The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, December 14, 2024

Trump Time Person of Year 2024 by Dave Granlund, PoliticalCartoons.com

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Weather: Partly sunny with a 20 percent chance of showers. Highs in the mid 70s. Northeast winds 10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 25 mph.
Saturday Night: Mostly cloudy with a 50 percent chance of showers. Lows in the lower 60s. Northeast winds 5 to 10 mph.

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:

Coffee With Commissioner Scott Spradley: Flagler Beach Commission Chairman Scott Spradley hosts his weekly informal town hall with coffee and doughnuts at 9 a.m. at his law office at 301 South Central Avenue, Flagler Beach. All subjects, all interested residents or non-residents welcome. The gatherings usually feature a special guest.

The Saturday Flagler Beach Farmers Market is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. today at Wickline Park, 315 South 7th Street, featuring prepared food, fruit, vegetables , handmade products and local arts from more than 30 local merchants. The market is hosted by Flagler Strong, a non-profit.

Second Saturday Plant Sale at Washington Oaks Gardens State Park, 6400 North Oceanshore Blvd., Palm Coast, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Flowers, bushes and hard to find plants. The event is sponsored by the Friends of Washington Oaks. Regular entrance fee applies: $4 per vehicle with one person aboard, $5 for vehicles with more than one person.

Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center: Nightly from 6 to 9 p.m. at Palm Coast’s Central Park, with 55 lighted displays you can enjoy with a leisurely stroll around the pond in the park. Admission to Fantasy Lights is free, but donations to support Rotary’s service work are gladly accepted. Holiday music will pipe through the speaker system throughout the park, Santa’s Village, which has several elf houses for the kids to explore, will be open, with Santa’s Merry Train Ride nightly (weather permitting), and Santa will be there every Sunday night until Christmas, plus snow on weekends! On certain nights, live musical performances will be held on the stage.

American Association of University Women (AAUW) Monthly Meeting, 11 a.m. at Cypress Knoll Golf Club, 53 Easthampton Blvd, Palm Coast. A monthly speaker is featured. Lunch is available for $20 in cash, $21 by credit card, but must be ordered in advance. The lunch menu is available on our website. Lunch may be ordered by sending an email to: [email protected].

Gamble Jam: Musicians of all ages can bring instruments and chairs and join in the jam session, 2 to 5 p.m. The program is free with park admission! Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area at Flagler Beach, 3100 S. Oceanshore Blvd., Flagler Beach, FL. Call the Ranger Station at (386) 517-2086 for more information. The Gamble Jam is a family-friendly event that occurs every second and fourth Saturday of the month. The park hosts this acoustic jam session at one of the pavilions along the river to honor the memory of James Gamble Rogers IV, the Florida folk musician who lost his life in 1991 while trying to rescue a swimmer in the rough surf.

Palm Coast’s Starlight Parade in Town Center is scheduled for 6 p.m. Dec. 14 in Central Park (assuming no tornadoes, pandemics, lightning storms or rains of frogs), this year capping off the city’s 25th anniversary celebrations. This festive parade will be a celebration of community traditions, featuring numerous community partners. Enjoy a delightful evening with food, entertainment, and fun for all ages. Don’t miss this opportunity to come together and honor the vibrant spirit of Palm Coast. Be part of this magical event and celebrate our community in style! Santa will arrive on a Palm Coast Fire Engine! There will be food trucks, Letters to Santa station, face painting, and kids crafts.

Grace Community Food Pantry, 245 Education Way, Bunnell, drive-thru open today from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The food pantry is organized by Pastor Charles Silano and Grace Community Food Pantry, a Disaster Relief Agency in Flagler County. Feeding Northeast Florida helps local children and families, seniors and active and retired military members who struggle to put food on the table. Working with local grocery stores, manufacturers, and farms we rescue high-quality food that would normally be wasted and transform it into meals for those in need. The Flagler County School District provides space for much of the food pantry storage and operations. Call 386-586-2653 to help, volunteer or donate.

A Christmas Carol at Athens Theatre, 124 North Florida Avenue, DeLand, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Adult $30, Senior $28, Student/Child $12; Groups of 8 or more, $25 per ticket. A $5 per ticket processing charge is added to all purchases. As the historic Athens Theatre does not have an elevator, the balcony is not accessible to anyone with a wheelchair or walker. Get ready to unwrap the true spirit of the holidays in an unforgettable experience with A Christmas Carol, a musical adorned with original enchanting melodies by the maestro Milton Granger and performed by a live band. This festive explosion of joy and redemption promises to transport you into the heart of Dickens’ timeless tale. With a live band providing the soul-stirring soundtrack, this production transforms into a captivating celebration of the season, weaving together the magic of music and the power of Dickens’ iconic story. Join the festivities as you embark on Scrooge’s transformative journey.

Readings: Brett Martin in October wrote a perceptive piece on Vegas (“How Las Vegas Became the Weirdest, Wildest, and Most Futuristic City in America”), that city of shimmering metaphors, daring you to judge: “You want to say that Las Vegas represents exploitive capitalism at its most grotesque? A privatized surveillance state in which the government has declared open season for corporations to use the most manipulative and addictive technologies ever created to prey on its own citizens? A place where the underclass labors to provide ever more vapid and distracting entertainment to the increasingly wealthy, laying waste to the world’s resources as the planet spins toward inevitable catastrophe? Okay. But where do you live, pal? Couldn’t be New York City. Couldn’t be San Francisco, or Chicago, or Miami. Is that a slot machine in your pocket, or is FanDuel just happy to see me?”

—P.T.

Now this:

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