To include your event in the Briefing and Live Calendar, please fill out this form.
Weather: Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid 90s. Southwest winds around 5 mph. Tuesday Night: Mostly clear. Lows in the upper 60s. Southwest winds around 5 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 Palm Coast City Council meets at 9 a.m. at City Hall. For agendas, minutes, and audio access to the meetings, go here. For meeting agendas, audio and video, go here.
Food Truck Tuesdays is presented by the City of Palm Coast on the third Tuesday of every month from March to October. Held at Central Park in Town Center, visitors can enjoy gourmet food served out of trucks from 5 to 8 p.m.–mobile kitchens, canteens and catering trucks that offer up appetizers, main dishes, side dishes and desserts. Foods to be featured change monthly but have included lobster rolls, Portuguese cuisine, fish and chips, regional American, Latin food, ice cream, barbecue and much more. Many menus are kid-friendly. Proceeds from each Food Truck Tuesday event benefits a local charity.
The Flagler Beach Library Writers’ Club meets at 5 p.m. at the library, 315 South Seventh Street, Flagler Beach.
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy, 8 p.m. at Cinematique Theater, 242 South Beach Street, Daytona Beach. General admission is $8.50. Every Tuesday and on the first Saturday of every month the Random Acts of Insanity Comedy Improv Troupe specializes in performing fast-paced improvised comedy.
Byblos: Our once-a-month Christmas delivery for May–the gifts that the Library of America keeps giving for the same price ($30) I used to pay in the 1990s–is Hellen Keller’s Autobiographies and Other Writings, the other writings consisting of essays, speeches, letters and journals. Hellen Keller (1880-1968) was the first deaf blind college graduate in the United States, as much or more of a conqueror of Everest and the Moon as Hillary and Armstrong, more so because her conquest was more directly useful to countless others, as landing on the Moon and climbing Everest was not. I wouldn’t diminish vanity discoveries. We need them for inspiration. But we tend to diminish the greater discoveries (like Norman Borlaug saving a billion lives or more with his agriculture revolution, or Soviet Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov, who literally saved the world when he refused to let loose Soviet nukes on what turned out to be a convincing but false alert of an incoming rain of American ICBMs in 1983, when he had every reason to fear one, with Reagan in the White House). Keller is somewhere up there. She published two autobiographies, The Story of My Life (1903) and The World I Live In (1908). Most of the additional material was never previously collected. The 640-page volume (it would have been longer had significant sections not been in small print) is edited by Kim Nielsen, who wrote The Radical Lives of Helen Keller in 2009, a short political biography. Keller, curiously, dedicated her first biography to Alexander Graham Bell, “who,” she wrote, “has taught the deaf to speak and enabled the listening ear to hear speech from the Atlantic to the Rockies.” (Is it unkind to remind you, reader, of Thoreau’s remark, when he was told that the telegraph had connected Maine to Texas and he asked what they would have to say to each other?) The biography includes illustrations and reproductions of Keller’s handwriting and some telling braille. “It is with a kind of fear that I begin to write the history of my life,” she opens. The title of an August 1932 essay: “Put Your Husband in the Kitchen.”
—P.T.
View this profile on Instagram
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.
June 2025
Nar-Anon Family Group
Flagler County Beekeepers Association Meeting
Bunnell City Commission Meeting
Palm Coast City Council Workshop
Flagler County School Board Information Workshop
Book Dragons, the Kids’ Book Club, at Flagler Beach Public Library
Budgeting by Values: A Virtual Class to Learn Budgeting Skills
NAACP Flagler Branch General Membership Meeting
Flagler County School Board Meeting
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy
For the full calendar, go here.
My heart is full of joy this beautiful morning, because I have learned to speak many new words, and I can make a few sentences. Last evening I went out in the yard and spoke to the moon. I said, “O! moon come to me!” Do you think the lovely moon was glad that I could speak to her? How glad my mother will be I can hardly wait for June to come I am so eager to speak to her and to my precious little sister.
–From a letter by Helen Keller, April 8, 1890.
Dennis C Rathsam says
Clearly BIBI is between a rock, & a hard space…. If Hamas, or any of their followers, had a 1/4 inch of humanity they wouldn’t have put there headquarters under the hospitals. Theses animals have no conscience, just murder. Now is the time to flood the tunnels, & wipe them all of the face of the earth forever. There will never be peace, in this region until the job is done. It’s time to liberate, & free the people of Gaza, more importantly we need to feed them. Then we will help with the rebuilding, & make it safe for all mankind!
Ray W, says
Per Carscoops, Toyota, in collaboration with its partner Chinese automaker, FAW, and with batteries manufactured by BYD, released its Tesla Y alternative into the Chinese EV marketplace.
The Toyota bZ5 fits into the mid-size SUV sector, with a wheelbase of 113.4 inches and a length of 188.2 inches; its base model carries a 65.28 kWh Blade LFP battery, good for 342 miles range using China’s measuring algorithm. A 30-80% charge takes 27 minutes. An up-model option, the 73.98 kWh Blade battery, provides a range of 392 miles. The electric motor provides 268 hp.
Price? $18,000 and up. Tesla Y price? $36,500 and up. Both vehicles are manufactured in China.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Remember that the bZ5 is a Toyota product, not some cheap imitator new to the auto industry.
I commented on a recent article that presented the idea that 70% of Chinese EV models now sell at equal or lower prices when compared to gas-powered equivalents, and the prices for EVs keep dropping as technological improvements and breakthroughs are adopted.
Yes, Chinese government mileage estimates are reported as optimistic, but then again, American government mileage estimates posted on window stickers are perceived as optimistic, too.
Yes, if Toyota were to attempt to import its bZ5 model into the American marketplace, the 100% tariff on all foreign-made EVs that Biden imposed, plus whatever additional Trump-imposed tariff exists at the time the EV is manufactured would make the American MSRP for the model prohibitively expensive.
Nonetheless, if Toyota can offer for sale a Tesla Y alternative at half the price, that is saying something. As Ford’s CEO says, today’s EVs are in the Model T stage of development. Rapid changes are coming to the EV industry.
Pogo says
@Oh, there is a difference
… one is there, the other here:
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/
Other trump allies are busy too
https://www.google.com/search?q=Iran+announces+deportation+of+millions
Pierre Tristam says
We don’t call Osama bin Laden “Bin Bin.” Let’s not call the butcher of Gaza “Bibi.”
Who voted? says
Murikkka and its support for genocide in Gaza is sick but par for Nazis. Interesting how the republicons try to defend starving people to death and opening concentration camps! Let’s pray the cons and their families get the same treatment! Court orders don’t even matter to the fascists and therefore the us constitution is relevant as toilet paper.All it took was money to corrupt us into becoming the Nazis. Interesting times! This could be the final decade of human civilization! And your rights got gutted! Your government got gutted! You are being robbed! The gang responsible is the GoP and they make ms13 look like Boy Scouts.
Jim says
To: Dennis C Rathsam
Whenever I think you can’t come up with any more despicable comments, you succeed again. You call for the murder of all Palestinians (I’m assuming you’d stop there but who knows?). What Hamas did on October 7th was evil and inhuman and I have no sympathy for any of that terrorist group. But, at last count, 53,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in the 1-1/2 year since then. Few, if any, thinking individuals believes all or the vast majority of those killed are Hamas. Yet you, and people like you, have no problem standing by and watching this atrocity continue. And you say “free” and “feed” the people of Gaza? I’m confused. Aren’t we supposed to kill them all?
Israel continues to kill innocent people – men, women and children claiming their killing Hamas. Netanyahu is no better than Hitler in that regard. This is genocide.
I’ll tell you what will come out of this. For every Palestinian killed, wounded or displaced by these war crimes, there will be relatives who will take up arms against Israel who probably would not have done so otherwise. This hate and killing will continue until both sides can figure out how to live together. I can say without question, it won’t happen in my lifetime. Netanyahu has made sure of that.
And, by the way, check out some facts on your “Bibi”. You’ll find allegations of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust by him and close political allies. He continues this war in part to avoid having to face those allegations in court. Israeli’s will likely vote him out of office if this war ever ends. This from an ex-general of the Israeli army: ““A sane country does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies as a pastime, and does not engage in mass population displacement,” Yair Golan, a left-wing opposition voice and the former deputy chief of staff of the Israeli army, said in a charged interview with local radio station Reshet Bet.” (From NBC News today).
Although you are not willing to even look, Israel is NOT the good guy in this war any more. They gave that away a long time ago. But I think it’s worse that people like you seem to think what they are doing is justified. No wonder we have Trump as a president. Our morals have sunk so low….
Sherry says
You will NOT see this on Fox!
The Latest From Heather Cox Richardson:
The House Rules Committee will take up the Republicans’ omnibus bill this week. Illustrating their confidence that the American people support this 1,116-page measure enacting much of MAGA’s wish list, the committee has set its meeting for Wednesday, May 21, 2025…at 1:00 in the morning (not a typo). The Republicans are trying to advance Trump’s entire agenda—from massive logging on public lands to slashing Medicaid—in one giant bill under a process known as “budget reconciliation,” which means it cannot be filibustered in the Senate. That means it needs only Republican votes to pass.
But even Republicans are deeply divided over the measure. While far-right Republicans insist cuts to the social safety net are not deep enough because of the massive deficits the measure’s tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations will create, other Republicans recognize that Medicaid cuts are hugely unpopular: according to a KFF poll released May 1, more than 75% of Americans oppose such cuts.
Catie Edmondson of the New York Times counts 12 swing-state Republicans who don’t want drastic Medicaid cuts, and 31 hardliners who do. House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) can afford to lose only three Republican votes on the measure. Nicole Lafond of Talking Points Memo reported today that Trump will go to Capitol Hill tomorrow to talk Republicans into voting for the measure.
Right on cue, the administration served up another issue to draw attention. Trump lawyer Alina Habba, who is now serving as the interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey, announced that Representative LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) will be charged with assaulting, resisting, and impeding law enforcement officers. On May 19, McIver was one of three Democratic representatives from New Jersey who, along with Newark’s Democratic mayor Ras Baraka, went to the Delaney Hall Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark, New Jersey, for an oversight visit. Such visits are permitted by law as part of a congress member’s oversight responsibility.
As a mayor, Baraka was not covered by the law permitting congressional oversight. He waited outside the facility’s gates in a public area. Masked agents tried to arrest him there, and as Perry Stein, Jeremy Roebuck, and Liz Goodwin of the Washington Post reported, video released by the Department of Homeland Security showed McIver rushing after the agents and shouting to protesters outside to “surround the mayor.” The video shows a crowd of people jostling, and McIver’s elbows possibly making contact with a masked officer in the crush of the crowd, but no one breaks stride. McIver says she was the one assaulted by ICE officers. In a statement about charging McIver, Habba said “it is my Constitutional obligation to ensure that our federal law enforcement is protected when executing their duties.”
Charging a congressional representative after an event in which no one was injured is a dramatic move indeed, but the Washington Post reporters noted that: “[a]s of 10 p.m., no charging documents were posted in federal court, and a spokesperson for McIver’s legal team said neither she nor her lawyers had seen any charging documents.”
In a statement, McIver said she and her colleagues “were fulfilling our lawful oversight responsibilities, as members of Congress have done many times before, and our visit should have been peaceful and short. Instead, ICE agents created an unnecessary and unsafe confrontation when they chose to arrest Mayor Baraka. The charges against me are purely political—they mischaracterize and distort my actions, and are meant to criminalize and deter legislative oversight…. I look forward to the truth being laid out clearly in court.”
Congressional Democrats are condemning this attack on their colleague. House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar of California, Vice Chair Ted Lieu of California, and Assistant Leader Joe Neguse of Colorado issued a statement saying, “The criminal charge against Congresswoman McIver is extreme, morally bankrupt and lacks any basis in law or fact.” Habba’s statement “is a blatant attempt by the Trump administration to intimidate Congress and interfere with our ability to serve as a check and balance on an out-of-control executive branch. House Democrats will not be intimidated by the Trump administration. Not today. Not ever.”
And they pushed back, warning: “Everyone responsible for this illegitimate abuse of power is going to be held accountable for their actions.”
At the same time, the Department of Justice announced it was dropping all charges against Baraka stemming from the attempt to examine the ICE facility. Ten days ago, Habba broke the Department of Justice rule that it would not comment on ongoing investigations by posting that Baraka had “committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings from Homeland Security Investigations to remove himself from the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey this afternoon. He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.”
Except, apparently, those who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Alan Feuer, Devlin Barrett, and Glenn Thrush of the New York Times reported today that the Department of Justice is considering settling a wrongful death lawsuit with the family of Ashli Babbitt, whom a law enforcement officer shot and killed as she tried to break into the Speaker’s Lobby outside the House floor. The amount they are considering, the journalists report, is $5 million.
Reports that Walmart will raise prices because of the tariffs have Trump officials panicking. Walmart is the largest retailer in the United States, with a 2023 retail revenue of $534 billion. Higher prices there will hurt poorer Americans, particularly those in rural areas, the demographic most likely to have supported Trump in the past.
This, just as cuts to funding for food programs by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in March—programs started during Trump’s first term—have slashed the amount of food available to food banks. A USDA spokesperson said in a statement: “There is no need for new programs, but perhaps more efficient and effective use of current.”
So Republicans today continued their campaign to pressure Walmart into, as Trump put it “eating” the tariff costs. On CNBC today, Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) suggested that Walmart leaders “need to think hard” about raising prices. “I think they’re going to be very careful about how they do this. I know they’ve received some criticism from the president,” he said, adding: “They should know the president has been working very hard with China to make sure we get this thing addressed as quickly as possible.”
Nora Eckert and David Shepardson of Reuters reported that Subaru of America said today it will also be raising prices by between $750 and $2,055 on several models because of “current market conditions.” Executives recently told investors that the tariffs are expected to amount to $5 billion. Eckert and Shepardson reported that Ford raised prices on three models produced in Mexico by as much as $2,000.
Finally, today—because I actually planned to take tonight off, and so am not prepared to cover some very important legal developments and am putting them off until tomorrow so I get them right—Eric Lipton, Maggie Haberman, Adam Rasgon, and Eric Schmitt of the New York Times reported the backstory to the Qatari offer to give a 747 to Trump.
The planes serving as Air Force One are over 30 years old, and Boeing has a contract to build two new jets by 2024, a deadline far in the rear view with no new planes in sight. Apparently, Trump was angling for a new plane and put officials up to buying one. They identified eight options, one of which was the Qatari plane, which Qatar had been trying to sell for at least five years in part because of the enormous cost of operating such a plane. Qatar sent the jet to Florida at a cost the reporters estimate to be as much as $1 million on February 15 for Trump to see, and he loved it.
At that point, discussions turned from purchasing the plane to accepting it as a gift, although it was apparently not the Qataris who changed the terms—they were still expecting to sell it to the United States. A Qatari government official told the New York Times reporters that no decision had yet been made about a transfer rather than a sale. And Pentagon officials estimate that getting the plane repaired and ready for a president would cost at least $1 billion.
And yet, administration officials lined up to say that a $400 million gift from a foreign government to a U.S. president was just fine, despite its explicit prohibition in the Constitution. On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Qatar giving a plane to Trump was like France giving the Statue of Liberty to the U.S., or England giving the country the Resolute Desk.
These comparisons are not only wrong, but an offensive skewing of the real history of those gifts, which were intended to reinforce democracy, freedom, and the international cooperation of nations that value those principles.
It was the people of France who raised the money to send the Statue of Liberty, whose official name is “Liberty Enlightening the World,” to the United States to honor political democracy and freedom at the nation’s 100th anniversary. The people of the United States, in turn, raised the money for the statue’s pedestal. There was never any question about it being a personal gift to President Grover Cleveland. He would have refused it if such a thing were suggested, and Congress would have impeached him if he had not.
Ray W, says
WFTV reports the filing of a federal bill that will lower the required sugar content of orange juice from 10.5% to 10%. The lower required concentration of sugar in the juice will allow Florida growers “to use more local fruit and rely less on imported juice.”
According to the reporter, “Florida’s citrus industry has lost nearly 90% of its production over the past three decades. …”
Florida’s Senator Ashley Moody commented:
“Our citrus industry, both our growers and our distributors, are really struggling. Until we can get a handle on this greening and this disease, we have got to make sure they are not in any way unduly burdened.”
Make of this what you will.
Skibum says
Dennis, from my perspective you see a very simple minded solution to an extremely complex problem that is not easily fixed. I do not believe that ANY amount of bombing and/or killing the very last identified Hamas fighter will solve the conflict between those living in Gaza and the Israeli government. You somehow are deluded into believing that all of the Palestinians hate Hamas and would get down on their knees and thank Israel for ridding Gaza of those fighters. America thought the same thing about the people in Iraq, but after Saddam Hussein was captured, tried and executed for his crimes against the Iraqi people, it didn’t take long for the hue and cry for the American occupiers to leave their country. Millions of children are growing up in Gaza and have seen, at least from their perspective, how the people of Gaza have been mistreated not only by the Hamas fighters, but certainly by the Israeli government and it’s military, and I do not believe for one minute that any of those children, once they are old enough, will take up arms against Israeli oppression just like the Hamas fighters before them. Unless and until Israel completely disavows their history of obstinance and refusal to agree to the long proposed “two state solution”, the death and destruction will continue and Israel will get no pass from the international community or human rights organizations for it’s political stance. I also believe that Netanyahu WANTS this conflict to continue as long as he is alive as a distraction and excuse for the country not to follow through with his criminal prosecution for the bribery and fraud charges he is still facing. Netanyahu is definitely NOT the innocent man in this situation that he wants everyone to believe he is. Not by a long shot.
Skibum says
I meant to say the children growing up in Gaze would NOT be opposed to taking up arms against their Israeli oppressors when they are old enough.
James says
I recently heard a piece on WJCT News in which an Israeli soldier (speaking anonymously) told of his experiences in Gaza. In particular, he said he had no doubt that some of his fellow soldiers… particularly those who were settlers that were called up… were targeting Palestinian civilians.
Even children.
Courtesy of a quick google search prompted by Wrathsam…
https://www.npr.org/2023/11/14/1212836719/ex-idf-soldier-calls-for-international-intervention-to-stop-settler-violence
https://www.npr.org/2024/10/25/g-s1-29726/israel-gaza-jewish-settlers-strategy-netanyahu
https://ig.ft.com/west-bank
https://www.commondreams.org/news/israeli-soldiers-gaza
https://www.timesofisrael.com/senior-israeli-official-warns-of-growing-shoot-first-ask-later-culture-in-idf/
… The comments by the Israeli soldier in the radio interview regarding his fellow “settler-soldier’s” attitude towards non-combatant children was indeed shocking.
Just an opinion.
Ray W, says
More on the subject of electric ships and boats.
Incat, a Tasmanian-based ship and boat builder, has been building vessels for more than four decades. It currently employs 500 people and constructs between one and two vessels per year, focusing on building ferries.
Its founder and CEO, Robert Clifford, spoke with a reporter about the company’s latest ferry which has already launched and is undergoing trials, an all-electric 427-foot vessel designed to transport up to 2,100 passengers and up to 225 vehicles on a 50-mile route between Buenos Aires and Uruguay across the Rio de la Plata; it boasts a 2,300-square-meter duty-free shopping deck.
The ferry carries roughly 275 tons of batteries, with a rating of 40 megawatts per hour, that provide power to eight waterjets.
In a recent press release, Mr. Clifford stated that his company’s latest vessel “changes the game.” In his opinion, the maximum current range for electric ferry ships would be 200 miles. In time, all ships built for trips of less than 50 miles will be electric. Between 50 and 200 miles? 50/50.
Mr. Clifford says he is in discussion with a dozen “serious” potential clients from Europe and South America: “I’ve been in this entrepreneurial business for 30-odd years, and we’ve never had so many serious potential orders.”
His problem is that to grow his business in size to build four or more of such ships per year would require increasing employment from 500 to 3,000: That’s today’s challenge — how do we transition to a significant shipbuilder?”
Make of this what you will.
Ray W, says
According to the Daily Express, Russian-based Rostelmash, “the nation’s leading producer of combine harvesters and tractors”, introduced a four-day workweek in March. It then laid off 2,000 of its employees in April. Last Friday, Rostelmash announced a compulsory lay-off of its remaining 15,000 employees, starting in June, calling the move what the reporter described as a “rescheduled yearly holiday usually taken in August or September.”
When compared to 2021 sales figures, reported grain harvester sales are down 76%, forage harvester sales are down 49%, and tractor sales are down 48%.
According to Rostelmash, the compulsory layoff is “… a forced one and is due to the current economic context in the agricultural sector. Farmers do not have the funds they need, resulting in a significant market turndown.”
According to Rostelmash figures, net income fell 130% last year, with net revenue down just under 20%.
The reporter wrote that commercial loans offered by Russia’s central bank to farmers to buy new equipment come with an interest rate of between 25% and 30%.
Make of this what you will.
Laurel says
P.T.: Thank you. What that man is doing is a sin. Being that I am not religious, I sometimes really do hope there is a hell in the “hereafter,” whether some believe in it or not.
So I wonder, after the genocide, will Netanyahu want the U.S. to aid in the fund for clean up, and will Trump still want to build a resort there? So many opportunities.
Laurel says
On the other end of the spectrum of human behavior…imagine, a woman who was deaf and blind thought up and created “books that talk.”
It’s all about the choices we make.
YankeeExPat says
“A war criminal is an individual, regardless of their rank or position, who commits acts during a conflict that violate international law, including customary law and the Geneva Conventions. These acts typically involve intentionally causing harm to civilians or enemy combatants, and can include atrocities, violations of prisoner rights, and the destruction of protected property. “
Ray W, says
According to AAA, as of yesterday, the average pump price for a gallon of gasoline across the U.S. was $3.179. Sometime ago, I posted a comment that the average pump price for a gallon of gas on January 20, 2025, was in the range of $3.13.
Projected holiday traffic has 39.4 million people travelling by car over the weekend.
With these prices and driving demands in mind as context, CNN reports that average gas prices at the pump will drop to $3.08 per gallon by Memorial Day, per GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis, Patrick DeHaan. Mr. DeHaan added that “if the stars align later this summer, we could even see the national average drop below $3 a gallon.”
GasBuddy projects an average price per gallon of $3.02 for the entire summer period between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
Due in part to OPEC’s recent “sharp production increases”, and, in part, current concerns about tariff-induced instabilities, crude oil prices have dropped 20% since January 20th, yet gasoline prices have not fallen.
Bob McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group, says that “[a] lot of the reason crude oil prices have fallen is pessimism about the economy and Saudi Arabia and OPEC producing more.”
So why haven’t gasoline prices followed the drop in crude oil prices?
Mr. McNally claims that refineries around the U.S. shut down “as forecasters projected weaker gasoline demand due to the rise of electric vehicles.”
The reporter opines that one reason why energy prices remain up is “concerns that Trump’s tariffs will damage the US and world economies.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
One expert says that EV use has slowed demand for gasoline. The reporter says that tariff instability and associated economic damage is to blame.
Perhaps, each is right in a limited way.
I stand by my previous comments that every year between March and May, oil refineries shut down one by one for scheduled maintenance and needed repairs. During the shutdowns, refinery processes are reconfigured to produce “summer blend” gasolines. The refinery shutdowns are staggered so as to prevent too much of a shortfall in production at any one time each spring. Each fall, refineries shut down again, also in a staggered fashion, to switch back to the production of a more regular blend of gasoline.
The spring shutdowns are now complete, and full production of summer-blend gasoline is underway. Gasoline prices, in my estimation, are on their way down and should stay down through the rest of the summer.
I first looked for the refinery shutdown phenomena some 15 years ago when I learned that combined-cycle gas turbine electrical plants shut down each spring and fall for scheduled maintenance and repairs, as those months are low demand months in that industry. No one wants to shut down an electricity plant during high-demand seasons; it costs too much in lost electricity production.
Sherry says
Joyce Vance on trump’s attempts to destroy “Freedom of the Press”:
Trump Versus The Press
Joyce Vance
May 20
Today, The New York Times reported that CBS News president Wendy McMahon was forced out of her job, a lingering side effect of the “60 Minutes” debacle. The Times attributes the situation to the “ongoing showdown involving President Trump, CBS and its parent company, Paramount,” which is trying to settle Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit accusing “60 Minutes” of “deceptively editing” and interview with Kamala Harris during the 2024 campaign.
The scales of justice, in the entrance to the Boston Public Library.
The lawsuit is fanciful, the stuff of motions to dismiss, not settlements, but there is reporting that Paramount’s controlling shareholder wants to resolve it to facilitate government approval for a high-stakes corporate transaction she is in the middle of. In a memo to her staff, McMahon wrote, “it’s become clear the company and I do not agree on the path forward.”
In April, Bill Owens, the executive producer of “60 Minutes,” resigned. He expressed concerns about journalistic independence. McMahon backed Owens at the time, saying publicly that “standing behind” him had been an “easy decision” for her—apparently leading to her ultimate separation from CBS.
On January 16, 1787, Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to Edward Carrington, a Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress from Virginia, advocating for the importance of a free press: “The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. but I should mean that every man should receive those papers & be capable of reading them.”
Those words take on enhanced meaning in an era of rampant misinformation and disinformation, some of it deliberately being pushed out for political purposes. “The basis for our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right.” It has never been more important to keep and support a free press than now.
Trump went on the attack against the press even before his January 2025 inauguration. In December 2024, ABC paid him $15 million to settle allegations that George Stephanopoulos defamed Trump by saying on air that he had been held liable for raping E. Jean Carroll, when in fact, the jury had found, under New York law, that there had been a sexual assault. Under New York law, digital penetration is deemed sexual assault, not rape, although it is often publicly equated with, and treated by other states’ legal systems as the latter. The Law Journal editorial board concluded that a voluntary payment of such a high amount was questionable:
“While at first glance the settlement resembles more the capitulation of a huge entertainment company facing the specter of the incoming administration’s threats to undermine the media than it does an effort to provide compensation for true reputational damage, a closer look reveals that, while it may have avoided significant risk for Disney, it also provides compensation far beyond any actual reputational damages for Trump: it creates a bad precedent in uncertain times for a tattered and beaten news media under attack from many quarters.”
It’s unlikely the settlement would have taken place on these terms if Trump had lost the election.
Also in December, Trump sued Iowa pollster Ann Selzer for consumer fraud, alleging she rigged an Iowa poll to influence the 2024 election. Trump attacked Selzer, saying, “In my opinion, it was fraud, and it was election interference. You know, she’s got me right always. She’s a very good pollster. She knows what she was doing.” Selzer, a highly reputed pollster, thought Harris was up on the eve of the election. Trump attacked the press over 100 times during the campaign. Newspapers like The Washington Post and L.A. Times embarrassed themselves by bending the knee. After assuming office, he shut out the AP from Oval Office and Air Force One coverage because they had the temerity to refuse to follow Trump’s dictate that the Gulf of Mexico should henceforth be known as the Gulf of America.
The press should not go hat in hand to a president to settle lawsuits or beg for access. A president shouldn’t expect that. But Trump does, and it puts an ever more serious onus on the press to live up, despite the peril to their access they need to cover the news, to journalistic standards. It is their job to report on what happens, not what the president or anyone else wants them to. And although they have taken a lot of hits in the time of Trump, some of them well deserved, they are still essential to the national well-being.
This country relies on a free and independent press; it’s built on it. The Founding Fathers knew that. That’s why the first thing would-be dictators do is go after a free press, if it exists in their country. That’s what Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who by early 2018 was being labeled a “soft” autocrat, did. At CPAC in 2022 he told American conservatives “Have your own media,” claiming Western media presented a “leftist” viewpoint. Tucker Carlson praised Orban’s Hungary in a video that was played at the summit as a roadmap for the U.S. The Guardian reported that “Journalists from international media outlets, including the New Yorker, Vox Media, Vice News, Rolling Stone, and the Associated Press, were denied access to the event despite months of requests.” The AP captioned its 2024 report on the state of the press in Hungary like this, “How Hungary’s Orbán uses control of the media to escape scrutiny and keep the public in the dark.” Orbán is the last man who should be giving an American president advice, but Trump continues to praise him.
Julian E. Zelizer, a history professor at Princeton, has written about another time in our history where newspaper owners stood up to a president: “We have seen this struggle play out before. During the early 1970s, another president, Richard Nixon, brought his institutional muscle down to bear on the press. In his case, the outcome became a vital moment that ensured, for decades, that news coverage of elected officials remained vigilant and free.” The press did that by publishing The Pentagon Papers. As Nixon tried to prevent further publications, the case reached the Supreme Court. Justice Hugo Black wrote that only “a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government.” Professor Zelizer’s full piece is good reading on this topic.
The need for clear-eyed reporting has never been greater, and the threat of deception of Americans is far from over. Trump’s FBI Director, Kash Patel, said on a 2023 podcast with Steve Bannon that if he had the power to, he would “come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections.”
In the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton argued in No. 84 that freedom of the press is essential for holding power accountable. He believed the press would provide such a strong check against government abuse that a bill of rights containing the First Amendment was unnecessary. Fortunately, he was outvoted in that regard, and the First Amendment continues to guarantee important rights in the face of a president who would otherwise opt to restrict many of them.
When the press gets attacked, it’s the people who lose. Making sure Americans have access to truthful information and thoughtful analysis so they can make up their own minds on the issues is essential in this moment. We’re doing some of the heavy lifting on that here, and I’m grateful you’re with me.
We’re in this together,
Joyce
Ray W, says
Yesterday, a member of the free press asked President Trump:
“You campaigned on lowering the price of groceries. How can you justify cutting food assistance?”
President Trump replied:
“The cut is going to give everybody much more food because prices are going down, groceries are down, eggs. You told me about eggs, you asked me a question about eggs in my first week. … I said, ‘I just got here, tell me about eggs.’ Eggs now are way down, everybody’s buying eggs. Groceries are down, energy is down, they’re buying gasoline now for $1.99. If you look back, you’ll see $3.50, $4.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I have been commenting on these issues for a long time now.
Even though every example that Trump used to avoid directly answering the question was inaccurate, at best (gas is not selling anywhere in the country at $1.99 per gallon and egg prices are dropping from their record high prices set in March), the issue raised by the question was whether everyone currently receiving food assistance in order to meet minimum caloric requirements would be in the future able to buy sufficient food without the assistance. Some, perhaps. All? Highly unlikely?
Ray W, says
In December of last year, and just days after the federal debt topped $36 trillion, The Hill reported on an interview Fed Chair Jerome Powell gave while attending the New York Times DealBook Summit.
Here are some outtakes from the interview:
– “The U.S. federal budget is on an unsustainable path. The debt is not at an unsustainable level, but the path is unsustainable, and we know that we have to change that.”
– “We don’t need to pay the debt down. We don’t need to balance the budget. We just need the economy to grow faster than the debt. And that’s not happening.”
– “We’re running very large budget deficits at a time of full employment and strong growth, so we need to address that, and we’ve got to do it sooner or later — and sooner is better than later.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I saved the story at the time, wondering at the time how things might turn out.
We are witnessing an effort to extend the Trump tax cuts from his first administration, with the House scheduled to begin the debate at 1:00 am. We are witnessing a different attempt to define a new path to another tax cut.
We have seen on-again, off-again tariffs, with retaliations and suspensions galore, with tariff percentages changing, seemingly without rhyme or reason, yet I remain unable to form a reliable perception of how it will all work out, a state of wonder experienced by every other person in the country.
Economists remain all over the place in their predictions.
No one seems to have a reliable economic theory.
Government officials keep changing their stories. On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Bessent said neither China nor the U.S. backed down, but both dropped their tariff percentages after a few days of preliminary talks. How can anyone understand what is happening when the verbiage used by a senior government makes no sense? Both parties backed down. Don’t say that they didn’t when they did.
It is still too early to support with any measure of certainty how any prediction on the economy will work out.
Sherry says
Things you will NOT see on Fox:
On Habeas Corpus. . . OMG, just listen to what Kristi Noem (trump’s Homeland Security Secretary) says it is. . . what an idiot!
https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/20/politics/video/noem-habeas-corpus-trump-immigration-contd-digvid
Ray W, says
It is being reported that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released its analysis of the budget impacts of Trump’s proposed budget bill now being debated in the House of Representatives: $500 billion in future cuts to Medicare.
I hope the reporting is wrong. I hope I am wrong. I also hope that our two resident lie launderers were right when they insisted there would never be any cuts to Medicare during the Trump administration.
Kennan says
First and foremost I want to tell Dennis Rathsom to please put his pants back on. Show us your ass no more
You are divorced from all things factual. I would say this was sad if it weren’t so pathetic. Your sociopathic tendencies only shine light on the racist you are and the bile you spew.
Now the facts:
No humanitarian aid has been administered to civilians in Gaza for 78 days. 78 days!!! Israel walked away from negotiations months ago and violated the joke of a ceasefire then spuriously agreed to in late February.
The U.N. now warns that 14,000 babies are starving and on the cusp of death 48 hours without immediate aid.
Khan Yunis has been relentlessly bombed as well as last remaining hospital. Civilians huddling for shelter in refugee camps have been killed. No medicine, no hospitals, bad water, no food, no electricity. You do the math. There is well over 150,000 dead above and below ground. Mark my words! 2 million face famine.
The single most openly directed atrocity of the 21st century. In many ways it doesn’t just harken back to the horrors of the Holocaust, but surpasses it because it is done in the open with permission, and if you are Israel…. With GLEE.
For several months even before Donald Trump, the Right wing hatched a plan to “Rebrand all critics of Israel” as Hamas supporters.
“Project Esther” is policy blueprint to crush the “Pro Palestine” movement in America from the Heritage Foundation.
“Project Esther” was formed during the Biden administration to surveil, silence, and punish Pro Palestine activists.
“Project Esther” attempts to frame critics of Israel and Pro Palestine protesters as providing material support for terrorism.
They are very explicit in what they are doing. It’s all laid out “ ON LINE “, and it has been for months.
This is the second head of the snake that extends its propaganda through out the country to desperately try to justify murder.
No evidence. No charges. Nothing.
The vast majority of the world knows this is a holocaust against Palestinians/Arabs.
Every human rights group around the world as well as the International Criminal Court, The International Court of Justice, as well as the U.N. and others calling for the arrest of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet for “Crimes against humanity “.
The United States supports this. It’s funny. This happens to any other country or territory, we go after or at least appear to go after the perpetrators of such horrors. If it’s Israel….. It’s biblical, so it’s ok.
This is the biggest story of the century thus far, yet we treat it like the “ local crime” section in the back of our local paper.
Pogo says
@Save nothing
… the complete edition:
As stated
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/
Sherry says
Again . . Thank You Kennan!