A year and a half after a civil lawsuit was filed against him, claiming he deceived, drugged and raped a woman at a condo in Palm Coast, Dr. Gerard Abate says he was never served. A judge will decide whether Abate or a process server are telling the truth at a hearing next week.
All Else
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, January 5, 2023
Somnolence in Flagler, the marathoner who finished the race with a bullet in the head, how writers draw empty houses at book-signings, Don DeLillo’s Somnolence in Flagler, White Noise.
Perils Ahead, No Matter Who Is Speaker of the House
The arm-twisting, dealmaking and vote hunting around Kevin McCarthy’s quest to be named House speaker have put on full display the fact that razor-thin majorities in both the House and the Senate create legislative and institutional uncertainty that has very real consequences for how Congress is run and how policy gets made.
Flagler Jail Eliminates All Hard-Copy Mail to Inmates as Scanning and Tablets Replace Paper
All hard-copy mail delivery to the Flagler County jail’s 225-some inmates has been replaced by scans of mail. It is part of a sweeping change in the handling of inmate mail across the state at least 14 other states as prisons and jails cut down on incoming materials. The switch has drawn sharp criticism from prisoner advocates and strong support by those implementing it, as in Flagler.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, January 4, 2023
Sleeping Beauty, Performed by the State Ballet of Ukraine at Flagler Auditorium, the Flagler County School Board meets, President Benjamin Harrison pardons Mormon’s polygamy, Jim Belushi, high school chess coach.
Inflation, Unemployment, Housing Crisis, Recession? Ahead in 2023.
With the current U.S. inflation rate at 7.1%, interest rates rising and housing costs up, many Americans are wondering if a recession is looming. The consensus view among most forecasters is that a recession is on the way.
DeSantis Invokes Bible, Gun Analogies and Anti-Wokism in Inaugural Pitched to Ambitions
The governor vowed to “stand our ground” in defense of low taxes, parental rights in education, “law and order,” and more — although Democrats, independents, and overall progressives in Florida would likely beg to differ. The theme and tenor of the speech suggests that DeSantis spoke to a larger goal: running for president.
Divided Appeals Court Rejects Protection for Transgender Bathroom Use in St. Johns School Case
After a five-year legal battle, and reversing a lower court ruling, a sharply divided federal appeals court upheld a St. Johns County School Board policy that prevented a transgender male student from using boys’ bathrooms at a high school.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, January 3, 2023
Courts back in session, rediscovering The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, by Franz Werfel, on the Armenian genocide, WEB Dubois on the campaign of slander against “carpetbaggers.”
Slavery as Theme Park: How a West African Country is Making Tourism of Atrocity
Benin in West Africa hopes to market itself as a major destination for Afro-descendant tourists in the diaspora. But the latest developments are walking a fine line, balancing education and remembrance with crude commerce and rank tourism.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, January 2, 2023
New Year’s Day extra, James K. Galbraith on American Capitalism, the day Richard Nixon forced America to slow down to 55.
Myocarditis: Covid-19 is a Much Bigger Risk to the Heart than Vaccination
Perhaps the most common point of conflict concerning Covid-19 vaccines is the risk of myocarditis following immunization, particularly among young people. In Florida, Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo and Gov. Ron DeSantis have turned against vaccinating younger people based on that misconception.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, January 1, 2023
Happy new Year. America’s Top New Year’s Resolutions for 2023, why we want the extraordinary in all things, including the impossible.
Cats in the Middle Ages
For the most part, cats were quite at home in the medieval household. And as their playful depiction in many medieval manuscripts and artwork makes clear, our medieval ancestors’ relationships with these animals were not too different from our own.
American Impressions 7 | Montana: Ghost of the Prairie
It rises from wild grasses in Montana’s Golden Triangle, at the western extremity of the Great Plains, a massive hulk of concrete that makes no sense, that is as out of place as could be, and that will be there for thousands of years. It is a ghostly monument to the follies of the nuclear age.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, December 31, 2022
Reflections on ruins on the last day of the year, Loren Eiseley’s Autumn memory, Bach’s Violin Partita.
Pelé: The One and Only
Pelé, soccer’s first global superstar, was the best to have ever played the game, the symbol of soccer played with passion, gusto and a smile. He helped to forge an image of the game, which even today lots of people continue to crave.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, December 30, 2022
Black Elk recalls the massacre at Wounded Knee, and how the New York Times reported it, a reminder on FEMA benefits for Hurricane Ian survivors, the Bach Festival.
Putin’s Unintended Boost for Clean Energy
Below the surface of almost weekly bad news, significant changes are underway that have the potential to create a more sustainable world – one in which humanity can tackle climate change, species extinction and food and energy insecurity.
Smiles Nite Club’s David Ghiloni Gets Sheriff’s Lifesaving Award for Jumping Gunman
David Ghiloni along with other bar patrons intervened when a gunman was holding a gun to a woman’s head at Smiles Nite Club in November.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, December 29, 2022
Flagler Beach pier pass refunds, H.G. Wells on Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the waning days of Fantasy of Lights in Town Center.
Five Space Exploration Missions to Look Out for in 2023
From the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer to the return to Earth of an asteroid explorer to India’s first India’s private space launch, 2023 is set to be as busy a space exploration year as 2022. Here’s a preview.
A Driver Is Killed on I-95 as Car Goes Under Semi Near Matanzas Woods Parkway
A woman was killed this morning when she drove her car under a semi truck in the northbound lanes of I-95 just south of Matanzas Woods Parkway.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, December 28, 2022
Kwanzaa Celebration at the African American Cultural Center, What the Black Man Wants, Woodrow Wilson, anti-hero.
Calling Politicians Clowns Is a Disservice to Clowns. Seriously.
Clowns have a long history of contributing positively to politics and society. They have brought disruption, subversion, comfort and joy to healthcare, education and humanitarian efforts. Politicians? Not so much.
American Impressions 3 | The Road
The Colorado National Monument, Yellowstone, Salt Lake City and Wyoming frame reflections on the romance of the road, that essentially American love affair made of myths and wanderlust, and those insufferable RVs.
Jan. 6 Attack: 3 Florida Extremist Groups Allied ‘to Work Together to Shut This Sh** Down’
The final report of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol includes chilling sections about the force of extremist groups from Florida that formed an alliance, traveled to Washington, D.C., and stormed the Capitol.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, December 27, 2022
Have you been to the Fantasy of Lights show in Town Center yet? The cold-weather shelter opens yet again, Anne Frank’s Christmas, Stone Mountain’s bland of inoffensive consumables.
Only the Richest Ancient Athenians Paid Taxes – and they Bragged About It
In ancient Athens, only the very wealthiest people paid direct taxes, and these went to fund the city-state’s most important national expenses – the navy and honors for the gods. While today it might sound astonishing, most of these top taxpayers not only paid happily, but boasted about how much they paid.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, December 26, 2022
More cold weather, if geologic time could somehow be seen in the perspective of human time, Bach’s Magnificat.
Don’t Be So Quick to Call Deion Sanders a Sellout
When Deion Sanders announced he’d leave Jackson State University to become head coach at the University of Colorado Boulder, ardent fans and supporters reacted with dismay and disbelief – particularly supporters from the Black community.
American Impressions 1 | The Day Before America
In the first of nine installments of his American Impressions series–a reporter’s journey across the 50 states–Pierre Tristam fills in details that marked his youth in war-torn Lebanon and defined his outlook before migrating to the United States and beginning a process of discovery that continues to this day.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, December 25, 2022
The cold weather shelter is open again tonight, Omar Thomas’s “Of Our New Day Begun,” from the Narrative of James Albert Ukawsaw.
Congress Passes Legislation That Will Close Off Presidential Election Mischief and Help Avoid Another Jan. 6
Legal theories were floated by allies of President Donald Trump after the 2020 election that suggested ways to undermine the results of the election, culminating in a failed insurrection at the Capitol. That’s why a bipartisan group of congressional leaders aimed to pass reforms to the 1887 law governing this process, the Electoral Count Act, before the end of 2022.
Gratitude on Christmas Eve
For long-time Flagler Beach attorney Scott Spradley, an image he took of the moon above the pier’s A frame not long ago provoked a range of feelings and emotions and led him to reflect on the meaning of gratitude even in an age of stresses and sorrows.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, December 24, 2022
The cold weather shelter is open tonight, WKCR’s Bach Festival, speed limits and the holidays, On the pleasure and necessity of digressions.
How Democrats Won the West
Since 1992, Democrats have flipped the West away from Republican control, a shift that began with the end of the Cold War and carried through a Pacific Coast economic recession, anti-racism demonstrations and violence in Los Angeles and the area’s increasing diversity.
Fred the Great Leapfrogs 10-Year-Old Palm Coast Girl Into Young Children’s Book Author
Fifth Palm Coast fifth-grader Bella Soumokil several years ago started writing and drawing what became “Fred the Great,” a 56-page book for children about humility and family, published locally and selling on Amazon.
Is Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin Running for Paul Renner’s Seat? Maybe.
Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin is considering a run for Re. Paul Renner’s House seat, which is up in two years. Alfin, who revealed Machiavellian political instincts in a lengthy interview, will make his decision by the end of January, depending on whether other viable candidates are lined up for the seat.
New Smyrna Beach Weighs Development Moratorium in Wake of Storms. Shouldn’t All Coastal Florida?
Moratorium: Using this word in Florida is like that scene in “A Christmas Story” where Ralphie says a word that he shouldn’t and gets his mouth washed out with a bar of Lifebuoy soap. But the sense that sprawl is out of control is springing up all over, not just Deltona and New Smyrna Beach.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, December 23, 2022
The cold-weather shelter opens in Flagler tonight, State Attorney R.J. Larizza and Sheriff Rick Staly on Free For All, Maurice Sendak, Jane Austen and “women’s fiction.”
LGBTQ Americans Are 9 Times More Likely to be Victimized By a Hate Crime
Almost half of violent hate crimes with LGBTQ victims involved an attacker who was a close friend, family member, partner or former partner, and victims were more likely to have physical and psychological symptoms as a result of the attack.
Flagler’s Visual Arts Struggle for Visibility With Seeming Demise of Art League and Gargiulo Foundation
Their apparent demise during the past year — the Flagler County Art League from the pandemic’s economic pressures, the Gargiulo Art Foundation from the death of artist and co-founder Tom Gargiulo in February — coupled with the retreat of JJ Graham’s Salvo Art Project and the disappearance of several exhibit spaces and other smaller galleries is leaving many area artists feeling like the proverbial tree that falls in a forest with no one to hear it.
Based in Palm Coast, Global Support Group for Rare Disease Gets Awareness Boost from Celine Dion Diagnosis
Palm Coast resident Mike West started the Stiff Person Syndrome support group almost 20 years ago. It now has 1,700 members in 34 countries, and on Dec. 7, with Celine Dion announcement that she has SPS, the disease got the broader awareness people like West have been seeking.
Should There Be Armed Civilians in Schools? Flagler District Will Survey Employees and Residents
With numerous questions still unanswered–and some unanswerable questions–the Flagler County School Board is moving forward with gauging interest from school employees and residents in arming civilians in schools as a presumed addition to the security provided by the Sheriff’s Office’s school resource deputies.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, December 22, 2022
Preparing for the coldest spell of the year, a look back at the 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act, the St. Matthew Passion in full, and Grand Guignol.
Teddy Roosevelt’s Failed Bull Moose Campaign May Portend the Future Of GOP and Donald Trump
Theodore Roosevelt campaigned to regain the office from his successor, William Howard Taft. He divided the Republican Party and ensured the victory of Democrat Woodrow Wilson in the presidential election of 1912.
Palm Coast Trash Pick-Up Schedule and Tree Recycling
Trash pick-up will follow a normal schedule. The 16th Annual Christmas Tree Recycling Event will be held January 7 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Palm Coast Fuel Depot located at 22 Utility Drive.
Marineland Acres Improvement Project Enters Final Year
The Marineland Acres Improvements Project in 2023 enters its final year of construction and includes the final phase of the MalaCompra Basin improvements, designed to address the flooding impacts experienced by residents living in the Hammock.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, December 21, 2022
The Atlantic Chapter of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State’s open discussion, chess club at the library, Heinrich Boll, Lewis Mumford’s Roaring Traffic’s Boom.