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Weather: Partly sunny with a chance of showers and thunderstorms in the morning, then mostly cloudy with showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Highs in the upper 80s. Northeast winds around 5 mph. Chance of rain 90 percent. Thursday Night: Mostly cloudy. Showers with thunderstorms likely in the evening, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after midnight. Lows in the mid 70s. Northeast winds around 5 mph in the evening, becoming light and variable. Chance of rain 90 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 Daytona Beach (a few minutes off from Flagler Beach) here.
- tropical cyclone activity here, and even more details here.
Today at a Glance:
Drug Court convenes before Circuit Judge Terence Perkins at 10 a.m. in Courtroom 401 at the Flagler County courthouse, Kim C. Hammond Justice Center 1769 E Moody Blvd, Bldg 1, Bunnell. Drug Court is open to the public. See the Drug Court handbook here and the participation agreement here.
Story Time for Preschoolers at Flagler Beach Public Library, 11 to 11:30 a.m. at the library, 315 South Seventh Street, Flagler Beach. It’s where the wild things are: Hop on for stories and songs with Miss Doris.
Rally for Women’s Reproductive Rights: Members and friends of the Atlantic Coast Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State (www.au.org) will gather to rally for Women’s Reproductive Rights from 4 until 5 p.m. on Thursday, September 5th, 2024 and each Thursday thereafter until Election Day, at the northwest corner of Belle Terre and Pine Lake Parkways in Palm Coast. They protest Florida’s six-week abortion ban and urge voters to vote “Yes” on Florida Amendment 4, Right to Abortion Initiative. This event will last an hour and is open to the public; all are welcome. There is no charge. Participants are invited to bring US flags and their own signs promoting religious freedom, separation of church and state, and reproductive rights. For further information email [email protected] or call 804-914-4460.
 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. |
Diary: It was a little shocking to hear the other day that WCBS Newsradio 880 in New York, a staple of the AM dial for about 60 years, was ending. Starting this month it’s WHSQ. It’s an ESPN all-sports talk station. It’s not just that the American proclivity for talking about sports is as mysterious as quantum physics (can you really talk about a baseball game, or the Super Bowl, for more than five minutes?) but it’s this shift away from anything civic or useful or informative that keeps transforming this culture into a bore. Growing up in new York I occasionally listened to the all-news station, fascinated that there could be so much to fill every hour, though in reality there wasn’t that much, even in New York City: stories were repeated, the weather, traffic, sports and ads took up enormous chunks of time. I didn’t listen to the station for news, really, especially when I left New York and could still catch it on my old radio late at night, even in North Carolina. I listened just to hear the sounds of New York, to hear the newscaster say they were at such and such a street in Queens, or Brooklyn, or reporting on some unusual peel of paint on the Williamsburg Bridge. It was like a Woody Allen slice of life from the city, but not just narrowed to Manhattan. It was also the station my father had at his desk at WCBS TV, where he was an overnight assignment editor, and where I accompanied him on many occasions, so I could spend hours in the teletype machine, watching the news from UPI and AP and Reuters clank in from all over the globe and pretend I was in the business. WCBS Newsradio back then always played with the sound of those teletypes in the background. I couldn’t understand how he could concentrate with the radio on all the time, but to him, too, it was background noise. He loved the city, and 880 was its soundtrack. Now it’s gone.
—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.
Flagler County Drug Court Convenes
Flagler County Canvassing Board Meeting
Story Time for Preschoolers at Flagler Beach Public Library
Flagler Tiger Bay Club Guest Speaker: Carlos M. Cruz
Model Yacht Club Races at the Pond in Palm Coast’s Town Center
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.
Since New York City’s 2003 blackout, Ralph Katz of Manhattan has kept two transistor radios and fresh batteries stashed in bedroom and bathroom drawers. “If that happens again, this may be the only way I’ll get my news,” said Mr. Katz, 75, a retired public relations executive and longtime WCBS Newsradio 880 listener. “When I get up in the morning, I want to know what’s going on — what’s breaking, what’s happening, what subway is delayed, where the traffic jams and other problems are — to set up the day.” Local radio was once a pillar of the New York City news ecosystem. WCBS helped make up the running backdrop of frenetic city life. Residents listened to it in the shower, at the breakfast table, in their cabs. It blended with the clamor of the delis and bodegas. It provided the small informational necessities that enable urban living — traffic and weather every 10 minutes on the 8s — and chronicled the epochal events that shaped New York. […] Local news coverage in general has declined in recent decades. City desks downsized, and many neighborhood papers vanished or were bought up by chains and cut back. Newsstands once draped with dozens of papers now carry few or none or have disappeared entirely. But WCBS, which began its all-news format in 1967, retained a loyal base of stubbornly analog New Yorkers. These listeners are mourning the loss of one of the city’s last straight news format stations.
–FromCorey Kilgannon’s “WCBS Radio, the Soundtrack of Countless Cab Rides, Goes Quiet,” The New York Times, Aug. 13, 204.
Ray W. says
I, for one, am thankful for the “background noise” offered by FlaglerLive.
The hustle and bustle, the endless strife and complaint, the constant and consistent demands of the many “pestilential” partisan members of faction, of the other of the 130,000 Flaglerites, of the developers and dreamers, of the malicious among us, seems far too much for any one person to cover.
Thank you, Mr. Tristam.
Jane Gentile Youd says
Quite folksy…. cannot stop laughing…
Ray W. says
In the incredibly complex international crude oil marketplace, MarketWatch reports that yesterday’s futures market for West Texas intermediate (WTI) settled below $70 per barrel for the first time since last December 12th. Brent crude saw a decline for November deliveries to $72.70, the lowest since June 2023.
Why? It is reported that global demand growth is forecast downward to only 1% for the year. With a total production of over 100 million barrels per day, that means growth in demand is expected to be at or around one million barrels per day, on average, for 2024.
A Capital Economics climate and commodities economist said that “[t]he key drag on global oil demand growth has been the marked slowdown in China.”
The Chinese economy is markedly slowing and worldwide demand for crude oil is still rising at a one million barrel per day average.
Why is the futures price for WTI dropping below $70 per barrel today when it was roughly $35 per barrel in February 2021? What happened in the interim?
In February 2021, OPEC member states met in Vienna and voted to cut their overall combined production by six million barrels per day, with Saudi Arabia volunteering to cut another million barrels per day. Energy prices around the world began spiking, eventually topping the $130 per barrel figure.
It is alleged in a federal lawsuit that CEOs of eight shale energy producers colluded with OPEC leaders to limit their own production to keep prices artificially high. One of those eight CEOs is on record as saying that his company would not increase production more than 5% for the 2021 year, even if crude oil prices hit $200 per barrel.
Spiking energy prices contributed to inflation all over the world, as energy prices are a big one of the many facets in the CPI figures on which the Fed relies to decide whether to adjust lending rates.
In April 2020, Saudi crude oil production peaked at 12,007,000 barrels per day, on average, for the month, so we know what Saudi energy companies can do. This past July? Saudi crude oil production averaged 8.95 million barrels per day for the month. This is a drop of over 25%, and it is intentional. We know this because they said there were going to do this.
Let’s do the math. If crude oil was selling at roughly $35 per barrel in January 2021 (it was), then gasoline prices at the end of the Trump years can be expected to have been relatively low. And they were low, as low as $2 per barrel. Many of the gullible among us yearn for the days of $2.00 per gallon gasoline prices. I yearn for the $1.50 I paid for gasoline once during the Obama administration.
But we aren’t in those days anymore. The market is being manipulated. Let’s do the math.
If Saudi Arabia were still producing 12 million barrels per day at $35 per barrel, the math is easy. $420 million per day.
And if Saudi Arabia is producing nine million barrels per day in July, when prices were still in the $80 per barrel range, then the math is also easy: $720 million per day.
That extra $300 million per day looks good on a Saudi balance sheet.
Let’s do the math for American energy producers. We were producing 11 million barrels per day in 2021. At $35 per barrel, that yielded $385 million per day. We are well over 13 million barrels of crude oil per day now. That 13 million barrels per day at $80 per barrel comes to $104 million per day.
That’s quite the powerful motive for the largest American shale oil companies to collude with OPEC.
Does every FlaglerLive reader understand why the Federal Trade Commission recently found that Scott Sheffield, Pioneer’s CEO, had colluded with OPEC? Greed. The agency referred the case to the DOJ for possible criminal prosecution. Pioneer, one of the eight major players in the shale energy marketplace, intentionally limited its production growth in 2021 to 5% for the year during the same time that another relatively small Texas-based shale energy company tripled its production for the year. Did we all pay the price at the pump due to the actions of a few major shale energy companies in collusion with OPEC?
Many industry observers commented in 2021 that the Saudi government intended to keep oil prices above $76 per barrel, because that was the level that would completely meet the government’s budgetary needs. Over the past 3 1/2 years, international crude oil prices have very rarely dropped below $80 per barrel.
So why are “futures” prices for crude oil dropping? A couple of weeks ago, OPEC announced that it would begin reversing, in phases, some of the voluntary cuts in production, beginning next month. The announced reason is that OPEC is seeing a permanent erosion in its “market share.” Once large international crude oil buyers drop OPEC and begin establishing supply relationships with other energy producers around the world, it might be hard to keep those still in the fold to stay in the fold or to get those who left the fold back.
Those betting on the futures market see oil prices dropping as OPEC slowly increases output for the first time in almost four years. The current drop in prices is “anticipatory.” It can change in a heartbeat. If anticipatory prices continue to drop, OPEC might change its mind. An oil analyst at StoneX is quoted in the article: “The group is now concerned about pricing and sources say that a delay to the hikes is now being discussed.”
Make of this what you will. Me? We have been manipulated by OPEC and U.S. energy producers for the past 42 months. Shareholders all over the world have greatly benefitted from the profits derived from the manipulations. Consumers have lost billions of dollars at the pump because of artificially manipulated forces driving the international crude oil marketplace. If worldwide demand for oil continues to moderate and if non-OPEC producer nations keep increasing production, OPEC nations will have to balance permanent loss of market share against further loss in total revenue.
While global demand in the short term has production growth at one million barrels per day in 2024, on average, global demand growth in 2025 is predicted at 550,000 barrels per day. I don’t see how OPEC can reverse voluntary production cuts and still keep prices above $80 per barrel in the long term if worldwide demand for oil were only to increase by only 550,000 barrels per day in 2025.
Ray W. says
$1.o4 billion per day for American energy companies. My error.
Ray W. says
A few minutes ago, CNN reports that OPEC decided to delay its phase out of prior production cuts through November. Instead of beginning to increase production in October, the consortium intends to begin increasing production in December. More to follow.
Steve says
Nice breakdown Ray. Today I see WTI at 68 and change. Love seeing it but foreshadowing a slowdown as well. We are in better shape than most though. Thanks again
Laurel says
Ever see Trump laugh? He doesn’t laugh, he smirks.
HARRIS – WALZ!
Pogo says
@As a public service
Does anyone know where Rick Scott has gone to molt?
https://www.google.com/search?q=molting
Laurel says
LOL!
Pogo says
@Also important
“AI’s thirst for water is alarming, but may solve itself
Its energy addiction, on the other hand, only seems to get worse
Tobias Mann Thu 5 Sep 2024 // 08:33 UTC …”
“…Comment Once an abstract subject of science fiction and academic research, the concept of artificial intelligence has become the topic of dinner table conversations over the past two years.
This shift has brought widespread awareness of the environmental implications of this technology, most prominently centered on the massive sums of power and water required to train and deploy these models. And it’s understandable why.
A recent report found that datacenter water consumption in Northern Virginia, the bit barn capital of the world, had increased by two-thirds over the past five years…”
https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/05/ai_water_energy/?td=rt-3a
Big Mike says
Same Circus, 2 new Clowns. The Donkey party logo remains a well-known symbol for the Democratic Party, and rightfully so. God Bless American and God help us all…