Weather: Mostly cloudy. A chance of showers with a slight chance of thunderstorms in the morning, then showers likely with a chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. Some thunderstorms may produce heavy rainfall. Highs in the mid 80s. Northeast winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70 percent. Friday Night: Cloudy with a 40 percent chance of showers. Lows in the lower 70s. East winds 5 to 10 mph. Tropical Storm Fiona is making its war east across the Antilles between today and Tuesday, by which time it’ll take a turn for the north, but nowhere near the Florida Peninsula as yet.
Today at the Editor’s Glance:
In Court: Luciana Celestin is sentenced on a second degree felony charge of neglect of a child in connection with the case of Deviaun Toler, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in January for aggravated abuse of his infant son. Celestin, 29, was involved with Toler for three years, and had a daughter with him. The daughter was not involved in the case. The boy who was abused, TT, was Toler’s child with a different mother. The charge against Celestin is based on the allegation that she witnessed the abuse between Jan. 3 and Feb. 15, 2018, when the child was 20 months old, was in a position to stop it and report the boy’s injuries to medical authorities, but did not do so, even though she was the boy’s co-caregiver. The sentencing hearing is at 1:30 p.m. before Circuit Judge Terence Perkins in Courtroom 401 at the Flagler County courthouse. Celestin pleaded to the charge last Nov. 15. But it is an open plea, meaning that it is up to the court to decide the sentence.
Free For All Fridays with Host David Ayres, an hour-long public affairs radio show featuring local newsmakers, personalities, public health updates and the occasional surprise guest, starts a little after 9 a.m. after FlaglerLive Editor Pierre Tristam’s Reality Check. This week Ayres welcomes several guests to speak about the pursuit of happiness. See previous podcasts here. On WNZF at 94.9 FM and 1550 AM.
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity releases August unemployment figures for the state and county by county, at 10 a.m.
“Pippin,” at the Daytona Playhouse, directed by Robin Bassett. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturdays, and at 2 p.m. on Sundays. There’s magic to do when a prince learns the true meaning of glory, love, and war in Stephen Schwartz’s iconic and unforgettable musical masterpiece. Pippin is the story of one young man’s journey to be extraordinary. Daytona Playhouse, 100 Jessamine Blvd., Daytona Beach. Call (386) 255-2431. Tickets: Adults $25, Seniors $24, Youth $15.
Notably: It is the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the three-day Sabra and Shatila refugee camps massacre in south Beirut, a still-unpunished war crime though many of its architects are dead. Israel had invaded and occupied Lebanon, including West Beirut. The camps were in the Israeli-occupied zone. The Israeli army encircled the camps, then let in truckloads of Christian militiamen of the Phalangist party, 48 hours after Bashir Gemeyel, the charismatic party chief who had been elected president, was assassinated. The Israelis knew what they were doing. Palestinians and Lebanese Christians had been massacring each other since the beginning of the civil war in 1975 in retaliatory atrocities. The Phalangist militia, created by Bashir Gemeyel’s father, Pierre Gemeyel, after he was impressed by Nazi pomp in 1930s Germany, was ruthless and looking for blood after Bashir’s killing. Under the protection of the Israeli military–Ariel Sharon was the defense minister–Phalangists, South Lebanon Army and Lebanese Forces personnel under the direction of Elie Hobeika entered the camps and spent the next two to three days mowing down up to 3,500 Palestinian civilians, under the pretext of looking for Palestinian militants. Hobeika had been Gemeyel’s right hand, and the sort of man who’d make Hannibal Lecter seem like a supreme court justice. The following year an Israeli commission found the Israeli army only indirectly responsible (its forces fired flares at night so the Christians could see who they were murdering) and Sharon was forced to resign, only to be subsequently elected prime minister. Hobeika was assassinated in 2002. Shatila is still a Palestinian refugee camp, one of 12 in Lebanon. It has grown ten-fold since the massacre.
Now this: After the Massacre: a 1983 BBC Documentary on the Lebanon War
Flagler Beach Webcam:
The Live Calendar is a compendium of local and regional political, civic and cultural events. You can input your own calendar events directly onto the site as you wish them to appear (pending approval of course). To include your event in the Live Calendar, please fill out this form.
January 2026
Free For All Fridays With Host David Ayres on WNZF
Flagler County Cultural Council (FC3) Meeting
Friday Blue Forum
‘Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill,’ the Billie Holiday Story, at City Rep Theatre
Flagler Beach Farmers Market
Coffee With Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley
Democratic Women’s Club
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
The Rainbow Bridge Dedication at Holland Park
‘Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill,’ the Billie Holiday Story, at City Rep Theatre
Random Acts of Insanity’s Roundup of Standups from Around Central Florida
ESL Bible Studies for Intermediate and Advanced Students
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village
Al-Anon Family Groups
For the full calendar, go here.
Happiness is not, except in very rare cases, something that drops into the mouth, like a ripe fruit, by the mere operation of fortunate circumstances. That is why I have called this book The Conquest of Happiness. For in a world so full of avoidable and unavoidable misfortunes, of illness and psychological tangles, of struggle and poverty and ill will, the man or woman who is to be happy must find ways of coping with the multitudinous causes of unhappiness by which each individual is assailed. In some rare cases no great effort may be required. A man of easy good nature, who inherits an ample fortune and enjoys good health together with simple tastes, may slip through life comfortably and wonder what all the fuss is about; a good-looking woman of an indolent disposition, if she happens to marry a well-to-do husband who demands no exertion from her, and if after marriage she does not mind growing fat, may equally enjoy a certain lazy comfort, provided she has good luck as regards her children. But such cases are exceptional. Most people are not rich; many people are not born good-natured; many people have uneasy passions which make a quiet and well-regulated life seem intolerably boring; health is a blessing which no one can be sure of preserving; marriage is not invariably a source of bliss. For all these reasons, happiness must be, for most men and women, an achievement rather than a gift of the gods, and in this achievement effort, both inward and outward, must play a great part.
–From Bertrand Russell’s The Conquest of Happiness (1930).
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