The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, May 2, 2025

Republicans Drop In Polls Over First 100 Days by R.J. Matson, Portland, Maine.

To include your event in the Briefing and Live Calendar, please fill out this form.

Weather: Partly sunny. Highs in the upper 80s. Friday Night: Partly cloudy in the evening, then becoming mostly cloudy. Lows in the mid 60s.

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:

Free For All Fridays with Host David Ayres, an hour-long public affairs radio show featuring local newsmakers, personalities, public health updates and the occasional surprise guest, starts a little after 9 a.m. with FlaglerLive Editor Pierre Tristam’s Reality Check. Today, Ayers, Tristam and Observer Publisher Brian McMillan discuss what’s ahead for the Palm Coast City Council, with call-ins from Council member Dave Sullivan and former Council member Dave Ferguson. See previous podcasts here. On WNZF at 94.9 FM, 1550 AM, and live at Flagler Broadcasting’s YouTube channel.

First Friday Garden Walks at Washington Oaks Gardens State Park, 6400 North Oceanshore Blvd., Palm Coast, 10 a.m. Join a Ranger the First Friday of every month for a garden walk. Learn about the history of Washington Oaks while exploring the formal gardens. The walk is approximately one hour. No registration required. Walk included with park entry fee. Participants meet in the Garden parking lot. The event is free with paid admission fee to the state park: $5 per vehicle. (Limit 2-8 people per vehicle) $4 per single-occupant vehicle. Call (386) 446-6783 for more information or by email: [email protected].

The Friday Blue Forum, a discussion group organized by local Democrats, meets at 12:15 p.m. at the Flagler Democratic Office at 160 Cypress Point Parkway, Suite C214 (above Cue Note) at City Marketplace. Come and add your voice to local, state and national political issues.

RockabillieWillie At City Repertory Theatre: Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 3 p.m., City Repertory Theatre, 160 Cypress Point Parkway (City Marketplace, Suite B207), Palm Coast. Tickets are $25 adults and $15 students, available online at crtpalmcoast.com or by calling 386-585-9415. Tickets also will be available at the venue just before curtain time. Get ready for Shakespeare like you’ve never heard—or seen—before! RockabillieWillie mashes up scenes from The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo & Juliet, and Henry V with a jukebox of rockabilly hits. Musical numbers like “Willie and the Hand Jive,” “Love and Marriage,” and Buddy Holly’s “Oh Boy” are reimagined to playfully clash and complement Shakespearean drama. Adapted by John Sbordone, RockabillieWillie is dedicated to the proposition that “All’s well that ends.” Don’t miss this fun, fast-paced ride through the Bard’s greatest hits! See Rick de Yampert’s preview: “City Repertory Theatre Untames Shakespeare, Doo-Wop and R&B with “RockabillieWillie.”

First Friday in Flagler Beach, the monthly festival of music, food and leisure, is scheduled for this evening at Downtown’s Veterans Park, 105 South 2nd Street, from 5 to 9 p.m. The event is overseen by the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency and run by Laverne M. Shank Jr. and Surf 97.3

Sneaker Ball Gala, 6 to 9 p.m. at the Palm Coast Community Center, 305 Palm Coast Parkway NE. Join us for our 1st Annual Sneaker Ball Gala an exclusive evening of mindfulness, philanthropy, and community impact. This event will introduce Rise Above the Violence, Inc., also known as LLC (Long Live Curtis), with the theme “Be Great”. This unforgettable night will bring together community leaders, educators, business owners, and advocates committed to uplifting and empowering our youth. Enjoy an evening filled with entertainment, networking, and purpose, as we showcase our mission to provide young people with essential tools for emotional resilience, mental health awareness, leadership development, and violence prevention through education. We are switching it up! Come with your formal attire and snazzy Sneakers!

Bunnell City Hall and its police department. (© Rick Belhumeur for FlaglerLive)

Notably: Bunnell’s State of the City came and went Monday with hardly a peep from us elitist media vultures, who only a few weeks ago were chomping at what went for Palm Coast’s State of the City as Mayor Norris mistook it for Nixon Revivalist Day. It’s been much more civilized in Bunnell, where the City Commission and City Manager Alvin It’s-a-great-day-in-Bunnell Jackson have unwittingly watered down the meaning of the State of the City in recent years: they begin every Commission meeting with a sometimes lengthy update on the city’s innumerable projects. The segment invariably turns into a back-patting exercise usually reserved for the State of the City. Bunnell has been happy with itself. It’s been churning along, with its City Hall about ready to open and Commerce Parkway about ready to pierce through to U.S. 1, from State Road 100. Ironically it’s Rick Belhumeur, the Flagler Beach city commissioner, who sent in the picture above. He’s not envious: he agreed with his colleagues last Tuesday that Flagler Beach doesn’t need one of these palaces. It’ll wait another 10 years for its own new city hall, if not more. It’s got too many projects going. The residents, one commissioner told me, would rip their heads off if they went ahead with a city hall. Unreported, but not entirely ignored. The State of the City is below, preceded by a nice proclamation in recognition of the city clerk, Kristen Bates, who pretty much runs the city.

—P.T.

Now this:

View this profile on Instagram

FlaglerLive News Service, Palm Coast (@flaglerlive) • Instagram photos and videos

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.