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Weather: Mostly sunny with a chance of showers in the morning, then mostly cloudy with showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Highs in the upper 80s. Southwest winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90 percent. Wednesday Night: Mostly cloudy. Showers with thunderstorms likely in the evening, then a chance of showers after midnight. Lows in the lower 70s. Chance of rain 90 percent.
- 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 Flagler County Commission holds a 9 a.m. workshop to discuss next year’s budget. The administration is trying to close a $2.2 million gap
The Palm Coast Code Enforcement Board meets at 10 a.m. every first Wednesday of the month at City Hall. For agendas, minutes, and audio access to the meetings, go here. For details about the city’s code enforcement regulations, go here.
The Flagler Beach Library Book Club meets at 1 p.m. at the library, 315 South Seventh Street, Flagler Beach.
The Flagler Beach Parks Ad Hoc Committee meets at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 105 S 2nd St, Flagler Beach. The Committee’s six members, appointed by the City Commission, provide recommendations related to the maintenance of existing parks and equipment and recommendations for new or replacement equipment and other duties as assigned by the City Commission.
Separation Chat, Open Discussion: The Atlantic Chapter of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State hosts an open, freewheeling discussion on the topic here in our community, around Florida and throughout the United States, noon to 1 p.m. at Pine Lakes Golf Club Clubhouse Pub & Grillroom (no purchase is necessary), 400 Pine Lakes Pkwy, Palm Coast (0.7 miles from Belle Terre Parkway). Call (386) 445-0852 for best directions. All are welcome! Everyone’s voice is important. For further information email [email protected] or call Merrill at 804-914-4460.
Weekly Chess Club for Teens, Ages 9-18, at the Flagler County Public Library: Do you enjoy Chess, trying out new moves, or even like some friendly competition? Come visit the Flagler County Public Library at the Teen Spot every Wednesday from 4 to 5 p.m. for Chess Club. Everyone is welcome, for beginners who want to learn how to play all the way to advanced players. For more information contact the Youth Service department 386-446-6763 ext. 3714 or email us at [email protected]
Notably: We shouldn’t let an occasion like that pass unremarked: Jay Gardner, our property appraiser and one of the county’s more sensible elected ones, turned 65 on June 29–St. Peter’s day. You can still wish him a happy one using his unique email address. Who else would have himself identified by a single letter? [email protected]
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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.
July 2025
Flagler Beach Farmers Market
Coffee With Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Peps Art Walk Near Beachfront Grille
ESL Bible Studies for Intermediate and Advanced Students
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village
Gamble Jam at Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area
Al-Anon Family Groups
For the full calendar, go here.
What is love then? I have read all that so-called wise men have written about its nature, and I have philosophized about it as I grow older, but I will never grant that it is either trifle or vanity. It is a kind of madness over which philosophy has no power, a disease to which man is subject at any age, and which is incurable if it strikes in old age. Indefinable love! God of nature! Bitterness than which nothing is sweeter, sweetness than which nothing is more bitter. Divine monster that can only be defined by paradoxes.
–From Casanova’s Story of My Life (1797).
Jim says
We can argue the pros and cons of birthright citizenship and we should have this discussion as a nation since it has become an issue. However, that’s not what is happening. Trump has arbitrarily decided that birthright citizenship shouldn’t be allowed and he’s trying to stop it unilaterally. This is just wrong. For those of you who support Trump, you should also be more committed to free speech and the rights of all to disagree. And with disagreement should come discussion. This is a subject where all sides should be heard before such drastic actions are taken. But, in this administration, dissenting opinions are called “anti-American” and “communist”. This is not what America has been about throughout my lifetime and it’s beyond disappointing to see a president and his MAGA base so blatantly attempt to destroy anything they see as threatening in any way.
We are on the path to a dictatorship and, while MAGA seems happy with this now, that will likely change as they start to see the impacts on their life. The “great big beautiful bill” will go a long way towards severely affecting the poorest and sickest among us. And the added national debt will impact all of us. All so the richest amongst us can get a bigger tax break. And all through this, MAGA cheers as if burning their own house down is the goal they always wanted.
Dennis C Rathsam says
Time has come to stop this! Too many take advantage of America. Our founding fathers did it to help the black slaves….Not every TOM DICK & MOHAMMED
Laurel says
So, this is what you want Republicans? Do you understand, that someday, we will need assistance outside our bubble? Who will come to our aid? Russia? North Korea? Will they put their lives on the line like our previous allies did? Will they come fight our fires like Canadians did? We were once the envy of the world. A beacon of greatness, of freedom. Now, we are a symbol of selfishness, of backwardness, of ignorance.
Trump threatens people’s lives, and the lives of their families. He threatens their careers. He takes away from our children, to give to those who do not need it. He gives special compensations to those who suck up to him. He mocks us. He mocks our country. He steals from us to give to those who shunned him in the past. Don’t you see? It’s not about us, it’s about him. He is NOT our retribution, we are his. He was shunned in New York society. He was shunned in Palm Beach society. Now, he gives them our money for approval, to be a big shot in their eyes. He hated the windmills in Scotland, that he felt spoiled the view from his golf course, so now, he has outlawed windmills, claiming it is for our good. He hated Obama, not just because he was bigoted about African Americans, but because Obama joked about him, so, he is demolishing the Affordable Care Act. Biden beat him, so he will undo all the good Biden has done. Ukraine did not give him the false information about Biden he wanted, so now he is removing our help in their moment of need. He does these things, not for you, but as revenge for himself. Do you not yet see? There is a reason the rest of the world calls him a toddler, he is stuck in the terrible twos. MINE!!!
It’s up to you, Republicans, to take your party back from this authoritarian while you still can. This is not the GOP, and you know it. Don’t wait and see, it will be too late. Help bring our country back to the symbol of freedom and democracy it once was. A beacon of greatness in the world.
Ray W, says
As written in a story published this morning by CNN, AAA reports that the current national average price for a gallon of gasoline is $3.18. This figure compares negatively to the national average price for a gallon of gasoline on January 20, 2025, which was then priced at $3.12. Of course, regional instability in the Persian Gulf recently placed upward pressure on crude oil prices, hopefully only for the short-term.
According to the CNN article:
“The lowest state average price on Tuesday for a gallon of regular gas was about $2.71 in Mississippi. … The state with the fifth-cheapest Tuesday average, Louisiana, was at about $2.79 per gallon, per the AAA data. …
“GasBuddy, a firm that tracks prices at tens of thousands of stations around the country, did not find a single station selling regular gas for below $2.26 per gallon on Tuesday. (There are sometimes individual drivers who get special discounts.) And GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis, Patrick De Haan, told CNN that the last time his data showed any state average below $2 per gallon was more than four years ago, in January 2021, when demand was unusually weak because of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
If the data set forth in the CNN article is accurate and up to date, and I have no reason to believe that it isn’t, then why did our President, while visiting the newly opened immigrant detention center in South Florida, feel compelled to announce to the public that gasoline prices in five American states had fallen below $2.00 per gallon?: “Gasoline just hit $1.99 today in five states — $1.99, isn’t that a nice sound? … We just hit, in five states, $1.99, $1.98.”
Was he misled? Was it accident. Was it imagination? Was it intentional deceit?
The first time the President said something like this occurred this past April, when he stated that gasoline prices in three states had fallen to $1.98 per gallon. He has stated versions of this comment on multiple occasions since then. On none of these occasions were the statements factually accurate or true.
I have no answer to this curiosity of events other than, perhaps, lying to the American people just for the sake of lying is the modus operandi of the current administration. But who knows why he errs so often on a subject-matter that can so easily be fact-checked for accuracy?
On the subject of lying for gain, Confederate General Robert E. Lee reflected in writing his view:
“He had a habit, when in camp, of occasionally writing down reflections that somewhat echo Marcus Aurelius, who seems to have been one of Lee’s favorite authors. Among the maxims, found in his field valise after his death, was one to this effect: ‘Private and public life are subject to the same rules; and truth and manliness are two qualities that will carry you through this world much better than policy, or tact, or expediency, or any other word that was ever devised to conceal or mystify a deviation from a straight line.'”
R. E. Lee, Volume III, pg. 237, by Douglas Southall Freeman, published by Charles Scribner’s Sons (1935)
Ray W, says
More bullet points from Ford CEO’s Jim Farley, culled from his participation in a groupthink discussion at last week’s Aspen Ideas Festival:
– “The boss of the Detroit automaker described the cost and quality of the electric vehicles coming out of China as ‘far superior’ to those in the West …”, a position seconded by Will Roberts, head of automotive research for battery and EV consultancy Rho Motion, who said that some carmakers in Western marketplaces underestimate the quality of vehicle products and manufacturing in China. Roberts also stated: “China has an incredibly broad range of EVs catering to the needs of the entire market, while the development of EVs for many popular manufacturers in the US is still at a comparatively early stage.”
– “EV sales in China have far outpaced those in the US. Almost half of new car sales in the country last year were electric, compared to 10% in the US, according to the International Energy Agency.”
– “The average price of an EV in the US in May was around $57,000, according to Cox Automotive, with the $32,000 Nissan Leaf the cheapest model on the market.”
– “… [T]he average price of an electric car in China was around $31,500 as of December, with best-selling models like the BYD Seagull selling for under $10,000.”
– Given the fact that some of China’s growing carmakers, such as Huawei and Xiaomi, started out as technology firms, many of China’s EVs “are packed with futuristic tech, …”, wrote the reporter. Said Farley, Ford’s CEO, “[t]hey have far superior in-vehicle technology. Huawei and Xiaomi are in every car. … You get in, you don’t have to pair your phone. Automatically, your whole digital life is mirrored in the car.”
– According to the reporter, China “produces nearly all of the world’s Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) electric vehicle batteries, and Ford, Tesla, and Toyota have sourced their EV power packs from Chinese battery giants CATL and BYD.”
– “Ford and Tesla are building new battery plants in Michigan and Nevada to lower costs, but Ford is planning to license designs for the batteries being built there from CATL.” According to Tu Le, managing director of Sina Auto Insights, “[American car companies] want to be competitive, we want to be in the same room. We’re not even in the same building right now.”
From another publication comes a story about Xiaomi’s rollout of its second model, the YU7 SUV, some two years after the debut of its initial model, the SU7 sedan. The YU7 will sell for $35,360, four percent less than its competitor, Tesla’s Model Y.
Introduced in the latter months of 2023, the SU7 sold 4,000 units in March 2024. By May 2025, the company sold 28,000 sedans, a seven-fold increase. But the company has not yet completed two planned new factories on lots adjacent to its original factory.
From the outset, Xiaomi’s announced business plan has been to overtake Tesla’s Chinese market dominance at the time. Since December, Xiaomi’s SU7 sedan has each month outsold Tesla’s comparable Model 3 sedan.
When a week ago Xiaomi announced the impending release for sale of its new SUV, 200,000 non-refundable $698 customer orders were placed within three minutes. A total of 240,000 such orders were placed within 18 hours. As of the time of the publication of the story, a total of 300,000 non-refundable orders had been placed. Arguably, this level of demand was unanticipated, as Xiaomi lacks the current capacity to make that many vehicles, so it is telling buyers that the wait time for delivery of their SUVs will be between 38 and 60 weeks.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
As Churchill commented some 120 years ago when he argued against tariffs proposed by his Conservative Party, there are times when one has to admit that one’s home country simply cannot compete in either price or quality with certain products made in other parts of the world. To enact tariffs to block the import of those better-quality products, he said, does not protect home industry; it hurts the consumer.
In time, after unsuccessfully fighting the Conservative Party’s insistence on imposing tariffs, Churchill left the Conservative Party, claiming it had abandoned its true conservative economic roots. Do today’s presidential tariff policies also reflect a betrayal of true conservative economic roots?
Ray W, says
According to the Pogo-approved The Cool Down, due to comparatively high transport costs and the many hours of human time needed to deliver critical supplies such as medicines and fresh foods by truck to remote locations in Australia’s vast outback, an engineering team affiliated with the University of New South Wales, in cooperation with researchers from Macquarie University and a company named Seaflight Technologies, is developing electric drone aircraft able to deliver cargos throughout the outback weighing up to 300 kilos (660 lbs.).
Use of such cargo planes would create “a new generation of aviation professionals and entrepreneurs.”
According to the author, Australians are already using drone aircraft to fight wildfires and locate abandoned oil and gas wells.
The Australian government, seeing the economic potential of the project, has contributed $1.5 million to the project.
Says the founder of Seaflight Technologies, Graham Doig:
“If you imagine drones as being almost like a mini-airline, you could have hundreds or even thousands of flights per day.”
He added:
“You can start talking about resupplying a community with medical supplies or fresh fruit and vegetables that otherwise would have come from the other side of the country in a diesel-spewing truck. We’re taking that off the road, and we’re replacing it with near-zero emissions technology that can provide people with goods they need the next day.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
It apparently is no longer a secret in the electrical engineering community that battery development has crossed a threshold into viability for inexpensive drone aircraft to perform what is now a comparatively expensive way to deliver urgently needed goods over the vast distances of the Australian outback. Yes, truck drivers may lose jobs, but drone operators and aircraft maintenance workers might more than adequately replace them in a complex microeconomic world.
Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.
Ray W, says
According to a report recently published by CNN, on June 2, 2025, Waffle House ended its three months in duration 50-cent-per-egg menu surcharge. A dozen shell eggs, according to the article, now cost less than $3, a figure still higher than it was a year ago.
Last week, US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins released a statement that reads, in part:
“On my first day as Secretary, we got to work to implement a five-pronged strategy to improve biosecurity on the farm and lower egg prices on grocery store shelves. The plan has worked, and families are seeing relief.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
The primary reason I have continually commented on egg prices was that I already knew that egg prices had been low last year during the summer months because the avian influenza virus is spread by wild birds that fly over egg farms; their droppings, when carried into the buildings, spread the disease each spring and fall when the wild birds migrate across the Americas. When migrations end, the spread of the virus tails off.
Since 2022, there have been increases in outbreaks leading to increases in egg prices, followed by decreases in outbreaks, leading to decreases in egg prices, all timed to wild bird migratory patterns.
I also had repeatedly commented that the Biden administration had plowed $1.2 billion into the same five-pronged program that the Trump administration took over from the Biden administration.
Yes, the Trump administration allocated another $1 billion to the virus eradication effort.
Yes, the Trump administration had crowed at the time that it was implementing a new program, but it wasn’t new, and it wasn’t true.
The Biden administration had developed several proto vaccines with some of its $1.2 billion; the Trump administration pledged to finish the vaccine development.
The Biden administration had allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to reimburse egg and meat farmers for losses due to slaughter; the Trump administration promised to continue to reimburse egg and meat farmers for their losses due to slaughter.
The Biden administration allocated millions of dollars to egg and meat farmers to upgrade their sanitation procedures; the Trump administration promised millions more dollars to egg and meat farmers to upgrade their sanitation procedures.
The Biden administration spent millions on front-line researchers that tracked outbreaks and studied the disease; the Trump administration fired all those front-line researchers early in the DOGE process and then reversed itself when it realized that the fired workers were critical to combatting the spread of the disease.
According to such virologists, the 2022 variant on the flu virus is the most virulent in history, but in time, wild birds will gain immunity to the disease and migration-caused outbreaks will likely taper off. We will see.
I posted comment after comment on this subject-matter, often after other FlaglerLive commenters, perhaps due to memory-impairment, spread disinformation and misinformation about the problem. There were stories about price-gouging by grocers, egg distributors and egg farmers. There were stories about vast numbers of slaughtered birds; the last big outbreak occurred in May in the American Southwest. I wrote of prices being so high that consumers switched from eating eggs to looking for egg substitutes, thereby reducing demand. I wrote of increasing imports of shell eggs due to the high prices here compared to prices in foreign lands.
There is a reason for my commenting about the members of the professional lying class that sits atop one of our two political parties.
Last year, after the spring outbreak of avian flu subsided during the summer, egg prices dropped below the price they are at today, after this spring’s outbreak of the avian flu subsided during the summer. But Agriculture Secretary Rollins writes as if only the Trump administration has brought relief to American egg consumers.
In light of three years of effort to corral the disease, at great public and private expense, only a professional liar would claim sole responsibility for today’s drop in egg prices to a price level higher than that from last year. And only the most gullible among us would not research what has been happening for the past three years before laundering the lie.
As an aside, Waffle House reports to CNN that it serves 272 million eggs per year, which is more than the 124 million waffles it serves and more than the 153 million portions of hash browns it serves.
Ed P says
Is it possible that the party of resistance can recalibrate and use birthright citizenship as the pivot point to return to creativity or relevance?
Obstruction is certainly a strategy.
Isn’t there a better path that could actually be taken to legislate a solution? If not this policy, then what could be more important?
Have political parties crossed the proverbial rubicon?
This is the hill worth dying on, and yet the Democrats refuse to debate, discuss and compromise to solve anything. They might find plenty of support from the right.
Ray W, says
The Daily Mail reports that, after digesting the news that Canadian air travel to the US had dropped year over year by 24.2% in May, with a 14.0% drop year over year in April and a 13.5% drop year over year in March, and amid trade tensions and threats to incorporate Canada as the 51st American state, Air Canada is cancelling a popular nonstop wintertime route from Toronto to Jacksonville, Florida, due to lack of demand and falling profits. In its place, Air Canada will create a nonstop route from Toronto to Guadalajara; it will also add wintertime routes to the existing destinations of Puerto Vallarta and Los Cabos.
Should demand for the route to Jacksonville come back next year, Air Canada will restore the service.
According to the reporter, “[t]he shift away from the US and towards Mexico and the Caribbean has been so dramatic that vacation hotspots such as Palm Springs have run campaigns to try and lure back the Canadian visitors businesses depend on.”
When compared to last year, overall tourism spending this year in the US is expected to drop by 7%, with the US being the only nation to see a drop in tourism spending.
According to data presented by Oxford Economics and the World Travel and Tourism Counsel (WTTC), “[d]irect and indirect tourism accounts for 9 percent of the American economy and contributes 7 percent of all tax revenue.”
WTTC president and CEO Julia Simpson told a Bloomberg reporter that “[o]ther countries are really rolling out the welcome mat, and it feels like the US is putting up a ‘we are closed’ sign at their doorway.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
The leaders of one of our two political parties decided early in their administration to treat former allies like shit by publicly berating invited visitors to the White House and by threats to infringe on the sovereignty of countries like Panama, Canada, Greenland and Denmark, and by threats to surrender the sovereignty of the Ukraine, and by imposing new tariffs on friend and foe alike, except for Russia. A significant number of foreign tourists then decided to respond to the abuse by spending their money elsewhere, at least in the short-term.
FlaPharmTech says
Dennis, you’re a misinformed maligned malfeasant menace. So disgusting that you and your ilk are my neighbors. Could you please at least learn grammar and spelling, let alone humanity and decency?! I know, mom and dad just didn’t teach ya, it ain’t your fault, right??!! Learn, grow, accept.
Laurel says
Hey Dennis and Ed P: Today, Publix has two ears of corn for $5. If you hurry, you might get there before it’s all gone!