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Weather: Mostly clear. Highs around 60. Lows in the lower 40s.
- 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.
Democratic Women’s Club of Flagler County meeting at 9:30 a.m. at the Palm Coast Community Center, 305 Palm Coast Parkway NE.
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.
Miracle on 34th Street at Daytona Playhouse, 100 Jessamine Blvd., Daytona Beach. 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. on Sunday. $15 for adults, $10 for children. When a department store Santa claims he’s the real deal, his case goes all the way to the Supreme Court. A little girl’s belief makes the difference. Radio style show with live sound effects and holiday carols. Be our studio audience!
Christmas Cabaret at Limelight Theatre, 11 Old Mission Ave, St. Augustine. 7:30 p.m. This Christmas Cabaret concert showcases our talent throughout Northeastern Florida for all to see, with performances of Modern Christmas songs.
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.
Random Acts of Insanity’s Roundup of Standups from Around Central Florida, 8 p.m. at Cinematique Theater, 242 South Beach Street, Daytona Beach. General admission is $8.50. Every third Saturday RAI hosts Live Standup Comedy with comics from all over Central Florida.
Notably: Not the cheeriest subject on the approach of Christmas, but maybe more a more notable subject for that very reason: this is where these refugees are, though the figures seem to me suspect. Just 774,697, according to Statista’s citing of UNHCR (the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees)? Here’s what UNHCR’s Lebanon page says: “Lebanon remains a country hosting the largest number of refugees per capita and per square kilometre in the world, with the Government’s estimation of 1.5 million Syrian refugees and some 11,238 refugees of other nationalities.” But even that‘s blatantly wrong. What happened to Palestinian refugees? Off to UNRWA’s page (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East): “Nearly one-third of the registered Palestine refugees, more than 1.5 million individuals, live in 58 recognized Palestine refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.” Further: “As of March 2023, the total number of UNRWA registered Palestine Refugees in Lebanon is 489,292 persons. In addition, UNRWA records show a total of 31,400 Palestine Refugees from Syria residing in Lebanon.” That brings the combined number of Syrian and Palestinian refugees in Lebanon alone to 2 million, in a country of 5 million, a country roughtly the size of the Seventh Judicial Circuit–Flagler, Putnam, St. Johns and Volusia counties. But don’t pity Lebanon too much. The country is brutal toward refugees. From Human Rights Watch: “In March, a United Nations report indicated that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is aware of “13,772 individuals deported from Lebanon or pushed back at the border with the Syrian Arab Republic in approximately 300 incidents in 2023,” including 600 people in one day on November 8. It further stated that “local authorities in 27 municipalities took measures limiting the ability of Syrian refugees displaced in south Lebanon from finding alternative shelter.” The reference was in relation to the displacement of tens of thousands of residents in South Lebanon following the cross-border hostilities between Israel and Lebanese and Palestinian armed groups that have been ongoing since October 2023.” Trump selected the Lebanese Massad Boulos, father-in-law of rump’s daughter, as a senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs. Maybe Boulos is also advising him on border repression and deportations.
—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.
December 2025
Free For All Fridays With Host David Ayres on WNZF
Scenic A1A Pride Meeting
Friday Blue Forum
Acoustic Jam Circle At The Community Center In The Hammock
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Kwanzaa Celebration
Flagler Beach Farmers Market
Coffee With Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Peps Art Walk Near Beachfront Grille
Gamble Jam at Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center
For the full calendar, go here.
“Dayan was put in charge of a commando unit, Regiment 89, soon noted for slashing raids into Arab towns, his troops killing indiscriminately, feeding the panic that led to the mass exodus of Palestinians. He led his men into the city of Lydda (near the site of what is today called Ben Gurion Airport), where they shot everyone they saw— more than a hundred civilians in less than an hour. The next day, the Israeli army carried out a systematic massacre of hundreds more and the expulsion of thousands of the town’s surviving citizens, many of whom would die on the trek toward the ruined lives that otherwise awaited them. They joined hundreds of thousands of others who swelled the refugee camps of neighboring countries, destabilizing those governments and opening an era of terror that continues to find its justification in the loss of a nation that never actually got the chance to exist.”
–From Lawrence Wright’s Thirteen Days in September (2014).
Pogo says
@Crusaders
…come from everywhere.
Anyway, as a public service:
Did you get a package you didn’t order? It may be a brushing scam.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/12/21/what-is-a-brushing-scam-qr-code/76919089007/?utm_source=usat-DailyBriefing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-briefing&utm_term=Content%20List%20-%20Stacking%20-%20optimized&utm_content=8872UT-E-NLETTER02
Happy Holidays