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Weather: Mostly sunny, with a high near 75. Calm wind becoming southeast 5 to 7 mph in the afternoon. Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 58. Southeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
- 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:
In Court: The trial on a first-degree murder charge of Stephen Monroe, the last of four defendants involved in the shooting death of 16-year-old Noah Smith on a street in Bunnell three years ago, enters its second day before Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols in Courtroom 401. Monroe alone declined to plead out, as the other three have. See: “Stephen Monroe, Last of 4 Defendants in Murder of Noah Smith, Goes on Trial Monday After Declining Deal.” The trial is expected to take most of the week.
The Palm Coast City Council meets in workshop at 9 a.m. at City Hall. The council takes on an analysis that will result in an increase in water and sewer rates. 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 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. Note: meeting start times vary from month to month. 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 County School Board meets in a closed-door session to discuss insurance rates for employees in the context of collective bargaining, 12:30 p.m. at the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell.
The Flagler County School Board meets at 3 p.m. in workshop to go over the items on its upcoming school board meeting two weeks hence. The board meets in the training room on the third floor of the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell. Board meeting documents are available here.
The Flagler Beach Library Book Club meets at 5 p.m. at the library, 315 South Seventh Street, Flagler Beach.
The Flagler County Planning Board meets at 5:30 p.m. at the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell. See board documents, including agendas and background materials, here. Watch the meeting or past meetings here.
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.
Sightings: Palm Coast’s Town Center is beginning to look very different, at least in some parts. A crane has replaced cranes at the corner of Central Avenue and City Place, as you can see from that shot taken from City Hall Monday. The development known as “Promenade at Town Center” broke ground there in July to become the first mixed-use bloc in Town Center, which was originally designed as all mixed-use. It hasn’t turned put that way, and vast parts of it are still looking for concrete and steel and glass. By itself, Promenade will have a hard time. We need a half dozen like it. From a different angle: I prefer the picture below, but it’s less informative and more metaphorical (the arc of development etc.), offsetting the focus on the crane with the contrast between sky and arc, and the broader glimpse of Town Center’s remaining trees. The two pictures give you a sense of how easy it is to manipulate reality and convey two quite different narratives merely by changing the angle. There’s even a wink at Magritte in the one below, at least in the contrasts.
—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 Commission Workshop
Palm Coast City Council Workshop
Community Traffic Safety Team Meeting
St. Johns River Water Management District Meeting
Flagler County School Board Workshop: Agenda Items
Flagler Beach Library Book Club
Flagler County Planning Board Meeting
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy
River to Sea Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee Meeting
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
For the full calendar, go here.
In orthodox city planning, neighborhood open spaces are venerated in an amazingly uncritical fashion, much as savages venerate magical fetishes. Ask a houser how his planned neighborhood improves on the old city and he will cite, as a self-evident virtue, More Open Space. Ask a zoner about the improvements in progressive codes and he will cite, again as a self-evident virtue, their incentives toward leaving More Open Space. Walk with a planner through a dispirited neighborhood and though it be already scabby with deserted parks and tired landscaping festooned with old Kleenex, he will envision a future of More Open Space. More Open Space for what? For muggings? For bleak vacuums between buildings? Or for ordinary people to use and enjoy? But people do not use city open space just because it is there and because city planners or designers wish they would.
–From Jane Jacobs’s The Death and Life of Great Cities (1961).
Laurel says
Well, one of the things that Trump supporters believe is that he will not touch Social Security and/or Medicare. I tried to tell y’all about “means testing” and guess what? It’s here. The ultra wealthy think that cutting your budget (which is minimal in the grand scheme of the Federal deficit), and giving themselves tax cuts, is going to be best for all of us. Common sense?
Here is an except from the letter sent out to our veterans:
“Veterans with medical conditions or injuries that occurred or worsened during active-duty service may receive disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Payments are structured differently than other disability programs. VA’s disability payments are intended to compensate for the average earnings that veterans would be expected to lose given the severity of their service-connected medical conditions or injuries, whether or not a particular veteran’s condition reduced his or her earnings. Unlike disability programs such as Social Security Disability Insurance, payments are unaffected by a veteran’s earnings or other types of income.
Under this option, VA would means-test (that is, restrict full compensation to those with income below a certain amount) all current and prospective recipients of VA’s disability compensation. Beginning in January 2026, veterans with service-related disabilities and total household income below $135,000, excluding disability income from the VA, would receive full benefits. That threshold corresponds to the 70th percentile of total household income in the United States in 2022, adjusted for inflation to reach the threshold value applicable to 2026 benefits. CBO estimates that nearly 30 percent of veterans receiving disability payments from VA will have household income above that threshold in 2026. (After 2026, that income threshold would rise with the consumer price index for urban wage earners and clerical workers.) Above the threshold, benefits would be phased out at a constant rate: For every two dollars of gross household income, disability compensation would decrease by one dollar.”
So, what that letter means is, if a veteran, on disability, makes $135,001, he/she begins to lose earned benefits. That amount includes the gross household income, combined with a spouse. So, if he makes $67,500, and she makes$67,501, the disability benefit begins to decline. If they have a house payment, food payment, kids, etc., they had better not have a combined gross household income of $135,001. Don’t take that job. Don’t take that promotion. Maybe don’t get married.
30% of veterans on disability will see their disability decline. The rich get richer, and the middle class lose earned benefits.
This is how the very people who protect our freedom, with life and limb, are going to be treated. People who are already on disability as promised, and those who should need it in the near future. The people we keep thanking for their service! This is how much Trump, and his billionaire sidekicks care. So, do you still believe they won’t do it to you? Means testing can reduce your benefits, that you worked for all your lives, put into all your lives, and your employer put into all your lives. And do you believe housing, food, transportation and daily life will become so much cheaper in the future that these cuts won’t hurt you?
I can remember, several years ago, asking my Republican husband if those who are wealthy should give up their Social Security and Medicare, as they really don’t need it. He gave me a resounding “NO! They worked for it, and they earned it.” He’s right, they worked for it, and they earned it. But now, the ultra wealthy, up on stage with Trump, seem to have no problem taking it away from the rest of us.
Why should young people want to join the military now? Promises made, promises not kept. Speak now, or forever hold your peace, and the cuts you have allowed to happen to enrich the ultra rich. Watch your disinformation more closely. It’s your future, and your children’s future.
Pogo says
@Open spaces
Lure explorers — and grave diggers.
Coming soon, mixed use storage facilities; live upstairs — spend eternity in your first floor storage unit — just drop on in when you’re ready!
Bill w says
Accurate between the gerrymandering, voting restrictions, dirty money, and propaganda tv like the Murdock and Sinclair media, no wonder people elected a nazi. Interesting how 20 years ago we fought against terror now we elect them.
Pogo says
@American bad dream
…becomes waking nightmare:
“…Few developments better typify the unique insanity of the current political moment than the ascent of “Big Balls,” a 19-year-old software engineer who briefly worked at Elon Musk’s brain startup Neuralink, got recruited to the billionaire’s government-deconstructionist effort DOGE and, now, in a twist so ridiculous it seems like it was stolen straight out of South Park, has apparently been hired as a “senior advisor” to the U.S. State Department.
In reality, “Big Balls” is Edward Coristine, a high-achieving tech wunderkind, and the large-testicle-alluding-honorific is merely his online username. The Washington Post reports that Coristine, who is also a staffer at DOGE, was recently assigned to the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Technology. It’s unclear what Coristine, who only recently graduated from high school, will be doing at America’s diplomatic hub, but it understandably seems to have rattled senior officials at the agency. The Post notes that, for some reason, a government directory also lists Coristine as working for USAID—the international aid agency that Musk has all but shut down in the span of a week…”
https://gizmodo.com/i-regret-to-inform-you-that-a-19-year-old-doge-stooge-named-big-balls-is-now-advising-the-state-department-2000562035
The best people…
Ed P says
To clarify the “kids” label and end that false moniker, the average age of the Musk team is 36 years old. He has expert career people from the legal field, Human Resources, financial and high profile acquisition/investment field, computer and coding field, as well as long term high ranking administrators from multiple branches of the government, even SSA. Yes, they range in age from 19 to 67. All super accomplished with specific expertise suited for their role in DOLE. These are not elected politicians or hired federal employees but abject experts in efficiency, waste/fraud detection, and governmental policies and procedures. Can you believe it?
So we don’t have a bunch of kids running around the agencies. Let’s end the gullible sound bites and headline misinformation.
Ed P says
Absolute expert and Doge…