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Weather: Sunny. Highs in the lower 80s. Southwest winds around 5 mph, becoming southeast in the afternoon. Wednesday Night: Mostly clear. Not as cool with lows in the lower 50s.
- 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:
Palm Coast Maintenance Facility Groundbreaking: The City of Palm Coast invites residents to attend a groundbreaking event for the Maintenance and Operations Center (MOC) on Wednesday, March 19, at 8:30 a.m. at the new facility’s site, 240 Peavey Grade, Palm Coast. After years of planning, this facility will provide essential enhancements to the city’s vital services, including operations for the Public Works, Stormwater, and Utility departments.
The Palm Coast Planning and Land Development Board meets at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall.
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 atlanticcoastau@gmail.com 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 CAT9201@aol.com 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 childrens@flaglercounty.gov
Notably: “Changes in Tariff Bill,” ran the headline atop the New York Times. “Democrats’ Protest Ignored.” The article read in part: “A number of changes were made to-day in the bill. These were as follows: An addition was made to the paragraph relating to ochre and ochrey earths by making
‘aried or powdered earths,’ one-half of 1 cent per pound. China clay, Or kaolin, was increased from $2 to $8 per ton. Rockingham earthenware, at 40 per cent. ad valorem, was added to the earthenware schedule. An addition was made to Paragraph 125, relating to iron or steel anchors, as follows: Anti-friction ball forgings of iron or steel or of combined iron and steel, 45 per cent. ad valorem. Welded cylindrical furnaces made from plate metal, 2½ cents per pound, was added to Paragraph 119 of the metal schedule.” And so on. You’re beginning to get the impression that the style is a little off, the products are foreign, not just because they’re coming from overseas. The article is from this date in 1897, less than a month into William McKinley’s presidency, the William McKinley Il Duce is modeling himself after, and whose name he signed an order to have restored on Denali, North America’s tallest peak, in Alaska. McKinley loved tariffs, though the situation at the time was very different. American industry was on the rise, trade surpluses were booming. Tariffs spurred the trends. We’re all about deficits now. The February deficit was $14 billion, a relatively low figure caused by a $9 billion drop in imports. McKinley’s Republicans in the 55th Congress had a 46-34 majority in the Senate (there were 10 members of other parties or independents) and a 246-104 advantage in the House. Then as now Democrats were irrelevant, though now their tiny margin (they’re down by four) should not have made them so. In what passed for the opinion page at The Times in 1897, the editorialist in charge had written that the tariff bill “is not a revenue measure. It is a bill to perpetuate the deficit.” The Sun,a competing newspaper, had supported it. “We entreat our neighbor The Sun to turn its analytical mind upon the bill and give it the whacking it deserves.” And that was when the president pushed tariff bills through Congress, rather than enacted them unilaterally. Good days.
—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
Free For All Fridays With Host David Ayres on WNZF
Friday Blue Forum
Murder at Shivering Timbers Murder Mystery Dinner Show Fundraiser
RockabillieWillie At City Repertory Theatre
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
For the full calendar, go here.
The explosive growth of U.S. trade had already trampled earlier free-trade warnings about protection building fatal economic walls.
Between 1865 and 1900, U.S. merchandise exports had quintupled from $261 million to $1.53 billion, with the fastest growth coming in manufactures (now 35 percent of total) mostly metals, machinery, and transport equipment. In all of these, U.S. companies were becoming world leaders. During the low tariff era between 1846 and 1861, imports and exports had been roughly equal in value. However, by 1897 and 1898, as prosperity returned under high tariff protection, merchandise exports surged far beyond imports. In 1897, the surplus was $286 million, in 1898 a staggering $616 mil-lion. By 1899, the United States was exporting almost twice as much merchandise as came in, utterly unprecedented. On one hand, this was a triumph-Republicans reasonably boasted about tariffs’ effectiveness in nurturing such successful industries. Yet it was also a caution: selling so much abroad would be hard to sustain without taking more foreign goods in return, thus the need to shift from pure protection to an emphasis on reciprocity and bargaining.
–From Kevin Phillips’s William McKinley (2003).
Jim says
Casey DeSantis can run for governor but it’ll just be a waste of time.
Trump has designated Byron Donalds as the next governor of Florida so it’s already been decided who the Republicans will run. Is he qualified? Is he any good for Florida? Doesn’t matter. He’s Trump’s pick and MAGA will fall in line. We’re proving right now that you don’t have to be qualified to run a cabinet position in DC so it’s easy to see that can translate into a little ol’ governor’s office.
Also, just out of curiosity, I checked Mrs. DeSantis’ credentials to be governor. She’s been a talk show host and the governor’s wife. That’s about it. More than qualified to be governor.
What I find humorous about this is that it seems to me that Ron DeSantis may be desperate to see his wife become governor to keep him relevant to any political conversation after he leaves office. Here’s a guy with no personality, few friends and is rapidly losing “control” of politics in Florida. Without his wife as governor, what political future does he really have? And, as far as I’m concerned, it couldn’t happen to anyone more deserving. Here’s hoping the DeSantis name recedes from the news and neither is ever heard of again.
Ray W, says
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), a subsidiary and limited committee within the overall Fed, meets eight scheduled times per year, though it can meet more often. Today was one of those scheduled times.
The 12 voting members met to discuss their views of the current state of the American economy, alongside a number of non-voting members. Fed Chair Powell is but one of the voting members.
This is a group of some of the more respected economists in the country, whose role is to determine, among other things, whether to raise, lower or leave unchanged future Fed lending rates.
After the meeting a statement drawn from their collective views was released. In time, a transcript of the meeting will be released.
CNBC devoted an article to the FOMC’s statement’s contents.
Here are some of the bullet points from the article:
– Last December, the FOMC’s projected U.S. economic growth for 2025 was 2.1%. Today, the collective expectation for projected U.S. economic growth was downgraded to 1.7%.
– Last December, the FOMC’s projected U.S. inflation rate for 2025 was 2.5%. Today, the collective expectation for projected U.S. inflation was raised to 2.8%.
– According to the CNBC analysis, these two revisions in expectations suggest the beginning of a period of “stagflation”, which may come to exist whenever inflation rises, and economic growth slows via a weakening of the labor market.
– The nineteen members who met today, voting and non-voting, see the Fed lending rate lowering to 3.9% by the end of 2025, “equivalent to a target range of 3.75% to 4%”, but the 12 voting members decided to keep the current lending rate unchanged in a range between 4.25%-4.5%.
– The collective view today expects two rate cuts this year.
– Four of the members see no change in lending rates by the end of this year, up from one at the January meeting.
– In its statement, the FOMC “noted the ‘uncertainty around the economic outlook has increased.”
– In its statement, the FOMC added that the Fed is “attentive to the risks to both sides of its dual mandate.”
– At a news conference following the FOMC meeting, Fed Chair Powell said:
“Inflation has started to move up now. We think partly in response to tariffs and there may be a delay in further progress over the course of this year. … Overall, it is a solid picture. The survey data both household and businesses show significant large rising uncertainty and significant concerns about downside risks.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Thank goodness no FlaglerLive reader can accuse me of jumping into this issue, as I have been commenting about Fed issues, determinations, and meetings for years now. When the issues were unfavorable to the Biden administration, I pointed that out.
The Fed was created by legislation over 100 years ago. The intent at the time of its creation was that the Fed would be an independent agency, free from political interference. It had then, and still has now, only two mandates from Congress: to create jobs and manage the growth of the economy, in part by managing high inflation and any form of deflation, economic conditions that harm economic growth.
After listening to 18 other economists, of which 11 possess voting authority, Fed Chair Powell named tariffs as the primary reason for a lowering of the previous projected level of economic growth and a raising of the expected level of inflation.
Most importantly, at least to me in this context, tariff changes can occur at any time, so the projected economic and inflation figures, too, might change at any time.
– This being said, I remain cautious. Too little time has passed since Trump took office. Too little wide-ranging reliable economic data has been gathered. I am not ready to say a downward projection is a bad thing as opposed to it being a less good thing. Inflation at 2.8%, too, may be less good than 2.5%, but it might not yet be considered bad.
Anyway, the Fed’s decisions are only projections. But Fed projections carry great weight in the economic community.
If the projections assessed by the many economists come to pass, can we all safely infer from the many previous lies issued by the professional lying class of one of our two political parties that the professional liars will lie again by blaming the Biden administration for the downgrading of an economy that was the “envy of the world” when Trump took office.
Fed Chair Powell says tariffs, among other factors, are the reason. Will Trump?
The most gullibly stupid among us will launder whatever the lies, as they so often do. They will likely be wrong, as they so often are.
Ray W, says
A Chinese battery manufacturer, Contemporary Amperex Technology Company (CATL), is the world’s largest EV battery maker.
GlobalData just published an article devoted to changes in CATL’s battery developments, derived from a company presentation during a recent CATL investor event.
Here are some bullet points from the article:
– CATL makes many different types of batteries, ranging from lithium-ferrous-phosphate (LFP) to liquid-state lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) of two different types, among others. One of the LiB battery styles is a composite nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) battery.
– Last year, LFP and NCM battery products, named Shenxing and Qilin, comprised 30% to 40% of CATL’s total manufacturing output of LFP and NCM batteries from its many and widespread factories.
– This year, the percentage held by the two battery models is expected to be between 60% and 70% of the total number of LFP and NCM batteries produced.
– The company’s recently released “Freevoy” battery, designed for hybrid cars that often need smaller batteries, is already fitted in more that 30 EV vehicle models.
– CATL is expanding battery production capacity in a number of factories in cities such as Ningde, Jining, Luoyang and Beijing, plus in its factories in Germany, Hungary and Spain. A battery supply chain project in Indonesia is underway.
However, the most unique portion of the article involves CATL’s sodium-ion batteries.
– In 2021, CATL began selling its first-generation sodium-ion batteries. The batteries offer performance characteristics close to that of LFP batteries at a lesser cost. The batteries charge to over 80% in 15 minutes, they operate well at temperatures as low as -20 degrees Celsius, they offer thermal stability (don’t overheat), and they have an energy density of 160 Wh/kg, which is less than but comparable to the energy density of LFP batteries.
– CATL intends to produce a Second-Generation sodium-ion battery. Specifications were not mentioned, but the company said: [O]nce large-scale adoption is achieved, sodium-ion batteries will have a significant cost advantage over LFP batteries.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
A salt-battery, as I have commented about earlier, uses few toxic metals. It is literally made from salt.
The Chinese have spent years developing these now low-cost batteries, and soon to be even lower-cost batteries, and they are selling them and improving them while we watch them walk away from us. Chinese batteries become less and less expensive to make. They are lighter and lighter. Their energy density per pound continues to rise. They are becoming less toxic to manufacture and less toxic to recycle. They last longer and longer before they can no longer hold a charge. They are less and less sensitive to thermal runaway and they charge and discharge faster and faster.
There is no reason why Americans could not have developed salt batteries, or any other type of battery, for that matter, but for the lies repeatedly uttered by the members of the professional lying class at the top of one of our two political parties and laundered by the gullibly stupid among us. For decades, we have heard to the point of absurdity how electric vehicles cannot compete with ICE vehicles. Well, here we are.
We possess the inventiveness and ingenuity in our universities and research facilities, and we have always possessed those qualities, but we directed our resources away from battery development. We now have to pay Chinese companies for the right to use their technology.
We ceded EVs and the concurring battery industry to the Chinese 20 years ago. We stand to send billions and billions of dollars to these companies as we now try to catch up.
Ray W, says
BYD just released the first of an expected range of luxury vehicles under the new brand called Yangwan.
It’s first SUV model is designated the U8, and it is designated as an EREV, which stands for “extended range electric vehicle.” It has a small 2.0-liter turbocharged engine harnessed to a generator, so the engine doesn’t drive the wheels. It’s relatively small lithium-ferrous-phosphate (LFP) battery provides only 77 miles of range, though that may change. Once the rechargeable battery depletes to a certain level, the ICE turns on to generate electricity for the four electric motors to continue operating.
Its targeted marketplace is populated by vehicles such as the Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600 SUV and the Bentley Bentayga SUV.
I looked up the specifications.
Overall weight? U8 weights 7,600 pounds. The GLS 600 weighs 6,106 pounds. The Bentayga weights 5439 pounds.
Total horsepower? U8 has an electric motor powering each of the four wheels, with a combined horsepower of 1,180. The 4.0-liter twin-turbo GLS 600 engine generates 550-hp. The 4.0-liter twin-turbo Bentayga engine produces 542-hp.
The U8 accelerates from 0-62 mph in 3.6 seconds. The GLS 600 accelerates from 0-60 in 4.8 seconds. The Bentayga accelerates from 0-60 in 3.5 seconds.
The U8 has a combined range of 621 miles. With it’s preset 77-mile electric range, that means its gas-powered range is 544 miles. With its 15-gallon fuel tank, that means 29 mpg when operating in its extended range mode, under Chinese mileage specifications. Since the SUV is not imported into the U.S., it does not have EPA mileage figures. The GLS 600 is rated at 13 mpg city/18 mpg highway. The Bentayga is rated at 14 mpg city/21 mpg highway.
The U8 base model sells for $151,600. The GLS 600 base model sells for $179,600. The Bentayga base model sells for $208,000.
There are no English language test articles that I could find, such as those published by Car and Driver, which I found for the GLS and the Bentayga, so it is difficult to compare build quality, luxuriousness, driving and handling characteristics, and noise, vibration, harshness (NVH) levels for the U8, yet, at least not yet by English-writing journalists, but I infer that they are coming.
I found a review by an Australian journalist who test-drove a pre-production version of the U8 in a Chinese car park, but not on open roads. He described the interior as luxurious and of excellent quality, but what does that mean in this segment? He writes of several unique capabilities. The U8, with its four independent motors, can do a zero-radius maneuver, like a lawn tractor. It is called a “Tank Turn.” The U8 can traverse a waterway up to roughly three feet deep, as the gas engine is mounted high above the front axles, and it is designed to float for up to 30 minutes if the water gets too deep, moving at up to 3 mph to reach shallower water. According to the reviewer, the U8 is also designed to compete with luxury Range Rover models, with serious off-road capabilities built into the U8.
With the 100% tariff imposed by former President Biden on all Chinese EVs, I don’t suppose Americans will be buying any luxury U8s for a few years, but BYD is coming to the rest of the world.
Ray W, says
MIT published articles about the environment through a site called Climate Portal.
Its last update of an article about causes of bird deaths from wind turbines dropped on December 12, 2023.
In the article, which cited to studies published in 2013 and 2014, the estimated number of bird deaths from collisions with wind turbines per year range from 140,000 to 679,000. The authors hypothesize that the numbers have to be higher in 2023 because of the greater number of wind turbines now in operation. One way to reduce bird deaths is to paint one of the turbine blades black. This simple visibility-altering act can reduce bird deaths up to 70 percent.
A 2012 study found that wind projects kill 0.269 birds per kilowatt hour produced. The same study found that fossil fuel plants, such as coal-fired plants, killed 5.18 birds per kilowatt hour produced. Some of that total number comes from the number of birds that die while flying into fossil fuel plant buildings, including the cooling towers.
Other studies show that house cats kill 4 billion birds per year and birds flying into buildings of all kinds die at a rate of 988 million per year.
Between 12 and 64 million birds die per year from flying into power lines.
Make of this what you will.
Ray W, says
On December 21, 2022, SciAm published a story about “rusty” batteries that “could store and discharge energy for far longer and at less cost than lithium-ion technology.”
Here are some bullet points from the article:
– Form Energy, a Massachusetts-based company formed in 2017 has contracts to build “iron-air” or “rusty” battery storage facilities for Georgia Power Company and for Great River Energy, a Minnesota-based electric utility.
– Form Energy is working with ArcelorMittal, a Luxembourg-based steel company, to develop “iron materials.”
– An “iron-air” battery uses a “slab of iron, a water-based electrolyte and a membrane that feeds a controlled stream of air into the battery.” During the discharge cycle, the battery absorbs oxygen and sheds rust into the electrolyte. During the charge cycle, the battery emits oxygen and converts the shed rust back into iron.
– While lithium-ion batteries can discharge stored energy for roughly four hours under load, depending on application, iron-air batteries can discharge stored energy for up to 100 hours under load, making iron-air batteries superior to lithium-ion for utility-scale storage of intermittent electricity generation, such as that from solar- and wind farms.
– Each of Form Energy’s iron-air batteries is about the size of a washer and dryer set.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Iron is not toxic per se to make, though the process does pollute. It is not toxic to recycle, either. It is inexpensive when compared to lithium or nickel, or manganese, or cobalt, and it is widely available as a domestic source of metal. There is no mention in the article of the cost of the membrane, so that remains unsettled.
Who knows what innovations and economies will come from this comparatively simple and inexpensive technology?
Pogo says
@Ray W
Thank you, just gave a thumbs up to all your posts.
My take: the upper crust (a bunch of crumbs and plenty of dough) will party to the bitter end of everything, aka, the current mass extinction; and the stars will shine — til they don’t.
Ray W, says
Hello Pogo.
Thank you.
I found another article on the “rusty” battery technology.
Popular Mechanics reported on January 17, 2023, that the batteries are less expensive to make than are liquid-state lithium-ion batteries by a factor of 10 and the batteries last 17 times longer.
According to PM, the batteries, being large and slow to recharge, best serve a particular purpose. Electrical utility companies could use them to store excess energy produced during low-demand periods and then release the stored energy during peak-demand periods.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
If the technology is that cheap, we could soon see power plants all over the country having large numbers of these battery modules on site.
This is a thought exercise.
The Holy Grail of electricity production is to maximize the efficiency of the powerplants that produce the electricity, as efficiencies offer lower costs to consumers.
Florida has many (about 50) combined-cycle gas turbines plants (CCGT) spread all over the state that