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Weather: Mostly cloudy. A chance of showers, mainly in the morning. Highs in the upper 70s. North winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40 percent. Friday Night: Mostly cloudy. Lows in the lower 60s. Northwest winds 5 to 10 mph.Check tropical cyclone activity here, and even more details here. See the daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here.
Today at a Glance:
In Court: Brandon Washington, the notorious gang leader sentenced to several life terms a decade ago, is back in court before Circuit Judge Terence Perkins, contesting his sentence. The hearing is at 9:30 a.m. At 11:45, Perkins is expected to accept a plea in the case of Willie Gardner, who faces several third degree felony counts of cruelty toward animals. See: “Willie Gardner, 28, Faces 4 Counts of Aggravated Animal Cruelty in Case of Wounded, Neglected Pit Bulls.”
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. Today, David welcomes Palm Coast Council member Ed Danko and Code Enforcement Manager Barbara Grossman to talk about peddlers, the Sheriff’s Mike Lutz to talk about holiday scammers, and Sara Ulis to talk about the Palm Coast Boat Parade. See previous podcasts here. On WNZF at 94.9 FM and 1550 AM.
The Blue 24 Forum, a discussion group organized by local Democrats, meets at 12:15 p.m. at the conference room behind the Beverly Beach Town Hall, 2735 North Oceanshore Boulevard, Beverly Beach. It normally meets at the Palm Coast Community Center, but will be meeting at Beverly Beach through Aug. 11. Come and add your voice to local, state and national political issues.
In Coming Days:
Notably: If you haven’t been to Flagler Beach lately, you may be in for a little shock downtown. Flagler Beach City Commissioner Rick Belhumeur took this video of the construction site for the future Margaritaville Hotel, in the lot that used to be home to the city’s farmer’s market eons ago, and that had been fallow since Covid. It is also the very lot where Flagler Beach’s hotel used to rise several stories until 1972.
—P.T.
Now this: This played while this Briefing was being prepared. No reason it shouldn’t be shared more widely. Mitsuko Uchida at the piano, Seiji Ozawa conducting the Saito Kinen Orchestra.
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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.
August 2025
Free For All Fridays With Host David Ayres on WNZF
Friday Blue Forum
Flagler Beach Farmers Market
Coffee With Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
For the full calendar, go here.
The Majestic came gliding into New York harbor on an April morning. She sniffed at the tugboats and turtle-gaited ferries, winked at a gaudy young yacht, and ordered a cattle-boat out of her way with a snarling whistle of steam. Then she parked at her private dock with all the fuss of a stout lady sitting down, and announced complacently that she had just come from Cherbourg and Southampton with a cargo of the very best people in the world.
–From F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Rags Martin Jones and the Pr-nce of W-les.”
Ray W. says
The Majestic travelling from Cherbourg, carrying the very best people. Reminds me of Thomas Jefferson as a young man writing in one of his books a quote from Euripides: “To be of the noble born gives a peculiar distinction clearly marked upon men, and the noble name increases in lustre in those who are worthy.”
Thomas Jefferson, as a young man, owned thousands of acres of land in three separate estates, owned well over 100 slaves, and was one of the wealthy elites of the Virginia cavalier-class that ruled Virginia in the King’s name.
For those among us who place great weight on the “original intent” of the founding fathers, I ask just when exactly did this original intent crystallize into one single enduring form among the myriad of disparate ideals, hopes, obligations, and vainglories argued endlessly among the roughly four million Americans who ratified through their representatives our grand experiment in a liberal democratic Constitutional republic? Even the great Thomas Jefferson held monarchist ideals at least once in his life.
Since we are less than a year away from a national election, I expect to read from time-to-time comments that include the Jefferson quote dating from before the Constitutional Convention that a little revolution can be a good thing from time to time. But Jefferson’s family saved some 18,000 of Jefferson’s letters and some 25,000 letters he had received from others. In one of Jefferson’s letters, to John Langdon in 1808, when war with England seemed eminent, he wrote: “I think one war enough for the life of one man.”
Philip says
‘Trump Presidential Library’
Now there’s an oxymoron if there ever was one! 😂
Edgar Gonzalez says
You have to love being blinded by your love for ignorance. As you are one. Ask yourself a question… the economy was better or worse than now? All your cartoons are against the USA. Against our beliefs and our Constitution. You should ask yourself why you are free and from where and how that freedom come from. I come from Communism-Socialism, i see you know nothing about it. And if you say that you know, then yet you write and drawing in favor of the worst thing that can happen to this country. A king in place and you are a slave. That’s what you are rooting for. Is like knowing an asteroid is about to hit earth and kill everyone and you are cheering for that to happen. I know what you do is for money and to attract more people to read your articles, but that’s old fashion and old news. That’s the reason many are passing your page and not looking at it. Wake up and get out of that trend of Ignorance.
Pierre Tristam says
Edgar, what matters is that you are one of our four, sometimes five, readers. But you’re right, an asteroid just about now might be good relief, though I’m afraid just one may not be enough: it might just wipe out only the dinosaurs again (i.e. Republicans), when we might need a more pre-Cambrian type explosion (look how wonderful it was the last time. Actually, we’ve wiped out most of those species so it may be hard to see). Anyway, sorry about my ignorance, I’m only trying to honor my state.
The dude says
The Cheeto Jesus literally stood on a stage in front of the evangelicals the other night and sang… SANG praises for honest to god true dictators Xi, Putin, and Erdogan.
And here’s Edgar defending that.
You just can’t make this sh*t up.
Just don’t say it’s a cult…
Whathehck? says
Thank you Pierre for sharing the marvelous performer that Ms. Uchida is. Her Mozart’s piano concerti bring tear to my eyes because she interprets them with so much soul. A moment of paradise.
Laurel says
Dear Edgar: Your boy Trump wants to end the Constitution as it doesn’t work for him personally. Now, which political system do you come from, communism or socialism, and how is it you represent all Americans?