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Weather: Partly sunny. Highs in the mid 80s. Southeast winds 10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 25 mph. Wednesday Night: Mostly cloudy in the evening, then becoming partly cloudy. Lows in the upper 60s. Southeast winds 10 to 15 mph. See the daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here.
Today at a Glance:
In Court: The trial of Marcus Avery Chamblin enters its third day at 9 a.m. in Circuit Judge Terence Perkins’s courtroom, Room 401 at the Flagler County courthouse. Chamblin, 29, is one of two co-defendants facing first degree murder and attempted second degree murder charges in the 2019 shooting death of of Deon O’Neil Jenkins and the wounding of another man, S.T., as they sat in a car at the Circle K on Palm Coast Parkway early the morning of Oct. 12, 2019. Chamblin’s co-defendant, Derrius Bauer, is to be tried in September. See:
- Firearms, Circumstantial Evidence and ‘Eclipse Time’ Punctuate Jury Selection in Circle K Murder Trial
- Marcus Chamblin’s Defense Loses Almost All Key Motions It Sought Ahead of Circle K Murder Trial
- Circle K Murder Trial of Marcus Chamblin Is Set for April 8, With Co-Conspirator’s Trial Soon to Follow
- 2 Arrested in ‘Targeted’ Circle K Murder in 2019 Following Extensive Investigation of 15 Months
- Search Warrant in Palm Coast’s B-Section Suggests Target In Sight in Circle K Murder Investigation
- 2 People Shot in a Car on Palm Coast Parkway, 1 Killed, 1 Wounded, Assailant at Large
Flagler Tiger Bay Club Guest Speaker: Paul Peterson, Regional Vice President First Trust Portfolios, L.P., 11:30 a.m. at Hammock Dunes Club, 30 Avenue Royale, Palm Coast. Tickets are $35 for members, $40 for non-members. Peterson will discuss the 2024 economic outlook and impacts of the current political landscape on the broader economy. Peterson works with financial professionals to help them implement Unit Investment Trusts, Mutual Funds and Exchange-Traded Funds into their practice. He has over 20 years in the financial services industry and works closely with each financial professional to provide him or her with industry-leading economic and market commentary, portfolio analysis and practice management consulting. Previously, he was at Van Kampen and Invesco where he specialized in Mutual Funds and Unit Investment Trusts. Peterson is a graduate of Loras College where he earned a degree in Mathematics and in Education.
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.
Navy Bombing in the Ocala National Forest: Navy training schedules indicate that inert and live bombing will take place at the Pinecastle Range Complex located in the Ocala National Forest this week. Bombings at times can be heard in Flagler-Palm Coast. The bombings are scheduled as follows:
Today – 7 a.m.-4 p.m. (Blow in Place)
Thursday – 7 a.m.-4 p.m. (Blow in Place)
During bombing periods wildlife may be temporarily displaced. Use extra caution when driving through the Ocala National forest and surrounding areas. Secure any items around your residence that could attract wildlife. Always be mindful of larger animals including black bears and practice bearwise measures. The telephone number for noise complaints is 1-800-874-5059, Fleet Area Control and Surveillance Facility, Jacksonville, Fla. For additional information, call (904) 542-5588.
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]
 Keep Their Lights On Over the Holidays: Flagler Cares, the social service non-profit celebrating its 10th anniversary, is marking the occasion with a fund-raiser to "Keep the Holiday Lights On" by encouraging people to sponsor one or more struggling household's electric bill for a month over the Christmas season. Each sponsorship amounts to $100 donation, with every cent going toward payment of a local power bill. See the donation page here. Every time another household is sponsored, a light goes on on top of a house at Flagler Cares' fundraising page. The goal of the fun-raiser, which Flagler Cares would happily exceed, is to support at least 100 families (10 households for each of the 10 years that Flagler Cares has been in existence). Flagler Cares will start taking applications for the utility fund later this month. Because of its existing programs, the organization already has procedures in place to vet people for this type of assistance, ensuring that only the needy qualify. |
Notably: A few days ago press reports were twisting and turning around a study of some 20,000 adults that linked greater chances of heart attacks with intermittent fasting, that relatively recent diet craze. The highlights, as one site had them: “A study of over 20,000 adults found that those who followed an 8-hour time-restricted eating schedule, a type of intermittent fasting, had a 91% higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease. People with heart disease or cancer also had an increased risk of cardiovascular death. Compared with a standard schedule of eating across 12-16 hours per day, limiting food intake to less than 8 hours per day was not associated with living longer.” Press reports pushed by editors who like to fast were eager to point out that the study did not condemn all intermittent fasting, maybe just the eight-hour kind. But Herman Melville’s advice to the Navy predates all this. In White-Jacket, his account of a year aboard a frigate, he wrote of enduring just such fasts: “Eight o’clock for breakfast; twelve for dinner; four for supper; and no meals but these; no lunches and no cold snacks. Owing to this arrangement (and partly to one watch going to their meals before the other, at sea), all the meals of the twenty-four hours are crowded into a space of less than eight! Sixteen mortal hours elapse between supper and breakfast; including, to one watch, eight hours on deck! This is barbarous; any physician will tell you so. Think of it! Before the Commodore has dined, you have supped. And in high latitudes, in summer-time, you have taken your last meal for the day, and five hours, or more, daylight to spare! Mr. Secretary of the Navy, in the name of the people, you should interpose in this matter. Many a time have I, a maintop-man, found myself actually faint of a tempestuous morning watch, when all my energies were demanded—owing to this miserable, unphilosophical mode of allotting the government meals at sea. We beg you, Mr. Secretary, not to be swayed in this matter by the Honourable Board of Commodores, who will no doubt tell you that eight, twelve, and four are the proper hours for the people to take their Meals; inasmuch, as at these hours the watches are relieved. For, though this arrangement makes a neater and cleaner thing of it for the officers, and looks very nice and superfine on paper; yet it is plainly detrimental to health; and in time of war is attended with still more serious consequences to the whole nation at large. If the necessary researches were made, it would perhaps be found that in those instances where men-of-war adopting the above-mentioned hours for meals have encountered an enemy at night, they have pretty generally been beaten; that is, in those cases where the enemies’ meal times were reasonable; which is only to be accounted for by the fact that the people of the beaten vessels were fighting on an empty stomach instead of a full one.”
—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.
Book Dragons, the Kids’ Book Club, at Flagler Beach Public Library
NAACP Flagler Branch General Membership Meeting
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy
River to Sea Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) Meeting
Fall Horticultural Workshops
Separation Chat: Open Discussion
The Circle of Light A Course in Miracles Study Group
Weekly Chess Club for Teens, Ages 9-18, at the Flagler County Public Library
Flagler County Drug Court Convenes
Model Yacht Club Races at the Pond in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Palm Coast Beautification and Environmental Advisory Committee
Flagler Beach City Commission Meeting
For the full calendar, go here.
At last, one morning I came on deck, and they told me that Ireland was in sight. Ireland in sight! A foreign country actually visible! I peered hard, but could see nothing but a bluish, cloud-like spot to the northeast. Was that Ireland? Why, there was nothing remarkable about that; nothing startling. If that’s the way a foreign country looks, I might as well have staid at home.
–From Melville’s Redburn (1849).
Ray W. says
I accept that my comment is unrelated to this article.
On April 2nd, Florida’s oversight commission took up FP&L’s proposal to end its storm fund surcharge that was approved to cover hurricane-related costs and
to temporarily reduce its fuel charge rate increase that was approved some time ago after natural gas prices rose due to U.S. and EU sanctions on Russian exports of natural gas. I cannot yet find an article about the commission’s final decision.
If approved, the end of the hurricane surcharge will occur later this month. The fuel charge rate reduction will occur in May. Combined, the two adjustments, if approved, will reduce Flagler County residential electricity rates by just over 10%.
Due to a mild winter in both Europe and North America, combined with record American natural gas production levels, Henry Hub natural gas futures have plummeted in price. The average price for 1000 cubic feet (kcf) of natural gas on the American market in November 2005, just before the American fracking boom began, was $13.42. The average price for American natural gas for the month of March 2014 was $1.49, a nearly 90% reduction in price. To provide better context, in December 2021, just before Russia invaded the Ukraine, the Henry Hub price averaged $4.69 per kcf. By August 2022, the average price had climbed to $8.81.
Since many of our domestic oil wells also produce natural gas, more recent American drilling activities driven by artificially inflated crude oil prices ever since OPEC+ began manipulating the international marketplace via implementation of a number of voluntary crude oil production cuts have produced record amounts of American natural gas. FP&L raised prices after the start of the war in the Ukraine. Now, it is seeking to lower prices.
More on this subject in time.