Weather: Areas of dense fog in the morning. Partly cloudy. Highs in the mid 80s. Northwest winds around 5 mph, becoming northeast in the afternoon. Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy. Patchy fog after midnight. Lows in the upper 60s. Northeast winds around 5 mph.
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Today at the Editor’s Glance:
Early Voting and voting by mail: Voting is ongoing for the general election, culminating with Election day on Nov. 8. See a sample ballot here. Early voting is on, through November 5, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at four sites in the county, listed here. You may vote early at any of the four sites regardless of your precinct location. To vote by mail, request your mail-in ballot here. Because of the Legislature’s new law, restricting voting convenience, drop boxes are available, but only to a limited degree. The ballot drop box at the Elections Office will be monitored by a staff member beginning 60 days prior to the election, through Election Day. This drop box will no longer be available after office hours or on weekends, except during the early voting period. Other drop boxes will be available at early voting locations, but only during the days of early voting, and only during voting hours. Mail ballots must be received in the Elections Office by 7 p.m. on Election Day in order to be counted. If returning your ballot by mail, please allow at least ten days for delivery. A postmark does not extend this deadline. You may track your ballot here. All other election-procedure related inquiries can be answered at the Elections Office’s website.
Will Furry Courtney VandeBunte Flagler County Commission Jane Gentile-Youd (NPA) Leann Pennington (R) Palm Coast City Council Alan Lowe, District 2 Theresa Carli Pontieri, District 2 Fernando Melendez, District 4 Cathy Heighter, District 4 Background Flagler County Voters Will Vote on Whether to Retain 11 Judges Will Furry Chooses Sleaze. Again. Elections 2022 |
In Court: It’s docket sounding day in felony court.
The Medical Examiners Commission Search Committee for the 23rd District, which includes Flagler, Putnam and St. Johns County, meets at 9:30 a.m. in the in the SJC Training & Education Center, 500 San Sebastian View, St. Augustine, to review applications for a new medical examiner for the district. The appointment of the new medical examiner is to take the place of Dr. Pedrag Bulic, who died unexpectedly in late July after a 12-year tenure. Dr. Jon Thogmartin has been serving as the interim medical examiner. Thogmartin gained national prominence in 2005 when he was the medical examiner who conducted the autopsy on Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged woman at the center of a right-to-die controversy that involved then-Gov. Jeb Bush and President Bush. Thogmartin at the time confirmed through the autopsy that Schiavo had been in a persistent vegetative state. (“This damage was irreversible,” he said at the time. “No amount of therapy or treatment would have regenerated the massive loss of neurons.”) See the manual for medical examiner searches’ procedures here. See: “Unexpected Death of Dr. Bulic, Medical Examiner for Flagler and 2 Other Counties, Triggers Key Process.”
The Flagler County School Board meets at 3 p.m. in workshop to go over the items on its upcoming school board meeting two weeks hence. It’ll go over the agenda that includes a farewell to Board members Trevor Tucker, Jill Woolbright and Janet McDonald. The board meets in the training room on the third floor of the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell. Board meeting documents are available here.
The Palm Coast City Council meets at 6 p.m. at City Hall. The council will declare November Shirley Chisolm Month and likely approve a couple of rezoning items concerning 30 acres on U.S. 1 and Whiteview Parkway. For agendas, minutes, and audio access to the meetings, go here. For meeting agendas, audio and video, go here. See the full agenda and background materials here.
In Coming Days:
5th Annual Hidden Treasures at Hidden Trails Community Sale, November 5, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Hidden Trails Community Center and Park, 6108 Mahogany Boulevard, Bunnell (in Daytona North.) The event is in cooperation with Flagler County government. Aside from endless treasures, there will be live music, food vendors, and tons of fun. Support small business, and give those who share treasures the opportunity to gain from it, as well as those who take them home. There will be Antiques, Appliances, Tools, Jewelry, Art of every genre, Crafts of every kind, Vendors who have small businesses to encourage prosperity, and so much more. You can make new friends, listen to great music, eat delicious food, enjoy raffles and family fun, and so much more. Bring your Mom, or buy her something beautiful and unique. If you are a Flagler Resident, Artist, Crafter, or Vendor, please sign up, and meet us there.
Call, Text, Email to 386-295-0611, or [email protected] or visit the event “Hidden Treasures at Hidden trails” on Facebook.
FEMA Assistance Reminder: If you were impacted by Hurricane Ian and live in one of the 26 counties designated for disaster assistance, Flagler County among them, FEMA may be able to help. To apply you can visit a Disaster Recovery Center, go online to disasterassistance.gov use the FEMA app on your smartphone, or call 800-621-3362. The line is open every day from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Notably: Today is All Saints’ Day, also known as All Hallows, in the Catholic calendar. It is also te anniversary of the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, unremarkable in a history of endless earthquakes but for Voltaire’s poem denouncing optimism in its wake:
Unhappy mortals! Dark and mourning earth!
Affrighted gathering of human kind!
Eternal lingering of useless pain!
Come, ye philosophers, who cry, “All’s well,”
And contemplate this ruin of a world.
Behold these shreds and cinders of your race,
This child and mother heaped in common wreck,
These scattered limbs beneath the marble shafts–
A hundred thousand whom the earth devours,
Who, torn and bloody, palpitating yet,
Entombed beneath their hospitable roofs,
In racking torment end their stricken lives.
To those expiring murmurs of distress,
To that appalling spectacle of woe,
Will ye reply: “You do but illustrate
The iron laws that chain the will of God”?
A Halloween-sighting afterthoughts: Sheriff Woody, Jessie and Thor outside the Flagler County courthouse Monday evening:
Now this:
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.
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Acoustic Jam Circle At The Community Center In The Hammock
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center
For the full calendar, go here.
Christina Pushaw, whose official title is director of rapid response for the governor but whose role could be more accurately described as minister of propaganda, held forth at a panel on marginalizing independent media. The challenge, she explained ruefully, is that many older Americans, such as her parents, still give some credence to old-line outfits like the New York Times. This reputation, she believes, comes from the perception that they have access to both parties, so the correct response by Republicans is to freeze out the mainstream media. “If they have no access to any Republican elected officials, they are seen for what they are,” she proposed. Pushaw stressed that Republicans should not even concede that reporters are journalists at all. She instructed the audience to call them “activists.” Pushaw told the audience that Orban’s government gave her inspiration for this tactic. “The New Yorker wrote to Orban and asked for comment on their hit piece, and they received a response that was just perfect. It said, We are not going to participate in the validation process for liberal propaganda,'” she recounted, “and I don’t think we need to participate in that validation process either.” Instead, she noted, DeSantis gives access to conservative sites, which then get quotes and scooplets they can use to build their audience.
–From Jonathan Chait’s “How To Build a Semi-Fascist Party,” New York, October 18, 2022.
