Gator's Abbey, Begging Romney to Run, Mega Mecca

abbey road gator — One of our faithful readers, known to most as Geezer in our comment section, provided the above follow-up to Monday’s gator crossing in Palm Coast. (© FlaglerLive)

Today: Partly cloudy. A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Highs in the lower 90s inland… In the upper 80s coast. East winds 10 to 15 mph. Tonight: Partly cloudy in the evening then becoming mostly cloudy. Lows in the lower 70s. Southeast winds 5 to 10 mph. Details here.
Today’s fire danger is moderate. Flagler County’s Drought Index is at 23.
Today’s tides: at the beaches, at the Intracoastal Waterway.
Today’s document from the National Archives.
The OED’s Word of the Day: lockchester, n..
The Live Community Calendar
Today’s jail bookings.

Today’s Briefing: Quick Links

First Light
In Flagler and Palm Coast
Local News Recap
Flagler Jail Bookings and Sheriff’s Crime Reports
In State Government
In Coming Days in Flagler, Palm Coast and Beyond
The Day’s Best Reads
Fact-Checking the Knaves
Palm Coast Construction and Development Progress Reports
Local Road and Interstate Construction
Cultural Coda

“… you can’t see anything from a car; you’ve got to get out of the goddammed contraption and walk, better yet crawl, on hands and knees, over the sandstone and through the thornbush and cactus.”

–Edward Abbey, “Desert Solitaire” (1968).

In Flagler and Palm Coast:

Note: all government meetings noticed below are free and open to the public unless otherwise indicated. Many can be heard or seen live through each agency’s website.

Schools are closed for summer.

The Flagler County Airport Advisory Board meets at 4 p.m. at Airport Corporate Center, third floor.

Palm Coast’s Utility Standards Committee meets at 1:30 p.m. at the Utility Office, 2 Utility Drive, Palm Coast. The public is invited.

The Flagler Beach City Commission meets at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall. Col. Jack Howell, founder and president of Teens in Flight, is expected to receive a Purple Heart Plaque from the commission. The Anchor Restaurant at 500 South Ocean Shore Boulevard is requesting an outdoors entertainment permit. The commission will also discuss potential amendments to the city’s sign code. The full agenda and background materials are here.

Fruits and Veggies Nutrition Workshop for Kids: At the Flagler County Public Library on Belle Terre and Palm Coast Parkway, 4:30 p.m., For ages 5 – 12. A “hands on” and fun Health Science event addressing the benefits of eating fruits and vegetables, vitamins and juicing. Presented by SmartParties of St. Augustine whose mission is to make learning memorable and enjoyable. Limited to 25 children. First come, first served. Free. Funded by The Friends of the Library.

Local News Recap:

Updated jail bookings and day and night shift incident summary reports are available here.

Palm Coast Hints at Again Increasing Monthly Stormwater Fee As It Projects Fund Deficits: During a brief budget presentation to the city council Tuesday, council members were told that the stormwater fund is projecting a substantial deficit of more than $1 million a year starting with next year’s budget, and growing to a $1.5 million deficit by 2012.

flagler county crime rate — Flagler County’s crime rate since 2000, by sheriff’s administration. Click on the image for larger view. (© FlaglerLive)

More Violent Crime But Lower Crime Rate in 2015 Gives Fodder to All Sheriff’s Candidates: The trend contrasts with Florida’s, where overall crime fell by 10,773, a 1.6 percent decrease. The state’s crime rate also fell, by 3.1 percent, bringing the state’s crime rate down to a 45-year low even though, as in Flagler, violent crime was up–and more significantly so in the state as a whole: murders were up 5.7 percent, rapes up 6.1 percent and aggravated assaults up 3.9 percent.

Ethics Commission Dismisses Claim Against Flagler’s Craig Coffey, Adding to Pile of Frivolity: The allegations this time were related to the county’s acquisition of the old Memorial Hospital in Bunnell in 2013.

Bunnell Elementary Leads the Way as Flagler’s Problem Solvers Shine Again at Internationals: Leading the way, Bunnell Elementary won first place in the Team Global Issues competition, out of 52 teams, in a team made up of Karissa Jackson, Kenneth Logan, Michael Mwaura and Hope Romaine. They were coached by Jennifer Colindres. And Bunnell’s Community Problem Solving team was the grand champion for the junior division, in all divisions, for its Project H.O.P.E., a team made up of Romaine, Jackson, Christina Courson and Isabella Miller and Carmella Sweeney.

Volusia deputies' union halts use of body cameras, lists concerns https://t.co/0VGZcGrBz8 via @PBalonaNJ #bodycams

— Tony Holt (@HoltPodcast) June 8, 2016

Live Briefs:

In Florida and in State Government:

Note: Some proceedings below can be followed live on the Florida Channel.

The Florida Supreme Court will hear arguments in five cases, including a constitutional challenge to a limit on attorney’s fees included by the Legislature in a 2012 “claim” bill. The bill directed Southwest Florida’s Lee Memorial Health System to pay $15 million because of severe injuries suffered at birth by Aaron Edwards, but it included a restriction that only $100,000 of the amount could go to attorneys who had represented the Edwards family in a lengthy court fight about the injuries. Also, justices will hear arguments about the constitutionality of limits on non-economic damages in personal-injury medical malpractice cases. The arguments will come in the Broward County case of Susan Kalitan, who went into surgery for carpal-tunnel syndrome and ended up suffering a perforated esophagus because of tubes inserted into her mouth and esophagus as part of the anesthesia process. (9 a.m.)

The Supreme Court releases its weekly opinions at 11 a.m.

The Florida Public Service Commission takes up a series of issues involving utilities such as Florida Power & Light, Duke Energy Florida, Gulf Power and Tampa Electric Co. (9:30 a.m.)

–Compiled by the News Service of Florida and FlaglerLive

In Coming Days in Palm Coast, Flagler and the Occasional Beyond:

♦ June 10: Donald Trump campaigns at 11 a.m. at the Tampa Convention Center.
♦ June 10: Euro 2016 begins at 3 p.m. with a France-Romania match-up. France is hosting the month-long tournament, which features 24 of the world’s best national teams. The final is on July 10.
♦ June 14: Dr. Bill Mefford, Faith Outreach Specialist for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, leads a discussion entitled “Religion and Partisan Politics Don’t Mix,” hosted by the All Flagler Democratic Club at 7 p.m. at the African American Cultural Society, 4422 US 1 North, Palm Coast. Call 386-447-7030 for best directions. This program is free, open to the public, all are welcome, no advance arrangements are necessary.
♦ June 16: The Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (GTM Research Reserve) invites the public to attend the free lecture series, “Afternoon Insight: Pollinators,” from 3 to 4 p.m. at the GTM Environmental Education Center, 505 Guana River Road, Ponte Vedra Beach. Space is limited, reservations for the free event are required and may be made online here. Registration includes admittance to the exhibit hall prior to the lecture. For more information, call 904-823-4500.
♦ June 16: The fourth annual commemoration of the largest mass arrest of Rabbis in U.S. History, an event that took place in St. Augustine on June 18, 1964, will be held on Thursday, June 16, at 7 p.m. in the Gamache-Koger Theater in the Ringhaver Student Center at 48 Sevilla Street in St. Augustine on the campus of Flagler College. The 90-minute event will include the reading of the letter written by the Rabbis in the Flagler County Jail and a video of the forum held with the surviving rabbis who gathered in St. Augustine in June, 2014. This event is free, all are welcome, no advance arrangements are necessary. Call (904) 819-6365 for best directions.
♦ July 5: A pre-trial is scheduled at 1:30 p.m. before Circuit Judge Matthew Foxman in Courtroom 401 at the Flagler County Courthouse in the case of Joseph Bova II, the man accused of first-degree murder in the killing of Zuheily Roman Rosado in an execution-style shooting at the Mobil Mart on State Road 100 in Palm Coast in February 2013. Pre-trail hearings have been frequently continued, however. Bova has been held without bond at the Flagler County jail since May 11, 2015, when he returned from a state psychiatric hospital.
♦ July 18: The trial of Anna Pehota, 77, who faces a second-degree murder charge over the alleged killing of her husband in the Hammock in September 2015, is scheduled to begin with jury selection.
♦ July 20: The Flagler League of Cities, a gathering of the county’s mayors, meets at noon at Flagler Beach City Hall.

The Day’s Best Reads:

Mecca goes mega https://t.co/eOV3FsOJGb pic.twitter.com/Gc3MDCqxsu

— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 8, 2016

"Governor Romney, there is nobody else but you who is capable of such a bid." https://t.co/QOMSgNhwBi @jaycosttws pic.twitter.com/hDANpXGVNt

— The Weekly Standard (@weeklystandard) June 8, 2016

Compare Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on the major issues https://t.co/5pVueiczzu pic.twitter.com/Ur6qQYzBNJ

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 8, 2016

From saying Germany’s press isn’t free to calling women who work “half persons,” it’s been quite a week for Turkey. https://t.co/JCQWD49iPH

— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) June 8, 2016

Big news! We're celebrating #FrankLloydWright's 150th birthday next year with a major exhibition. https://t.co/JTOL3YvGN6

— MoMA The Museum of Modern Art (@MuseumModernArt) June 8, 2016

Fact-Checking the Knaves:

Palm Coast Construction and Development Progress Reports

The following is an update of ongoing permitting, construction and development projects in Palm Coast, through May 11:

Click to access week-in-review-may131.pdf

Road and Interstate Construction: