Democrat Josh Weil, the Orlando teacher, and the GOP’s Sen. Randy Fine of Melbourne, are running so close in the special election for Waltz’s 6th Congressional District seat–which includes all of Flagler County–that even if Weil doesn’t win Tuesday, the race is sending seismic waves through a magaland.
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Daily Cartoon and Briefing
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, March 31, 2025
Flagler, Palm Coast & Other Local
Owners Demolish Old Dixie Hotel a Few Weeks from Deadline, Ending Years of Litigation
The Old Dixie motel is coming down. What used to be the Country Hearth Inn, what rapidly became an eyesore after it closed in 2008, then a battleground between Flagler County government and two sets of owners, was being demolished today, making one legal case moot and all but ending the second. The attorney for the property owners says something will be built there, but it’s not yet clear what.
Three Palm Coast Council Members Return from Tallahassee With Some Hope for City’s Utility Needs
Three of the Palm Coast City Council’s four members–Theresa Pontieri, Charles Gambaro and Ty Miller–returned from a lobbying trip to Tallahassee last week with some potential successes to help pay for the city’s utility-infrastructure needs despite legislative appropriations far more constrained than they’d been the previous two years.
Deltona Homicide Suspect Ends Chase at Hammock Dunes Bridge with Self-Inflicted Gunshot
What started with the report of a shooting-death of a woman in Deltona early this morning ended after a police chase before dawn at the foot of the Hammock Dunes Bridge with a man apparently shooting himself after he crashed through the toll bridge’s arm and veered off the road.
More Flagler, Palm Coast & Other Local
When Canadian Snowbirds Don’t Flock to Florida, Costs Are More Than Financial
Every winter, hundreds of thousands of older Canadians spend the winter in the United States. But in recent weeks, we’ve seen many Canadian snowbirds shifting their attention to other matters. First, stories started to emerge from those who said they would no longer participate in this seasonal migration because of political events in the U.S. Another related concern was the weakened Canadian dollar. This trend has prompted some to consider selling their winter properties in the U.S.
Company Will Build Massive Fuel Depot and Distribution Plant at Rail Spur Off Peavy Grade in Palm Coast
Belvedere Terminals, a start-up company developing a new gas and diesel distribution network by rail, will build a fuel depot and distribution plant on a 78-acre site on Palm Coast’s Peavy Grade, next to the city’s Water Treatment Plant 3 off U.S. 1. The company intends to start operations in late 2026 at a plant with half dozen fuel tanks with a total capacity of 300,000 barrels of gasoline and diesel storage, or 12.6 million gallons–the equivalent of 17 water towers like Palm Coast’s off I-95.
Flagler Beach’s Randy Jaye Releases ‘Florida Flashpoints,’ His 5th Book, on Florida History
Flagler Beach author and historian Randy Jaye released his fifth book on March 18: Florida Flashpoints: Extraordinary Moments From Spanish Colony to the Space Age. The book highlights Florida’s long, interesting and sometimes turbulent history with what the author consider to be 36 of the state’s most important historic moments.
Our Silent Genocide of Transgender People
The United States in general and Florida in particular are enacting laws that literally erase the existence of an entire class of human beings. Trump signed an order declaring that transgender people don’t exist. Florida is about to adopt a law that would let government employees dehumanize their transgender colleagues by refusing to refer to them by their preferred pronouns. It is a new kind of genocide: bloodless, to be sure, but no less obliterating.
Family of Six Loses House to Fire in Palm Coast’s L-Section, 21 Year Old Injured Trying to Save Pets
A family of six, including four children, lost their home to a middle-of-the-night fire on Longfellow Drive in Palm Coast early this morning, and a 21-year-old woman was taken to Halifax hospital with serious injuries.
Stephanie Raimundo, 48, Sentenced to 16 Years in Prison for Death of Calvin Stull as Mother Grieves
Stephanie Raimundo, the 48-year-old Palm Coast woman facing a combined 150 years in prison on 11 felony charges, including manslaughter in the drug-overdose death of 21-year-old Calvin Stull in January 2023, was sentenced to 16 years in prison. Stull’s mother addressed the court and Raimundo.
2-Hour Parking Limit Downtown Flagler Beach? ‘Great Idea,’ Planning Board Says, Urging City to Act
The Flagler Beach Planning Board embraced an idea proposed by downtown business owners to impose two-hour parking limits in a small area downtown that is typically overrun by people parking for hours at a time, sometimes all day, preventing the sort of turnover traffic that helps businesses thrive. The board is forwarding the proposal to the City Commission and urging it to consider it.
Derrius Bauer, in a Shift, Agrees to Plea and 15 Years Instead of Life in Prison for Circle K Murder
Two days after he declined yet again to risk life in prison if convicted at trial, Derrius Bauer, 30, this morning signed a plea agreement and was sentenced to 15 years, a term that between time already served and gain time ahead, may have him out of prison when he’s 38. For the court, prosecutors and the Flagler County Sheriff’s detectives who cracked the case, the plea ends the longest and most expensive investigation in the Sheriff’s Office’s history.
30 Years in Prison for Tyrese Patterson in Killing of Noah Smith In Last of Lives Lost Over ‘Stupid, Senseless Act’
Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols’s 30-year prison sentence for Tyrese Patterson closes the book on four cases that sent four young men to prison for long terms, one of them for life, over what the judge described as the “stupid, senseless” behavior that led to the killing of 16-year-old Noah Smith in a shootout in Bunnell in January 2022.
Bunnell Approves Grand Reserve’s Last 141 of 847 Houses, with a Pointed Caution From Its Staff
The Bunnell City Commission approved the final phase of Grand Reserve, the 847-home subdivision that will increase the city’s population by more than half and is already changing the city’s politics. The sixth phase consists of 141 houses on 100 acres. The city’s planning director cautioned the commission to review future developments more carefully than when Grand Reserve was originally approved.
Trump Names Derek Barrs to Transportation Department Post; He Will Leave Flagler School Board
Less than five months after Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed him to a Flagler County School Board seat, where his presence helped restore a level of stability that had been lacking for two years, Derek Barrs will almost certainly leave the board for an appointment as administrator to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
The Conversation
That Time Change Affects Your Body and Mind Longer Than You Realize
Your biological internal clock is controlled in a small region of the brain called the hypothalamus. It regulates hormone release, body temperature and metabolism. So if your circadian rhythm is out of kilter, those things will be disrupted too.
Florida and Beyond
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, March 30, 2025
‘Violet’ at City Repertory Theatre, Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village, Karen Russell’s “Prospectors” and the Florida writer’s love of weird.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, March 29, 2025
Peps Art Walk, Phenomenal Women’s Event at AACS, Richard Slotkin turns Star Wars upside down, Curtis Yarvin welcomes the end of American democracy, Christopher Lasch bemoans American narcissism.
Ukraine’s Minerals Explained
Ukraine is often recognised for its vast agricultural lands and industrial heritage, but beneath its surface lies one of the world’s most remarkable geological formations, the “Ukrainian Shield”. These geological processes created favourable geological conditions for forming several mineral deposits including lithium, graphite, manganese, titanium and rare earth elements. All these are now critical for modern industries and the global green energy transition.
More Florida and Beyond
Florida Unemployment Rate Rises to 3.6%, Flagler’s to 4.6% as State Revises Labor Force Numbers Upward
The Florida Department of Commerce on Friday said the unemployment rate increased from 3.5 percent in January to 3.6 percent in February. Florida had a 3.4 percent jobless rate in December. The unemployment rate in Flagler County jumped to 4.6 percent after the Department of Commerce revised figures substantially–adding several thousand people to Flagler County’s labor force.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, March 28, 2025
‘Violet’ at City Repertory Theatre, Acoustic Jam Circle At The Community Center In The Hammock, the curious retention pond in front of Flagler Beach’s coming Margaritaville Hotel.
Freedom of Expression, the Extreme Right’s New Totem
Won with great difficulty by citizens against the powers of the State and the Church in the 18th century, freedom of expression is now brandished like a totem by the bosses of social networks and by the extreme right.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, March 27, 2025
The Flagler Beach City Commission meets, the Marineland Town Commission meets, Model Yacht Club Races at the Pond in Palm Coast’s Central Park, the eternal adolescence of Air Force One.
The Heritage Foundation’s Long War Against the Education Department
The Heritage Foundation first called for limiting the federal role in education in 1981. That’s when it issued its first Mandate for Leadership, a book offering conservative policy recommendations. It renewed the call in its Project 2025, a conservative political initiative to revamp the federal government.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Clay Jones on the Voice of America, Tyrese Patterson sentencing, Weekly Chess Club for Teens at the public library, in praise of Hooters, refuge against conversion therapy.
Bezos’s Washington Post About Face
Journalists report news to inform the public, while editors and opinion writers analyze and explain news, putting facts into a larger context to aid understanding. Jeff Bezos is throwing that model of journalism out. Opinion and analysis in the Post will limit itself to one particular apparently libertarian viewpoint: what Bezos calls personal liberties and free markets.
Florida Senate Committee Approves Ignoring Preferred Pronouns in State and Local Government
A measure (SB 440) prohibits requiring any employee to refer to another person using that person’s preferred pronouns if such pronouns don’t correspond to that person’s sex at birth. Job applications in public workplaces may only ask an applicant whether they are male or female and may not provide a nonbinary option.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, March 25, 2025
The Flagler County School Board meets at 1 p.m. in an information workshop and again at 6 p.m., Budgeting by Values, where people are the happiest (and the least happy).
What You Should Know About What TikTok Calls News
Here are three crucial things to know about news you get on TikTok: What videos count as news, how they got to you, and what you should do when you see them. These are three of what media researchers know as the “5 C’s” of news literacy: content, circulation and consumption. While they can be applied to any kind of news use, they are especially important for TikTok, where anyone can create content, and the algorithm decides what we see.
Federal Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against Florida Law Restricting Minors on Social Media
Senior U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee dismissed a challenge against the state’s law barring Floridians younger than 14 from using social media apps with addictive features filed by industry organizations NetChoice and Computer & Communications Industry Association representing companies including Google, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, March 24, 2025
A new flag flies above the Flagler Beach Police Department, the Bunnell City Commission meets, the Flagler County Beekeepers Association, Sheldon Cooper’s fun with flags, Omar el Akkad’s fear of flags.
Americans Still Believe They Live in a Compassionate Country
A new study on the state of compassion in America by the Muhammad Ali Center, which the late boxer co-founded 20 years ago in Louisville, Kentucky, to advance social justice, found that the desire to help others still animates many Americans despite the nation’s current polarization and divisive politics. Cities with high compassion scores have more community engagement and civic participation than those with low scores.
Commentary
Lawless Persecution of Mahmoud Khalil Is a Threat to Free Speech Everywhere
Without a warrant or charges, plainclothes Department of Homeland Security agents forced their way into Columbia University’s student housing and detained Palestinian student Mahmoud Khalil, who had demonstrated against the Israeli genocide in Gaza. They then shipped him to an immigration jail in Louisiana, impeding his access to attorneys and visits from family. Khalil is a lawful U.S. permanent resident who hasn’t been charged with any crime. Khalil’s fate — and the larger battle over the First Amendment — concerns all of us.
Can Democrats Get Their Act Together Before Its Too Late?
For more than a century, Democrats were the party of slavery, states’ rights, and Jim Crow, but, gradually and imperfectly, became the party of civil rights, voting rights, and workers’ rights, switching places with Republicans, who once had a strong streak of social progressivism. For 30 years, Florida elected New South governors such as Reubin Askew, Bob Graham, and Lawton Chiles, leaders who believed in education, open government, protecting the environment — crazy stuff like that. Where are they now?
The Hidden Epidemic of Violence Against Nurses
An alarming 8 in 10 nurses face violence at work. As a result, health care workers are more than four times as likely to be injured by workplace violence than workers in all other industries combined. Despite these staggering numbers, the full extent of this epidemic may not be fully understood because nurses and other health care workers chronically underreport violent encounters.