Today’s weather: partly cloudy, high of 85, low of 71. Details here.
Today’s fire danger is Low. Flagler County’s Drought Index is at 447
The weather in Balikpapan, Indonesia: Thunderstorms, high of 89, low of 79. Details.
The OED’s Word of the Day: honeysome, adj..
The Live Community Calendar
Today’s jail bookings.
Today’s Briefing: Quick Links
- In Flagler and Palm Coast
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- PR Releases
- In the Press
- Local Road and Interstate Construction
- In Coming Days in Flagler and Palm Coast
- Blood Donations Needed
- Cultural Coda
- FPS Flocking
Note: all government meetings noticed below are free and open to the public unless otherwise indicated.
The State Board of Education meets at the Government Services Building’s board chambers in Bunnell at 9 a.m. The meeting will feature a report by state Education Commissioner Pam Stewart and a presentation by Flagler Superintendent Jacob Oliva on issues relating to K-12 education initiatives. Oliva will be speaking on behalf of the Florida Association of District School Superintendents. The full agenda is here.
The Flagler County Commission holds a budget workshop at 1 p.m. at the Emergency Operations Center, behind the Government Services Building, at 1 p.m. The focus today is the general fund.
The Tourist Development Council meets at 10 a.m., this time at the Emergency Operations Center rather than in board chambers at the GSB, to accommodate the state Board of Education meeting there. The only substantive item on tap is a proposed $3,500 grant for a soccer tournament. The agenda and background material are available here.
Flagler County’s Technical Review Committee meets at 9 a.m. in the financial services conference room, third floor of the Government Services Building, 9 a.m. The committee is reviewing three applications. The agenda and background are here.
Palm Coast’s Planning and Land Development Board meets at 5:30 p.m. at the Palm Coast Community Center. The agenda regular a request to amend the Grand Haven North master planned development. The agenda is here. Immediately after that regular meeting, the board will hear a presentation and hear public comment regarding an amendment to the land development code controlling drinking establishments and fences in Palm Coast. That agenda is here.
Baccalaureate Services for Graduating Seniors at Santa Maria del Mar catholic church in Flagler Beach, 6:30 p.m.
Ribbon-cutting: The Chamber holds a ribbon-cutting at Stonewood Sales Inc., 3000 E Moody Blvd. Unit B, Bunnell, 4 p.m.
Multi-agency Explosive Ordnance Disposal exercise held at Camp Blanding: Raven’s Challenge – a multi-agency Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) exercise featuring military and civilian agencies – is being held at Camp Blanding Joint Training Center (CBJTC) near Starke, and hosted in part by the Florida Army National Guard’s 221st EOD, through May 22.
Circuit Judge Michael Orfinger is in status hearings most of the day, Courtroom 301. Judge J. David Walsh holds an adjudicatory hearing on a juvenile case in the afternoon.
A foreclosure sale is scheduled for 11 a.m. in the civil department lobby.
Note: Most proceedings below can be followed live on the Florida Channel.
The Florida Elections Commission will meet and take up cases involving candidates and political committees from across the state. In one of the cases, former House Minority Leader Perry Thurston, D-Fort Lauderdale, contends he should have been eligible to receive state matching funds in his unsuccessful campaign last year for attorney general. (8:30 a.m.)
The Florida Real Estate Commission meets in Orange County. (8:30 a.m., Zora Neale Hurston Building, North Tower, 400 West Robinson St., Orlando.)
The Florida Citrus Commission meets in Polk County. (9 a.m., Florida Department of Citrus, 605 East Main St., Bartow.)
The Commission on Healthcare and Hospital Funding, which Gov. Rick Scott created amid a budget impasse that focuses on health-care issues, meets in Tallahassee. (1 p.m., Agency for Health Care Administration, 2727 Mahan Dr., Tallahassee.)
–Compiled by the News Service of Florida
Tonight’s Late Show with David Letterman is his last. 11:30 p.m., CBS.
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
–W.H. Auden
Flagler Beach Architect Joseph D. Pozzuoli Celebrates 25 Years in Business: “You certainly have to be nimble as an entrepreneur/business owner to have a successful business this long,” said Pozzuoli. “We have survived economic downturns and competed with other firms, all while keeping up with technology and always providing extraordinary customer service that has kept our clients happy over the years.” Pozzuoli grew up in Glens Falls, N.Y., and moved to Miami to attend college. He graduated from the University of Miami with a degree in architecture in 1979. After being laid off from a firm in South Florida due to an economic downturn, he launched his own firm in 1990. He has called Flagler Beach home for the last 10 years and has been an intricate part of the local community, filling civic and volunteer positions at the City of Flagler Beach and the Flagler Beach Chamber of Commerce, as well as volunteering and promoting special projects including the recent 23rd Annual Flagler Beach Easter Egg Hunt. Some of his local clients include The Funky Pelican, Fuego del Mar, Island Doctors, FCAR, Hammock Community Church, the Dollar General, as well as the interior of the Flagler Auditorium, entry sign to Flagler Beach, all the architecture for the restoration of the Carver Gym, and he donated his services for the Mala Compra model at the Flagler Beach Historical Museum. Pozzuoli volunteers his time with the appointments to Flagler County Construction Review Board, Flagler Beach Planning & Architecture Review Board, Flagler Beach Ambassadors program, Advisory Board for the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art (where he was part of the foundation for the Mizner Awards). Joseph Pozzuoli Architect is located at 314 Moody Blvd., in Flagler Beach, 386-439-5650. JPA employs six local people and provides designs for residential, commercial, interiors, condos, and businesses throughout Florida from Flagler County to Ft. Lauderdale, Boca Raton, The Hammock and Jacksonville. They can be reached online at http://www.jpaflorida.com or https://www.facebook.com/jpaflorida.
Piety and Politics in America: How, when, and why did it become controversial for politicians to pay even passing homage to the noble truth that the Founders had the temerity, at a time when nearly all Americans were Christian, to establish a national government whose founding legal document is entirely secular? In “One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America,” Kevin M. Kruse, professor of history at Princeton University, offers the latest of many scholarly attempts to address this question. The subtitle precisely sums up Kruse’s thesis—that the image of America as a “Christian nation,” as distinct from a country with a Christian majority—is relatively recent. He traces what he sees as a 20th-century cultural shift to wealthy businessmen who, beginning with their hatred of the New Deal and reaching the zenith of their influence during the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower (with bells and whistles added by Richard M. Nixon a decade later), used religion as a cover for their desire to take down liberalism. As a political liberal, an atheist, and the author of a book dealing with the neglected secular side of American history, I find this thesis appealing but not entirely convincing. The great virtue of this book is that its author—whose previous works include White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism (2007)—takes public prayer and other displays of religiosity seriously. Eugene V. Rostow could not have been more wrong in 1962 when, as dean of the Yale Law School, he delivered a widely publicized lecture describing such practices as essentially harmless “ceremonial deism.” These are theist, not deist practices. They possess real power to permanently affect the way citizens think about their government, as demonstrated by students who are surprised when told that the Pledge is not one of the nation’s founding documents.” From the American Prospect.
David Letterman’s last weeks: “The truth is, the show that Letterman oversaw in those early years was a far lighter, freer, more strange and cerebral and surreal project than it eventually became. It began as the brainchild of Dave and his girlfriend at the time, the comedy writer Merrill Markoe, who was the show’s first head writer. She invented one-offs, like Dog Poetry, and perennial segments, like Stupid Pet Tricks. (They considered doing Stupid Baby Tricks, but worried about the legal implications.) The pair, who were together for a decade, met at the Comedy Store, in Los Angeles. Their aesthetics were different—Markoe was a Berkeley art-school graduate, while Letterman was an Indiana frat boy who had majored in television and radio—but they shared an ironic mind-set, a suspicion of show-biz sycophancy, and a desire to break formulas, during a period when the medium had hardened, and taken on a Vegas-y, old-Hollywood heaviness. In 1980, pulling from earlier experimentalists, like Ernie Kovacs and Steve Allen, they built a daytime talk show on NBC, full of oddball pranks, which bored housewives but won over college kids. When it flopped, the network was nevertheless eager to keep Dave on the schedule, so it bumped Tom Snyder and gave him Snyder’s slot, at 12:30 A.M.—this was before TiVo and Hulu, when you had to stay up late to catch the funky stuff. Within two years, he was a hero to wiseacres everywhere. On the surface, the early Letterman resembled his mentor, the icy superstar Johnny Carson: he was apolitical, he was Midwestern, he had a repressive manner and lanky college-boy looks. (Don’t let the gap-toothed grin fool you. Squint, and Letterman is Harrison Ford.) But he vibrated with a contradictory charisma: he had a discomfort with back-patting and schmoozing, an odd characteristic for a man whose longtime dream job was TV host.” From the New Yorker.
Digital Journalism: How Good Is It? That digital technology is disrupting the business of journalism is beyond dispute. What’s striking is how little attention has been paid to the impact that technology has had on the actual practice of journalism. The distinctive properties of the Internet—speed, immediacy, interactivity, boundless capacity, global reach—provide tremendous new opportunities for the gathering and presentation of news and information. Yet amid all the coverage of start-ups and IPOs, investments and acquisitions, little attempt has been made to evaluate the quality of Web-based journalism, despite its ever-growing influence. […] The Huffington Post is undergoing an identity crisis. One of its initial core innovations—using content from elsewhere—has become so dominant as to nearly choke the site. […] e same seems true of the first generation of digital news sites in general. After an initial burst of daring and creativity, they have entered a middle-aged lethargy. Take Talking Points Memo. When it began, in 2000, as a blog by Josh Marshall, it offered an outsider’s take on inside Washington, with much profitable burrowing into documents and records. In 2002, Marshall called attention to Trent Lott’s racist-tinged comments about Strom Thurmond, thus helping to precipitate Lott’s resignation as Senate majority leader. As TPM’s readership grew, Marshall attracted advertisers, which allowed him to hire staff. Tips from readers offered information about what was going on around the country and, drawing on them, Marshall in 2007 broke the story about the Bush administration’s partisan- inspired firing of US attorneys. Eight years later, TPM offers roughly the same mix of blogging, aggregation (reworking content from elsewhere), news, and opinion that it did back then. […] Then there’s the smart-opinion-with-some-reporting-mixed-in set, led by Slate, Salon, and The Daily Beast. Here you can find edge, cheek, confession, and contrarianism, all served up in crisp, thousand-word packages. […] And so it goes for the first generation of digital sites as a whole. They helped lead journalism out of the kingdom of traditional print and broadcasting into the liberating land of the Internet, only to become stranded. Meanwhile, a new generation of high-profile ventures has emerged. Have they made it to the promised land of true digital innovation? To find out, I set off on the second leg of my tour, beginning with a visit to the most-talked-about site of them all, BuzzFeed.” From the New York Review of Books.
Road and Interstate Construction:
Palm Coast: Palm Coast Parkway between Cypress Point Parkway and Florida Park Drive. IMPACTS: Lane shifts and closures will occur and this may cause traffic congestion on this already busy roadway. Most construction work will occur between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. though weather and unforeseen issues may adjust the schedules. This project will be complete by December 2015.”
Matanzas Parkway Bridge at I-95 Matanazas Parkway at the I-95 bridge will close on June 5 at 7 p.m. for the I-95 interchange project and will remain closed until Aug. 9. Detour will be via Old Kings Road. Details here.
Lane Closures on I-95 at Palm Coast Parkway: Starting on Monday, May 11, and through Friday, May 15, between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m., motorists should expect two lane closures on the northbound and southbound sides of I-95 at Exit 289, Palm Coast Parkway. Only the outside lanes in each direction will remain open. It is part of the Palm Coast Parkway widening project.
Flagler County: County Road 305 is now detour-free.
Volusia: I-4 Widening from SR 44 to east of I-95, Monday and Friday, 7:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Eastbound/Westbound shoulder closing. Sunday through Thursday, Eastbound and Westbound lane closures as needed from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Thursday, 9:00 p.m. – 5:30 a.m. EB road closure between Canal St./SR 44 and I-95 with detour at US 92 exit ramp.Motorists should be aware of traffic shifts near Canal St./SR 44.
Traffic will be detoured at State Road (SR) 44/Canal Street, for reconstruction work May 12-14: The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is providing project support to Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) to replace the current crossing surface. Motorists will encounter detours beginning at 6 a.m. Tuesday, May 12, and ending at 6 a.m. Thursday, May 14. The SR 44/Canal Street detours are: Eastbound SR 44/Canal Street: North on North Myrtle Avenue, East on Washington Street, South on US 1/North Dixie Parkway. Westbound SR 44/Canal Street: North on US 1/North Dixie Parkway, West on Washington Street, South on North Myrtle Avenue, West on SR 44/Canal Street. For the most up-to-date information on road and lane closures, go to www.cflroads.com and click on ‘Lane Closures.’
- Palm Coast Parkway Project Website
- Florida Department of Transportation Road Project List
- County Road 304 Project Map and Description
American Cancer Society Hosts Birthday Open House May 22: The society is hosting a 102nd Birthday Open House at its office on Clyde Morris Blvd in Daytona Beach to kick off their 2015 Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk. “This is the perfect opportunity for people to come by, learn about our upcoming Making Strides event, have fun, and even sign up their team,” said Nick Piechowski, Community Manager, Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. “Making Strides walkers turn awareness into action every year by helping raise more than $60 million for the American Cancer Society to save more lives from breast cancer.” The event will be held on May 22 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 1737 N Clyde Morris Blvd, Suite 140 in Daytona Beach, and guests are welcome to stop by any time. Attendees are encouraged to ‘join’ their Facebook event and share the link with friends. The American Cancer Society Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk is the largest network of breast cancer awareness events in the nation, uniting more than 300 communities to finish the fight. Today, the organization is leading the way in transforming breast cancer from deadly to treatable and from treatable to preventable by investing in cutting-edge breast cancer research to better understand, prevent, find, and treat the disease. One in every two women newly diagnosed with breast cancer turns to ACS for help and support. The organization is helping ensure access to mammograms for women who need them. Funds raised through Making Strides events help the Society invest in groundbreaking breast cancer research, provide comprehensive support to the one in two women newly diagnosed with breast cancer who turn to the Society for help.
Frieda Zamba Swimming Pool’s new look: Makeover Celebration on May 23: The Frieda Zamba Swimming Pool has a new look – and the City of Palm Coast wants to show it off at a fun-filled Makeover Celebration from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 23. The Makeover Celebration will feature a DJ, fun water activities for all ages, and a dunk tank. Refreshments will be available. Admission to the pool will be half-price – $2 for adults and $1.50 for youth/seniors. Attendees will see the new logo for Frieda Zamba Pool, with a stylized font for “Frieda Zamba” and a wave of different colors of blue. The pool has all new signage and also has been painted a fresh, coastal-inspired light blue and white, with much of the painting being done by volunteers from Palm Coast’s Epic Church. The new look was completed during the pool’s off-season. Frieda Zamba Pool is named for local surfing legend Frieda Zamba, a four-time world surfing champion from Flagler Beach. The City pool is located at 339 Parkview Drive, adjacent to Belle Terre Park and the Buddy Taylor/Wadsworth School campus. Starting May 23, the pool will be open seven days a week! Hours are: 10:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and noon to 6 p.m. weekends. Daily admission is $4 adults; $3 for seniors and youth; and free for children under 2 (half price after 5:30 p.m.). Season memberships are also available.
Palm Coast’s Memorial Day, May 25: On Monday, May 25, the City of Palm Coast will have a public Memorial Day Ceremony to remember the men and women who have died while serving in the U.S. military. The Ceremony will begin at 8 a.m. at Heroes Memorial Park, 2860 Palm Coast Pkwy. NW, Palm Coast (1/2 mile west of the Flagler County Library). The names of two men – U.S. Army Specialist Raheen Tyson Heighter and U.S. Army Sgt. Lukas T. Stanford – have been added to the Fallen Hero Memorial this spring, and the memorial will be unveiled at the ceremony. Their families and friends will be in attendance to participate in the ceremony. Specialist Heighter was a 22-year-old infantryman when he was killed north of Baghdad, Iraq, on July 24, 2003, when his convoy came under fire. He grew up on Long Island and joined the Army in June 2001. He served with the 101st Airborne, Second Battalion, 320th Field Artillery. Following Specialist Heighter’s death, his mother Cathy Heighter spearheaded the successful movement to increase death benefits for members of the Armed Forces. She also established the nonprofit organization Remembering Vets. Mrs. Heighter moved to Palm Coast in 2005. Sgt. Lukas died in the line of duty Oct. 4, 2008, in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. He grew up in Connecticut and attended the University of Tampa before he settled in Orlando. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2004. In January 2006, his unit deployed to Tal Afar, Iraq, and eight months later moved south to Ramadi until the end of the deployment in February 2007. Upon his return from Iraq, Sgt. Stanford re-enlisted and was serving as a member of 911th Engineering Company (Technical Rescue), formerly the Military District of Washington. He was the only son of U.S Army Veteran Tim Stanford, who moved to Palm Coast in 2010. Guest speakers at the ceremony will be Commandant Jack Marshall of Marine Corps League Detachment 876, Commander Ronald Stark of Palm Coast Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8696, and Palm Coast Mayor Jon Netts. The presentation of colors will be done by Ancient City Pipes & Drums and the Palm Coast Fire Department Honor Guard, and Ancient City Pipes & Drums will perform Amazing Grace. Palm Coast resident Mary Giraulo will sing The Star-Spangled Banner. A Memorial Wreath presentation will be done by local veterans organizations. Marine Corps League Detachment 876 will conduct a three-volley salute, and Taps will be played by VFW Post 8696. The Community Chorus of Palm Coast will offer a musical tribute. In addition to the mayor, who will emcee the Ceremony, members of the City Council will attend the ceremony. Everyone in the community is encouraged to honor our armed forces by coming out for the Memorial Day Ceremony. In case of rain, the program will be moved to Palm Coast Fire Station 21, 9 Corporate Drive. For more information, contact Communications & Marketing Manager Cindi Lane at 386-986-3708.
Flagler County’s Memorial Day, May 25: Flagler County’s Memorial Day Ceremony at 10 a.m. Monday, May 25 will feature Col. Jack Howell, USMC retired, as the guest speaker. Howell is an aviator who graduated from the Top Gun school, the Naval War College and the Marine Corps Command and Staff College. He taught Marine Corps Junior ROTC programs in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Florida. He teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses in criminal justice with a specialty of terrorism. Additionally, he is the president and CEO of Teens-in-Flight, which provides flight training and aviation maintenance scholarships to those teens who have lost a parent or sibling in the Global War on Terrorism, or is the teen or sibling of a parent who is disabled after being wounded in action. The ceremony will be at 10 a.m. in front of the Government Services Building at 1769 East Moody Blvd., Bunnell. Besides placing a wreath at the Veterans Monument in front of the Government Services Building, Golden Sands, the local chapter of the Girl Scouts of America, will place a Daisy Wreath at the monument. A Flagler Palm Coast High School student will sing the national anthem and Circuit Court Judge Raul Zambrano will play taps. The Memorial Day event is sponsored by the Flagler County Commission and the Flagler County Veterans Advisory Council. Veterans groups to participate include: American Legion Post 115, Amvets Post 113, DAV Chapter 86, Italian American War Veterans Post 7, Jewish War Veterans Post 300, Marine Corps League 876, Military Officers Association of America, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Flagler County Veterans Service Office, VFW Post 8696, and the Knights of Columbus 2264 Color Corps.
Flagler County holds west side meeting about CR 302 repaving: Flagler County engineering staff is hosting a meeting Tuesday, May 26 for residents interested in information up the upcoming project to repave County Road 302 in June. The meeting will be held from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in Daytona North at the Hidden Trails Park located at 6108 Mahogany Blvd. Repaving will begin on June 7 and the roadway will be closed to all but local traffic. Others will be required to detour around County Road 302 using State Road 100. The roadway will be closed for 90 days.
Palm Coast Arts Foundation Concert and Fund-Raiser, May 29, 7 p.m. at the Grand Club at Pine Lakes Golf Club: Vocalist Amy Alysia is a performer who works tirelessly to claim her place as one of the premier vocalists in central Florida. Always known for her soulful, heartfelt ballads, impressive vocal range & unique approach to a song leaves her audience wanting more. Amy entertains her audience with Smooth & Jazz Standards, R&B & Soul and isn’t afraid to diversify her song selections. Tickets are $15 for arts foundation members, $20 for non-members. To buy, call 386/263-2991 or visit the foundation’s website here.
Flocking For Future Problem Solvers Fundraiser
Flocking is a fundraiser organized by Flagler County School Board member Andy Dance for the Future Problem Solving Program of Flagler County, which has been one of the school district’s greatest successes in the last few years. Some 30 Flagler students are headed to Ames, Iowa, June 10-14 for the international competition, but they need your help raising the money to get there. Flock a house: you get to pay $20 or $40 to have one of your friends’ houses flocked with pink flamingos. See the story here, fill out the form below, or or call Andy Dance at 386/627-5600.
Flocking a Friend: Order Your Flocking for the Flagler Future Problem Solvers
Blood donations are urgently needed. Patients in our local hospitals are in need of blood transfusions, and the need for blood does not take a holiday. That’s why OneBlood is asking people to donate immediately.
Big Red Bus schedule in Flagler-Palm Coast:
Monday May 18th 11:00AM – 4:00PM City of Palm Coast, 160 Cypress Point Parkway, Palm Coast
Wednesday May 20th 12:00PM – 5:00PM US Post Office, 2 Pine Cone Drive, Palm Coast
Friday May 22nd 1:00PM – 6:00PM Epic Theatre, 1185 Central Ave, Palm Coast
Sunday May 24th McDonalds Restaurant, 5190 East Highway 100, Palm Coast
Monday May 25th Bealls Outlet, 9 Old Kings road, Palm Coast
Friday May 29th Zaxby’s, 180 Cypress Edge Drive, Palm Coast
Saturday May 30th Walmart Supercenter, 174 Cypress Point Parkway, Palm Coast
Sunday May 31st Lowe’s, 315 Cypress Edge Drive, Palm Coast
Cultural Coda:
Glenn Gould plays Bach’s full C-minor Partita:
