Rick Scott is unconcerned about the federal shut-down, saying its impact on Florida will be “minimal.” Much of the evidence says otherwise as millions of Floridians’ including Social Security and food stamps recipients, may be affected.
All Else
Mia Bella Dance Academy’s Team of 21 Sweeps National Showdown in Gatlinburg
Mia Bella Dance Academy’s competition team of 20 dancers more than doubled their national awards tally from last year in a competition in Gatlinburg, Tenn., this month. Charlotte Marten’s video report.
Palm Coast Sets Intial Tax Rate 14% Higher With Goal of Whittling It Down By September
Palm Coast City Council members are trying desperately to hold the line on property tax increases, but will likely not succeed entirely. The final tax rate will still not translate into a tax increase for most.
Boehner-Obama Debt-Ceiling Follies: Your Hair-Pulling Guide on Stats and What Ifs
How dire could the consequences of not raising the debt ceiling be? What are the possible solutions? Here’s a reading list to help you keep up as the clock ticks to next week’s deadline.
Slow-Cooked Success: Palm Coast’s Woody’s Bar•B•Q Marks 13th Year
Owned by Flagler County natives, Woody’s BarBQ on State Road 100 in Palm Coast has, like any business, weathered its share of difficulties in the past three years. “We’re not going anywhere,” its owner says.
Flagler County Tax Rates Will Go Up 12%, But Tax Bills Are More Likely to Go Down
Flagler County’s tax rate is going up for the fourth year in a row to make up for collapsing valuations, but the rise will still not translate into a tax increase for most. The contrary may be true.
Florida Graduation Requirements for Students Entering 9th Grade, 2011-2017
Florida high school graduation requirements for entering 9th graders from 2011-12 to 2016-17: a year-by-year guide including FCAT, end-of-year-course assessments and science requirements.
The Greater Threat: Christian Extremism From Timothy McVeigh to Anders Breivik
Those two men—two right-wing reactionaries, terrorists, anti-government white supremacists, Christians—have plenty in common with the fundamentalist politicians and ideologues among us who pretend to have nothing to do with the demons they inspire.
Ayn Rand as Adolescent Sap, Private Prison Scams, Patraeus Rewrites Vietnam: The Live Wire
Ayn Rand’s success: she was a children’s writer, circumcisions of the world unite, music as a way to slow down aging, Steve Carrell, Lucian Freud and Google’s top 20 key words, and more.
Murdoch’s US Hacking Scandals: 9/11 Victims, Bribes and “Anti-Competitive Behavior”
It’s not just in England: federal investigators are probing claims that Ruper Murdoch’s News Corp hacked into a competitor’s computers, that Murdoch papers attempted to hack into the phones of 9/11 victims and allegedly paid bribes to British police.
Florida Hospital Flagler One of Just 3 Hospitals in the State to Achieve IT Milestone
Florida Hospital Flagler won HIMSS Analytics’s Stage 6 designation, on a scale of eight IT-related stages, signaling advantages over competitors for patient safety, clinician support, clinician recruitment and competitive marketing.
Why Attending Local Government Meetings Has Nothing To Do With Being Involved
No one was in the audience when school administrators making $97,000 a year made their pitch for raises. Don’t blame the public for not being there. It’s not the public’s fault, and there are far better ways to be involved.
Palm Coast’s Rabbi Shapiro and Education Trio Sue Over “Religious Freedom” Amendment
Florida’s so-called “Religious Freedom” amendment is misleading, the lawsuit argues, as it would reopen the way for religious, private school vouchers at public expense and turn the state into an arbiter of public dollars for religious organizations.
Do Flagler School Administrators Making $97,000 a Year Need A Raise? They Say Yes.
Some 25 Flagler school administrators make between $80,000 and $105,000 a year. They’re saying they were disrespected when denied a 2 percent raise. The school board is reconsidering.
Is Flagler County’s Real Estate Industry Finally Brightening? Depends Whom You Ask.
Sales are increasing somewhat by volume but more than half the transactions are for cash, prices keep falling, foreclosures are increasing, and the overall economy shows little sign of improvement.
Bryan Watts, a Postal Inspector, Charged With False Imprisonment–Of His Brother
Bryan Watts, 39, had traveled to Palm Coast to help his brother settle the estate of the two men’s late father, who lived on Village Circle. The pair ended up arguing, with Watts arming himself with a semi-automatic handgun.
Dixie Check: Judge Orders Commandments Removed from County Courthouse Steps
A businessman had paid for the 6-ton monument, but a judge said its message was a clear government endorsement of religion, violating the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
In Flagler Beach, Anger and Hyperbole Over an Acting Manager’s Half-Year Limbo
Bruce Campbell has been in the job as acting manager since Jan. 2, a seven-month job interview unlikely to end until September, if then, as a deadlocked city commission battles messy politics and personalities.
President Concession: Obama’s Conviction Deficit
If Barack Obama fears alienating potential voters, argues Donald Kaul, he should consider this: People like leaders who aren’t walking around with whipped cream on their faces all the time.
Fixing The Gays, Paul McCartney at 69, America’s World Cup Women: The Live Wire
Marcus Bachmann’s gay-fixing clinic, Paul McCartney rocks Yankee Stadium, a million millionaires, Google Chrome meets Google+, wages go down, work hours go up, and more.
Pass-Through Crock: How Progress Energy May Once Again Nuke Its Customers
Progress Energy is already charging Florida customers $5.53 per month for non-existent nuclear-power plants slated for construction at unknown dates in the future. The Public Service Commission and the Legislature allow the scheme.
Coalition of Cities Meets, Its Mission As Fuzzy as Its Place in Flagler’s Economic Bog
The Coalition of Cities is Flagler’s smaller cities’ answer to being snubbed at a larger economic-development table. But the snub is over. The coalition remains. It’s not exactly clear why, and it underscores the frayed political landscape behind facades of unity.
Flagler Rep. Bill Proctor: Public University Tuition Should Go Up by More than 15% A Year
Bill proctor, the St. Augustine Republican and private-college president, says tuition increases at public universities should be greater than 15% so Florida’s tuition costs can reach the national average faster.
City Commission Cheers Flagler Beach Turtle Patrol
The Flagler Beach City Commission’s Alice Baker recognized the city’s Turtle Patrol volunteers, whose work from May to September ensures protecting for nesting turtles.
They Feel Your Pain: Florida Legislature Home to 51 Millionaires
Millionaires make up almost half of the 40-member Florida Senate and nearly one-third of the 120-member Florida House. Legislators are paid $29,697 a year, with presiding officers making $41,181 a year.
Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal: Bancroft Family Members Now Regret Sale
Several key members of the Bankroft family which controlled The Wall Street Journal say they would not have agreed to sell the prestigious daily to Rupert Murdoch if they’d been aware of News International’s conduct in the phone-hacking scandal at the time of the deal.
Jim Landon On Children’s Memorial Garden: “This Is Very, Very Personal For Some of Us”
Palm Coast’s year-old Children’s Memorial Garden provoked rare emotions from the city manager Monday as the council wrestled with conflict over competing visions for the pastoral garden near Waterfront park.
Water Management District Tax Rate Cut 26%, Reducing Revenue and Gutting Services
The tax bill on a $200,000 house will be $50, down from $62, but the district is laying off employees and reducing conservation, management and partnership projects in line with a new law approved by Gov. Rick Scott.
Super-PACs and Dark Money: The New World of Corruption-Ripe Campaign Finance
Super-PACs, anonymous donors, foreign donors, unlimited corporate donations, political fronts masked as non-profit charities: the new world of campaign finance opens the way for scandal and corruption.
Another Budget Grilling By Commission Puts Clerk of Court Gail Wadsworth on Defensive
County Commissioners Alan Peterson and Barbara Revels questioned travel expenses that have “mushroomed” and wondered why there was no windfall from reduced retirement-compensation contributions. Wadswroth wasn’t happy.
Flagler Lifts Burn Ban in Effect for Most of The Last 6 Months as Wildfire Emergency Ends
There are still two active wildfires in Flagler County–Espanola and Opossum–but they’ve lost their bite, and rains have dropped the drought index closer to normal for the rainy season. Still, it was a costly few months.
Flagler 911: The Live Crime Blotter, July 1-7, 2011
A pasta and sauce theft, a fight over a cup of coffee, a fire demolishes an empty Bunnell house, a brazen heist at a public works yard, thefts, burglaries and more.
Approaching His 8th Birthday, Nate Truelove Continues Remarkable Wreck Recovery
Nate Truelove was 7 when he almost died in a debilitating wreck on Old Kings Road last September. His recovery has been long, difficult and remarkable. An update from his great-grandmother Charlene.
Introducing Google+: Why Facebook’s Monopoly and Twitter’s Heyday May Be Over
Kyle Russell walks you through Google’s latest Big Thing, how it beats Facebook, and why it may put Twitter and LinkedIn out of business. Your invitation is in Gmail.
Cell Phone and Texting While Driving Bans: Laws in the 50 States
Texting while driving bans, hand held cell phone while driving bans: laws state by state with age breakdowns, school zones, teens and novices.
Obama Veers Right, Murdoch Veers Down, Bachmann Promises No Porn: The Live Wire
Michelle Bachmann signs the marriage pledge, Baba Brinkman raps on evolution, Google+ takes on Facebook, Rupert Murdoch’s vileness uncovered (again), Obama loses his way, and more.
A Quartet’s Steely Encore at Hollingsworth, a Summer Sale at the Flagler County Art League
Joe Thompson’s balancing acts of whimsy and rule-breaking anchor Hollingsworth Gallery’s encore with Jean Banas, Betty Parker and Karin Stover, while the Flagler County Art League holds a two-month art sale of 120 works at very reasonable prices.
City Marketplace in Receivership; Public Sale of the Palm Coast Development Set for August
City Market Place, where Palm Coast has its municipal offices, has been mired in foreclosure proceedings since 2009. The changes aren’t expected to affect tenants except, perhaps, for the better.
Flagler Sheriff’s Office Offers Free Web App To File Reports Or Glimpse Incidents
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Department web application creates mobile-friendly access to its website’s most popular features, including real-time 911 calls and search of jail inmate bookings.
Flagler Beach Bids Last Shuttle a Wistful Farewell as It Soars Invisibly Beyond Clouds
Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off on schedule, but no one could see it on Flagler’s beaches or at the pier, though imagination was enough to sense the end of a 30-year journey.
Space Shuttle Launch Schedule: Atlantis’s Last Voyage
Space Shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral’s Kennedy Space Center at 11:26 Eastern Daylight Time on Friday, July 8. Weather may delay it. Watch video of the countdown.
“Colors of the Sea,” A New Cannizzaro Show, Opening at Ocean Publishing July 14
Rick Cannizzaro, Ocean Publishing’s commissioned artist, exhibits paintings of loggerhead turtles while the publishing house showcases a new book on the Southeast National Marine Sanctuaries and Jean-Michel Cousteau.
USA Today’s Dirty Mind, Tour de Palm Coast, Plutocratic Scott: The Live Wire
Rick Scott’s plutocratic brotherhood of governors, why exercise beats depression,debt limit hypocrites, USA Today’s suggestive graphics, 14th amendment memories, and more.
Adagio for Scott: Governor’s Net Worth Drops by Half, to $102 Million
Scott reported 2010 income of $11.5 million, up 46 percent from the $7.9 million he posted in 2009, and almost all investment income. His wealth topped that of all other Cabinet officials combined.
Involuntary Tows: Flagler’s Wreckers Get 25% Rate Increase, Their First in 8 Years
The county’s three wrecking companies–John’s Towing, Roger’s Towing and Saxon’s Wrecker–are significantly regulated, in this case by the Flagler County Commission, which raised the base rate 25 percent for most tows.
Bunnell’s Challenges: Lawsuits, Layoffs, Deficits, and That $900,000 Police Department
Bunnell entered this year’s budget season facing a $900,000 deficit (about the cost of its police department) and the potential loss of a $1.3 million state contract, among other steep challenges.
Energy-Wasting TV-Top Boxes, Stephen Fry on Unbelief, Frida Kahlo’s Birthday: The Live Wire
David McCullough on today’s version of patriotism, Frida Kahlo’s birthday, Nudist Recreation Week, your energy-wasting TV-set-top boxes, Stephen Fry on God and religion, and more.
Why Help at Your Nursing Home Will Be More Scarce, and Other Elderly Care Retreats
Florida just rejected a federal grant that would have allowed elderly patients to get care at home instead of in nursing homes, where staffing levels may begin to drop this month, thanks to a new Florida law.
Fireworks Blaze Over Flagler Beach In a Thundering Display of Color and Pomp
Anticipation gave way to an explosive display of colors and sounds as Flagler Beach’s July 4th celebration culminated with its traditional fireworks show.
When the New York Philharmonic Played the Star Spangled Banner in North Korea
In February 2008, the New York Philharmonic was invited to play in the North Korean capital. It was a remarkable concert. The rendition of the American national Anthem was one of its most moving moments.