Buckets of Tourism Grants, Complying With New Overtime Rule, Pehota Trial, Cleveland Rips

donald trump convention — He just can’t stay away. (ABC)

Today: Partly cloudy with a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the lower 90s. East winds 10 to 15 mph. Tonight: Partly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Lows in the mid 70s. East winds 5 to 10 mph. Details here.
Today’s fire danger is moderate. Flagler County’s Drought Index is at 393.
Today’s tides: at the beaches, at the Intracoastal Waterway.
Today’s document from the National Archives.
The OED’s Word of the Day: panoply, 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

Over the past few weeks these longstanding Trump patterns have gone into hyperdrive. This is a unique moment in American political history in which the mental stability of one of the major party nominees is the dominating subject of conversation.

–Columnist David Brooks, “Trump Is Getting Even Trumpier!“

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.

The Anna Pehota Trial begins in earnest with opening arguments at 9 a.m. in Circuit Judge Matthew Foxman’s Courtroom 401. Pehota is facing a second degree murder charge for gunning down her husband last fall in the Hammock.

The Flagler County Tourist Development Council meets at 10 a.m. in board chambers at the Government Services Building. The council is scheduled to hear a series of grant requests, including a $150,000 grant for the Palm Coast Arts Foundation’s outdoor stage, $10,000 for the Flagler Auditorium, and several $10,000 grants for sports events.

Palm Coast’s Planning and Land Development Regulation Board meets at 5:30 p.m. The board reviews a technical site plan for Tuscan Gardens of Palm Coast off Colbert Lane and Blare Drive.

The Flagler County Technical Review Committee meeting scheduled for this morning was cancelled.

Lunch and Learn Series: The Overtime Exemption Ruling: The rule, which takes effect December 1, 2016, doubles the salary threshold for which businesses must pay overtime. Employees making less than $47,476 a year are now required to receive overtime for any hours worked over 40 hours. The Flagler Chamber of Commerce’s lunch presentation is by Michael Chiumento and Andrew Grant from Chiumento, Selis Dwyer, at the chamber’s offices, 20 Airport Rd, Ste C in Palm Coast. Noon to 1:30 p.m.

Local News Recap:

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

Palm Coast Votes 3-2 Against $5,000 Hike For Jim Landon in Stinging Rebuke: The Palm Coast City Council today voted 3-2 to reject giving City Manger Jim Landon a $4,912 raise, which would have brought his base pay to $173,791. Landon, however, remains by far the highest-paid chief executive of any local government even at his current salary of $169,000. (Next is County Administrator Craig Coffey at $156,000.)

bill mcguire resigns — He’s done: Bill McGuire will resign within two weeks of the first election for Palm Coast Council. (© FlaglerLive)

Bill McGuire, Palm Coast City Council’s Grandmaster, Resigns Effective Aug. 15: Bill McGuire, who five years ago rapidly established himself as the city council’s quickest study, its only wit and its most independent voice until the 2014 election, made it official Tuesday: he will resign his seat effective Aug. 15, or just two weeks before the Aug. 30 primary. He’d put the council on notice a month ago that his resignation was imminent.

Jury Selection for Anna Pehota Trial, Pronounced Sympathies for the Killer: Again and again today, prospective jurors who’d heard about the case were struck from the list as they professed sympathy for her, as they suggested that the killing may have been justified, that it may have been “a mercy killing,” that if it had been a case of abuse, “she was the victim,” as one prospective juror put it

Republicans Hope Raucous Convention Distractions Pass as Gov. Scott Predicts Trump Win: So far, the Republican National Convention has seen a raucous fight over the party’s rules and accusations of plagiarism against presidential candidate Donald Trump’s wife. And that was from the first day.

In Florida and in State Government:

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

The State Board of Education will start two days of meetings in St. Lucie County and discuss turnaround plans for low-performing schools in various parts of Florida. (8 a.m., Indian River State College, Pruitt Campus, William and Helen Thomas STEM Center, 500 N.W. California Blvd., Port St. Lucie.)

Political commentator Dick Morris and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani are expected to speak during a breakfast gathering of the Florida delegation to the Republican National Convention. A convention session will be held during the evening. (Breakfast 9 a.m., Embassy Suites, 5800 Rockside Woods Blvd., Independence, Ohio. Session at 7 p.m., Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland.)

Court funding: The Revenue Estimating Conference will analyze what are known as “Article V” revenues, which are involved in funding the courts system. (9 a.m., 117 Knott Building, the Capitol.)

–Compiled by the News Service of Florida and FlaglerLive

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

♦ July 20: The Flagler League of Cities, a gathering of the county’s mayors, meets at noon at Flagler Beach City Hall.
♦ July 22: The latest pre-trial hearing in the case of Florida v. Kimberle Weeks is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. before Circuit Judge Margaret Hudson in Courtroom 401 at the Flagler County Courthouse. Weeks now faces nine third-degree felony counts, down from 12, stemming from allegations that she illegally recorded various individuals in her capacity as supervisor of elections and in her private life. Weeks resigned that post in January 2015.
♦ July 23: The annual Back to School Jam, where families can get $5 backpacks, find their bus routes and location, help with access to the district’s computerized records-keeping system, meet with innumerable coordinators and directors of after-school activities and programs and a lot more, is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Flagler Palm Coast High School, in the gym.
♦ July 23: Midnight fishing on the Flagler Beach pier, from midnight Saturday to 6 a.m. $6 per person. Register at the pier.
♦ July 25: The Plantation Bay Utility Customers Community meets at 6 p.m. at Club de Bonmont, 300 Plantation Bay Drive, Ormond Beach.
♦ July 27: Heritage Crossroads: Miles of History meet at 3 p.m. in the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Building 2, Bunnell, in the 3rd Floor Conference Room. Sisco Deen of the Flagler County Historical Society will speak. The public is invited. For information call 386/439-5003.
♦ July 28: Flagler County School Board’s District Strategic Plan Steering Committee meets at 5:30 p.m. in the third-floor main conference room of the Government Services Building in Bunnell.
♦ July 30: Solar Plunge to benefit the Flagler Beach National Flight Academy Scholarship. Registration will be $10 per person and includes a t-shirt and goody bag. Late registration will be from 7:30- 8:30 a.m. in Veterans Park followed by The Plunge at 8:45 a.m. After the Plunge enjoy music in the park and light refreshments.
♦ Aug. 10: School resumes for all students in the Flagler County School District, two weeks earlier than last year, but with a new calendar that enables students to complete their coursework ahead of high-stakes exams, that ends quarters more logically with holidays, and that restores a full week’s holiday around Thanksgiving, Nov. 21-25. See details here.
♦ Aug. 11: Flagler Votes Hob Nob, the Flagler County Chamber of Commerce’s pre-election event for voters to meet candidates, from 6 to 8 p.m., at the Flagler County Association of Realtors’ building, 4101 E Moody Blvd in Bunnell. Participating candidates must pay $150 a table for their space, but it’s otherwise free to attend. As part of their free admission, attendees will enjoy light snacks, great conversation and a ticket to vote in an electronic “straw poll,” the results of which will be revealed at the end of the evening. Beer, wine and water will be available for nominal cash donations.
♦ Sept. 7: The Flagler Youth Orchestra holds its open house for all new or prospective students who’d like to join the county’s largest (and free) music program. The open house is at the Indian Trails Middle School cafeteria at 5:30 p.m. Any Flagler student, including homes chooled students, in grades 3-12, are eligible to enroll (must be 8 years old by Sept. 1, 2016.) Students may elect to play violin, viola, cello or doublebass. One-hour classes are held at Indian Trails Middle School Mondays and Wednesdays, from 3 to 6 p.m., with students enrolled in the hour block appropriate to their skill level and schedule. The first class for first-time students is Sept. 19. (Auditions for returning students start on Aug. 22, the first class for returning students is Aug. 31.)
♦ Sept. 10: African Art: Ancient Egypt to the Contemporary World, a pair of presentations by Bertrand Green, former chairman of African American studies at Lehman College, City University of New York. The first session is from 10 a.m. to noon, the second session from 2 to 4 p.m., at the Hilton Garden Inn, Palm Coast. $20 for PCAF members, $25 for general admission. Call 386/225-4394 or email [email protected] to reserve your seat.

The Day’s Best Reads:

Trump's nomination will put a thriving country at risk of a great, self-inflicted wound https://t.co/H0C6fRUW9P pic.twitter.com/uSNkYlFQB3

— The Economist (@TheEconomist) July 20, 2016

“There’s got to be a lunatic shortage in the rest of the world, because there’s an awful lot of them around here.” https://t.co/6quGe2mTPx

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) July 20, 2016

Senate Bill Would End Tax Breaks for Private Prison Companies https://t.co/IsfFOhjzPs @ludwig_mike #prisons

— Truthout (@truthout) July 20, 2016

https://twitter.com/michikokakutani/status/755570706658627584

Raising the minimum wage will destroy jobs, McConnell has argued in the past: https://t.co/d8GWgDkNoq #RNCinCLE pic.twitter.com/o5hIlR5uV7

— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) July 20, 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 July 15 (the city administration’s full week in review is here):

Click to access week-in-review-july1.pdf

Road and Interstate Construction: