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Weather: Sunny. Highs in the lower 90s. West winds around 5 mph, becoming south in the afternoon. Sunday Night: Partly cloudy. Lows in the upper 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:
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village: The city’s only farmers’ market is open every Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. at European Village, 101 Palm Harbor Pkwy, Palm Coast. With fruit, veggies, other goodies and live music. For Vendor Information email [email protected]
ESL Bible Studies for Intermediate and Advanced Students: 9:30 to 10:25 a.m. at Grace Presbyterian Church, 1225 Royal Palms Parkway, Palm Coast. Improve your English skills while studying the Bible. This study is geared toward intermediate and advanced level English Language Learners.
Grace Community Food Pantry, 245 Education Way, Bunnell, drive-thru open today from noon to 3 p.m. The food pantry is organized by Pastor Charles Silano and Grace Community Food Pantry, a Disaster Relief Agency in Flagler County. Feeding Northeast Florida helps local children and families, seniors and active and retired military members who struggle to put food on the table. Working with local grocery stores, manufacturers, and farms we rescue high-quality food that would normally be wasted and transform it into meals for those in need. The Flagler County School District provides space for much of the food pantry storage and operations. Call 386-586-2653 to help, volunteer or donate.
Al-Anon Family Groups: Help and hope for families and friends of alcoholics. Meetings are every Sunday at Silver Dollar II Club, Suite 707, 2729 E Moody Blvd., Bunnell, and on zoom. More local meetings available and online too. Call 904-315-0233 or see the list of Flagler, Volusia, Putnam and St. Johns County meetings here.
Byblos: I’ve beaten up on Flannery O’Connor quite a bit in these pages, mostly for her stories, but also for her politics (she was a Golwater fan and would have voted for the curren shah without hesitation) and her racism, which she never abjured even as she was dying of lupus (“Revelation” aside) in 1964, one hundred and ten days before I was born (she knew, she just knew). Most of the way through reading her letters I discovered that my relationship with Flannery O’Connor is similar to my relationship with god. I acknowledge her power and beauty, but I don’t like her. I find her manipulative and cruel–“A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is her hymn to both–in the service of what she calls “grace,” very much like Hegel-inspired ideologues who excuse and justify the worst atrocities in the name of a greater purpose. Hegel used exalted language to describe his “oversoul.” Napoleon called it the “Grande Armée” (the great army, or the great force). O’Connor calls it “grace.” She always seems to me more of a Calvinist than a Catholic. And yet when I was done with her letters, I was sad to be done. I’d been reading them over several years, and I was sorry to be done. I’d come to like her in many ways, her humor especially. Some examples: “I come from a family where the only emotion respectable to show is irritation. In some this tendency produces hives, in others literature, in me both.” “I am writing my agent to make haste and sell all my stories for musical comedies. There ought to be enough tap dancers around to take care of them, and there’s always Elvis Presley.” “At interviews I always feel like a dry cow being milked. ” “I haven’t written and thanked you for the books because i have been reading them. I braved the Faulkner, without tragic results. Probably the real reason I don’t read him is because he makes me feel that with my one-cylander syntax I should quit writing and raise chickens altogether.” (Her spelling was not always good, but the editors thankfully preserved her originals.) But then her humor veers back to bigotry: “The latest thing is the American Resettlement Association, whose object is to re settle Georgia colored families in refined northern residential areas (only the best areas), lots in which will be bought up by the ARA with state funds. This is not quite as permanent is sending them all back to Africa but it has a lot of supporters.” Then there was this about the famous writers’ colony: “… after a few weeks at Yaddo, you long to talk to an insurance salesman, dog-catcher, bricklayer–anybody who isn’t talking about Form or sleeping pills.” It reminded me of what John Updike had referred to as “the enmeshed bitchiness of the envy-ridden literary scene,” a line only one of its leading bitches could pull off. A good line is hard to find, but never less so as in those two’s company.
—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.
June 2025
Flagler County Commission Morning Meeting
In Court: Jayden Jackson Sentencing
Beverly Beach Town Commission meeting
Nar-Anon Family Group
In Court: John Cascone Probation Violation Hearing
Flagler Beach Library Writers’ Club
Flagler Beach Planning and Architectural Review Board
Palm Coast City Council Meeting
Bunnell Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy
For the full calendar, go here.
Do you read The National Geographic or do you smell it? I smell it. A cousin gave me a subscription when I was a child as she noted I always made for it at her house, but it wasn’t a literary or even a geographical interest. It has a distinct unforgettable trancendent apotheotic (?) and very grave odor. Like no other mere magazine. If Time smelled like the Natl. Geo. there would be some excuse for its being printed.
–From a Flannery O’Connor letter, June 28, 1956.
Dennis C Rathsam says
TRUMP pardons folks, that the democrats unjustly put in jail…. Fare trail????? Not in Bidens 4 years! Why did Biden pardon his whole family if they all upstanding people? TRUMP signed the pardons himself, after Joes family pardons, who took the liberty of useing the auto pen to pardon all of the Jan 6 liars? Where did all that evidence go? Who was running this country? TRUMP talks with the media for hours at a time, taking questions…. TRANSPARENCY!!!! Americans want answers, Bondi & Patel, will expose the last years of the Biden cover up…. TRAITORS, all of them! This scandal will not go away, until the truth be told! Democrats put party before America! They lied right to our faces, & there still doing it. Who,s gonna believe anything they say? The democrats are all hipocrites, 1 lies & the other swears too it.Its ganna be a exciting summer, as the GOP turns up the heat on the biggest scandal since Watergate.
Mike P says
All the times Joe Biden has said he won’t pardon son Hunter
Pogo says
@Thank you Dave Granlund (and FlaglerLive)
… a question, and an answer:
https://www.google.com/search?q=currently+known+trump+corruption
And no end in view.
S Williams says
Joe Biden issued 4.245 pardons – the most any president has granted
Trump has issued 238 pardons
Sherry says
trump PARDONS Drug Dealers! This you will not see on Fox:
Factual news from NPR (you know, the media outlet trump is hell bent on shutting down!):
President Trump has long called for escalating the U.S. drug war against Mexican cartels and wants tougher penalties for dealers selling fentanyl and other street drugs in American communities. “I am ready for it, the death penalty, if you deal drugs,” Trump said during a meeting with state governors in February, where he said dealers are too often treated with a “slap on the wrist.”
But despite his tough rhetoric, Trump has sparked controversy by pardoning a growing number of convicted drug dealers, including this week’s move to grant clemency to Larry Hoover, 74, who was serving multiple life sentences in federal prison for crimes linked to his role leading the Chicago-based Gangster Disciples.
Already during the early months of his second term, Trump has granted clemency to at least eight individuals convicted on federal drug charges. Some, including Hoover, have extensive criminal records involving violence and gun charges.
Sherry says
The US Brain Drain Under trump:
The US brain drain has begun. . .April 9, 2025 4:01 am CET
By John Kampfner
John Kampfner is a British author, broadcaster and commentator. His latest book “In Search of Berlin” is published by Atlantic. He is a regular POLITICO columnist.
The White House appears hell-bent on destroying not just economic and political paradigms, but a higher education system that really did make America great.
Large Scale Layoffs Begin At Center For Disease Control In Atlanta
So far, firings have taken place at institutions including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Political power has been projected through science since the time of the ancients. But when scholars’ ability to work freely is threatened, they depart — as happened under Nazi rule, during the Soviet period and, in recent years, as President Vladimir Putin has consolidated his stranglehold over the Russian Federation.
Over the 20th and early 21st century, most of these scholars fled to the U.S. — a land that encouraged research without fear or favor. No matter its other failings, people from all over the world flocked there to take up opportunities at unrivaled universities. But now, thanks to President Donald Trump and his rapid-fire assault on the country’s higher education institutions, a reverse brain drain has begun.
And much of it is headed for the continent he seemingly abhors — Europe.
These scholars aren’t leaving just out of choice. As funding is summarily removed, home-grown scholars and researchers are finding themselves out of jobs, and entire departments are closing. Meanwhile, foreign academics, many who have made the U.S. their home, are being kicked out or refused entry, often on spurious grounds, or are in fear it will happen to them.
Margaret McFall-Ngai, a biochemist at the California Institute of Technology, described the situation as “grim and getting grimmer.” Highlighting one of many cases, she spoke of “an American student who is amazing in every way, but the universities are either closing their programs for this year or are trimming down dramatically, so she has nowhere to go. I sent her CV to colleagues in Europe, and she’ll be heading over to Max-Planck in Germany to do her graduate work,” she said.
And this isn’t an isolated incident. Of the 690 postgraduate researchers who responded to a poll in the publication Nature, 548 said they were considering leaving the U.S. One even responded: “This is my home, I really love my country, but a lot of my mentors have been telling me to get out, right now.”
Moreover, as McFall-Ngai pointed out, there are countless stories of international students frightened to leave the U.S.: “I have grad students and postdocs who are Slovenian, Belgian, Portuguese, French, Austrian, Mexican, Chinese and Irish.” Several, she said, wanted to go on vacation to see their families, “but they were told they would not be able to re-enter the U.S. if they left.”
So far, firings have taken place at institutions including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Geological Survey and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The National Institutes of Health — the world’s largest funder of biomedical research — was forced to jettison 1,200 employees and put grant reviews on hold, essentially turning off funding for labs. And as the cuts are coming, some federal agencies have been required to remove terms deemed unacceptably “woke,” such as diversity, gender and climate science from their websites.
Thanks to President Donald Trump and his rapid-fire assault on the country’s higher education institutions, a reverse brain drain has begun.
Thirteen EU member countries, including France and Germany, have already written to Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation Ekaterina Zakharieva, urging increased funding and infrastructure to attract migrating scientists. And French Minister of Higher Education and Research Philippe Baptiste called for a “swift and robust response” to the “collective madness” of these decisions.
Several universities across Europe have gone on a recruitment drive, finding new pockets of funding to bring in specific individuals. France’s Aix Marseille University earmarked €15 million for 15 three-year positions as part of its new Safe Place for Science program, and the university says it’s receiving a dozen applications a day from “scientific asylum seekers.”
Vrije Universiteit Brussel announced 12 positions for international researchers “with a specific focus on American scholars.” The Pasteur Institute in Paris noted it was working to recruit experts in fields such as infectious diseases and origins of disease. And the vice-chancellor of Cambridge University said they are “certainly organizing” for potential hires from the U.S.
Similarly, Patrick Cramer, president of the Max-Planck Institute in Berlin, described the U.S. as “a new talent pool.” He said he already had several names on his list that “brought a twinkle” to his eye — especially those involved in artificial intelligence.
But the safe havens aren’t just confined to Europe: Australia, for one, is looking at fast-track visas for the best and brightest. And the most beckoning destination will likely be Canada, given its proximity to the U.S. in terms of both distance and culture.
During Trump’s first term, there was much talk of Americans fleeing north, but the numbers remained small. This time, however, the outflow is likely to be in earnest, including not just formal academics but also journalists, activists, and anyone who might feel threatened or unable to operate freely.
One of the first to announce his move was Timothy Snyder, one of the best-known experts on authoritarianism, who has left Yale for the University of Toronto. Snyder has described Canada as “the Ukraine of North America,” with Trump’s America looming over the border.
But while fellow academics aren’t begrudging the welcome given to new arrivals, some are expressing concern about the money that’ll be diverted from existing budgets. Universities in Canada and many European countries have had to make financial cuts for several years now. And some might come to resent the star status given to the new cohort from overseas — as happened in the U.S. in the 1930s and after World War II.
However, it’s important to remember that in fleeing to America, those academics vastly improved the quality of the work at their institutions, as well as the status of their newly adopted country.
That legacy is now going up in smoke, thanks to a White House that appears hell-bent on destroying not just economic and political paradigms, but a higher education system that really did make America great — though seemingly not for long.
Mountain Man says
Yeah, that’s really funny to some of you left wing radicals. In your spare time, when you get through laughing at your own stuff. Why don’t you start writing down all the Pardon that Invisible Biden gave out, even to himself. And giving one to Hunter is like giving one to Charles Manson. Think about it.
Sherry says
Apparently trump has already forgiven musk for his drug abuse. . . maybe trump will end up needing to “Pardon” musk:
Meghan Twohey, one of the reporters on the New York times story:
“As he rose to political power last year as he joined Trump on the presidential campaign trail, he was telling people that he was doing so much ketamine that it was causing bladder issues, which is a common effect of chronic use of the drug,” Twohey said.
Twohey expanded on Musk’s use of substances, including a daily medication box he travels with, which contained “up to 20 pills,” including Adderall, a stimulant.
“We were able to obtain a photo of a daily medication box that he travels with,” Twohey said. “What’s significant here is that our reporting found that not only is he doing so much ketamine that he was telling people it was giving him bladder issues, but that he also appeared to be using many, many prescription drugs.”
Pierre Tristam says
Nancy Reagan was a drug addict the entire time she blabbered on about Just Say No, so Musk has nothing to worry about. It’s a White House thing.
Pierre Tristam says
You won’t find too many people here, left wing radicals included, applauding Biden’s pardons, which have nothing to pardon them. That doesn’t make your felon’s pardons any less reprehensible. And no, your Hunter Biden analogy is as bonkers as your other equivalencies. But trolls know that going in.
Pierre Tristam says
The commenter is incorrect. Biden issued 80 pardons in his presidency, second-lowest after George W. Bush. Trump has issued 144 so far. Biden has issued the most number of clemencies, which include pardons, but are different from pardons in that pardons forgive past crimes. Clemencies for the most part–for the overwhelming part, as far as Biden is concerned–include commutations that reduce or end sentences for people in prison: he commuted the sentences of 37 people on federal death row, one of his most honorable acts as president, and commuted the sentences of almost 2,500 people convicted of non-violent drug crimes, also one of his more honorable acts–and the sort of acts the current effluence in the White House would never do, because it won;t get him anything. So again: a moment’s reflection, please before adding to effluence with nonsensical equivalencies.
The dude says
Another one today.
The orange stain pardoned a man convicted of embezzling tens of millions from Medicare.
But that’s ok because of Hunter Biden or something.
Mike P says
Just minutes before Trump was slated to be sworn into a second term, Biden ( OR HIS AUTOPEN ) issued pardons for five family members: James B. Biden, Sara Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, John T. Owens and Francis W. Biden. The outgoing president had issued a pardon a month earlier to his drug addict son , Hunter Biden, who was convicted on federal felony gun and tax charges, after he said numerous times that he would not.
Ray W, says
Here’s the latest on the avian flu.
Newsweek reports yesterday that the southwest’s largest multi-state egg farm, Hickman Family Farms, in operation since 1944, has largely shut down after an avian influenza outbreak.
On May 15, farm hens showed symptoms consistent with avian flu infection; by the next day test results confirmed the diagnosis.
About 95% of the farm’s hens are in the process of being slaughtered, some six million birds in total.
According to Hickman Farm’s operator, Glenn Hickman, the national flock total, when fully healthy, is some 330 million hens, so he thinks the loss of his farm’s hens may not significantly impact national egg prices, which according to the latest BLS data has egg prices for a dozen large eggs at $5.12 in April, up 78% from April 2024, but down from March’s record high.
According to Dr. Gail Hanson, the former Kansas state epidemiologist and public health veterinarian, “[i]t’s a welcome relief for many Americans that egg prices have finally begun to drop, but this is unfortunately not the end of the story. Bird flu remains a major threat that will strike again — as long as factory farms continue to dominate our poultry market. By cramming together tens of thousands of chickens, corporations have created the perfect conditions to supercharge this recent bird flu outbreak, and which will inevitably do so again.”
Michigan State University professor of food economics and policy David Ortega told Newsweek:
“What’s especially concerning is that these disruptions are unfolding at a time when the federal government is pulling back support for research and critical disease response efforts. Cuts under the Trump administration have disrupted the USDA’s ability to respond swiftly to outbreaks like this. …”
Hickman Farms has baby chicks on order and egg-laying hens should be moving into farm buildings in about five months, with full farm repopulation expected to take some two years.
The farm’s operator, Mr. Hickman, called upon the government to release avian flu vaccines, saying it is “the only viable solution to gain control of this highly infectious virus.”
While the federal government gave “conditional” approval to Zoetis for its new avian flu vaccine in February, the vaccine has yet to be “released” for sale to egg farmers.
According to Mr. Hickman, meat bird farm operators are lobbying to block the release of the Zoetis vaccine to egg farmers. The story didn’t explain why, but previous stories posit that meat bird farmers face restrictions by European nations should meat from vaccinated birds be discovered in chicken exports to Europe.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
So long as experts keep defining this version of the avian flu as “highly pathogenic”, it remains unlikely that the contagion will be contained anytime soon.
From previous comments, FlaglerLive readers already know that the Trump administration authorized the expenditure of $1 billion to fund further research into developing avian flu vaccines, to fund reimbursements to egg farmers for chicken slaughters, and to fund new methods of disinfection in order to decrease the likelihood of new outbreaks.
They also know that the $1 billion allocated by the Trump administration is on top of the $1.2 billion the Biden administration allocated for the same things. Yet the outbreaks continue.
Since developing new avian flu vaccines to the level of approval takes time, the fact that the Trump administration approved Zoetis vaccines in February obviously means that Zoetis had to have been developing the vaccines during the latter time of the Biden administration.
So long as the avian flu is carried by wild birds, the spread of the virus throughout the U.S. will not likely stop anytime soon.
Ray W, says
I have posted a small number of comments about the fact that synthetic engine oil producers can turn natural gas into synthetic oil at a financially competitive price.
Here is another article on a similar topic: producing synthetic gasoline from the atmosphere.
As a foundational statement, one of the major arguments against burning carbon-based fuels that have been extracted from deep underground means that every gallon of gas adds to the carbon load in the atmosphere. But, converting carbon dioxide into gasoline means that burning that type of gasoline does not add to the atmosphere’s carbon load.
Aircela, an American fuels company based in Manhattan’s Garment District, recently displayed a refrigerator-sized machine capable of operating on clean electricity that synthesizes captured carbon-dioxide into gasoline that is both free of sulphur, ethanol, and heavy metals and is fully compatible with today’s internal combustion engines.
According to Aircela’s CEO, Eric Dahlgren, “[w]e didn’t build a prototype. We built a working machine.” Deployment of the machines is set for fall 2025, initially for “off-grid, commercial and industrial users looking for fossil-free fuel….”
Maersk Senior Vice-President and Head of Energy Transition, Morten Bo Christiansen, said the company invested in Aircela “because of their innovative approach to production of low-emission fuels based on direct air capture.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I recall reading as a child of the German decision to take the potato seed stock held over from the 1944 harvest to make jet fuel from the carbon in the potatoes, so I have been intrigued by the idea of synthetic fuels for a long time. I decided to look it up again. It wasn’t jet fuel, it was V-2 rocket fuel. So much for my memory.
According to what I read back then, there was no German potato crop in 1945 of any significance because there were too few seed potatoes to plant.
Synthetic engine oil from natural gas. Rocket fuel synthesized from potatoes. Gasoline from carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Innovation is all around us if only we take the time to see it for what it is.
Ray W, says
It being nearly 20 weeks since President Trump was inaugurated, and while I do not often rely on weekly data releases, it may be notable that AAA’s May 29, 2025, Fuel Prices report shows gasoline prices dropping roughly 3 cents per gallon at the pump over the past week.
I have repeatedly commented that refineries shut down in the mid-to-late spring to perform standard maintenance and repair, as well as to shift their production process to produce “summer blend” gasolines.
I have been writing again and again that the steady downturn in crude oil prices should soon result in lower gasoline prices at the pump. This may now be happening.
On the week of Trump’s inauguration, national gasoline prices averaged some $3.13 per gallon. To my understanding, at no time since the inauguration have gasoline prices dropped below that average.
Here are a few bullet points from the report:
– New EIA data has gasoline demand increased from 8.64 million barrels per day in the week covered by the May 22, 2025 report to 9.45 million barrels per day of gasoline this week. While the article doesn’t address this, this week’s report covers national travel during the Memorial Day weekend.
– New EIA data has national gasoline supply decreasing from 225.5 million barrels to 223.1 million barrels. While the article doesn’t address this, drawdowns from existing stocks in advance of the Memorial Day weekend should have gasoline supply decreasing.
– New EIA data shows gasoline production rising to 9.8 million barrels per day. While the article doesn’t address this, as refineries all around the country return to full service after scheduled shutdowns, it seems reasonable that gasoline output would increase.
– Total U.S. crude oil inventories are att 440.4 million barrels, down 2.8 million barrels from the previous week and “about 6% below the five-year average for this time of year.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
The international energy marketplace is incredibly complex in scale and breadth. America consumes about 20% of the world’s energy and the products synthesized from crude oil, but we don’t control the marketplace; it is just too big at just over 102 million barrels of crude oil consumed each day.
For Trump to keep his oft-repeated campaign promise of lowering gasoline prices by 50% in 12 months of his inauguration, AAA will have to report on or before January 20, 2026, that average gasoline prices are in the $1.61 per gallon range. Maybe that will happen. Maybe not.
One thing, though, cannot be argued, despite a recent commenter claiming there are always two sides to every story. Trump has repeatedly claimed that people residing in multiple states can buy gasoline right now for less than $2 per gallon. He even told that lie to the 2025 West Point graduating class of cadets, of all people for him to lie to.
My position remains that Trump repeatedly lies about multiple subjects to the American public in hopes that the more gullibly stupid among us will launder his lies.
Laurel says
I keep trying to figure out the stubbornness of Trumpers ignoring facts and using distraction to make their points. So, I tried to visualize an old friend who is a bright, funny and normally reasonable person, whom I am certain, became a Trumper. I realized that if I took her aside, and started showing her facts, it would rock her world.
She had become a far right Christian, married for the fifth time to a blue collar guy and had a whole, new circle of friends. Her comfort zone. To provide her with facts she would have to face, would jeopardize her marriage, turn her circle of friends against her and she would be ostracized. That is unacceptable.
Instead, she stays in her safety zone, her friends stay around her and her marriage remains status quo. Fox Entertainment, Newamax, etc. provides the needed confirmation bias, and security zone of group thought.
This, to those of us who see what is blatant corruption, keep shaking our heads over this stubbornness, as it is confusing.
I personally prefer facts and truth over group thought.