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Weather: Sunny. Highs around 80. West winds around 5 mph, becoming south in the afternoon. Wednesday Night: Clear. Lows in the upper 40s. Southeast winds around 5 mph, becoming southwest after midnight.
- 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 of Michael Wayne Jennelle on a capital felony charge of raping a minor and three additional related life felonies enters its third day at 8:45 a.m. before Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols at the Flagler County courthouse, Courtroom 401. The prosecution is not seeking the death penalty. The alleged crimes predate the enactment of a new but unconstitutional law enacted in Florida 14 months ago that reinstates the death penalty for individuals convicted of the rape of children younger than 12. If convicted, Jennelle would be immediately sentenced to life in prison. The judge would have no discretion. See: “As Trial Is Set for Man on Charges of Raping His Granddaughter, Judge Asks: “You Want To Put Her Through That?’” and “12-Year-Old Testifies of Years of Sexual Abuse at Grandfather ‘Mike’ Jennelle’s Hands; He’ll Take Stand in His Own Defense.”
Joint workshop of local governments: Flagler County, Flagler Beach, Palm Coast, Bunnell and Beverly Beach governments hold a joint meeting, 5:30 p.m. in board chambers of the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell. Discussion points include the county’s proposed beach management plan. The Beach Management Plan in Details:
- Flagler County’s Coastal Erosion and Management: Comprehensive Report
- Flagler County’s Coastal Erosion and Management: Executive Summary
- Flagler County’s Coastal Erosion and Management: Slide Presentation to Local Governments
- Palm Coast Throws Cold, Brackish Water on County Beach Tax and Management Plan, Calling for Referendum
- Flagler County’s $114 Million Beach Management Plan Depends on Raising Sales Tax and Winning Cities’ Buy-In
River to Sea Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee meets at 9 a.m. at the Airline Room at the Daytona Beach International Airport. The TPO’s planning oversight includes all of Volusia County and the developed areas of eastern Flagler County including Beverly Beach and Flagler Beach as well as portions of the cities of Palm Coast and Bunnell, with board member representation from each of those jurisdictions. The committee is responsible for reviewing plans, policies, and procedures and rank priority projects as they relate to bicycle and pedestrian issues within the TPO planning area. See the full agendas here. To join the meeting electronically, go here.
Separation Chat, Open Discussion: The Atlantic Chapter of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State hosts an open, freewheeling discussion on the topic here in our community, around Florida and throughout the United States, noon to 1 p.m. at Pine Lakes Golf Club Clubhouse Pub & Grillroom (no purchase is necessary), 400 Pine Lakes Pkwy, Palm Coast (0.7 miles from Belle Terre Parkway). Call (386) 445-0852 for best directions. All are welcome! Everyone’s voice is important. For further information email [email protected] or call Merrill at 804-914-4460.
The Circle of Light Course in Miracles study group meets at a private residence in Palm Coast every Wednesday at 1:20 PM. There is a $2 love donation that goes to the store for the use of their room. If you have your own book, please bring it. All students of the Course are welcome. There is also an introductory group at 1:00 PM. The group is facilitated by Aynne McAvoy, who can be reached at [email protected] for location and information.
Weekly Chess Club for Teens, Ages 9-18, at the Flagler County Public Library: Do you enjoy Chess, trying out new moves, or even like some friendly competition? Come visit the Flagler County Public Library at the Teen Spot every Wednesday from 4 to 5 p.m. for Chess Club. Everyone is welcome, for beginners who want to learn how to play all the way to advanced players. For more information contact the Youth Service department 386-446-6763 ext. 3714 or email us at [email protected]
Notably: I was looking over some notes I wrote on Nov. 25, 1983, where I’d mentioned a couple of things about Flora Lewis and Tom Wicker, then writing columns for the Times. For the hell of it I looked up that day’s paper in Times Machine. There on the front page were a pair of stories by Thomas Friedman and David Shipler about a prisoner exchange between the PLO and Israel. Made me think of newspaper morgues. That’s what they call (what, before the age of everything digitized, they called) repositories of a newspaper’s old stories, and how today’s reporters could have just ambled over there, pulled up those old stories, and plugged in a few different details: dates, belligerents, names. The stories are identical but for those minor details. Back then it was the PLO. Now it’s Hamas. Same terrorism. Different names. Back then it was Menahem Begin. Now it’s Netanyahu. Same terrorists, different names. “Hundreds of Palestinians and Lebanese gave a hero’s welcome today to their fathers, brothers and sisters released from the Israeli Ansar prison camp near here,” Thomas Friedman reported from Sidon, the southern Lebanese seaside city whose soap museum I wrote about in an earlier Briefing. Same prison, too: Israel’s Ansar is as busy a torture dungeon as Iran’s Evin Prison. Identical, too, or nearly so, is the ratio of Israeli-to-Arab prisoners: Israel released 4,500 Lebanese and Palestinians. The PLO released six Israelis. Israel loves that ratio because it likes to underscore the inhumanity of Arabs. An Arab is not even three-fifth of a human being to Israel. An Arab is 750th of a human being. Israel had trawled most of those Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners without anything resembling due process during Israel’s mini-genocide of the 1982 war on Lebanon, which killed 18,000 Lebanese and Palestinians in a matter of weeks between June 6 and the end of August that year, an end marked by Israel’s blasting of West Beirut with such violence that even Ronald Reagan got angry with Begin, who ignored him. Down to the details, it’s all the same, except for the firepower. The devastation of 1982 now looks tame compared to the devastation of Gaza since October 2023. Even the bombing of Dresden didn’t tally up as many deaths. Of course by Israeli standards, the death of 50,000 Palestinians in Gaza is propaganda, a lie perpetrated by the western and Palestinian press who would dare compare a Palestinian life to a human, to an Israeli, life. By the more proper ratio of the 1983 prisoner exchange, by the 750th ration, only 66 Palestinians were killed in Gaza. How humane. As the 1949 TV report of a prisoner exchange from that year concludes, “peace is returning to the holy land.”
—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.
March 2025
Flagler Beach Farmers Market
Coffee With Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Flagler Wellness Expo
Warbirds Over Flagler Fly-In
Gamble Jam at Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area
‘Violet’ at City Repertory Theatre
ESL Bible Studies for Intermediate and Advanced Students
Warbirds Over Flagler Fly-In
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village
Al-Anon Family Groups
‘Violet’ at City Repertory Theatre
For the full calendar, go here.
As of November 1, Israeli authorities held nearly 7,000 Palestinians from the occupied territory in detention for alleged security offenses, according to the Israeli human rights organization HaMoked. Far more Palestinians have been arrested since the October 7 attacks in Israel than have been released in the last week. Among those being held are dozens of women and scores of children. The majority have never been convicted of a crime, including more than 2,000 of them being held in administrative detention, in which the Israeli military detains a person without charge or trial. Such detention can be renewed indefinitely based on secret information, which the detainee is not allowed to see. Administrative detainees are held on the presumption that they might commit an offense at some point in the future. Israeli authorities have held children, human rights defenders and Palestinian political activists, among others, in administrative detention, often for prolonged periods. The large number of Palestinian detainees is primarily the result of separate criminal justice systems Israeli authorities maintain in the occupied territory. The nearly 3 million Palestinians who live in the occupied West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem, are ruled by military law and prosecuted in military courts. By contrast, the nearly half a million Israeli settlers in the West Bank are governed under civil and criminal law and tried in Israeli civil courts. Discrimination pervades every aspect of this system.
–From Omar Shakir, “Why Does Israel Have So Many Palestinians in Detention and Available to Swap,” Human Rights Watch and Los Angeles Times, Nov. 29, 2023.
Pogo says
@As stated
Seems it’s not too early to promote trump’s 3rd term; maybe he, and putin, will build a 500 floor world HQ and resort bidness at their gaza property. It would be 20 stories in reality, but the elevators would show the top floor as the 500th; like those pricks describe their pricks.
And so it goes.
Skibum says
To some readers, he may be your “dear leader” but he is certainly not mine. Many may be surprised that his tariffs are ruining the great economy he was gifted by our previous president just a couple short months ago, but he has a very, very long history of destroying everything he touches because he is not, nor has he ever been an accomplished, successful businessman. His fake, so-called business acumen was just another fantastical fairy tale in the “fart of the deal” bluster that tried to elevate a failed bs con man to heights other respected and experienced business executives would never allow the drumph to become, precisely because they always knew he was full of himself and not a legitimate, self-made business wiz like he touted himself to be. Now, with nearly no guard rails to stop him from the ongoing destruction of our entire federal government, he is on a mission to take revenge on America like never seen before, and I hope his sycophant GOP members in both houses of Congress finally have their eyes opened to his plans so they can avert disaster before it is too late because come mid-terms, their very livelihoods will be on the line because of the growing American backlash to the latest drumph business disaster, the demolition of our nation’s economy.
Ed P says
Skibum,
Are you correct in your “predictions” because I can’t located anyone with any real business/economic expertise who is even willing to go on record making a comment either positive or negative because of the uncharted path Trump is embarking on? Let’s discount the sycophants and the left naysayers and leave it up to the experts. You know, follow the science….facts.
I will be the first person to openly admit he’s wrong if it happens as you forecast. However, if he pulls it out and is more correct then not, will you or the rest of the left?
Fact is, no one knows. Is 3 months a fair measure of time, or one year, or four years?
The experts at the Federal Reserve can’t even figure out interest rates.
I spent 40 years in domestic and international business and I am lost at sea to even hazard a guess. The trillions of dollar that will be spent establishing industry in this country to evade tariffs is the wild card that no one can quantify. The reality is China needs to be checked and the entire world needs commerce with the United States.
Sometimes, we must admit we just don’t know.
Pogo says
@What’s in your vocabulary?
Relax meatbags, Bender’s got you
https://www.google.com/search?q=Agentic+AI
What a swamp says
The upcoming election to fill congressional seats should speak volumes about how much support this president has. We will see weather red or blue will come out on top
Endless dark money says
I don’t support this treason! Hope he gets the Mussolini treatment. Good luck in the forced economic collapse. Orange stain only cares for money , power and hate! Will likely have to end in violence as these people will go to prison if they loose. amerikkka is more predatory than the orange stain at an Epstein party.
Skibum says
Ed, it has been documented and reliably reported for decades how the rest of the wealthy, connected, business tycoons in NY City ostracized Trump and thwarted his every effort to join the clubs and associated business groups he so much wanted to be a part of, because he was so despised and looked down upon. Was that due to his farcical and untruthful endeavors to try to become someone he wasn’t, or just his reprehensible attitude toward his business peers and others in general? Who knows, but he has a history of not being liked… hmmm, I wonder why?! His “revenge tours” against others he felt slighted by began a long time ago when he was just a younger but still despicable version of his current self.
Ed P says
Skibum,
Let me preface this comment with letting you know that in my early business years, I spend a few years jet setting with an Uber wealthy family. They spent more on fresh cut flowers in their mansions than I made in year. They had multiple jets. My friendship role to them was my brutal honesty in helping them stay somewhat grounded and out of major trouble. I was the voice of reason. Their world has different rules then ours.
With that said, in his world, a “pedigree” is a real thing. The Trump family did t have that luxury. They were viewed as scrappy street fighters, new money. Donald Trump went to Wharton, not Harvard. He was labeled in the Uber wealthy community to be a mut/mongrul. He was not embraced by the elites
So I take your reliable reporting with a grain of sand. Obviously you dislike and do not respect Trump. That’s ok.
However, he has had a pretty successful life. 3 different careers, reaching heights that I could never achieve. A real estate developer, a tv personality, and now re-elected as President of the United States. Regardless of his bluster, lies , or any of his personality faults, he has achieved things that most people could not.
He can’t be that dumb.
Sherry says
Character Matters!
Speaking of the wealthy who do not pay their taxes, the person who trump has nominated to oversee Medicare and Medicaid is in the news:
NBC- Dr. Mehmet Oz may have underpaid Medicare and Social Security taxes, Senate Democratic memo finds
Kate Santaliz
Dr. Mehmet Oz, President Donald Trump’s nominee to oversee the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), may have “significantly” underpaid Medicare and Social Security taxes in recent years, according to a memo from Democratic staff on the Senate Finance Committee obtained by NBC News.
According to the memo, which outlined a review of Oz’s tax returns from 2021, 2022 and 2023, Oz paid no Medicare or Social Security taxes in 2023 and “negligible” amounts in 2022. The review from Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee, which is overseeing Oz’s nomination, alleges that Oz underpaid his “SECA” taxes, a tax on net earnings from self-employment, from income through his media entity Oz Property Holdings LLC.
Overall, Democratic committee staff said that Oz underpaid Social Security and Medicare taxes by roughly $440,000.
Laurel says
Ed P.: You cannot guess the outcome, like most everyone else. Bone spurs is not a genius, he’s batshit crazy, and should be Baker Acted. He’s a toddler who throws temper tantrums. He has no clue how to negotiate. How the f**k to you piss off Canada? Well, now you know.
Just what exactly is the plan? What is the strategy to pull it off? What is with this dancing Musk idiot show? If this were legit, a brilliant economist should be able to explain it on a dry erase board. But how do you diagram a tantrum?
The boy ain’t right.
Laurel says
oh yeah he can. Tanking a good economy is brilliant. What’s the plan? Explain it.
Ed P says
Laurel,
I see you found a new strategy, drop a few curse words and predict the country’s entire economic future based on a 2 week tariff dust up.
What happened? Singing isn’t working?
I am willing to debate any rational person but you adopting the loon lefts’ playbook isn’t worth further response.
Skibum says
Ed, if what the current occupier’s very public life is the epitome of “success” to YOU, then all I have to say is God bless you! But to me, anyone with that theory has their morals completely out of whack. You could find mush brained idiots that supported Hitler and would try to convince people that he did good things for Germany and was a successful leader too. Oh, in fact, guess who one of those mush brained idiots is? Donald Trump himself publicly stated that Hitler did some very good things!!! Can’t make this s**t up. So, if that is who you want to try to defend and support, you go for it, but those of us who never owned a pair of rose colored glasses and can see clearly who that man is, we will NEVER fall for his con game!
Laurel says
Wait…who has the strategy? Go ahead, explain this economic *weave*.
Skibum says
I’m sorry, Ed… my last comment was an emotional response when I should have responded logically and factually. So, here’s my second try at responding to your comment about the current occupier of our WH and his “success” as you called it.
This man has certainly had a modicum of business success over the course of his lifetime, but he lied when he tells people he was a “self-made” business man because his daddy gave him millions to start his career when he was just starting out. He bankrupted multiple casinos. Is that what you call success? He is still underwater with the many loans and failures to pay on time, so much so that U.S. banks refused to give him any more loans. In recent years he has been forced to seek financing from foreign banks such as Douche Bank in Germany, other sub-prime loaners and even individuals like the multi-billionaire Saudi royal family to keep his empire afloat. Is that what you call success? He was put on trial and found guilty by a jury of his peers in the state where his company has long been headquartered, and now he is a convicted felon after the jury unanimously found him guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in a hush money cover-up. Is that what you call success? He was forced by a different court to close down his scam “Trump University” and was ordered to refund “tuition” to those he scammed and was fined millions of dollars in that years long scheme where he took advantage of people trying to learn about real estate, only to lose their money to a fraudster con man. Is that what you call success? His company has had to file bankruptcy six times. Is that what you call success? Besides “Trump U”, Trump Shuttle, his so-called “airline”, went bust. Trump Steaks went bust. His vodka business went bust. Trump Mortgage went bust. His Go-Travel business venture went bust. His company was found guilty of fraudulent tax evaluations in NY State. These examples are NOT the entire list of his business failures, frauds, scheme and con jobs. Wow, so many successes, huh??? This is not the sign of a successful businessman who just had some bad luck in the business world. No, he has repeatedly shown himself to be one of the most immoral, unethical, mafioso type bullies with no business skills other than one con job after another, some of which has made him a whole lot of money. Cartel dope peddlers make lots of money to, but we don’t elevate despicable men who prey on others as “successful business people”, especially when their so-called business strategy is to take advantage of anyone and everyone for self- enrichment. To his very core, THAT is who Trump is, so if that is your definition of success, you do you.
Ed P says
Skibum,
Guess you are right. There are 77 million rose colored glass wearing reprobates plus millions more who are willing to give Trump a chance to see if his policies produce improved outcomes for our children’s future.
The path our nation was on, was not sustainable regardless of the liberal spin. I don’t always agree with Trumps methods but for the sake of expediency, sometimes your just have to go for the jugular. Time is of the essence.
It’s fine to disagree and even protest. The problem I see is the lefts inability to pivot and moderate toward common sense.
The liberal have had the steering wheel for 12 of the last 16 years and here we are. The world is on fire, we are 36 trillion in debt, we just came out of a disastrous inflationary period, borders were nonexistent, and people are scared.
But the left says everything being done is wrong and won’t work. Hasn’t it been less than 60 days?
Help me out, what’s tomorrow’s pick three number? That’s easier then predicting our country’s future.
Sherry says
Thank you Skibum and Laurel!
Skibum says
Ed, even smart economists are not in agreement on many aspects of our nation’s strategy for economic improvement and growth, and how to keep inflation in check without increasing interest rates. I hope you are right. I just hate like hell that our country’s future, our individual social security and investment accounts, our collective healthcare in the U.S., and so many dedicated federal employees’ jobs – a great many of them who are honorably discharged or retired veterans, are on the line and in the hands of the orange-faced buffoon who never saw other people’s money that he didn’t try to grab onto to enrich himself. The next four years is going to be very challenging, and it has already devolved into a circus in just two short months since he took over. And you didn’t even mention the Ukraine war and drumph’s history of making excuses for Putin’s aggression, which is getting even deicer now that drumph is once again palling around with Putin, taking his side and slamming Zelenskyy in a very public was in front of the media. There are so many very serious things that could go very wrong in a hurry, and it could well spell disaster for our economy, the stock market which is already in correction territory due to the idiot’s tariff war on with our allies! Yikes!!!