Flagler County School Board member Lauren Ramirez’s challenge of proposed restrictions on her private business not only prevailed today before the Florida Ethics Commission, which unanimously took her side, but spurred a request by the commission that the Florida Legislature rewrite the relevant portions of law to prevent similar conflict-of-interest restrictions in the future. Ramirez all but won her challenge behind arguments to the Ethics Commission by her attorney, Theresa Pontieri, the Palm Coast City Council vice mayor.
Rights & Liberties
ICE Arrests in Florida of Migrants Without Criminal Records Surged 450% in June
Since the start of the second Trump administration, ICE has carried out more than 10,818 arrests in Florida, up from 3,496 in the same period last year. But in June, the largest share of arrests, 36%, were of people the federal government labeled as having no criminal history in the country, a 457% increase from June 2024.
Stop the Grift: Florida’s School Vouchers Are Scamming Taxpayers and Sabotaging Democracy
Our public schools are America’s great equalizer, the engine room of our democracy, where kids of different incomes, races, abilities, and beliefs learn side by side. That’s not “just education.” That’s democracy in motion, argues Colleen Conklin, the former School Board member. And that’s precisely why the current voucher experiment—built on selective enrollment, hidden finances, and zero public oversight—is the opposite: it fractures the common schoolhouse, privatizes accountability, and poses a real threat to the democratic fabric that public education holds together.
Everglades Concentration Camp Boosts Depravity for DeSantis & Co.
Do you think concentration camps are cool? Does your heart fill with mean-spirited joy at the thought of human beings stuffed into tents and FEMA trailers parked on a disused airstrip in the heart of the Everglades in the middle of a Florida summer? Do you get off on the idea of alligators and snakes killing people and admire bully capitalism hawking camo beverage coolers, stickers, and T-shirts with grinning reptiles proclaiming, “Nowhere to Run; Nowhere to Hide”?
DeSantis Signs 10th Death Warrant in 7 Month, for Kayle Bates, 43 Years after Murder of Janet White
More than 43 years after Janet White was abducted from a Bay County insurance office and murdered, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed a death warrant for convicted killer Kayle Barrington Bates. Bates, 67, is scheduled to be executed Aug. 19 at Florida State Prison and could be the 10th inmate put to death by lethal injection this year in the state. DeSantis signed the death warrant after the U.S. Supreme Court on June 30 declined to take up an appeal by Bates related to a juror in his trial.
Justice Department Demanding to See States’ Voter Lists in Latest Intrusion
The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking the voter registration lists of several states — representing data on millions of Americans — and other election information ahead of the 2026 midterms, raising fears about how the Trump administration plans to use the information. The DOJ is also demanding Colorado turn over all records related to the 2024 election, a massive trove of documents that could include ballots and even voting equipment. The Colorado inquiry, the most sweeping publicly known request, underscores the extent of the administration’s attention on state election activities.
America(n) Unbecoming
If the president can threaten citizenship revocation even for U.S.-born citizens, as he did this week, and just for holding opinions he doesn’t like, the rest of us certainly aren’t safe. For migrants, every night–every day–is Kristallnacht as ICE carries out its pogroms. A majority of Americans are either applauding or indifferent, while protesters are branded enemies and invaders to be crushed by militarized goonery. This is not the America any of us have known, or should tolerate.
Palm Coast Council Again Reverts on Allowing All Exterior House Colors, to Now Keep 5 on Ban List
The Palm Coast City Council on Tuesday agreed to rescind its two-week-old decision to end all restrictions on houses’ exterior paint colors. It will instead allow almost all colors while preserving a ban on five: neon, fuchsia, magenta, orange and purple. The proposed change would still result in the least restrictive color rules since ITT founded Palm Coast in the late 1960s as a deed-restricted community. The upshot for now is that the famously, handsomely dark blue house in the F Section that’s been at the center of the controversy for months can keep its royal color.
New Schools Commissioner Threatens Superintendents About Violating ‘Parental Rights’
Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas delivered his first speech to the State Board of Education Wednesday, quoting the Book of Psalms, promising to work closely with Florida’s top law enforcement officer to ensure students aren’t being “indoctrinated,” and threatening superintendents about violating parental rights.
Miccosukee Tribe Seeking to Join Lawsuit Against Everglades Migrant Prison, Citing ‘Environmental Degradation’
Citing “significant concerns about environmental degradation” and threats to “traditional and religious ceremonies,” members of the Miccosukee Tribe are trying to join a lawsuit challenging an immigrant-detention center in the Everglades.
Florida Supreme Court Sends Everglades Prison Case to Lower Court
The Florida Supreme Court on Monday sent to a lower court a case filed by Democratic state lawmakers after they were denied entry to a controversial immigrant-detention center in the Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”
Making Ignorance Great Again
Most Americans once celebrated our heterogeneity, our pluralism, and our tendency to expand freedoms. We valued knowledge and tried to foster understanding; we welcomed the new. Not so much these days, not here in Florida. This state now has statutes forbidding teaching the truth about slavery and Jim Crow, threatening educators who discuss gender, sexuality, systemic racism, and other disfavored topics. Universities are scrubbing their websites of words like “women,” “Black,” “colonialism,” and “diversity” — even if it’s “biodiversity” — anything seen as threatening to white, male Christian hegemony.
Analysis Warns Deportations Could Cost 6 Million Jobs, With Florida Among Four Top Losers
If successful, the administration’s goal of deporting 4 million people over four years will cost jobs held by both immigrants and U.S.-born workers, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. EPI’s analysis found California, Florida, New York and Texas will have the highest number of job losses, because of larger immigrant populations in those states.
Lawmakers Describe ‘Disturbing, Vile Conditions’ at Everglades Migrant Prison
U.S. Democratic representatives characterized the state-run migrant prison in the Everglades as a cruel and wasteful political stunt following a guided tour Saturday. “There are really disturbing, vile conditions, and this place needs to be shut the hell down,” said U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. The South Florida Democrat said 32 men slept in each of the cages with bed bunks and three sinks attached to the toilets. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced hundreds of people started arriving on July 2.
Self-Censorship Is Silencing Americans in Public
For decades, Americans’ trust in one another has been on the decline, according to the most recent General Social Survey. A major factor in that downshift has been the concurrent rise in the polarization between the two major political parties. Supporters of Republicans and Democrats are far more likely than in the past to view the opposite side with distrust.
Don’t Paint Your House Purple Just Yet: Palm Coast May Reconsider Stricter Color Regulations or Referendum
A week after a unanimous Palm Coast City Council vote to move toward revoking all outside paint-color restrictions, Council member Theresa Pontieri said on Tuesday she’ll request a reconsideration, pausing the process. She will seek either a “more reasonable change to the code” or possibly put the matter to voters in a referendum. At least two other council members are willing to think about a referendum.
U.S. Supreme Court Deals Blow to Florida’s Enforcement of Anti-Immigration Law in Rebuff to Uthmeier
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a request by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier that would have at least temporarily allowed enforcement of a new state law targeting undocumented immigrants who enter the state. Uthmeier last month asked the Supreme Court for a stay of a temporary injunction that U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams issued in April to block the law. Such a stay, if granted, would have allowed enforcement of the law while an underlying legal battle about the injunction played out. The Supreme Court denied the stay request.
The Manchurian Candidate Is Alive and Well and Living in the White House
Until last week I did not believe in the transmigration of souls from celluloid to reality. That changed when Congress passed the so-called “big beautiful bill.” Raymond Shaw, the brainwashed assassin of “The Manchurian Candidate,” is alive and well and living in the White House. There may be other explanations. But outside of the theater of the loony it’s difficult to understand why a president of the United States would gift China the greatest act of strategic self-destruction next to China’s own suicide in the 15th century.
DeSantis Vetoes Target Black History and Minority Scholarships
As the Governor continues to decry diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the private and public sector, the Republican Governor killed several line items in the state budget directed at elevating the marginalized.
In Historic Shift, Palm Coast Council Votes Unanimously to End All Color Restrictions on Exterior House Paint
Palm Coast’s decades-old discrimination against colored houses may be over. In a remarkable vote on Tuesday, the Palm Coast City Council unanimously agreed to repeal almost all restrictions on exterior house colors in place since before Palm Coast was a city. The requirement of only two base colors and some accent-color allowances will remain. The repeal is nowhere near final. It requires a rewrite of the ordinance, a hearing before the planning board, and two more hearings before the council. The vote was a victory for Mayor Mike Norris, who pushed hardest for the repeal.
Federal Appeals Court Endorses Florida Ban on Teachers’ Preferred Pronouns in Public Schools
A federal appeals court has ruled against a Florida teacher who challenged a state law forbidding transgender teachers from using their preferred pronouns during their official duties in the classroom. The case involves Katie Wood, a math teacher in Hillsborough County who is transgender. She sued the state after a 2023 law passed saying that employees of public schools may not identify to their students with pronouns not consistent with their birth sex, “an immutable biological trait.”
Pulitzer Prize Board Appeals to Supreme Court to Halt Trump Defamation Lawsuit
Pulitzer Prize board members have gone to the Florida Supreme Court as they seek to halt a defamation lawsuit that President Donald Trump filed after the board refused to rescind a 2018 award to The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Elected Officials’ Personal Phone Numbers and Home Addresses Are Now Secret
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed a bill that creates a public-records exemption to prevent the release of home addresses and telephone numbers of legislators, members of Congress and numerous other elected officials.
Environmental Groups Sue in Federal Court to Stop Everglades Stockade for Migrants
Environmental groups Friday filed a federal lawsuit seeking to halt construction and operation of a detention center for undocumented immigrants that has been dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” saying it threatens ecologically sensitive areas and species in the surrounding Everglades and Big Cypress National Preserve. The lawsuit, filed by the group Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, alleges that federal and state agencies have violated laws that, in part, require evaluating potential environmental impacts before such a project can move forward.
DeSantis Joins Other Southern States to Develop Anti-‘Woke’ University Accreditation System
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced, alongside State University System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues and university leaders from Texas and South Carolina, that the states are developing a Commission for Public Higher Education that will combat “woke” ideologies such as diversity, equity, and inclusion, and remake state higher education institutions to be more conservative.
DeSantis Scoffs at Environmental and Ethical Concerns Over 1,000-Bed Migrant Stockade in Everglades
Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday that the temporary detention center being constructed at an isolated Everglades airfield will have “zero impact” on Everglades restoration, rebuking concerns by environmental advocates and local officials who say the project threatens drinking water and protected land. He scoffed at environmental and ethical concerns while appearing at a bill-signing event in Tampa on Wednesday, contending the opposition from critics stems from their antipathy to the crackdown on undocumented immigrants.
DeSantis Seizes Land in Everglades to Open ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ Mass Migrant Detention Center
Florida started this week to build a temporary detention center in the Florida Everglades for undocumented immigrants arrested by state police and federal immigration authorities. Gov. Ron DeSantis is using emergency powers to take control of the facility after his administration offered to buy the land from the county. According to the governor’s office, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava offered what DeSantis’ office called an “unreasonable” price tag for the state to buy the county land, $190 million.
Christianity Has Long Revered Saints Who Would Be Called ‘Transgender’ Today
There are at least 34 documented stories of transgender saints’ lives from the early centuries of Christianity. Originally appearing in Latin or Greek, several stories of transgender saints made their way into vernacular languages.
After He’s Declared in Contempt, Uthmeier Takes Immigration Defiance to Supreme Court
After an appeals court rejected his arguments, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier last week asked the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and at least temporarily allow enforcement of a new law targeting undocumented immigrants who enter the state. If the Supreme Court grants Uthmeier’s request, the state could enforce the law while what could be a lengthy court battle plays out.
Court Strikes Down Law Requiring Posting of 10 Commandments in Classrooms
The 5th U.S. Court of Appeals, often described as one of the most conservative courts in the nation, found the law unconstitutional because it violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which bars the government from endorsing a religion or creating laws that favor one religion over another.
This Will Not End Well
We’ve been here before. It’s never ended well. It’s never ended, period. A few bunker-busters aren’t about to end it either, whether they have Fordow’s Mount Doom in the bag or not. The opposite always happens in the Middle East the moment Israel and the United States substitute barbarism for diplomacy. Always. There’s not been a single exception to the rule since 1956, the last time the United States intervened to stop Israeli aggression on a neighbor.
U.S. Conference of Mayors in Tampa Will Take Up Resolution Critical of ICE Raids
The U.S. Conference of Mayors is holding its annual meeting in Tampa this weekend, and one of the resolutions they are poised to vote on calls upon federal authorities to focus their deportation actions on convicted criminals, and not on undocumented individuals who “contribute to their local communities.”
Commissioners Punt on Appointing Sean Moylan Interim County Attorney in Motion That Possibly Violates Sunshine
The Flagler County Commission on Monday voted 4-1 to delay considering appointing Assistant County Attorney Sean Moylan the interim county attorney, and required each of its members to submit three candidates’ names to the administration’s human resources department by July 14 for consideration for the position. The motion was vague, leaving it to HR possibly to rank the candidates outside of a meeting. That would be a violation of the sunshine law.
Florida Was Set to Shield Lawmakers’ Home Addresses Before Minnesota Assassination
Florida lawmakers in April overwhelmingly passed a bill (SB 268) to create a public-records exemption that would prevent the release of home addresses and telephone numbers of legislators and members of Congress. Also, the exemption would apply to the governor, lieutenant governor, state Cabinet members, county commissioners, property appraisers, elections supervisors, school superintendents, school board members, mayors and city commissioners.
A Democratic Lawmaker Is Assassinated. Right-Wing Influencers Vomit Disinformation.
Immediately after Minnesota House Leader Melissa Horton’s assassination, right-wing influencers marred Hortman’s death and smeared Gov. Tim Walz on a pile of lies. In a different, saner world, they would be humiliated and slink away. But the smart money is that during the next moment of national crisis and mourning, they will again lie for profit.
Maga Servility Ends in Humiliation for Santa Ono and UF
The trustees liked Santa Ono; Ron DeSantis liked him, especially since Ono, who was once all-in on diversity at UM, recently pulled a 180, loudly recanting his climate change-admitting, student protest-allowing progressive ways and parroting the governor’s War on Woke nonsense like a DeSantis Bot. It wasn’t enough. Poor old weathervane Ono fell victim to a nasty social media campaign against him, led by such intellectual giants as Don Trump Jr., who squawked “WTF!” on the twixter; New College trustee Christopher “They’re eating the cats!” Rufo, Sen. Rick Scott and the congenitally absurd Rep. Byron Donalds.
DeSantis Signs Warrant for Eighth Execution of the Year
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed a death warrant for a man convicted of murdering two people in 1993 in Duval County, setting the stage for a potentially record-tying eighth execution this year.
Four ‘No Kings’ Protests of Trump’s Authoritarian Swerve Draw Upward of 1,000 in Palm Coast and Flagler Beach
Demonstrators by the hundreds in Palm Coast and Flagler Beach this morning peacefully but loudly, festively and–for Flagler County–massively transformed major intersections, a bridge overpass and a 1,000-ft. stretch of State Road 100 in Palm Coast into the largest anti-Trump protests to date. The size of the protests surprised even organizers and frequent participants, two of whom, after attending every protest this year on State Road 100, said today’s was more than double any previous one.
American Intifada
Of course the intifada against the ICE invasion doesn’t have that much to do with saving migrants from the raids to ethnic-cleanse the country of darker skins lacking a paper or two. Or at least not as much to do with it as even the protesters would have you believe. These are proxy protests. And they’re overdue.
Officials Threaten Floridians with Jail as They Prepare for Anti-Trump Rallies
Floridians in more than 70 cities throughout the state plan to join nationwide demonstrations to protest the Trump administration on Saturday, prompting Attorney General James Uthmeier and other law enforcement officials to say they won’t hesitate to quash protests. The protests, part of the “No Kings” movement, are set to take place the same day as the multimillion-dollar military parade in D.C. and President Donald Trump’s 79th birthday. Two protests are planned in Palm Coast at 11 a.m. Saturday.
Florida School Appeals to U.S. Supreme Court to Allow Christian Prayer Over Stadium Loudspeakers
Arguing the case “presents issues of utmost importance for religious liberty in this country,” a Tampa Christian school wants the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a years-long battle about whether the school should have been barred from offering a prayer over a stadium loudspeaker before a high-school football championship game.
Gutting USAID Is Musk’s Deadliest Legacy
By making disease-stemming drugs, clean water, and food available to millions, USAID has probably saved more lives worldwide than any entity in history. Since 2000, USAID’s programs have prevented the deaths of 58 million people from tuberculosis, 25 million from HIV/AIDS, and over 11 million from malaria. It’s given 70 million people access to safe drinking water and, working in concert with global vaccine initiatives, helped to nearly eradicate polio. All that is getting demolished.
Reported Abortions in Florida Down 46% from 2024
A reported 17,377 abortions had been performed in Florida this year as of June 2, a 45.8 percent decrease from a comparable period in 2024, according to state data.
Federal Appeals Court Rejects Florida’s Attempt to Override Halt to Law Targeting Migrants
A federal appeals court Friday kept on hold a new Florida law targeting undocumented immigrants who enter the state, rejecting arguments by Attorney General James Uthmeier that enforcement should at least temporarily be allowed.
Moral Collapse: Florida Thinks Letting Prisoners Live in 100-Degree Heat with No Air Flow Isn’t Cruel Enough
The Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. You’d think that would settle the question of whether a person should be left to endure 100-degree heat in a locked dormitory with no air conditioning, no airflow, and no escape. But in Florida, the state argues that this kind of heat doesn’t rise to the level of cruelty. It’s just part of the sentence.
DCF Threatens Reporter Investigating Hope Florida Scandal with Cease and Desist
The Department of Children and Families (DCF) has sent a cease and desist letter to an Orlando Sentinel reporter who has been digging into the Hope Florida scandal. Jeffrey Schweers, the Sentinel’s Tallahassee bureau reporter, has broken some scoops regarding the embattled charity backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and First Lady Casey DeSantis.
Without Prior Discussion, Palm Coast Council Approves $300,000 Plan Integrating City Surveillance with Sheriff’s Crime Center
The Palm Coast City Council approved the first phase of a five-year, $304,000 plan to integrate all city surveillance cameras–on streets, on and inside buildings, at utility and other facilities–with the Flagler County Sheriff’s Real Time Crime Center. Integration will significantly expand the center’s capabilities and give the Sheriff’s Office immediate and unimpeded access to the camera streams, though the city will retain control of the network, the software, and the implementation of the system.
Young Americans’ Support for Free Speech Has Cratered
For much of the 20th century, young Americans were seen as free speech’s fiercest defenders. But now, young Americans are growing more skeptical of free speech. In 2021, 71% of young Americans said people should be allowed to insult the U.S. flag, which is a key indicator of support for free speech, no matter how distasteful. By 2024, that number had fallen to just 43% – a 28-point drop. Support for pro‑LGBTQ+ speech declined by 20 percentage points, and tolerance for speech that offends religious beliefs fell by 14 points.
Florida Law Restricting Ballot Initiatives Survives Court Challenge
A federal judge Wednesday refused to block parts of a new Florida law that placed additional restrictions on the state’s ballot-initiative process, turning down arguments by groups seeking to take issues to voters in 2026. As an example of the controversial parts of the law, it would shorten from 30 to 10 days the length of time to submit signed petitions to supervisors of elections. The judge agreed that the law makes it harder to get proposed amendments on the ballot, but disagreed tha it has severely burdened voters’ speech.
American Doctors Are Escaping to Canada. Guess Why.
The Medical Council of Canada said in an email statement that the number of American doctors creating accounts on physiciansapply.ca, which is “typically the first step” to being licensed in Canada, has increased more than 750% over the past seven months compared with the same time period last year — from 71 applicants to 615. Separately, medical licensing organizations in Canada’s most populous provinces reported a rise in Americans either applying for or receiving Canadian licenses, with at least some doctors disclosing they were moving specifically because of the new regime in the United States.