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Weather: Partly cloudy. Showers likely with a slight chance of thunderstorms. Highs in the mid 80s. Lows in the lower 60s. Chance of rain 60 percent.
- Daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here.
- Drought conditions here. (What is the Keetch-Byram drought index?).
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Today at a Glance:
The Flagler County Commission meets at 1 p.m. in workshop at the Government Services Building to discuss beach management and Justice Lane in Bunnell.
The Beverly Beach Town Commission meets at 6 p.m. at the meeting hall building behind the Town Hall, 2735 North Oceanshore Boulevard (State Road A1A) in Beverly Beach. See meeting announcements here.
Notably: Press freedom continues to get worse in the United States. From Statista: “The 2025 World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders, was released on May 2. The United States ranked 57th in 2025, having dropped two positions. RSF notes that the country is experiencing growing distrust in the media, partly driven by antagonism from political officials, while there have also been cases of local law enforcement having raided newsrooms. This year, the release highlights that the index’s economic indicator “now stands at an unprecedented, critical low.” The indicator fell more than 2 percentage points in one year to just 44.1 points in 2025, with all scores under 55 signaling a difficult situation. Together with losses to other subindices, the overall index entered difficult territory for the first time at 54.7 points. Economic pressure was an often underestimated aspect of media freedom, the report states, as problem to financial security include ownership concentration, pressure from advertisers and financial backers as well as lack of transparent public aid. Taking a look at wider trends, this chart shows that 42 countries were listed in the worst category in the index – where there exists a “very serious” situation of the press. 48 countries each fall under the “difficult” category and the “problematic” group, while 42 have either a “satisfactory” or “good” situation. Norway is once more at the top of the list, ranking in first place for the ninth year running, followed by Estonia and the Netherlands. The final trio, considered the most repressive countries for the press, are China (position 178), North Korea (179) and Eritrea (180).”
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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
East Flagler Mosquito Control District Board Meeting
Flagler County Commission Workshop
Flagler County Commission Evening Meeting
Nar-Anon Family Group
Palm Coast City Council Meeting
Food Truck Tuesday
Flagler Beach Library Writers’ Club
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy
For the full calendar, go here.
Palmer Hoyt, the editor and publisher of The Denver Post, thought McCarthyism required a new way of reporting. In a memorandum to his staff, Hoyt suggested that neutrality was not the highest virtue—truth was. Reporters should “apply any reasonable doubt they [might] have to the treatment of the story.” In other words, if a McCarthy statement was demonstrably false, the journalists should feel free to say so—in print. “It seems obvious that many charges made by reckless or impulsive public officials cannot and should not be ignored,” Hoyt wrote, “but it seems to me that news stories and headlines can be presented in such a manner that the reading public will be able to measure the real worth or value and the true meaning of the stories.” Hoyt believed steady and informed reporting on McCarthy was the best antidote to the fever of the time. “Believe me, there is nothing wrong with this country that repeated strong dosages of the facts will not correct,” Hoyt told other editors at a Tucson, Arizona, meeting in November 1954. “Even McCarthyism will melt away before this treatment.”
–From Jon Meacham’s The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels (2018).
Sherry says
Why Character Matters. . . TRUMP’S CORRUPTION!
This from Robert Reich 5-04-2025
Friends,
Words matter. When the media points out Trump’s “potential conflicts of interest,” as it has in recent days when describing Trump’s growing crypto enterprise, it doesn’t come close to telling the public what’s really going on — unprecedented paybacks and self-dealing by the president of the United States, using his office to make billions.
The correct word is corruption.
Trump holds a private dinner at the White House for major speculators who purchase his new cryptocurrency, earning him and his allies $900,000 in trading fees in just under two days. One senator calls this “the most brazenly corrupt thing a president has ever done.”
He’s doing other things as brazen if not more brazenly corrupt.
He collects a cut of sales from a cryptocurrency marketed with his likeness.
He promotes Teslas on the White House driveway on behalf of a multibillionaire who spent a quarter of a billion backing him during the 2024 election.
He posts news-making announcements on Truth Social, the company in which he and his family own a significant stake. Truth Social thereby becomes the world’s semi-official means of knowing Trump’s thinking and policies.
Trump frequently mentions in his phone calls with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer that he’d like the signature British Open golf tournament returned to Trump’s Turnberry resort in Scotland (its home before Trump’s January 6, 2021, attempted coup). Trump’s team asked the British PM again during his recent visit to the White House.
To describe these as “potential conflicts of interest” misses the point. A “potential conflict of interest” sounds like an unfortunate situation in which it’s possible that Trump might choose his own personal interest over the nation’s. Stated this way, the problem is the conflict.
But Trump isn’t conflicted. He repeatedly chooses his (and his family’s) interests over the nation’s. He is using the authority and trappings of the presidency of the United States to make money for himself and his family. And in his second term, this corruption is more flagrant than it was in the first.
Some legal scholars say “corruption” occurs only after a court so rules. But this isn’t the common-sense definition, and the critical venue for restraining Trump is the court of public opinion. When Trump collects on a favor or engages in a quid pro quo deal for himself or his family — which he’s doing more and more often — the transactions are corrupt.
Trump’s venture into crypto has increased his family’s wealth by an estimated $2.9 billion in the last six months, according to a new report.
This estimate was made before the Trump family crypto firm, World Liberty Financial, announced that its so-called “stablecoin” — with Trump’s likeness all over it — will be used by the United Arab Emirates to make a $2 billion business deal with Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world. The deal will generate hundreds of millions of dollars more for the Trump family.
We’re not talking about a “potential conflict of interest.” The Trump family is making a boatload of money off a venture backed by a foreign government. Hello? The U.S. Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, Article II, Section 1, Clause 7, bars a president from receiving any compensation or other emolument from a foreign government.
The deal also formally links the Trump family business to Binance — a company that’s been under U.S. government oversight since 2023, when it admitted to violating federal money-laundering laws.
Meanwhile, Trump is instructing the government to ease up on regulating crypto. The Securities and Exchange Commission is ending its crypto fraud investigations. The Justice Department is terminating its enforcement actions against crypto.
A potential conflict of interest? Please. This is corruption, plain and simple.
Eric Trump, who officially runs the family business, has just announced plans for a Trump-branded hotel and tower in Dubai, part of the U.A.E.
The Trump family is also developing a luxury hotel and golf course complex in the Middle East nation of Oman, on land owned by the government of Oman. Oman also plays an important role in the Middle East, often serving as a middleman between the United States and Iran.
This project and three others are dependent on a Saudi-based real estate company with close ties to the Saudi government. Saudi Arabia has a long list of pressing matters before the United States, including requests to buy F-35 fighter jets and gain access to nuclear power technology.
In two weeks, when Trump travels to Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. to meet with their heads of government and that of Oman, is this a “state visit” or a business trip? Obviously, it’s both — which underscores the self-dealing.
There’s no “potential conflict of interest” here. It’s pure corruption.
Trump is the most corrupt president in American history. His self-dealing makes Warren G. Harding’s look like a child shoplifting candy.
Why isn’t the media calling this what it is? Americans deserve to know.
Pogo says
@Remarkable
… yesterday’s syrup become fine wine.
Pogo says
@And so it goes
Pogo says
@Maintaining America’s dig nitty
@What is low in a world with no bottom?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-shares-ai-generated-photo-of-him-dressed-as-pope/ar-AA1E71BL?ocid=nl_article_link
Sherry says
This is precisely what happens when a person “Convicted of Felony Fraud” becomes President, and why “CHARACTER MATTERS”:
Since returning to the White House, President Trump and his family have embarked on a series of international business deals that raise serious ethical concerns. The Trump Organization has announced a new luxury golf resort in Qatar, developed in partnership with Qatari Diar, a firm owned by the Qatari government. This project includes Trump-branded villas and an 18-hole golf course, marking the organization’s first overseas deal since Trump’s reentry into office.
In Saudi Arabia, plans are underway for a residential tower in Jeddah, further entrenching the family’s business interests in the region. Not to mention Trump’s new found love of LIV golf, a Saudi owned competitor to the PGA. Meanwhile, in Dubai, the Trump Organization has unveiled the Trump International Hotel and Tower, a project that will feature the world’s highest pool and $20 million penthouses, with Bitcoin accepted as payment,
The Trump family’s foray into cryptocurrency is equally troubling. They have launched World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance platform that includes a stablecoin called USD1. A UAE government-backed fund plans to use this cryptocurrency to acquire a $2 billion stake in Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. This deal raises ethical concerns over potential conflicts of interest, especially as Binance is under U.S. federal oversight following an anti-money-laundering conviction in 2023.
Additionally, the Trump family has invested in a bitcoin-mining company named American Bitcoin, aiming to become the world’s largest bitcoin miner . These ventures coincide with the administration’s religious deregulation of the cryptocurrency industry, including ceasing regulatory actions and disbanding a Justice Department crypto enforcement unit.
Domestically, the Trump family continues to blur the lines between public service and personal gain. Donald Trump Jr. has co-founded an ultra-exclusive, members-only club in Washington, D.C., called the “Executive Branch,” with an annual membership fee of $500,000 . This club offers wealthy individuals direct access to Trump-era officials and policymakers, effectively monetizing proximity to power.
The GOP spent years investigating Hunter Biden’s role at Burisma, scrutinizing every detail for potential conflicts of interest. Yet, they remain silent as the Trump family openly profits from the presidency. This double standard is not only hypocritical but also undermines the integrity of our democratic institutions.
It’s imperative that Democrats and principled Republicans take a stand against this blatant corruption. We must make it clear to foreign entities engaging in these deals that while they may benefit now, a special prosecutor will be tasked with investigating these transactions for undue influence or corruption under the next administration. Furthermore, individuals breaking the law on behalf of the current administration could be held accountable after Trump leaves office, in compliance with the statute of limitations.
We cannot accept this corruption as the new normal. The presidency should serve the American people, not as a means for personal enrichment. It’s time to uphold the principles of transparency, accountability, and integrity in our government.
Laurel says
Sherry: Thank you for your research. Our President of the United States is interested in the 1%, only, besides himself and his family. No one showed interest in the Saudis giving Jared Kushner, Trump’s son in law, and Senior Presidential Advisor, $2,000,000,000 dollars to “invest.” Meanwhile, he, and the Republican politicians have us worried about the tiniest segment of our population (trans), lying about Haitians eating pets, whether we can continue birth control, pulling people off the streets and sending them to a foreign prison, removing thousands of Americans from their jobs, putting tariffs on parts and products that American companies rely on, turning public schools into religious institutions, censoring diversity, equity and inclusions, banning books, threatening libraries, threatening universities, taking over history museums, deciding what arts are worthy, renaming our heritage, deciding what language we can use, and now, deciding what we can and cannot watch, tariffing Netflix foreign films. The U.S. A. is becoming the little third world bubble. No outside input needed. Stagnant, and poor. Just a big military birthday for the toddler. The list gets longer, and more oppressive every day. This is intentionally keeping the middle class overwhelmed while the grifters get away with all sorts of self enrichment. Fox Entertainment is doing all it can to help them, while the White House removes journalists who do not flatter Big Brother (Baby Brother).
The goal is to crush the middle class and the poor, with their blessings, and for the Evangelicals, this is literal.
Hitler is starting to look like a simple runner up when comparing speed of such action.
Skibum says
Sherry, the info you shared from Robert Reich is appreciated. His comments and yours as well are right on. I might add one more important piece of the ongoing corruption, and that is regarding dirty diaper Don’s ongoing harassment of the White House press and national media outlets that he doesn’t like, because all of this corruption that he and his family are involved in eventually come to light and are reported to the American people… and that he just cannot allow. So what does a corrupt, unethical and increasingly unhinged man like dirty diaper Don do? He threatens the very ones who dare to report on his corruption. He removes the WH press who has previously been so brazen to bring to light his misdeeds and question him about his own unethical behavior, the laws and constitutional protections that he and his administration are openly violating. Instead of being cautious about committing such contemptable and illegal violations, a corrupt and immoral man like the current occupier of our nation’s WH is sanctioning those journalists and media outlets, openly violating their 1st amendment rights. Then he thumbs his nose at the courts who rule against his media sanctions and sidesteps the court ruling by hedging around and finding other contemptable and mean ways to accomplish punishing the media anyway. And in all of this corruption that is playing out every singly day right now in American politics due to this extremely vengeful man-child, dictator wanna-be, we take a breath every now and then, but also have to follow up with an aspirin and glass of water for our migraine headaches when we realize we are just 100 days into this moron’s presidency with nearly four long years to go! Who knows how much worse the corruption will get in the weeks and months ahead?!
Sherry says
Don’t want to read about trump’s adding millions to his personal “Billions” but using his Presidential influence. . . here is a youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGWbZSavFus
With a detailed report from the NY Times
Sherry says
Why is trump’s blatant corruption OK with you Maga?
Sherry says
Hello Laurel and Skibum. . . Thanks Kiddos! More from Robert Reich and others in the future, I promise!