Ethics Training, Zora Neale Hurston, Firefighters' Cancer

Zora Neale Hurston, the pride of Central Florida, is celebrated this week with an annual festival in Eatonville. See below. (Florida Memory)

Today: Sunny. Highs around 70. West winds 10 to 15 mph. Tonight: Clear. Lows in the mid 40s. West winds 5 to 10 mph. Details here.
Drought Index is at 398.
Today’s tides: at the beaches, at the Intracoastal Waterway.
Today’s document from the National Archives.
The OED’s Word of the Day: Hellespont, n..
The Live Community Calendar
Today’s jail bookings.

Today’s Briefing: Quick Links

First Light
In Flagler and Palm Coast
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
Local Road and Interstate Construction
Cultural Coda

“You know that when a man in a melancholy mood is left tête-à-tête with the sea, or any landscape which seems to him grandiose, there is always, for some reason, mixed with melancholy, a conviction that he will live and die in obscurity, and he reflectively snatches up a pencil and hastens to write his name on the first thing that comes handy. And that, I suppose, is why all convenient solitary nooks like my summer-house are always scrawled over in pencil or carved with penknives. I remember as though it were to-day; looking at the parapet I read: ‘Ivan Korolkov, May 16, 1876.’ Beside Korolkov some local dreamer had scribbled freely, adding:
‘He stood on the desolate ocean’s strand,
While his soul was filled with imaginings grand.’

–Chekhov, from Love and Other Stories.

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.

Ethics training for local elected officials: Palm Coast City Attorney Bill Reischmann is leading an ethics training session, about three hours long, for Palm Coast City Council members and any other elected officials who choose to attend. The session is also open to the public, and is, of course, free. The training is required by law. Officials must sit for it once a year. It has not, as yet, diminished the docket of the Florida Ethics Commission. 9 a.m. at Palm Coast City Hall in Town Center.

USTA Pro Circuit Men’s Futures Wild Card Tournament through Thursday at the Palm Coast Tennis Center, 1290 Belle Terre Parkway. Men’s singles champion of this Wild Card Tournament wins a main draw entry into the Pro Circuit Men’s Futures Tournament.

Annual festival honoring writer Zora Neale Hurston, ongoing through Jan. 31 in Eatonville: “In celebration of the 125th anniversary of the birth of one of the most beloved African-American writers and folklorists of the 20th century, the annual Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities (aka Zora! Festival, zorafestival.org) presents cultural programming that honors the historic heritage of Eatonville, the Central Florida town the pre-eminent writer once called home.” Details here.

Mostly useless information: Ernest Borgnine would have been 100 today. More importantly, John Belushi would have been 68 (68!), and Edith Wharton, featured in yesterday’s First Light, would have been 155. Gold was discovered in California on this date in 1848. And today is National Compliment Day, an observance created in New Hampshire in 1998.

In Florida and in State Government:

Note: Some proceedings below can be followed live on the Florida Channel. Most legislative proceedings can be followed through the Senate or House websites.

Fracking ban: Sen. Dana Young, R-Tampa, will hold a news conference to announce a proposal to ban the oil- and gas-drilling technique known as fracking. (9 a.m.)

Firefighters’ cancer: The Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee is slated to take up a bill (SB 158), filed by Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, that would create a legal presumption about firefighters who develop certain types of cancer. The presumption would be that the firefighters developed the diseases while in the line of duty. (10 a.m.)

Stand Your Ground: The Senate Judiciary Committee will take up a proposal (SB 128), filed by Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, that would shift the legal burden of proof in “stand your ground” self-defense cases. The bill stems from a Florida Supreme Court ruling in 2015 that said defendants have the burden of proof to show they should be shielded from prosecution under the “stand your ground” law. In “stand your ground” cases, pretrial evidentiary hearings are held to determine whether defendants should be immune from prosecution. The bill would shift that burden of proof from defendants to prosecutors. (2 p.m.)

Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet will meet. (9 a.m.)

–Compiled by the News Service of Florida and FlaglerLive

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

♦ Jan. 25: Palm West Home Realty’s Hammock Office at 5048 North Ocean Shore Boulevard is celebrating its five-year anniversary with an open house from 4 to 7 p.m., with door prizes.
♦ Jan. 26-27: Volunteers conduct the annual in-person census of the homeless population in Flagler County.
♦ Jan. 27: The Florida Ethics Commission considers a final action in the ethics case against former County Commissioner Barbara Revels, who has agreed to a settlement and a fine of $4,500 over several issues brought forth by complainant John Ruffalo. The ethics commission board, however, must approve the settlement. 8:30 a.m. Third Floor Courtroom, First District Court of Appeal, 2000 Drayton Drive, Tallahassee.
♦ Jan. 27-29: City Repertory Theatre’s award winning, ground breaking musical, “Next to Normal,” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, 2 p.m. Sunday, at CRT’s intimate 50 seat theater at City Market Place, 160 Cypress Point Parkway, Suite B207 in Palm Coast. Julia Davidson Truilo headlines a star studded cast featuring Chelsea Jo Conard, Everett Clark, Max Wolf, Sara Humbert and Beau Wade. John Sbordone directs with Musical Direction by Ben Beck. “Next to Normal” is a rock musical that won the Tony for Best Score in 2009 and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama the following year. It creates something phenomenal out of an unconventional subject. Tickets are available by calling CRT’s Box Office at 386/585-9415 or, even easier, by clicking here for immediate ticketing.
♦ Jan. 27: Man Up, with former NBA Player and current pastor Keith Tower, at Palm Coast Community Church, 1 Pine Lakes Pkwy North, Palm Coast, in partnership with Parkview Baptist Church, Epic Church, Lifecoast Church, First Baptist Church of Palm Coast, and Palm Coast Bible Church. 4:30 to 10 p.m.
♦ Jan. 30: Suicide Prevention Training: Take part in a free community outreach training program to learn three steps to help save a life, in a three-hour workshop at the Emergency Operatiosn Center, behind the Government Services Building in Bunnell, from 9 a.m. to noon. Contact Ashleigh Husbands, Regional Suicide Prevention Specialist, 301/928.7448 or by email, [email protected].
♦ Jan. 31: Vienna Boys’ Choir at Peabody Auditorium in Daytona Beach, 7 p.m., one performance only. The Palm Coast Arts Foundation is organizing a bus trip, leaving from the Staples Parking Lot the evening of the concert, with some light food and drinks included on the bus ride, $80 for Arts Foundation members, $90 for others, call 386-225-4379.
♦ Feb. 1: The Flagler County School Board holds its first workshop in its search for a new superintendent, at 6 p.m., in Room 3B, third floor of the Government Services Building–where the meeting is neither broadcast on television nor available by audio, though the board claims it is seeking public participation.
♦ Feb. 6: Ground Breaking for the relocation and extension of Runway 11-29 at the Flagler County Airport, 1:30 p.m. at the airport.
♦ Feb. 6: The great violinist Itzhak Perlman opens the 2017 season of the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival with a 7:30 p.m. performance at First Baptist Church, 1600 South 8th Street in Fernandina Beach. Tickets here.
♦ Feb. 8: Jonathan Canales, the man accused of shooting his girlfriend in the neck and leaving her to bleed in a bathtub for hours in their Mondex trailer in Nov. 2014, is scheduled for a pre-trial at 1:30 p.m. in Courtroom 401 at the Flagler County Courthouse. Canales had been judged incompetent to stand trial previously.
♦ March 7: Bunnell and Flagler Beach hold their municipal elections.
♦ March 22: The boy Scouts Council holds its Golden Eagle Dinner at 6 p.m. at Hammock Beach Resort, honoring Bob Cuff, now a Palm coast City council member.

The Day’s Best Reads:

Political Memo: Angry Democrats Study the Tea Party’s Playbook https://t.co/Mvdgdbr6fi

— NYT Politics (@nytpolitics) January 24, 2017

As a British Muslim, watching the UK government cosying up to Trump fills me with rage https://t.co/Yjm1Vbozhq

— Independent Voices (@IndyVoices) January 23, 2017

These rotating homes could be the future of architecture https://t.co/3g78RhdIk5 (via @CNNStyle) pic.twitter.com/OGsVmQCSTq

— CNN International (@cnni) January 24, 2017

British cops used a Taser on a black man they thought was a robber. He was their race-relations adviser. https://t.co/ePowPIfTgi

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) January 24, 2017

Mormons and music https://t.co/eGIEB9gvb3

— Arts & Letters Daily (@aldaily) January 23, 2017

A Twitter List by PierreTristam

Palm Coast Construction and Development Progress Reports

The following is an update of ongoing permitting, construction and development projects in Palm Coast, through Jan. 13 (the city administration’s full week in review is here):

Click to access developments-jan-2017.pdf

Road and Interstate Construction: