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Weather: Sunny. Highs in the upper 60s. West winds 10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 25 mph. Tonight: Clear. Lows in the mid 40s. North winds 5 to 10 mph. See the daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here.
Today at a Glance:
In Court: The sentencing is scheduled for today before Circuit Judge Terence Perkins in Courtroom 401 at the Flagler County Courthouse in the case of Brendan Depa, the former Matanzas High School special needs student accused of assaulting a paraprofessional, in an incident recorded on video, has been postponed. Depa tendered an open plea in late October, leaving the judge wide discretion to sentence him either as an adult or as a youthful offender. See: “Despite Severe Autism, Judge Finds Depa, Ex-Matanzas High Student, Competent to Be Tried for Assault on Aide,” “Brendan Depa’s Mother Tells Her Son’s Story,” and “The Brendan Depa I Have Come To Know.”
The Bronx Wanderers, at Flagler Auditorium, 7 p.m. 5500 State Road 100, Palm Coast, tickets $64 to $74. Book here. he Bronx Wanderers have been going strong for over 16 years and have amassed many accolades such as touring the entire country headlining festivals, PACs, and casinos, securing a permanent residency in Las Vegas from 2016 to the present, filling in for Frankie Valli in Dubai, being the first and only act to have opened for Tony Orlando and Danny Aiello, backing Dean Martin’s daughter, Deana, for multiple shows, performing the national anthem for the NY Rangers at Madison Square Garden and the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, and still managing to have time to volunteer and do charity benefits for the Win-Win Charity Organization, St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, and multiple Veterans and Armed Forces charities and galas.
Separation Chat, Open Discussion: The Atlantic Chapter of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State hosts an open, freewheeling discussion on the topic here in our community, around Florida and throughout the United States, noon to 1 p.m. at its new location, Pine Lakes Golf Club Clubhouse Pub & Grillroom (no purchase is necessary), 400 Pine Lakes Pkwy, Palm Coast (0.7 miles from Belle Terre Parkway). Call (386) 445-0852 for best directions. All are welcome! Everyone’s voice is important. For further information email [email protected] or call Merrill at 804-914-4460.
Weekly Chess Club for Teens, Ages 9-18, at the Flagler County Public Library: Do you enjoy Chess, trying out new moves, or even like some friendly competition? Come visit the Flagler County Public Library at the Teen Spot every Wednesday from 4 to 5 p.m. for Chess Club. Everyone is welcome, for beginners who want to learn how to play all the way to advanced players. For more information contact the Youth Service department 386-446-6763 ext. 3714 or email us at [email protected]
In Coming Days:
Editorial notebook: Alabama is proud of itself in a first-in-the-nation, chamber-of-commerce sort of way: last week it became the first state to kill (or premeditatedly murder, if we are to be morally technical about it) its first death row inmate, Kenneth Eugene Smith, in a gas chamber. Nitrogen gas, which suffocated Smith. Smith was convicted of the murder of Elizabeth Sennett, whose husband, Charles Sennett Sr., had recruited another man to kill her. The other man, Billy Gray Williams, hired Smith and John Foster Parker. Sennett killed himself within a week. Williams died in prison, serving a life sentence. Parker was murdered by lethal injection in 2020. Smith was the last man standing. There was an attempt to kill him by lethal injection in November 2022. It did not work. He became a lab rat for gas. He was killed at a prison at Atmore, Ala., a majority-Black town of 8,300 on the Florida border. The Times reported: “Mr. Smith, who was strapped to a gurney with a mask placed on his head, appeared conscious for several minutes after the nitrogen gas started flowing into the mask, depriving him of oxygen, according to a pool report from five Alabama journalists who witnessed the execution. State lawyers had previously claimed in court filings that an execution by nitrogen would ensure ‘unconsciousness in seconds.’ He then ‘shook and writhed’ for at least two minutes before beginning to breathe heavily for several minutes. Eventually, the journalists said, his breathing slowed until it was no longer apparent.” Even that simple description is repugnant, the prose equivalent of a snuff film. “Lee Hedgepeth, a reporter in Alabama who witnessed the execution, said Mr. Smith’s head moved back and forth violently in the minutes after the execution began. ‘This was the fifth execution that I’ve witnessed in Alabama, and I have never seen such a violent reaction to an execution,’ Mr. Hedgepeth said.” Before he was killed, Smith delivered a statement, saying, in part: “Tonight, Alabama caused humanity to take a step backward.” Alabama is now boasting of being a model to other states having a hard time getting lethal injection drugs. Atmore, it is said, was to be called Carney, after one of its earlier founders. It should be renamed Zyklon A, the A for Alabama.
—P.T.
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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.
January 2026
Palm Coast Code Enforcement Board Meeting
Separation Chat: Open Discussion
Flagler Beach Library Book Club
The Circle of Light A Course in Miracles Study Group
Flagler County Republican Club Meeting
Flagler Beach Parks Ad Hoc Committee
Flagler Beach United Methodist Church Food Pantry
Flagler County Drug Court Convenes
Model Yacht Club Races at the Pond in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Palm Coast Democratic Club Meeting
Flagler Beach City Commission Meeting
Evenings at Whitney Lecture Series
Free For All Fridays With Host David Ayres on WNZF
Friday Blue Forum
For the full calendar, go here.
Man kills to obtain food and kills to clothe himself. He kills to adorn himself and he kills in order to attack. He kills in order to defend himself and he kills in order to instruct himself. He kills to amuse himself and he kills in order to kill. Proud and terrible king, he wants everything and nothing can resist him … From the lamb [he demands] its guts to make his harp resound … from the wolf his deadliest tooth to polish his trifling works of art, from the elephant his tusks to make a toy for his child: his tables he covers with corpses … But who [in the general carnage] will exterminate the one who exterminates all the others? He will himself. It is man who is charged with the slaughter of men . .. Thus is accomplished .. the great law of the violent destruction of living creatures. The whole earth, perpetually steeped in blood, is nothing but a vast altar, upon which all that is living must be sacrificed without end, without measure, without pause, until the consummation of things, until evil is extinct, until the death of death.
—Joseph de Maistre, quoted in Isaiah Berlin’s Freedom and Its Betrayals (2002).
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