The 2012 Florida legislative session is over. Here’s a recap list of some of the bills that passed and some that failed, from abortion to charter schools to Sharia law.
All Else
Abandoned By Its Chief Executives and Board, Heritage Academy Loses Appeal to Stay Open
A seven-hour hearing ended in the Flagler County School Board voting 4-1 to uphold its decision to close Heritage Academy, whose CEO, Doug Jackson, and own board members were no-shows, leaving the school’s defense in the hands of its dean of students.
From “I’m Not a Dog” To Compromising Bullets as Teachers Union and District Negotiate
After recriminations and a particularly insulting whistle from the district’s lead negotiator, the two sides appeared headed for compromise over the one issue–how teachers are to be evaluated–keeping the district from approving the 2012-13 teachers contract.
Flagler Reads Together: The Red Badge of Courage, Chapter 1
Stephen Crane’s Red Badge of Courage, Chapter 1: Union soldier Henry Fleming mulls his fears and apprehensions before his first battle against Confederate forces on the other side of the river.
Rush Does SNL
Rush Limbaugh wants you to know that he’s doing just fine with sponsors on his show. The Saturday Night Live cold opening, compliments of Taran Killam.
Special Session of the Legislature Begins Wednesday to Fix Senate’s Gerrymandering
Citing gerrymandering, the Florida Supreme Court threw out eight of the 40 Senate districts, including Flagler County’s District 6, along with the numbering system, which means that most districts have to be redrawn as a special session begins Wednesday.
Rascal With a Cause: The Wiles and Women Of Peter Cerreta, at Hollingsworth Gallery
Peter Cerreta’s one-man show at Hollingsworth Gallery is a jaunt through brash themes, colors and shapes with a common denominator: sympathy for the underdog, and a love of storytelling.
Florida Department of Children and Families Secretary Wilkins Sums Up Legislative Session
Florida Department of Children and Families Secretary David Wilkins writes of the Legislature’s measures improving DCF’s Child Protective Investigative operations and employee pay in light of the Nubia Barahona scandal.
The North Atlantic Garbage Patch: A Plastic Soup Ladled from Consumption
A floating garbage dump consists of billions of small plastic man-made items stretches in the Atlantic from Cuba to Maryland by way of Florida. Here’s what you can do to keep plastics and other litter out of the oceans.
The GOP’s War on Women: Electoral Bombs From Komen to Rush to Virginia’s Vaginal Probes
The Republican war on women, conservative columnist Kathleen Parker writes, is “a perfect storm of stupefying proportions” that may have ruinous consequences for the GOP at election time. But it was a collapse foretold.
Sorry, Kansas City: FAA Training Facility Will Stay in Palm Coast–For Now
The FAA Center for Management and Executive Leadership training facility will remain in Palm Coast for the foreseeable future, U.S. Rep. John Mica said Friday, but Palm Coast will still have to compete with other cities in the future to keep the facility and its 80 to 100 jobs.
Bike Week Claims First Flagler County Victims As 3 Are Hospitalized After U.S. 1 Wreck
The wreck took place at 3:15 p.m. and sent a woman and two men to hospitals, two of them by air, in trauma alerts. All three are expected to survive.
Palm Coast Observer’s Brian McMillan Is Local Media Association’s Journalist of the Year
The national award by the Local Media Association, formerly known as Suburban Newspapers of America, caps a succession of milestones for the Palm Coast Observer in the midst of its torrid duel with the News-Journal.
Do Kiss, Do Tell, Do Show
The homecoming picture of the gay Marine kissing his boyfriend has the same iconic feel as Alfred Eisenstaedt’s Life magazine shot of the sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square on V-J Day. Both images capture the essence of liberation on a large scale.
Maintaining Momentum, Economy Adds 223,000 Jobs; Unemployment Stays at 8.3%
The U.S. economy is maintaining its job-creation momentum, adding 223,000 jobs in January, and revising upward previous job-creation figures for December and January by 61,000 jobs. Over the past three months, the economy added 730,000 jobs.
Palm Coast At Its Worst: Felled on Old Kings Road, and for 20 Minutes, Nobody Stops
Inna Hardison’s 20-year-old son was traveling on his motorcycle on Old Kings Road the evening of March 3rd when he struck a boar and was thrown from the bike and injured. It was 20 minutes before anyone bothered to stop and help.
Picasso and Jackson Pollock’s Glass Symphony
Pablo Picasso in his Vallauris workshop, in the 1950 film by Belgian filmmaker Paul Haesaerts, and Jackson Pollock filmed the same year, doing the same thing, by Hans Namuth.
Timucuan Indians Program
At Faver-Dykes State Park March 31
This unique, hands-on Native America experience at Faver-Dykes State Park will let visitors discover the life ways of the Timucuan Indians and their relationship to the land that they loved.
The New iPad in High Definition
The new Apple iPad 3, introduced in San Francisco Wednesday (March 7), ships to stores on March 16. Here’s a quick recap of its main new features and what it means to the tablet industry.
Trust-Busting: Union Angered as Flagler School Board Rescinds Its Vote on Teachers’ Contract
Negotiations are back to zero and mutual trust damaged as the Flagler County School Board said it could not legally approve the contract, as it mistakenly did two weeks ago, by carving out a controversial portion of it dealing with teacher evaluations.
Joe the Plumber, Congressman?
While Dennis Kucinich lost his primary in Ohio’s 9th Congressional district, Samuel Wurzelbacher, also known as Joe (the alleged and tax-evading) plumber, barely won his Republican primary, though he has no chance of beating Marcy Kaptur.
Flagler Fish Company and Blue at the Topaz Join for Charity “Blue Fish Dinner”
Blue at the Topaz and Flagler Fish Company in Flagler Beach are joining chefs Gary Maresca and Chris Casper to offer dinner for 12 at a place of your choosing, with 10 percent of proceeds going to charity.
In a Major Victory for State Workers, Judge Rules 3% Contribution Unconstitutional
The ruling is major victory for 560,000 state workers, including, cops, firefighters, teachers and other school employees, but it again digs a $2 billion hole for the state budget.
Palm Coast, Tree City USA Again
The City of Palm Coast has been re-certified once again as a Tree City USA and also received a Tree City USA Growth award, from the National Arbor Day Foundation.
Florida Highway Patrol’s Move-Over Enforcement Nets 1,200 Citations in 29 Days
Troopers also issued more than 69,000 traffic citations and made 620 arrests for Driving Under the Influence of alcohol or drugs. They also cited nearly 24,000 drivers for speeding in the 29-day campaign.
After 11 Years, Beverly Beach Mayor Steve Emmett Says Farewell a Year Early
Emmett, 70, said he was tired. He won his sixth election last March. He wasn’t up for re-election until a year from now. But he said he’d had enough. Gerry Gersbach replaced him in a ceremony at the Beverly Beach Town Hall.
Flawed Verdict: Ernie Lopez, After 9 Years in Prison for Child Rape, Is Only Half-Free
In Canada and the U.S. at least 23 people who were wrongly accused of killing children based on flawed or biased work by forensic pathologists have been cleared over the last 15 years.
Flagler Forest Division Chief Warns of Fire Season “Possibly as Severe as 1998”
Persistent dryness, long-term weather patterns and dried-up swamps are combining for a dangerous fire season ahead for Flagler County, Mike Kuypers, district manager for the Florida Division of Forestry, told the county commission this morning.
The Myth of Liberal College Indoctrination
Attacking liberal professors and universities as elitists or snobs like Rick Santorum did helps position the conservative movement as a populist enterprise by identifying a predatory elite to which conservatism stands opposed — an otherwise difficult task for a movement strongly backed by holders of economic power.
Excluding Themselves, Florida Lawmakers Pass Drug-Testing Program for State Workers
The House voted largely along party lines to allow state agencies to set up drug testing programs for their workers over the objection of Democrats who said it wasn’t just unconstitutional, but a bully tactic.
What It’s Like to Be The Whale Guy: The True Story of Getting A Life
In his debut column for FlaglerLive, Frank Gromling relates his long association with the Marineland Right Whale Project and the Atlantic right whales’ 1,400-mile annual migrations along Flagler and Florida shores.
Sheriff Fleming, Under Oath, Contradicts His Own Records in Hit-and-Run Case
Sheriff Fleming followed his under-oath interview with the Florida Highway Patrol with a written statement the next day that changed his story for a fourth time regarding his phone calls to and from John Fischer, the school board member and husband of the woman charged in a hit-and-run fatality on Nov. 10.
Rush Limbaugh, Slander Slut
If there ever was a need for a prophylactic to syphilitic discourse, Rush Limbaugh’s latest attack on women makes the case. But insurers won’t cover it.
Florida House Passes Sweeping Abortion Restrictions, Including 24-Hour Waiting Period
The bill requires all abortion clinics to be owned and operated by a doctor (only one of Florida’s 68 clinics fits the bill) and presumes, with little scientific evidence, that pain for the fetus begins at 20 weeks.
Why Santorum Flops, Atheists and Muslims
Thursday, 4 p.m. A minor crash causes bigh headaches near Belle Terre Elementary. Kathleen Parker on Santorum’s pandering flops, Jacksonville’s No meat March movement, Florida-style literacy, video of John Steinbeck’s Nobel speech, and the Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.
Hit-and-Run: More Doubt Than Urgency in Fischers’ Call to Sheriff’s Non-Emergency Line
As John and Jamesine Fischer’s call to the sheriff’s office is released, they’re are heard casting doubt on the nature of the collision that eventually killed Francoise Pecqueur. The call, and a private investigator’s report, raise more questions.
Give Us This Day Our Daily Contraceptive
Six in ten Americans, including Catholics, said they support a requirement by the Obama administration that health plans supply free contraceptives as a preventive benefit for women. Women registered as independents favor the rule by a 2-1 margin.
Public Mostly Rejects State Proposal for 2.7 Miles of Manatee Speed Zones in Flagler Waters
Three-quarters of the people who addressed a Florida Fish and Wildlife delegation on the proposed speed zones on the Intracoastal Waterway rejected the argument that manatees are endangered, or that further regulation is needed.
Florida Moves Past No Child Left Behind, But Not Past High-Stakes Testing
Breaking from from federal No Child Left Behind strictures, Florida can now use its own school accountability system, its A-through-F school grades, to rate the state’s public education system. But the waiver comes with strings attached.
Florida’s Misguided Lunge for Internet Sales Taxes
Nancy Nally, a Flagler County-based web publisher, argues that Florida’s proposed law to compel internet merchants to pay sales taxes won’t level the playing field or increase revenue, but hurt local businesses like her own.
Palm Coast Councilman Frank Meeker Petitions for Civility Manifesto in 2012 Elections
Whether a candidate is worthy of political office should be decided by free and clear elections, not tainted by character assassination and media hype, Frank Meeker argues, laying out a 10-point “Statement on Election Fairness” for 2012.
State Attorney Files 1st Degree Felony Charge Against Fischer in Hit-and-Run Case
Jamesine Fischer, the wife of Flagler County School Board member John Fischer, faces 30 years in prison if convicted of the felony charge involving the death of Francoise Pecqueur, the 76-year-old woman struck by Fischer’s PT Cruiser on Columbia Lane in Palm Coast in November.
Finding Her Palm Coast, Nancy Grace Takes On Wife-Shooting Tonight, With FlaglerLive
FlaglerLive’s Pierre Tristam is among the guests on tonight’s Nancy Grace show, whose opening segment focuses on the William Merrill shooting of his wife in Palm Coast last Tuesday. The news value is limited.
When 125 Students, Infinite Expectations and Untold Critics Encircle Teachers’ 36-Hour Day
Down time after dismissal? Summers off? Think again. Matanzas High School teacher Jo Ann Nahirny, in her latest installment from the trenches, describes permanent on-call nature of a teacher’s days and evenings.
Arrest Report Details Fischer Trying to “Mislead Medical Personnel and Bystanders”
Three times at the scene, where 76-year-old Francoise Pecqueur lay bleeding, and again when she called 911, Jamesine Fischer said she’d seen Pecqueur fall, that she’d noticed her lying in the grass, and that she herself had hit a dog, but not Pecqueur, Fischer’s arrest report states.
A Desperate William Merrill Pleads For Help: “My Wife’s Been Shot”; the 911 Call
In a voice broken by sobs and desperation, a clearly devastated William Merrill pleads with the 911 dispatcher to send help after describing how he accidentally shot his wife, Stefanie, while she was giving a bath to their 3-year-old daughter. The 7-minute 911 recording as released by the sheriff’s office.
Flagler County Democrats, at Low Ebb, Face Eviction From Their Palm Coast Office
Flagler County Democrats have been rending the Hargrove Grade location since 2007, for $334 a month, but between disorganization and lack of interest, have been unable to raise the money to pay the rent for months.
Gytonia Cheek, Guilty on All Counts in Teacher Myrtle McKinney Murder, Will Serve Life in Prison
A jury of six men and six women found Gytonia Cheek guilty of first-degree murder, burglary and robbery today in Flagler County Circuit Court, in the 2007 killing of Myrtle McKinney in Palatka at Christmas that year. Gytonia was sentenced to life in prison.
William Merrill Charged With Manslaughter for Killing His Wife With AK-47; 20 Guns at Home
Stefanie Merrill had been giving a bath to her 3-year-old daughter when her husband, William, pointed an AK-47 assault and its laser light at her chest and accidentally pulled the trigger. He was jailed on $200,000 bail.
Flagler County’s Republicans at War With Each Other as Lawsuit Slams Prizer and REC
The rift between tea party Republicans and old guard Republicans boiled over Thursday as insurgents denied membership in the Flagler County Republican Executive Committee filed suit against Committee Chairman Nancy Prizer and the Florida Republican Club.