Hundreds of thousands of Florida felons won’t be able to cast ballots in next month’s primary elections, after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to vacate an appellate court’s order in a closely watched legal battle over voting rights.
Rights & Liberties
Judge Weighs How Far Marcy’s Law Protecting Victims May Go to Shield Cops’ Identities
The city of Tallahassee and media organizations on Monday tried to persuade a circuit judge that a 2018 constitutional amendment aimed at protecting victims’ rights does not allow police officers involved in use-of-force incidents to keep their identities secret.
Circuit Judge Rejects Challenge to Mask Mandate, Seeing No Constitutional Violation
A circuit judge Friday rejected a challenge to the constitutionality of a Leon County ordinance that requires people to wear face masks in businesses to try to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Sheriff Issues Desist Letter to Ex-COP Featuring Lynching Symbol and FCSO Patrol Car on Facebook
The man, whose Facebook page name is Scott van Ostran, was never a sheriff’s deputy, Sheriff Rick Staly said, but may have been a volunteer with the department’s C.O.P., or Citizens on Patrol, program several years ago.
Flagler’s Covid Cases top 400, Two More at Long-Term Care Facilities; Palm Coast Eyes Mask Mandate Like New Smyrna Beach’s
Covid-19 cases in Flagler spiked in the last 24 hours by 18 cases, one of the largest-single-day spikes, as the Palm Coast City Council this evening considers a mask mandate, but it carries no penalties for violators.
Make Masks Mandatory Anywhere Public
As Covid-19 infections continue to surge, Palm Coast, Flagler County and all other local governments should do what Orange and Osceola counties have already done: make masks mandatory anywhere public, including shops and restaurants.
DeSantis Signs Abortion Parental Consent Law 31 Years After Court Struck Down Similar Measure
The Republican-dominated Legislature has passed a series of bills over the years aimed at placing more restrictions on abortions. For example, lawmakers in 2015 passed a measure that required a 24-hour waiting period before women could have abortions. That law has been tangled in a legal battle.
Supreme Court’s Endorsement of Taxpayer-Funded Vouchers for Parochial Schools Undermines Rights
Public dollars should fund public schools, which educate 90 percent of our nation’s students, argues Rachel Laser of Americans United for Separation of Church and State in response to the Supreme Court’s decision clearing the way for taxpayer vouchers for private, parochial schools.
The Fight for LGBTQ Equality Just Won a Huge Victory
This historic decision achieved by an astonishing 6-3 vote in a conservative court, written and delivered by Trump appointee Justice Neil Gorsuch, codifies that LGBTQ individuals deserve human and civil rights.
Federal Court Rejects Attempt to Stop Removal of Confederate Monument in Lakeland
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that opponents did not have legal standing to challenge the monument’s move, saying they did not allege “a concrete, particularized injury.”
Florida’s ‘Dreamers’ Hail Supreme Court Decision Barring Immediate Deportation
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 majority found that Trump failed to adequately justify the decision to shut down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, but the door remains open for him to do so.
School Board Chair McDonald Shuts Down Speaker Critical of Her at Public Meeting, Drawing Rebukes
School Board Chair Janet McDonald stopped a student speaker from delivering his comments at Tuesday’s meeting, allowing him later to deliver it only sanitized from mention of her by name. Two board members condemned McDonald’s move and want the public-speaking rules revised.
The Unedited Statement School Board Chair McDonald Censored at a Public Meeting
The original text of Jack Petocz’s statement is presented here unedited. School Board Chair Janet McDonald shut Petocz down the moment he mentioned her name in the context of a statement critical of her offensive tweeting activity.
Landmark Ruling Spurs Calls for LGBTQ Protections in Florida, Where No Law Bans Discrimination
Florida is one of more than two dozen states that do not have laws banning discrimination based on gender, and Republican legislative leaders during the past several years have thwarted efforts to pass such measures.
Stunning Victory for Transgender and Gay Rights as Supreme Court Makes Protections Explicit
The decision will have far-reaching consequences regarding LGBTQ rights beyond employment, as it now explicitly lays out a prohibition against discrimination that cannot apply in employment situations without also applying in housing, education, the military and elsewhere.
In Georgia, Voter-Suppression Becomes Systematic
What Georgia did Tuesday was criminal, a racist crime against our democracy, and it’s time to criminalize voter suppression once and for all, argues Thom Hartman.
Florida’s Police Union Wants Cops’ Identity Kept Secret Under Victims’ Rights Law
Keeping secret the identity of a police officer who shot a black crime suspect might seem anathema during a national time of reckoning about police brutality and racial disparity. But that’s what a Florida police union is seeking.
DeSantis Seeks Fast-Track Appeal to Stop Hundreds of Thousands of Felons from Voting
Lawyers for Gov. Ron DeSantis have made a rare move of asking a full appellate court to consider a challenge to a voting-rights ruling that would pave the way for hundreds of thousands of felons to cast ballots in the November elections.
A Confederate Flag Is Spray-Painted on a Gym Wall At Matanzas High School
The Confederate flag graffiti, left at Matanzas High School over the weekend, stands in aberration to the more civil and conciliatory atmosphere of the last few days in the county.
School Board Chairman Janet McDonald’s Twitter Feed: Misinformation and Derision Abound, Empathy Does Not
Flagler County School Board Chairman Janet McDonald’s twitter feed is a seethe of conspiracy theories, contempt for government, the press, “leftists,” conventional medicine, and plenty of derision and contempt for protest movements.
Tear-Gassing Protesters During An Infectious Outbreak ‘A Recipe For Disaster’
There are strong calls for police to stop using these chemical irritants because they can damage the body in ways that can spread the coronavirus and increase the severity of Covid-19.
Throngs Impassion Flagler Beach March Against Racism as Teach-In Forms Around Bullhorn
Flagler Beach’s late afternoon march Wednesday to protest the murder of George Floyd at police’s hands drew upwards of 300 people and briefly turned into a teach-in at Veterans Park.
In Palm Coast, More Fervor than Fury, More Solidarity than Rage in March for George Floyd
The first of two marches in Flagler County against racism and the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police drew upwards of 200 people in Palm Coast and unfolded peacefully through the heart of town.
Yes, the Looting Must Stop
Looting is the word of the day, on the lips of every newscaster, the president, and elected officials across the country. And, indeed, looting is a major problem in America. But how.
Protests Rage and Reactions Abound Over Killing of George Floyd, But DeSantis Maintains Silence
In Miami, squad cars were damaged and police fired tear gas at a crowd of protesters. In Tallahassee, the driver of a pickup truck plowed through a street packed with demonstrators, just blocks from the state Capitol building.
Battling a Pandemic of Bigotry
Donald Trump fanned the flames of anti-Asian hostility by repeatedly calling Covid-19 the “Chinese virus” while the National Republican Senatorial Committee advised candidates to “attack China” as a mainstay of their campaign messaging.
A Perfectly Legal Lynching in Georgia?
Killings of black men by whites are 8.5 times more likely to be ruled “justified.” That’s the reality behind a South Georgia prosecutor who’d said there was insufficient evidence to arrest two white men involved in the fatal shooting of black runner Ahmaud Arbery.
County Elections Supervisors Describe Struggles With Felons’ Voting Law and Lack of Reliable Data
The state lacks a single database where felons, lawyers or elections officials can determine whether people have outstanding court-ordered financial obligations. Florida’s new but restrictive felon-voting law is the subject of a nationally watched trial this week.
How Many Deaths Can We Live With?
The coronavirus emergency is raising ethical questions as communities reopen: how many deaths are we willing to live with, and whose deaths? The questions are at the heart of the debate on reopening, but are not being confronted honestly.
In Flagler Beach, a Few Dozen Demonstrators Rally for Trump, Leaving Reopening ‘Amerika’ To an Afterthought
Some 35 to 40 people stretched along State Road A1A in Flagler Beach this morning in what had been dubbed as a reopen-the-economy rally, but proved to be mostly a campaign rally for President Trump.
Flagler School Board Adopts Anti-Discrimination Policy Without Specified Protections for Transgender Students
In contrast with months of raucous public debate on the issue, the Flagler school board in a virtual meeting on Tuesday adopted a policy without two words–gender identity–that had triggered intense controversy.
Lawsuit Challenging Florida’s “Poll Tax” on Felon Voting Rights Expanded to Hundreds of Thousands
U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle issued an order last week after saying he intended to grant class certification to plaintiffs, who allege that the 2019 law amounts to an unconstitutional “poll tax.”
Flagler Elections Supervisor Kaiti Lenhart Helping to Lead Push for Expansion of Mail Ballots and Early Voting
Flagler County Elections Supervisor Keiti Lenhart is among the Florida supervisors who have asked Gov. Ron DeSantis for emergency measures they say will help them cope with an anticipated “significant statewide shortage” of poll workers later this year because of the coronavirus.
HIPAA Heist: Lethal Privacy In the Age of Coronavirus
Misapplications and misinterpretations of the federal medical privacy law known as HIPAA are conspiring to kill more of us than otherwise would die from the coronavirus. And officials are taking advantage of the law to cloak their failures.
When DeSantis Shut Reporter Out of Coronavirus Briefing, He Shut Out All Floridians
Gov. Ron DeSantis denying Mary Ellen Klas, a Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times reporter in Tallahassee, access to his coronavirus press conference on Saturday was vindictive, petty — and illegal. It denied access to the Floridians who look to these media outlets for vital information.
Flagler Cases Up to 4; Woman Treated for Covid-19 at Advent Is Released, But Her Son, an FPC Student, Tests Positive
Tuesday was proving to be a day of mixed signals, with resilience and fortitude competing with challenges and more dispiriting numbers as various segments of society were rapidly adapting to life under different degrees of restrictions and still often unclear expectations.
Flagler Beach and Flagler County Will Close 18 Miles of Beaches Monday Morning As Florida Infections Soar
Flagler Beach and Flagler County are closing their beaches to the public starting at 6 a.m. Monday, joining a growing list of coastal communities and counties, in Florida and elsewhere, doing likewise in an increasingly strict response to the coronavirus.
Close the Damn Beach Already
By keeping the beaches open, Flagler and Flagler Beach officials are wanting it both ways. They’re sending contradictory messages and enabling irresponsibility. They’re issuing visas to the virus.
Flagler Circuit’s Chief Judge Issues Order With Potentially Extraordinary Measures as Florida Covid-19 Cases Double in 2 Days to 319
The court system’s new restrictions reveal the potential for extraordinary, court-ordered measures in answer to the coronavirus emergency, pointing to the sort of unprecedented role the courts and law enforcement may be taking on in the weeks and months ahead.
Why Flagler’s Covid-19 Cases May Not Be What They Are: Infected Non-County Residents Are Not Reported Locally
Flagler County may well have one, two or three confirmed cases of coronavirus. If those cases were confirmed in non-Flagler County residents who happened to be in Flagler County, you will not know about them locally, according to Florida Department of Health rules.
In Stunning Reversal, Florida Supreme Court Rules Juvenile Prison Sentences May Exceed 20 Years
The 4-1 decision stunned public defenders, who expressed concern not only about its implications for juvenile sentencing but also about a reshaped court emboldened to revisit issues the legal community had considered settled.
Volusia/Flagler Chapter Marks ACLU’s Centennial With “Future Voters Essay Contest” and $500 Prize
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) ‘s Volusia/Flagler chapter is celebrating the ACLU’s 100th birthday with an essay contest open to all students, with a $500 prize and publication of the winning essay in FlaglerLive.
Florida House Speeding Toward Proposal to Allow Stadium-Wide Prayers at High School Games
Amid a long-running legal battle, the Florida House on Friday moved forward with a proposal that could allow schools to offer prayers over public-address systems before events such as high-school championship football games.
DeSantis Favors Senate Bill That Would Require All Public and Many Private Employers to E-Verify
All public employers including school districts, state agencies and public universities and private employers with at least 50 employees would have to use the federal system, or one that the state Department of Economic Opportunity deems is “substantially equivalent” to E-Verify.
School Board Superintendent Interviews: Cathy Mittelstadt
Cathy Mittelstadt, an assistant superintendent for operations in St. Johns County for the past three years, spent the majority of her professional years, almost all of them in leadership positions, in Florida’s top-ranked school district.
Misplaced Inquisitions: Mayor Holland, Coastal Cloud and the Palm Coast Observer
Mayor Milissa Holland and Coastal Cloud Co-owner Tim Hale repeatedly–and unfairly–invoked Palm Coast Observer Editor Brian McMillan’s name in poor light during a 90-minute city council segment devoted entirely to refuting critical allegations about the city’s contract with the company.
Full House and Senate Will Vote on Requiring ‘Moment of Silence’ in Schools
The Senate Rules Committee on Monday signed off on a bill (SB 946) that would direct principals and teachers to give students up to two minutes each day to reflect on anything they want.
Stop Cloaking Bigotry in Veils of ‘Religious Freedom’
A Supreme Court case could open the door to even more legal discrimination in the name of religious freedom. The intolerant should rethink their claim to piety and morals, which contradict their ends.
Flagler Beach’s Oak Place Residents Want To Know Why the U.S. Post Office Won’t Deliver To Them
The U.S. Postal Service refuses to deliver mail to houses along Oak Place in Flagler Beach even though FedEx, UPS and other delivery services do so, and the street, though dirt, is no different than innumerable such streets in the county.
Attorneys Urge Florida Supreme Court to Rethink Decision Making Unanimous Verdicts Unnecessary
Pointing to “evolving standards of decency,” attorneys for a Death Row inmate have asked the Florida Supreme Court to reconsider a major ruling that said unanimous jury recommendations are not necessary before death sentences can be imposed.