will have a better experience than the old image of foster care might have led them to expect.
Feared Flagler Beach Bomb in Ammo Container Turns Out to Be Tackle Box; A1A Reopens
A military-style ammunition box left at the foot of the Barracuda Bay Motel sign in Flagler Beach triggered a bomb scare and closed A1A between South 10th and South 13th Streets Sunday afternoon. It turned out to be a fishing tackle box.
Tax Subsidy May Trigger Free for All as Florida Cities Grab for Spring Training Teams
New rules for spring training funding offer up to $666,660 a year in sales tax revenue for stadium upgrades or construction if a community seeks to retain or entice a single team to move. The funding can jump to $1.33 million if a community can cobble together a two-team package.
24-Year-Old Evacuated By Air After His Car Goes Airborne on I-95, Smashing Into Woods
Timothy Rudolph of Ormond Beach was evacuated by air late Friday night and I-95 northbound was closed for 20 minutes as a rescue helicopter made a landing on the highway three miles north of Palm Coast Parkway, where the single-car wreck took place.
Jury Deciding Whether Miller Killed Mulhall Out of Vengeance and Hate or Self-Defense
Jury deliberations began this morning after prosecution and defense made closing arguments in Paul Miller’s murder trial, portraying Miller either as a vengeful, angry and hateful man or an unsophisticated old man fearing for his life, and acting in self-defense.
Shupe and Carney Clash as Fire Merger Referendum Proposal Enflames Flagler Beach Commission
Flagler Beach City Commissioner Marshall Shupe questioned fellow-Commissioner Kim Carney’s honesty over talks with county officials on a potential fire department merger after Commissioner Joy McGrew proposed handing the matter to voters next March in a citywide referendum.
Palm Coast Man Jailed After Feared Child Abduction at Bunnell Day Care Center
George Fredericks, a 63-year-old resident of Ridley Lane in Palm Coast, was charged with battery after witnesses said he shook a child’s arm at A Little Preschool House, a day care center in Bunnell, Thursday afternoon.
Jaquez Roland, Found Guilty on All Charges In Sharps Liquor Robbery, Faces 30 Years
Jaquez Roland, who’d served 10 years in prison for armed burglary, will serve at least another 30 as he was found guilty Thursday of three charges, including armed robbery and false imprisonment, stemming from the Sharps Liquor robbery in Palm Coast in October 2011, one of three robberies implicating Roland. His victim cried with relief as the verdict was read.
Defense Rests in Miller Murder Trial After Laying Down Further Markers of Self-Defense
Paul Miller’s defense team rested its case just past noon today, but closing arguments will take place Friday morning. Only then will the jury deliberate. A verdict is likely sometime Friday.
Florida’s Surplus Adds Dollars to Services From Mental Health to Rape Crisis Centers
People with disabilities, domestic and sexual violence programs, mental health and substance abuse programs, juvenile justice and children’s services all got bigger budgets for the first time since the recession began.
Taking Stand in His Defense in Murder Trial, Miller Projects More Surliness Than Sympathy
If it was sympathy that Paul Miller was trying to elicit from the jury Wednesday afternoon, his nearly two-hour performance was not a model. He may have hurt his case more than he helped it when he elected to take the stand in his defense in his trial for the killing of Dana Mulhall in March 2012.
Miller Trial Turns to 5 Bullets’ Paths, Mulhall’s Last Moments–and Blood-Alcohol (0.188)
Paul Miller, accused of murdering Dana Mulhall, looked away or closed his eyes for the first time in the now-three-day-old trial as images of the bloodied and shot Dana Mulhall were placed on an easel for the jury to see and the prosecution to analyze with witnesses Wednesday morning. The defense takes up its case in the afternoon.
NFL and MLS Snub Florida After Bill to Subsidize Dolphins and Soccer at Taxpayers’ Expense Fails
The NFL awarded the 2016 Super Bowl to the San Francisco area and the 2017 championship contest to Houston, a little more than two weeks after a bill tied to potential state funding for the Miami Dolphins and an Orlando soccer stadium died in the Florida House.
Miller Trial: As Shooter’s Shows of Affection Are Restricted, Prosecution Draws Victim’s Portrait
The prosecution concluded its first full day in the murder trial of Paul Miller Tuesday by painting a portrait of Dana Mulhall, the victim in the March 2012 shooting in Flagler Beach, as a non-confrontational creature of habit who liked his Miller Lites, his friends and his lottery tickets. The defense laid low.
Report of Incident Involving 11-Year-old and a Possible Sex Offender Has R Section on Edge
An incident took place Sunday afternoon in Palm Coast’s R-Section that rattled a boy and his mother, and has since rippled beyond the R-Section into an alert throughout local schools about a potential sex offender. But evidence is based on a single report.
Miller Killed Mulhall “With Depraved Indifference, With Ill Will, Hate, Spite,” Prosecution Argues
In the second day of Paul Miller’s trial (Monday was devoted to jury selection) the prosecution was piecing together a picture of a shooting no witness actually saw, but that several witnesses described in sounds and sights before, during and after the shots that claimed the life of Dana Mulhall on March 14, 2012 in Flagler Beach.
Two Flagler Projects Among $368 Million in Vetoes as Scott Approves $74.1 Billion Budget
Having powerful House Speaker Will Weatherford on its board did not spare Heather Beaven’s Flagler Beach-based Florida Endowment Foundation from a veto eliminating its $2 million appropriation. Flagler also lost $150,000 for a retraining program.
Ken Mattison Named Florida Hospital Flagler CEO, Switching With Ottati in Swift Succession
Ken Mattison, for 16 years the CEO at Adventist Health’s Florida Hospital Waterman, has been named to take over for David Ottati at Florida Hospital Flagler, a $156 million business with 1,017 employees in 2011. Ottati will assume Mattison’s position at Waterman, a $205 million hospital with 1,879 employees.
As Jury Is Seated in Paul Miller Murder Trial, Questions About Guns Weed Out Prospects
The most anticipated trial of the year—of Paul Miller, the 66-year-old Flagler Beach man accused of murdering his neighbor Dana Mulhall last year during an argument over Miller’s barking dogs—began Monday with jury selection, which by day’s end had seated an all-white jury of three men and three women, plus three alternates (a woman and two men, one of them black).
Matanzas High Student Allen Brown Tasered After Allegedly Punching Student and Deputy
Matanzas High student Allen Brown, 18, was Tasered by a Flagler sheriff’s deputy Monday after being involved in a fight with a 15-year-old student and allegedly punching the deputy, in the first use of a Taser on a Flagler school campus in six years.
Closing Flagler’s Alternative School: When The Classmate Next to Your Child Is a Felon
The Flagler County school, district may close Everest alternative school (formerly Pathways) if the June 7 referendum for a modest property tax increase fails. Jo Ann Nahirny, a teacher at Matanzas High School, describes the disruptions of managing a classroom with felons and sex offenders in seats alongside other students.
The IRS’ Nonprofit Dysfunctions: A Problem Deeper Than Conservative Targeting
The IRS division responsible for flagging Tea Party groups has long been an agency afterthought, beset by mismanagement, financial constraints and an unwillingness to spell out just what it expects from social welfare nonprofits, former officials and experts say.