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Weather: Sunny. Much cooler. Less humid with highs in the upper 60s. Northwest winds 10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 25 mph. Monday Night: Clear, cooler with lows in the mid 40s. Northwest 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:
The three-member East Flagler Mosquito Control District Board meets at 10 a.m. at District Headquarters, 210 Airport Executive Drive, Palm Coast. Agendas are available here. District staff, commissioners and email addresses are here. The meetings are open to the public.
The Flagler County Commission meets at 5 p.m. at the Government Services Building, 1769 E. Moody Boulevard, Building 2, Bunnell. Access meeting agendas and materials here. The five county commissioners and their email addresses are listed here.
Nar-Anon Family Groups offers hope and help for families and friends of addicts through a 12-step program, 6 p.m. at St. Mark by the Sea Lutheran Church, 303 Palm Coast Pkwy NE, Palm Coast, Fellowship Hall Entrance. See the website, www.nar-anon.org, or call (800) 477-6291. Find virtual meetings here.
Notably: Calvados is a French county in Normandy, a creation–like all counties–of the Revolution, the site of Omaha Beach and Colleville-sur-Mer, one of the five beaches (and the bloodiest) where the allies landed. Caen is its largest city, Bayeux its most famous: it is there that you will find the tapestries of Bayeux, the most complete documentary epic of William’s invasion of England in 1066, and a fibrous Rosetta Stone of medieval life. Calvados is also the origin of the greatest drink on earth: Calvados, an apple brandy that can in the right circumstances briefly restore faith in humanity and make you soar like Mont-Saint-Michel which, though not in the Departement du Calvados (it is a few miles to the southwest), is still within spiritual distance. Georges Simenon’s Maigret, that irascible detective, loves his calvados. The Jack Rose, the drink in Hemingway’s Sun Also Rises, is calvados-based. Cheryl and I had the good fortune to have a Calvados on Saint-Michel a dozen years ago, a memory that lingers for us in place of angels. We are always on the hunt, wherever we are in the United States, for a Calvados. No bar we know, no restaurant we know, other than a couple of French dives at Epcot, carry it, though the other day at Total wine we found a few bottles ranging from the $200 to the $20 variety. We took the $20. Pairing it with Mozart, particularly that opening movement of his B-flat major sonata, is enough to glimpse heaven’s antechamber. I now have no doubt why Saint-Michel was built: for a more complete experience with a shot of calvados.
—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.
May 2025
Flagler Beach Farmers Market
Coffee With Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Second Saturday Plant Sale at Washington Oaks Gardens State Park
American Association of University Women (AAUW) Meeting
Peps Art Walk Near Beachfront Grille
Murder at Shivering Timbers Murder Mystery Dinner Show Fundraiser
RockabillieWillie At City Repertory Theatre
ESL Bible Studies for Intermediate and Advanced Students
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village
Gamble Jam at Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area
Al-Anon Family Groups
RockabillieWillie At City Repertory Theatre
For the full calendar, go here.
The name calvados is not French, or it wasn’t originally. It derives from El Calvador, a ship of the Spanish Armada, which broke up on the Normandy coast with the loss of all hands. The shore near the wreck took on its name, and some four centuries later, so did the eau de vie, or brandy, made in the region. Apples probably grew in Normandy and Brittany before people came there. The Romans cultivated them and most likely began to distill their Juice. Cider was known to be made there in Charlemagne’s time and has long been the traditional drink of western France. Many Norman and Breton children reach adulthood before they taste wine. The first record of apple brandy being made indicates that a farmer named Gilles de Gouberville distilled cider in 1553 in the village of Mesnil au Val, which is in what is now the Department of the Manche. Actually, it wasn’t until the 19th century that the name calvados came into wide use. The drink itself was mostly the product of a cottage industry until World War I, when Norman and Breton soldiers brought bottles of it back to the front. Later, when thousands of men immigrated from those poor rural areas to Paris and other cities, they took a taste for apple brandy with them. Rough and raw and aged rarely at all, it became the popular working‐class drink, replacing cheap brandy and rum. Besides being a cottage industry, a lot of it also was illegal. A good number of those stills uncovered by the G.I.’s —and probably by some of the Germans who preceded them — had never been seen by any tax officials. During World War II a law was passed giving the Government ownership of all spirits, with the exception of cognac and Armagnac, the production of which had long been controlled by a Government agency. Although this action somewhat curtailed illegal distilling, bootlegging is as time‐honored a tradition in remote Norman farm communities as it is in the backwoods of Georgia.
–From “Getting a Kick Out of Calvados,” by Frank Prial, The New York Times, Oct. 14, 1979.
Pogo says
@Welcome to this world
…would you like fries with that?
And so it goes.
Pogo says
@Does this matter?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pxvfy4qQRog
Do you feel lucky?
https://www.google.com/search?q=randy+fine+casino+executive
You bet your life.
Pogo says
@Does this matter?
Ed P says
I did not know:
Tariffs were imposed on the U.S. by nearly every country, developed or not.
Tariffs even existed with the 20 countries that the U.S. had “free” trade agreements – these tariffs were normally lower but not actually non-existent.
India tariffs U.S. autos 125%. Few countries tariff less than 10% on U.S. autos.
2.4% was the average tariffs on US imports but might rise to as much as 8.5%.
Products under $800 are exempt from import tariffs.
No one knows:
Where this tariff/ trade war will take our economy.
How much it will actually cost US consumers.
How many jobs will be lost or added.
If tensions will cool and common sense will prevail.
How long it will be for clarity to reveal itself.
If it will eventually be a winning or losing strategy.
Pogo says
@iz duh kidz larning anyding?
u tell me
https://www.google.com/search?q=fl+eliminate+math+english+hs+diploma
Laurel says
Our country is in a terrible position, when it didn’t have to be. Capitalism has peaked, and the Republicans are desperate, and putting us through circus acts to distract us while taking us to unknown outcomes. The odds of that being successful is minuscule. Meanwhile, these distracting circus acts are making the rich richer…for now.
Consider co-Presidents Trump and Musk (one elected, one not). Under no circumstances is it normal for a citizen, given power to destroy, dance happily across the stage with a chainsaw, representing the violent destruction of American jobs. There is no empathy, no connection, no caring, no understanding of the American middle class. Just the joy of destroying it, while our elected President sits by and smiles, also without empathy, no connection, no caring, no understanding of the middle class. Just the joy of inflicting “a little pain.” Pain that he and Musk will not feel.
There is nothing normal about watching these two sociopaths putting on Tesla commercials on the White House lawn, or them, along with the First Lady, selling their meme coins on the internet. There is noting normal about watching the Republican politicians stand and repeatedly clap while Trump demonizes half of American citizens. They are dragging us down to the gutter.
We are watching these people literally stop programs that feed our children, so that they can make the rich richer, and more powerful. Is that making America great? In what way? America’s strength was always in the middle class.
These behaviors continue to divide Americans even more, while interestingly enough, these behaviors have united Canada!
MAGA, do you believe you are a part of the 1%? How about the 5%? If not, you need to stop this insane behavior of the current government now! You have the power to do so, before you lose that power permanently.
Ed P says
-Gas prices have dropped for 4th week in a row- simply supply and demand
-Egg prices have dropped- supply and demand(price got too high) and no major bird flu outbreaks in March.
-mortgage rates drop to lowest level in 5 month- high rates are poised to drop
– stock market correction may be over- todays and Fridays sessions are/were positive(maybe tariffs aren’t too scary)
-Feb unemployment remained relatively stable.- cutting federal work force will increase the numbers
– inflation is relatively flat at 2.8 % but above fed target
All these short term market gyrations don’t prove much, except to say we are not in a free fall or a “ terrible position”. At least not yet.
It way too early to panick, the sky may not be falling. If it does, I’m confident my fellow FL will dish out plenty of “crow”. I do like squab.
Today says
… it’s migrant workers from Mexico. Tomorrow it might be Rick Bayless.
Come to think of it? Has anyone seen Rick Bayless lately?
Come to think of it has anyone seen PBS lately?
Perhaps Ed P. knows?
FYI Ed P…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Bayless
GO VOTE says
April 1 is coming quickly. Let’s see where the people stand in the upcoming congressional elections.
Will the Republicans get a vote of confidence or boost …….
Or will the Democrats gain some seats ??
The people in this case will be the barometer for what is happening
Sherry says
Thank you Pogo! The youtube with Congressperson Daniel Goldman discussing the dangers of DOGE and Musk is a “must watch” for every intelligent reasonable US citizen. Here is another. . . this one of Goldman pointing out the cowardice of Congress:
Pogo says
@Sherry
And thank you for your posted video.
The preservation of this republic depends on the continuation of the separation of powers, checks and balances, the rule of law, and democratic elections. The criminal trump, and his mob, are actively striving to destroy all.
Vote like our lives depend upon it — they do.
https://joshweil.us/
Sherry says
@Pogo. . . ABSOLUTELY! Vote while you still have the vote! I consider “musk” to be the consummate “EVIL”. . . trump is only his front man. musk is smarter, richer, and more ruthless than either trump or putin! musk “BUYS” Congress. . .Democrats also!
Ed P says
Come on. No one is taking away our voting rights.
The hyperbole has reached a new plateau.
Can we focus on current events with facts?
Ray W, says
Hello Ed P.
Please remember that you are one of the most prolific hyperbole spreaders on the FlaglerLive site.
Just a week or so ago, you commented that the total number of deaths of soldiers and civilians in the Ukraine War was approaching the total number of deaths in WWII.
Most estimates have the number of WWII deaths at somewhere between 50 and 90 million dead, soldier and civilian, with the most reliable estimates between 70 and 85 million dead. The number of dead in the Ukraine War is estimated at between 200,000 and 250,000.
The first time you and I “crossed swords” (your words), you claimed the US. was sitting on enough crude oil to supply the world’s needs for 300 years. In reality, it was enough proven reserves for 10 years of worldwide supply.
Over and over again, you post facts that are easily checked and determined to be gross exaggerations or minimizations of what is really happening.
How many times have I asked that you take the time to actually check whether what you want to type is factually accurate before you type it? Lack of intellectual rigor is not a strength.
You just posted a comment on this thread that egg prices are down and that there have been no outbreaks in March, but you left out a critical fact: according to the CDC there have been over 40 outbreaks of the H5N1 avian flu across the U.S. in the past 30 days, including an outbreak in March of an even more deadly and virulent form of the bird flu in Noxubee, Mississippi. The worst part of the Mississippi outbreak is that it is not a variant of the H5N1 form of the bird flu; it is an outbreak of a variant of the H7N9 bird flu, a form of influenza not seen in the United States since 2017. 47,654 “broiler” chickens, not “layer” chickens, are in the process of being culled.
Granted, most of the reported outbreaks have not involved large operations of layer hens, but on March 4, 2015, over 187k layer hens were ordered culled in Jay, Indiana. So much for no outbreaks in the last month.
As an aside, I do agree with you that it is far too early to offer economic assessments of the Trump administration.
Gas prices are down, as crude oil prices for West Texas Intermediate are in the $67 dollar per barrel range, which is where the price was last year when the Biden administration was seeking money from a Republican Congress to purchase oil at a low price to restock the nation’s petroleum reserves. Congress declined the request.
Now that prices are back down to the same level as they were last year, the Trump administration is asking Congress for $200 billion to restock the reserve.
When the Biden administration sold the oil at $85 or so per barrel and tried to restock it later at $67 or so per barrel, it seemed like a good and appropriate effort. Profit, as you say, is an important concept, particularly where the government is concerned. Suddenly, we may see a compliant Congress. A hypocritical one, but compliant.
Back to the bird flu.
During the 2017 H7N9 outbreak, of the 1568 people worldwide who contracted the disease, 616 people died, a 39% fatality rate. Only one person has died thus far since 2022 among the fewer than 80 people who have contracted the H5N1 flu.
The World Health Organization defines the new form of H7N9 flu as a “highly pathogenic avian influenza” of wild bird lineage, which means it is not likely confined to the Mississippi barn.
And you left out perhaps the main reason that egg prices may have dropped, i.e., that the Department of Justice issued a preservation letter a few weeks ago to egg producers and distributors to preserve all pricing documents. I commented on this a few days ago.
The DOJ apparently has opened investigations into potential price gouging by member of the egg industry. The letters to the egg industry are just the first salvo. Can it be inferred that egg prices are dropping because of industry-wide concerns over possible culpability for price gouging the American consumer?
I have repeatedly commented that industry observers say it will take six to nine months to disinfect the barns, to purchase new chicks, to grow them to maturity, and to begin distributing the renewed supply of eggs.
Once again, thank you for allowing me to correct yet another of your barely accurate comments.
Ray W, says
This is a thought exercise.
In recent days, analysts with Goldman Sachs cut their projected annual sales of Tesla products. So, too, did analysts with JPMorgan and UBS.
Yesterday, in a note to its clients, Mizuho analysts also cut their projected annual Tesla sales worldwide from 2.3 million units to 1.8 million units, which is a greater than 20% drop in expectations.
In the note, the Mizuno analysts concluded:
“We struggle to think of anything analogous in the history of the automotive industry, in which a brand has lost so much value so quickly.”
They added that overall U.S. EV sales in February, compared to a year ago, were up 16%, but Tesla’s 12-month rolling sales total was down 2%.
In China, EV sales were up 85% over 12 months ago, but Tesla’s sales were down 49%.
In Germany, EV sales were up 31% over 12 months ago, but Tesla’s sales were down 76%.
For the year to date, meaning for the past two months, Tesla’s sales are down 41% worldwide over last year’s first two months.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I am no economist, but I am a curious student.
Many in the automotive news industry, and some in the mainstream new industry, report that the drop in sales is due to Musk’s antics and efforts in the American and European political scene. I don’t doubt that this might be so, but does that explain why Chinese car buyers are less and less likely to opt for Tesla products when the company’s products dominated that marketplace a few years ago?
I may be wrong, but does a Chinese couple or family, or an individual, really even know or care of Musk meeting with AfP leaders a month or two ago? Again, why are Chinese car buyers abandoning Tesla?
Here’s the thought exercise. Just which factor, or which combination of factors, among a multitude of possible factors best explain the sudden collapse of Tesla sales?
Many in the automotive press await Tesla’s refreshed Model Y, as its product line is thought to have become outdated. The Cybertruck has been the subject of numerous consumer complaints, including glued-on body parts falling off the truck. Other car and truck companies do not glue body parts to their vehicles.
Is today’s Cybertruck yesterday’s Edsel?
I have repeatedly commented over a number of months that Tesla’s long-awaited new battery technology is considered by experts as obsolete before it was released. Did Tesla spend billions to build new factories and spend billions on research and development to produce a battery design that is obsolete from the outset?
Other companies have released new battery designs that are less expensive to manufacture, faster to charge and discharge, hold more energy per pound, last through more charge/discharge cycles, are less prone to catching fire, and are less toxic to build and recycle.
Is it possible that Tesla simply opted to build a less-capable car with a less-capable battery, compared to its competitors, and it is now paying the price in the highly competitive automotive marketplace?
The slowing of sales volume began long before Musk joined the Trump bandwagon. I am not saying that Musk’s actions haven’t had an impact on sales, but sometimes a product simply becomes dated, no matter what the company does.
Again, a number of months ago, the Chinese automotive press reported that CATL’s CEO told Musk that he was brilliant in many ways, but he just didn’t know battery technology. The Western press picked that up. Musk reportedly had gone to China to seek partnership with CATL, the world’s biggest battery company, not the other way around.
BYD, the world’s second biggest battery company, recently released a press statement that BYD had agreed to share its battery technology with Tesla, not the other way around.
Ed P says
Ray W
Thanks again for the corrections. When will I witness your zeal to be accurate and eradicate hyperbole just once for the anyone on the left? I’m guessing it’s because it would not further the resistance.
Since accuracy is important, did you forget that I stated CASUALTIES and deaths in the Ukrainian conflict which actually started in 2014? There have been well over 1 million even if Russian reporting is anywhere near accurate. Yes indeed, you are correct in that number pales in comparison to WW 2. I admit it, hyperbole and gullibility.
I mean what’s a million lost souls? You advocate the war goes on and not one meter of land be traded to Putin. That’s a fantasy my friend. Let’s kill more.
For the third and final time, yes, I erred on the oil claim Give it up. Don’t you ever accept an apology? One last time, apologies.
But you purposely glossed over that eggs have actually dropped in price. I was pointing out that it was due to no “massive” culls occurring due to avian flu and the supply and demand forces were in effect when anything passes the point of elasticity. I was suggesting it was not anything Trump had done. Yet you parse facts and words to prove a non-point.
The same about gas prices. I was not bashing your boy Biden or complementing Trump. But gas prices have dropped.
It’s clear to me that no one on the left wants to state anything positive about the Trump administration. I get it. But the economy is not in a free fall as others indicated. That was the origin of my post.
Now allow me to engage in some actual and purposeful hypothetical hyperbole about the lefts’ Trump’s Derangement Syndrome. I believe it’s real. There are visible symptoms and it’s starting to mutate. People are looking for a vaccine.
The original virus is mutating onto anyone in the Trump sphere, regardless of their qualifications or character. It started with Trump and his family. It’s like Covid, it’s mutating quickly but only effecting the liberal segments of the population. If the left is not careful, it will become a pandemic creating a political group of impotent and ineffective members of the opposition party.Talk about optics….
The cure is to find a better solution to our problems instead of the irrational name calling, hatred, singing, swearing, and attacking 1/2 of the country. Is the root cause that most left leaners don’t like Trump’s methods even if he does get results? Sometimes, the end does justify the means in real life.
I did not take a victory lap when the Republicans won. Winning, just as in losing, should be gracious. However, chronic resistance for the sake of resisting is not going win the liberal the battle, less the war. TDS will ruin the party. It will not save it.
Sherry says
Protest by Flying a Canadian Flag!
2025- Listen to trump’s bullying of Canada regarding their resistance to becoming the 51st state
Ray W, says
Hello Ed P.
How many times do you have to be told that I oppose the vengeful among us? Opposing someone doesn’t prove that I support anyone else. It only proves that I oppose someone.
No one on this site can legitimately type a comment claiming that I supported Kamala Harris and Biden was certainly not “my boy.”. I opposed, and still oppose, Donald Trump because he is vengeful, and he says that he is our retribution. His political modus operandi represents everything our founding fathers feared, which is why Madison described a certain type of political partisanship as “pestilential.”
I did channel Churchill when commenting once or twice that democracy was the worst form of government until you compared it to all other forms of government that had already been tried, and that this meant that Harris, therefore, would be a bad choice for president until you compared her to the vengeful Trump. If I recall you correctly, you answered my comment with a Touche’.
I have repeatedly responded to your comments by asking that you become the voice of true conservatism on the FlaglerLive site. This, of course, requires the exercise of intellectual rigor and adherence to the three forms of reason as taught to our founding fathers.
In that capacity, you can focus on whomever you want. I am going to stick to opposing vengeful people and their gullibly stupid disinformation launderers. Did you know that in November and December of 2020, reports based on mandatory financial filings show that Trump’s repeated lies about a stolen election raised $250 million from his gullibly stupid followers? The total raised eventually passed $500 million.
Zealous advocacy means that I am under no obligation to meet your standards. It means that I am zealously obligated to one particular position. I am, however, bound to the dictates of the three forms of persuasion. In that capacity, I zealously advocate against the vengeful among us. Sometimes, zealous advocacy calls for stirring up a little hatred and discontent.
I have repeatedly offered my opinion that no one person can cover every eventuality that can be imagined, and that Mr. Tristam, in my estimation, has his hands full trying to cover the antics of 130k Flagler County residents. I can’t imagine him being able to cover Volusia County antics, too. There is only so much any one person can cover. There is more than plenty of controversy to go around in Bunnell, alone, much less the entire county.
You type that you want me to cover the bad actions of the left, too. Can it be inferred that you want me to do the heavy lifting for you so that you won’t have to do any heavy lifting at all? Good work, if you can get it. There are plenty of bad actors on the left. I openly admit that and have done so in the past, but I have also repeatedly said I just can’t cover it all.
I have repeatedly said I purposely do not cover local politics, out of a lack of desire to enter that pit, unless a Flagler Country elected Republican leader takes to the radio and asks just when will it be time to begin beheading Democrats. I didn’t comment in any quantity on the FlaglerLive site until the Flagler Republican “scum” asked that question. (President Trump just said that anyone who opposes him is “scum.”)
Not one of the many other local Republican leaders, to my knowledge, publicly rebuked the wishful future murderer. They didn’t rebuke our governor when he said that, if elected president, he would begin his first day in office by “slitting throats.” They didn’t rebuke our president when he said he would be our retribution and that he intended to “crush vermin.” They didn’t rebuke our former North Carolina Lt. Governor when he said on the campaign trial for governor that “some people need killing.”
I have my hands full with all of the lies, all of the disinformation, all of the misinformation, all the vengeful ideals that spew from the mouths of the professional lying class of one of our two political parties.
So, once again, No! I am focusing on the vengeful liars among us. You can focus on the other party. I wish you well. I have repeatedly written that I think that you possess all of the qualities necessary to zealously advocate your views, should you choose to emphasize those qualities.
As an aside, yes, you did take a victory lap. You said it was time to get out of the way and to not oppose the Trump agenda. If that isn’t a victory statement, what is?
The rest of your comment is okay with me. Valid points to be argued. Good for you. You might be right, and you might be wrong. Yes, there likely is an emotional state akin to Biden Derangement Syndrome.
I think we are in the early years of a long period of political violence. We are not yet even at the end of the beginning, much less at the beginning of the end. Judges have every reason to fear for their lives and the lives of their loved ones, should they rule against the vengeful among us. Not even you can deny that state of violent rhetoric.
I will let you in on a secret. When you commented on the 300 years of proven oil reserves so long ago, it wasn’t the error that caught my eye; it was how you ended your comment. Every once in a while, you are compelled to tell people to stick this in your pipe and smoke it, i.e., to shove it, or up yours. That approach may be appropriate when you are correct in your comment, which is why it is so important to me that I be factually accurate in my comments. When you are spectacularly wrong, that “up yours” attitude just doesn’t work.
Sherry says
Thank you Ray W.!
Skibum says
Seen on X: “Nissans are fast, BMWs are faster, but Teslas are the fascist!”