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Weather: Sunny. A chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Highs in the mid 90s. Southwest winds around 5 mph. Chance of rain 50 percent. Heat index values up to 107. Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy. A chance of showers and thunderstorms in the evening. Lows in the mid 70s. South winds around 5 mph in the evening, becoming light and variable. Chance of rain 50 percent.
- Daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here.
- Drought conditions here. (What is the Keetch-Byram drought index?).
- Check today’s tides in Flagler Beach here.
- tropical cyclone activity here, and even more details here.
Today at a Glance:
Election Primary Early Voting is available today from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at four locations. Any registered and qualified voter who is eligible to vote in a county-wide election may vote in person at the early voting site. According to Florida law, every voter must present a Florida driver’s license, a Florida identification card or another form of acceptable picture and signature identification in order to vote. If you do not present the required identification or if your eligibility cannot be determined, you will only be permitted to vote a provisional ballot. Don’t forget your ID. A couple of secure drop boxes that Ron DeSantis and the GOP legislature haven’t yet banned (also known as Secure Ballot Intake Stations) are available at the entrance of the Elections Office and at any early voting site during voting hours. The locations are as follows:
- Flagler County Elections Supervisor’s Office, Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell.
- Flagler County Public Library, 2500 Palm Coast Pkwy NW, Palm Coast.
- Palm Coast Community Center, 305 Palm Coast Parkway NE.
- Flagler Beach United Methodist Church, 1520 South Daytona Avenue, Flagler Beach.
See a sample ballot here. See the Live Interviews with all local candidates below.
Flagler County School Board Derek Barrs, Dist. 3 Janie Ruddy, Dist. 3 Lauren Ramirez, Dist. 5 Vincent Sullivan, Dist. 5 Flagler County Commission Andy Dance, Dist. 1 Fernando Melendez, Dist. 1 Kim Carney, Dist. 3 Bill Clark, Dist. 3 Nick Klufas, Dist. 3 Ed Danko, Dist. 5 Pam Richardson, Dist. 5 Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin Peter Johnson Alan Lowe Cornelia Manfre Mike Norris Palm Coast City Council Kathy Austrino, Dist. 1 Shara Brodsky, Dist. 1 Ty Miller, Dist. 1 Jeffrey Seib, Dist. 1 Dana Stancel, Dist. 3 Ray Stevens, Dist. 3 Andrew Werner, Dist. 3 |
The Palm Coast City Council meets in workshop at 9 a.m. at City Hall. For agendas, minutes, and audio access to the meetings, go here. For meeting agendas, audio and video, go here.
The Community Traffic Safety Team led by Flagler County Commissioner Andy Dance meets at 9 a.m. in the third-floor Commissioner Conference Room at the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell. You may also join virtually by computer, mobile app or room device. Click here to join the meeting. Meeting ID: 276 236 998 121 Passcode: CyEKoW [Download Teams | Join on the web]
The Flagler County Planning Board meets at 5 p.m. in joint session with the Flagler County Commission at the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell, to discuss the county’s comprehensive plan. See board documents, including agendas and background materials, here. Watch the meeting or past meetings here.
The St. Johns River Water Management District Governing Board holds its regular monthly meeting at its Palatka headquarters. The public is invited to attend and to offer in-person comment on Board agenda items. Check here to verify the time. A livestream will also be available for members of the public to observe the meeting online. Governing Board Room, 4049 Reid St., Palatka. Click this link to access the streaming broadcast. The live video feed begins approximately five minutes before the scheduled meeting time. Meeting agendas are available online here.
The Flagler Beach Library Book Club meets at 5 p.m. at the library, 315 South Seventh Street, Flagler Beach.
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy, 8 p.m. at Cinematique Theater, 242 South Beach Street, Daytona Beach. General admission is $8.50. Every Tuesday and on the first Saturday of every month the Random Acts of Insanity Comedy Improv Troupe specializes in performing fast-paced improvised comedy.
 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: Not to jinx it, but the American election campaign so far, perhaps with the trumpists focused on demonizing Harris’s southern border record, has not been too rabidly anti-Muslim, or much conscious of Islam as a wedge, as it traditionally has in the past. Must be a matter of time. These words from an Edward Said piece in the New York Times Magazine from 1993 (“The Phony Islamic Threat”) seem a useful reminder: “There is a particularly misleading impression given by American journalists and academics who write about Islamic fundamentalism that the fanatics and zealots are on one side of some great divide, their victims and opponents (most of whom seem silent) on the other. Phrases like “Mohammed’s armies” or the “Islamic threat” suggest an emanation from out of the desert into otherwise faceless societies; it is as if a tribe of aliens had suddenly appeared over the horizon and invaded a placid village. The reality is very different. All of the major Arab countries, with the exception of Lebanon, declare in their constitutions that the state religion is Islam. A huge majority of Arabs today are in fact Muslim (the word Muslim is less provocative and more habitual for most Arabs; the word Islamic has acquired an activist, even aggressive quality that belies the more ambiguous reality), although there are Muslim as well as several Christian Arab minorities too. Islam is a religion, but it is also a culture; the Arabic language is the same for Muslims as it is for Christians, both of whom, believers and nonbelievers alike, are deeply affected — perhaps the better word is inflected — by the Koran, which is also in Arabic. Of course, there are distinctly Christian traditions inside the Islamic world: I myself belong to one. But it would be grossly inaccurate to think of them as separate and outside Islam, which includes us all.” Now take those words and apply them to American pluralism, such as it’s been. Substitute liberal and conservative for Christian and Muslim, or Republican and Democratic, or any one of those divisive identities we think are more hermetic than they really are (man and woman, for that matter), and see the curious results. It’s a useful exercise, and it can, it should, always end with the line, which includes us all.
—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.
Free For All Fridays With Host David Ayres on WNZF
Scenic A1A Pride Meeting
Blue 24 Forum
Acoustic Jam Circle At The Community Center In The Hammock
Flagler County’s Cold-Weather Shelter Opens
Flagler Beach Farmers Market
Coffee With Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
It’s Back! Gamble Jam at Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area
For the full calendar, go here.
I thought about the apocryphal story of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon and muttering, “Good luck, Mr. Gorsky,” because as a young boy in Ohio he had heard his neighbors the Gorskys quarreling over Mr. G.’s desire for a blowjob. “When the boy next door walks on the moon, that’s when you’ll get that,” Mrs. Gorsky replied. Sadly, the story was not true, but my friend Allegra Huston had made a funny film about it.
–From Salman Rushdie, Knife (2024).
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Ray W. says
The Salman Rushdie excerpt reminds me that the art of persuasion is all around us, yet so many fail to understand its importance.
I heard this story from my father many times. He prosecuted a woman who had shot and killed her husband as he neared the doorstep at the end of his workday. Billy Judge, the former elected State Attorney, represented the wife; he had just retired and my father, one of his assistants, had been elected to replace him (when my father left the position, they became partners).
Mr. Judge, at the appropriate time, elected to have the wife tell her story to the jury, only she never fully told her story. Each time he asked her to explain why she had shot her husband, she partially explained that her husband had for years forced her to do unspeakable things. When Mr. Judge asked, “What things?”, she repeatedly broke into deep sobs. The judge immediately took a court recess. Once recovered, the process repeated. My father got no further with her on cross-examination.
Without ever knowing just what she had been forced to do, the jury acquitted.
Every lawyer strives to corral the finer points of the art of persuasion. So many FlaglerLive commenters are oblivious of the three forms of persuasion. So many gullible FlaglerLive commenters fully accept a lie without critiquing the lie; they then think that by regurgitating someone else’s lie, they can automatically persuade other people that the lie is the truth.
Ed P. is correct when he asserts that there are serious problems in our immigration system. Recently, he tried to persuade FlaglerLive readers that an internet hoax about more that 10 million undocumented immigrants entering during the years of the Biden administration was true. I called him on the number. He did some of his own study and acknowledged the error. Yes, Ed P presents as a commenter with a possible malicious streak. But a number of Ed P’s comments are on point, well-reasoned, and persuasive at a certain level. Whether I agree with him is of no importance. The point is that I know he can be persuasive if only he allows himself to put in the effort.
I have written of this a number of times. Bruce Grove was accused of murdering Deputy Chuck Sease while exiting southbound I-95 at S.R. 100. Prior to trial, I never asked Mr. Grove what he saw as he lost control of his ex-wife’s car, but I knew that he saw something horrible for anyone to behold. I knew from experience with previous clients that if I asked him to describe what he had seen too soon, he would have had the cathartic release in my office instead of in front of the jury.
As I prepared for trial, I noticed during depositions that a significant number of the law enforcement witnesses truly hated Mr. Grove. Our defense strategy evolved to use that hatred against those officers.
During voir dire, I introduced the idea to jurors that a person can be guilty of one thing and not guilty of another. During opening statements, I argued that Mr. Grove was guilty of DUI manslaughter, not first-degree murder. Throughout the trial, I emphasized whenever possible the level of his intoxication (blood test of 0.196, as I recall). Witness after witness exaggerated, minimized, distorted, changed, and outright lied to the jury. They just hated Mr. Grove so much and they let the jury know that. Their accounts of what happened diverged significantly from the physical evidence and from each other’s accounts. An independent witness who had been vacationing in the area described seeing the stolen car being driven away in one direction. The initial officer who encountered Mr. Grove described the car traveling down an entirely different road. The physical evidence at a different off-ramp in Palm Coast proved that Mr. Grove was power sliding in an arc to return to the off-ramp in the wrong direction in a way that disproved as impossible an officer’s claim that Mr. Grove was trying to hit him, according to the trooper’s scene reconstruction testimony. A Flagler Beach officers had Mr. Grove driving in a completely different direction at that off-ramp. A pursuing deputy testified that flashing strobe lights late at night at an unlit offramp do not interfere with vision if one looks at them. But it was the body language, the angry tone of voice, that made my points to the jury. When Mr. Grove testified, I finally asked him to describe what he saw through the windshield, when I asked him to describe Deputy Sease’s facial expression as his face hit the windshield. The outpouring of raw emotion, uncontrollable sobbing, struggling words. There is no way to actually describe the moment.
The jury acquitted Mr. Grove of first-degree murder. They convicted of second-degree murder. I immediately orally moved for an acquittal notwithstanding the verdict. I argued that the proper charge was DUI manslaughter of an officer. At the post-verdict hearing, the trial judge agreed and imposed a verdict of guilty to that charge.
The goal should always be to persuade. Winning is a bonus, not the goal.
Ray W. says
Reuters is reporting that American shale oil producers have been focusing on extraction efficiencies.
For example, “Chevron said it was one of the first to deploy triple-fracking technology, which fracks three wells in quick succession, reducing costs by more than 10% and shortening completion times by 25%.”
If I understand this accurately, the shale oil industry has long been horizontally fracking wells one drill at a time. Chevron is bringing in one horizontal drilling rig and drilling in three different directions, one after the other, like spokes in a wheel. According to the article, now “new well production per rig rose to 1,400 barrels per day. …” Many months ago, I looked up this figure on the Texas Railroad Commission website. At that time, each new horizontal drill yielded 960 barrels per day, according to 2022 figures.
Quicker drilling times means each rig can drill more wells per year. According to the article, previously, a horizontal drilling rig could drill 24 wells per year. Now, the average is up to 26 rigs per year, and not all shale oil companies have yet to adopt Chevron’s approach.
If it takes fewer rigs to drill wells and if each well is yielding more oil per day, then it seems reasonable to argue that fewer horizontal rigs are necessary to increase overall production rates. The article cites that over the past five years, the average number of operating horizontal rig counts has dropped by 100 to a total of 295 working rigs.
When I last commented on the average length of horizontal wells being drilled in the Permian Basin, relying on Texas Railroad Commission data from 2022, the average length of the “pay zone” (actual drilling through the oil-bearing portions of shale rock) was just over 10,000 feet, up from just under a mile 10 years earlier. Now, the article reflects, the length of a horizontal drill can extend as much as three miles.
While the reporter does not address this issue, I read a Texas supreme court ruling that issued about two years ago. The court held that drillers did not have to pay mineral rights if they drill horizontally under someone else’s property. However convenient that ruling was for energy producers, it seems that the length of horizontally drilled wells has skyrocketed. And a significant number of smaller energy producers are being purchased by larger companies.
When I last looked, according to Texas figures, there are roughly 150,000 existing oil wells in the three fields that comprise the Texas portion of the Permian Basin. Each of those 150,000 wells can be drilled repeatedly in different directions by horizontal drilling rigs. For example, one well on the edge of a Texas university has been horizontally drilled 26 times, which was the highest number I could find.
Is it reasonable to argue that whichever company owns rights to drill in the Permian Basin is becoming more and more valuable as technological gains continue to occur? The author thinks so. Quoting the CFO of Diamondback, a shale oil energy producer, the reporter wrote: “Diamondback will be stingy with any divestitures in the Permian as producing wells are ‘kind of worth their weight in gold.'”
A worldwide avalanche of technological innovation is underway.
In 2009, when Bush left office, the U.S. was producing on average just over 5 million barrels of crude oil per day. Thanks to advances in 3-D imaging, horizontal drilling, and fracking compounds, the U.S. is averaging well over 13 million barrels per day and rising.
Solar technology breakthroughs have brought the amortized cost of producing electricity over the 30-year lifespan of a solar farm so low that it is by a significant margin the cheapest way to produce electricity.
Windmill advances are lowering costs, too.
Battery technology innovations are manifold. BYD is selling full-size EV cars in China with a range approaching 675 miles. The battery is claimed to be rechargeable 10,000 times. Anyone can do the math. The battery has a lifetime of up to 6.75 million miles. Their city-car equivalent to a Japanese city-car sells for $12,000 with the extended range battery, which has a range of 262 miles. City-cars don’t need batteries that can go 675 miles. They use smaller, lighter batteries, designed for that class of car. Their standard city-car, with an even smaller battery with a lesser range, sells for $10,000. Biden imposed a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs. Even Elon Musk says that releasing these cars into the American market would devastate the auto industry.
After the political fiasco known as Solyndra, we stupidly ceded the solar and battery fields to China. Decades of American developmental advances were lost to the corrosive efforts of lobbyists of the energy industry and to a blind and stupid Congress. I accept that blaming people brings us nothing. The reality is that we need to vastly ramp up our solar and battery sectors to stay relevant. Now that it is scientifically impossible to deny that battery technology has improved to true economic viability, the gullible among us grasp at any irrational straw to deny the obvious.
Ray W. says
More on the subject of vivid imagery and the importance of its role in persuasiveness.
David Frum, of The Atlantic, critiqued former President Trump’s interview by Elon Musk. He described it thus:
“Meandering, solipsistic, and crushingly boring — the interview was an awful premonition of the rest of Trump’s life should he lose again in November: wandering the corridors of his clubs, going from table to table, buttonholing the dwindling number of guests, monologuing relentlessly until they squirm away.”
Laurel says
Ray W.: It was dithhhhpikable!
Pogo says
@Please, may we have some more
As stated
https://www.google.com/search?q=abandoned+us+oil+wells