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Weather: Sunny. A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Highs in the mid 90s. Light and variable winds, becoming south around 5 mph in the afternoon. Chance of rain 20 percent. Heat index values up to 110. Saturday Night: Partly cloudy with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms in the evening, then mostly clear after midnight. Lows in the mid 70s. South winds around 5 mph. Chance of rain 20 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 Saturday Flagler Beach Farmers Market is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. today at its new location on South 2nd Street, right in front of City Hall, featuring prepared food, fruit, vegetables , handmade products and local arts from more than 30 local merchants. The market is hosted by Flagler Strong, a non-profit.
Coffee With Commissioner Scott Spradley: Flagler Beach Commission Chairman Scott Spradley hosts his weekly informal town hall with coffee and doughnuts at 9 a.m. at his law office at 301 South Central Avenue, Flagler Beach. All subjects, all interested residents or non-residents welcome. The gatherings usually feature a special guest.
Democratic Women’s Club of Flagler County meeting at 9:30 a.m. at the Palm Coast Community Center, 305 Palm Coast Parkway NE.
Grace Community Food Pantry, 245 Education Way, Bunnell, drive-thru open today from 10 a.m. to 1 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.
Random Acts of Insanity’s Roundup of Standups from Around Central Florida, 8 p.m. at Cinematique Theater, 242 South Beach Street, Daytona Beach. General admission is $8.50. Every third Saturday RAI hosts Live Standup Comedy with comics from all over Central Florida.
Diary: I looked up the New York Times from this date in 1979, the second time I had entered the United States, but the first with a Green Card in hand (the previous two times I was on a tourist visa). I did not know who the New York Yankees were at the time, let alone who people like Reggie Jackson, Billy Martin and George Steinbrenner were. They were on the front page that day. Billy Martin had suspended Jackson indefinitely for insubordination. That day the Times was reporting that the suspension had been reduced to five days, and a $9,000 fine. Jackson had bunted, against Martin’s orders, and struck out. Martin “flung a clock radio and a beer bottle against a clubhouse wall after the game,” the paper reported. I would son learn, after becoming a Yankee fan, that Martin, Jackson and Steinbrenner were a ménage à trois if there ever was one in baseball, constantly getting into lovers’ quarrels, throwing things, getting fired (how many times did Billy Martin get fired?), making up and swooning together again. The Yankees sucked that year (I am borrowing a word from Yankee bleachers), mired in fourth place, 14 games behind. Martin and Steinbrenner knew how to keep the fans interested. The fight was nowhere near their first. (See below.) That story was on the front page that day I entered the United States, which I find odd in retrospect. I’d always thought the big papers got into reporting sports trivialities on the front page after Gannett began the dumbed down USA Today. It was a dull news day overall, for a Wednesday. The lead story was of the U.S. House committee defeating Jimmy Carter’s plan for cost ceilings on hospital charges. A more interesting story was on page two, headlined: “Key Black Leader Turns 60 on South Africa Prison Isle.” You’ve figured out who it was: “Nelson Mandela, the man who would most probably head a black government in South Africa, spent his 60th birthday today on an island in the mouth of Table Bay, within sight of the great sea route that brought the first white men to the southernmost tip Africa nearly five centuries ago. Mr. Mandela was not on vacation. For the 16th year he spent his birthday inside the gray stone walls of Robben Island, a prison fortress seven miles offshore…” Another curiosity: the story carried John F. Burns’s byline, the foreign correspondent who won two or three Pulitzers, and with whom I’d end up having a drink at the Commodore Hotel in Beirut in 2000. He’s still around. 80 years old. Lost sights: The Times back then was 84 pages, with about 200 or 300 ads. It is a quarter that size these days, with a 20th the ads, for 20 times the price: it was 20 cents when I landed. It is $4 now. If it had increased only as much as inflation, it would have to be 94 cents. That tells you much of what you need to know about the evolution of print journalism. One regret from that year: I learned too late of the great art of Red Smith, the sports columnist who had a piece in that day’s paper, and who died in 1981, right after writing a column titled “Writing Less, and Better,” a column I clipped, and still have in its original, and whose lesson, obviously, I never learned.
—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.
August 2025
Palm Coast City Council Workshop
Community Traffic Safety Team Meeting
Disaster Preparedness Expo
St. Johns River Water Management District Meeting
Flagler County School Board Workshop: Agenda Items
Flagler Beach Library Book Club
Flagler County Planning Board Meeting
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy
River to Sea Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee Meeting
U.S. Rep. Randy Fine Visits Palm Coast’s Oldest Sewer Plant
Separation Chat: Open Discussion
The Circle of Light A Course in Miracles Study Group
Weekly Chess Club for Teens, Ages 9-18, at the Flagler County Public Library
For the full calendar, go here.
David Jones had seen death on a vast and public scale but never before domestically and at close quarters. This domestic death revolted him. He had never before realized that death in a bed was dirty business, not the angelic transit of Little Eva in the film of Uncle Tom’s Cabin he had seen in New York. The bowel and bladder collapsed, sheet and matress had to be burnt at the bottom of the back garden. The body, having vulgarly shed its ordures, now turned into an ordure itself. That was because the soul had deserted it. So there was such a thing as a soul then, the preachers were right. This chunck of decaying matter being got ready for the coffin was not his dad. His dad had buggered off somewhere where there was no beer or Welsh mutton, he was a freed soul, but what was he doing now, who could tell? There were a lot of freed souls now rising out of chuncks of ordure in the muddy fields of France, and perhaps he, the living son of a comfortable inheritor, might soon be joining them. It seemed to him that it was a good deal healthier, meaning cleaner, to die like that then in a bed promptly defiled by the soul’s losing hold of the muscles. To die at sea was clean too, but to give your ordures to the soil was good for it, whereas a drowned corpse only gave food to the fishes, which probably had enough already. Soul and soil: it seemed a fair antithesis.
–From Anthony Burgess’s Any Old Iron (1989) .
Pogo says
@P.T.
And here we all are…
…strength — and honor.
Ray W, says
According to dictionary.com, rescission means “the revocation, cancellation, or repeal of a law, order, or agreement.”
When Congress, using its power of the purse, funds the building of a submarine or the development of a new tank, presidents can’t just stop the expenditure. If an administration seeks to end a program, it must ask Congress to stop funding it.
This rescission process explains why the current Trump administration is asking Congress for permission to not have to spend money previously allocated by Congress for PBS.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
When in the years during and after the worst ravages of the pandemic Congress allocated in several bills nearly $6 trillion in stimulus funds, whichever executive was in office at the time of the order to spend the money had to spend it in the manner that Congress authorized. Yes, for example, whoever is the executive in office can decide whether some of the funds will go toward promoting new and less expensive to operate solar power plants or the funds will go to refurbishing aging and more expensive to operate coal-fired plants, but the money has to be spent, unless the executive asks Congress for permission to no longer have to spend it, i.e., to rescind its spending order.
Laurel says
I think we need to leave the door open for maga as they are finally learning that they have been duped; that they have been lied to. They were right to believe that the government was not to be trusted, neither party has done much for us lately, other than to create drama, to point fingers, to name call, and to cave to fear.
Maga was right to want to rid us of pedophiles, but chose the wrong person to do it. I think, for Trump, the line in the sand has been drawn. It’s now common knowledge that Trump was a close friend of a child sex trafficker, and he did noting to stop it. He did not try to turn Epstein in. Instead, he flew on Epstein’s jet to Epstein’s parties. He may have participated. He did enjoy popping into teenage girls’ dressing rooms at his teen beauty pageants, and claimed it his right as he was the pageants promoter. In fact, he made light of it all, and now, he wants it to all disappear.
This is unacceptable to maga, and the rest of us alike. The maga crowd has been used, lied to, and now, they know he’s trying to cover for the pedophiles that were Epstein’s and Maxwell’s clientele. Maxwell is claiming to be a victim of Epstein in hopes of getting out of prison. Trump is distancing himself from his friends. Magas are rightfully angry. Next, we will get minor information from Bondi, and will be told to move on. More crazy stuff will be thrown out as a distraction as Trump believes America has a short attention span. This time, he is wrong.
He is not your retribution, you are his.
What’s really disturbing to me, is the second in line, Vance, would replace Trump. After that, Johnson. No better, and every bit as bad. It is imperative that we all vote heavily against this pathological behavior during midterm elections. Insist on the Epstein files, vote against all those who backed Trump as their terms end, and rid ourselves of the hate speech and chaos. They are all complicit in Trump’s defense, at the expense of the girls and women he has abused. Now, he abuses all of us. He abuses the immigrants, and lies about them too. Enough is enough! We need to get back to some balance, then take it from there. Start demanding more from the candidates, on both sides of the isle.
It may seem obvious to say that, but we’re not doing it. One, great, nationwide protest is not enough. Speak up. Talk with your money before it is gone. I’m canceling Paramount+ and I recommend you do it too. Don’t back these lying politicians. Instead, do your research. Don’t let anyone do it for you. Stop badmouthing the other side. We need to come together if we really want to make America great again!
Ed P says
A new strategy from the political left has surfaced.
In a nut shell; The democrats living in “red regions” need to be listened to more since they better understand the Republicans. The theory is because the Dems in these areas are interacting, ( ie talking, listening, socializing ) with the Republicans, they possess the secrets to provide the road map for Dems to regain the political high ground. It can’t be the Democratic leaders in these geopolitical areas, so it must be the voters?
Personally, I’m not buying it. If FL and posted comments are representative of the group of voters that the left is looking toward for sage advice, I don’t see it. Not because you are not smart.
There’s little if any compromise. Rarely any acknowledgment from the left that even a scintilla of anything coming from the Trump administration is even ok. It’s all wrong.
Daily name calling, shaming, and belittling each other in comments without a solution in sight is always the “soup du jour “
For instance…
The most recent FL debates about ICE and how to manage the fall out from 4 years of open border. Has anyone put forth a workable suggestion of what to do?
Doing nothing won’t work.
Comparing ICE to the gestapo or detention facilities to concentration camps is a bit indelicate. It all mimics the national argument without the “ mostly peaceful” demonstrations with dumpsters and cars burning or the looting. That’s the only difference I can discern.
Put forth logical solutions and someone should listen. Leads to the thought that there isn’t any common ground between radical ideologies anymore. Is it possible the chasm can’t be crossed? Or, neither party believes it’s necessary?
Ed P says
Laurel,
According to AI and in the interest of being factual.
Trump is listed on Epstein’s flight manifest 8 separate occasions between 1993 and 1977.
Flights primarily occurred between Palm Beach and Teterboro, New Jersey.
It also documents that Trump traveled with his family, then wife Marla Maples, Tiffany Trump and a nanny to Washington DC on May15th 1994.
Flight logs do prove an association but not any wrong doing as you posted.
Thus far, no evidence has surfaced that suggests Trump visited Epstein’s private island.
It’s false to convict Trump for a 20 year acquaintance type relationship that ended over 20 years ago, prior to Epstein’s legal problems. Just as it would be to suggest anything about Clinton for flying on the plane in 2002 and 2003 after Epstein was exposed. Neither circumstances proves anything.
Laurel says
Ed P: Oh my God, you’re amazing!
Trump knew the man, and knew he was trafficking and screwing children! He remained buddies with this pedophile. These girls lives were ruined. One, who came out publicly, recently committed suicide. Trump did nothing with this knowledge of Epstein and Maxwell sexually abusing children. He joked about it staying Epstein “likes ’em young!” and wishing Maxwell well. Yet, you just want facts, right?
Fact is: Trump did nothing for over a decade while this vile behavior continued.
Fact is: Trump is an adjudicated sex assaultant.
Fact is: Trump brags about grabbing women by the pussy.
Fact is: Trump walked in on teenage girls’dressing rooms, commenting, and joking, about their naked bodies, as he had the right to do so since he owned the teen pageant.
Fact is: When Howard Stern commented that Trump’s daughter, Ivonka, was “a piece of ass,” Trump commented “Yeah.”
Fact is: You still protect Trump, at many girls’expense.
I justed wanted to make sure you got all your facts straight.
Ed P says
Laurel,
Just to be sure about the facts. Unlike you, I believe in innocent until proven guilty. I’m not willing to convict Trump about knowing of Epstein as you have. Your hatred for him allows you the luxury, one of suspending and disposing of any logical connections to your claims.
Yes, in the civil lawsuit with Jean Carroll, that involved the assault that took place in late 1995 or early 1996 with the trial concluding on May 9th 2023, finding Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation, meant the offense took place 27 years earlier. It was civil trial, in New York(not exactly Trump friendly) . Those 2 facts coupled with the impossible task of trying to remember an event from 27 years ago makes mounting a defense challenging. Burden of proof is substantially lower in a civil suit.
No, I’m not pimping for him. Plenty of juries have gotten it wrong. Most recently, did Diddy’s trial with only 2 convictions get it right? I accept Trump was found guilty.
Remember, our life’s experiences and friendships shape our perceptions.
When I reflect back on my youth, I ponder how many “things” I would not be proud of or even be able to defend. I am not without fault and witnessed illegal acts from drug use to debauchery. Not just in private settings, but in the infield of the Indy 500, festivals/concerts (ever hear of Woodstock) and even NFL/MBL/Olympics events that today could justify jail time.
Lack of smart phones saved plenty of careers. I’m not trying to get you to agree but rather understand that the truly uber wealthy have a somewhat twisted view and life style. Not all of them, but their money has a profound way of covering many flaws.
Those that despise Trump, always will.
Simply stated, I accept him, as I do of everyone.
Finally, I’m a nobody and my opinions are not harming any women.
I live in a practical world, where not everything is “fair” ( that’s a playground term). Things rarely are as they appear and usually are not as bad as they seem. I simply choose to play the cards dealt rather than complain about every hand or even wishing for the winning hand. That doesn’t preclude me from wanting to win.
Laurel says
Ed P: And I will not support a man, in such power, who hung out with pedophiles, for years, and did nothing to stop them.
If you think that Trump is so stupid that he did not know what Epstein and Maxwell were up to, all the years he joked and partied with them, then that’s another reason he should not be in ANY office!
As much as you want to believe that I hate Trump (always a MAGA response) I don’t. I think that he is an incomplete man. The brain ain’t quite right. I do hate what he is doing to our country.
I’m also sad that so many people are so naive that they cannot interpret what is blatantly in front of them, and their immature pleasure in the cruelty applied to brown and black people.
Fact- Trump put out full page ads in New York newspapers calling for the execution of the Central Park Five, young black men, eventually found innocent.
Nobodys home. He should not be in the White House.
Ed P says
Laurel,
The Central Park 5 is just another example of the jury getting it wrong.
The media convicted them long before the jury.
Amen