Weather: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 89. Thursday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly cloudy, with a low around 73.
- 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:
In Court: Joao Fernandes Sentencing: Joao Fernandes, the 50-year-old Palm Coast resident a jury convicted of hit-and-run on Belle Terre Parkway in July, is sentenced at 9 a.m. by Senior Circuit Judge Terence Perkins in Courtroom 401 at the Flagler County courthouse. Fernandes turned down a plea deal that would have had him serve one year in prison. He now faces up to 15.
Palm Coast’s Residential Drainage Advisory Committee meets at 6 p.m. at City Hall.
Story Time for Preschoolers at Flagler Beach Public Library, 11 to 11:30 a.m. at the library, 315 South Seventh Street, Flagler Beach. It’s where the wild things are: Hop on for stories and songs with Miss Doris.
Model Yacht Club Races at the Pond in Palm Coast’s Central Park, from noon to 2 p.m. in Central Park in Town Center, 975 Central Ave. Join Bill Wells, Bob Rupp and other members of the Palm Coast Model Yacht Club, watch them race or join the races with your own model yacht. No dues to join the club, which meets at the pond in Central Park every Thursday.
Notably: Pope Paul V in 1606 was dead serious when he told the ambassador from Venice: “Do you not know that so much reading of Scripture ruins the Catholic religion?” The church did not like its flock to read the bible. It did not like its flock to read. It created the Index (Index Librorum Prohibitorum, or Index of Forbidden Books) in the mid16th century, and did not abolish it until 1966, though in a March 1957 essay Flannery O’Connor was all for it, or at least for its principle: “The business of protecting souls from dangerous literature belongs properly to the Church,” she wrote. “All fiction, even when it satisfies the requirements of art, will not turn out to be suitable for everyone’s consumption, and if in some instance, the Church sees fit to forbid the faithful to read a work without permission, the author, if he is a Catholic, will be thankful that the Church is willing to perform this service for him. It means that he can limit himself to the demands of art.” A writer supporting censorship: like a doctor approving of cancer. “Frankly, I’m always amazed that there are men who forbid other men from reading,” Voltaire wrote in a 1763 letter. He may have been a champion of free thought, but he could be Flannery when it suited him: “It is of the utmost importance that the Lettres Toulousaines not be published in France,” he wrote the same year, referring to an obscure work that apparently interfered with one of his great, noble cases against miscarriages of justice (the Calas Affair, in which Jean Calas, a protestant, was falsely accused of murdering his son over his decision to convert to Catholicism). Look how similar Voltaire’s language was to O’Connor: “Works that can be written on this delicate subject can only be entrusted to reliable people who are fit for service. This is the position taken by the author of the Treatise on Tolerance [meaning, ironically, Voltaire himself]. A letter has been written to Lausanne to request that the author of the Lettres Toulousaines suspend the publication of his book until the Calas trial is resolved.” On the whole though his calls for censorship were the exception, his eloquence on the freedom to think, write and publish more eloquent, less pompous and certainly less self-serving than Milton’s: “In every country we must let the rabble speak. It would be better if it did not speak; but we cannot tear out its tongue.” And even O’Connor, ever the curveball pitcher, shatters you–and your assumptions about her–with insights out of her very seeming dogmatism. In the same essay quoted above, she noted: “Catholic readers are constantly being offended and scandalized by novels that they don’t have the fundamental equipment to read in the first place, and often these are works that are permeated with a Christian spirit.”
—P.T.
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.
October 2025
Flagler Beach Farmers Market
Flagler Beach All Stars Beach Clean-Up
Coffee With Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Sunshine and Sandals Social at Cornerstone
‘Avenue Q,’ at City Repertory Theatre
‘Nunsense,’ at St. Augustine’s Limelight Theatre
‘Sweeney Todd’ at Athens Theatre
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy
ESL Bible Studies for Intermediate and Advanced Students
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village
‘Nunsense,’ at St. Augustine’s Limelight Theatre
Al-Anon Family Groups
‘Avenue Q,’ at City Repertory Theatre
For the full calendar, go here.
A disenchanted Madame de Staël soon found that her France had become “a garrison where military discipline and boredom rule.” Perhaps more than from direct political persecution, artists under Napoleon suffered from the restrictive, stifling atmosphere that was produced by a combination of fear, flattery, and censorship. Certainly it was in this atmosphere, and in her constant opposition to Napoleon’s authoritarian rule, that Madame de Staël, her salon having become a focus of the opposition, was forced into exile in Switzerland in 1803, again in 1806, and definitively-after the seizure of her highly critical De l’Allemagne in 1810.
–From Alistair Horn’s The Age of Napoleon (2006).
Pogo says
@Censorship
… does that include dropping stories from a site’s normal order — long before their passing away of time itself?
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
— Omar Khayyam
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/K/KhayyamOmar/51Moving/index.html
R.S. says
Joao Fernandes Sentencing: Strange thinking here. No matter what he deserves or what he has done, it’s a bit ludicrous to believe that he deserves one year for the deed (plea bargaining) and 14 years for the attempt to fight for himself before a court of law. Weird notions of “justice” seem to undergird our courts.
Sherry says
This cartoon is priceless!
My point exactly. . . other than “burning” our flag there are many, many other ways to desecrate the symbol of our country. Maga members are excellent at it!
Skibum says
As a former boy scout, I learned early on in life how to properly respect our nation’s flag. I have to tell you, some of the most disrespectful, vomit inducing mistreatments of the U.S. Flag for me has been watching all of the various maga mush brain characters at drumph’s rallies with their flag emblazoned clothing, especially pants where they actually sit their asses on the flag. Now THAT is totally disrespectful.
Then you have the orange faced convicted felon president standing in front of tv cameras wrapping his arms with tiny hands around a flag pole, rubbing his face on the flag like it was a baby wipe. Disgusting!
Any U.S. flag or flag symbol that has had somebody’s rear end on it, or one that has had it defiled by a makeup wearing, convicted felon sex abuser’s face rubbed all over it certainly deserves to by properly and respectfully BURNED because that is how Americans are supposed to retire a U.S. flag.
Ray W. says
Relying on data collected on or before August 25, 2025, earlier today the Fed released its Beige Book for August.
Under the heading of “Overall Economic Activity”:
“Most of the twelve Federal Reserve Districts reported little or no change in economic activity since the prior Beige Book period — the four Districts that differed reported modest growth. Across Districts, contacts reported flat to declining consumer spending because, for many households, wages were failing to keep up with rising prices. Contacts frequently cited economic uncertainty and tariffs as negative factors. New York reported that ‘consumers were being squeezed by rising costs of insurance, utilities, and other expenses.’ Contacts observed the following responses to the consumer pullback. Retail and hospitality sectors offered deals and promotions to help price-sensitive consumers stretch their dollars — supporting steady demand from domestic leisure tourists but not offsetting falling demand from international visitors. The auto sector noted flat to slightly higher sales, while consumer demand increased for parts and services to repair older vehicles. Manufacturing firms reports shifting to local supply chains where feasible and often using automation to cut costs. The push to deploy AI partly explains the surge of data center construction — a rare strength in commercial real estate noted by the Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Chicago Districts. Atlanta and Kansas City reported that data centers had increased energy demand in their Districts. Overall, sentiment was mixed among Districts. Most firms either reported little to no change in optimism or expressed differing expectations about the direction of change from their contacts.
Under the heading of “Labor Markets”:
“Eleven Districts described little or no net change in overall employment levels, while one District described a modest decline. Seven Districts noted that firms were hesitant to hire workers because of weaker demand or uncertainty. Moreover, contacts in two Districts reported an increase in layoffs, while contacts in multiple Districts reported reducing headcounts through attrition — encouraged, at times, by return-to-office policies and facilitated, at times, by greater automation, including new AI tools. In turn, most Districts mentioned an increase in the number of people looking for jobs. However, half of the Districts noted that contacts reported a reduction in the availability of immigrant labor, with New York, Richmond, St. Louis, and San Francisco highlighting its impact on the construction industry. Half of the Districts described modest growth in wages, while most of the others reported moderate growth. Two Districts noted little or no change in wages.
Under the heading of “Prices”:
“Ten Districts characterized price growth as moderate or modest. The other two Districts described strong input price growth that outpaced moderate or modest selling price growth. Nearly all Districts noted tariff-related price increases, with contacts from many Districts reporting that tariffs were especially impactful on the prices of inputs. Contacts in multiple Districts also reported rising prices for insurance, utilities, and technology services. While some firms reported passing through their entire cost increases to customers, some firms in nearly all Districts described at least some hesitancy in raising prices, citing customer price sensitivity, lack of pricing power, and fear of losing business. In some cases, as highlighted by Cleveland and Minneapolis, firms reported being under pressure to lower prices because of competition, despite facing increased input costs. Most Districts reported that their firms were expecting price increased to continue in the months ahead, with three of those Districts noting that the pace of price increases was expected to rise further.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
The argument, unsteady to begin with, that tariffs do not cause price increases on importers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers or customers is losing ground. Rising prices are being reported to Fed surveyors all across the country, and business owners are telling the Fed that the price rises are due to tariffs and tariff uncertainties. All twelve Districts report either modest, moderate or greater than moderate “selling price growth”, which means that consumers are absorbing at least some of the tariff costs. If two months ago, plum tomatoes were selling at Walmart for 98 cents per pound and now they are selling for $1.49 a pound, that means that even if Walmart is absorbing some of the tariff costs for importing tomatoes from Mexico, it is not absorbing all of the tariff costs. And Walmart can’t source tomatoes from American farmers if the Trump administration is deporting migrant labor, documented or undocumented. Every acre of tomatoes or lettuce or cherries that is plowed under or left to rot under a ruthless August sun because there are no pickers to harvest the tomatoes or lettuce of cherries means money lost to American farmers and/or wages lost to workers who would normally contribute their domestic product to our economy.
Ray W. says
A Fortune reporter built an article on the premise that many businesses, economists, and officials are choosing silence about their understanding of the health of the U.S. economy out of fear of retaliation by President Trump or by administration officials.
But not all.
According to the reporter, after President Trump lashed out at Walmart when the company raised concerns about tariffs, Citadel founder and CEO, Ken Griffin, proclaimed “shame” on the administration.
And BlackRock CEO and founder, Larry Fink, when interviewed at the Economic Club of New York, said that a majority of the CEO’s he talks to believe that the U.S. is already in recession, but they won’t say so on the record because they fear political retribution and market repercussions.
But the main interviewee for the article, Bridgewater Associates founder, Ray Dalio, a person who built his hedge fund into the world’s largest through an investment philosophy described as analyzing cause-and-effect relationships throughout economic history, told the reporter that he sees a dangerous suppression of economic debate at a critical moment of possible divergence for the United States;
“Most people are silent because they are afraid of retaliation if they criticize.”
This silence, Mr. Dalio asserts, can prevent a “frank discussion” that might address fiscal challenges prior to their reaching a “crisis point.”
Dalio talked of short-term British Prime Minister Liz Truss, whose “unfunded tax cuts spooked markets so severely that the pound plummeted to historic lows against the dollar, forcing her resignation.”
Dalio describes today’s immediate economic picture as one which might be masking deep structural problems.
Inflation, down from pandemic highs, are at 2.7% as of July, which means that the Fed’s target inflation level of 2.0% remains unmet. The unemployment rate of 4.2% is relatively low, but job growth has been slowing in recent months. According to the reporter, “[t]he Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index has declined for six consecutive months through July, signaling potential economic weakening ahead. Real GDP growth is projected at just 1.6% for 2025, slower than historical averages and reflecting the drag from higher interest rates and trade tensions.”
Dalio added that today’s political and economic environment resembles a shift toward governmental authoritarian activities of the 1930s and 1940s, based on the following factors:
1. The American federal debt is now at $37 trillion, as of August, a debt to GDP level not seen since WWII.
2. The Congressional Budget Office projects a debt-to-GDP ratio of 156% by 2055 if current policies remain unchanged.
3. Interest payments on the federal debt are consuming an ever-increasing share of the federal budget, creating what Dalio likens to “a circulatory system riddled with plaque.”
4. Dalio is concerned about President Trump’s attempt to lessen the independence of the Federal Reserve Bank. His threats to fire Fed Chair Powell and to remove Fed Governor Cook prompted European Central Bank President Christine LaGarde to foresee a “very serious danger” to the global economy.
5. Dalio describes the government’s recent acquisition of 10% of Intel as an example of, in the reporter’s words, an “increasing state intervention” in the economy.
In sum, according to the reporter, Dalio thinks there may be “an impending ‘debt-induced heart attack in the relatively near future.'”, perhaps as early as within the next three years.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I repeat previous comments that Fed Chair Powell is on record, repeatedly on record, as saying that the federal debt at some time in the future will become “unsustainable”, unless the political will can be formed to force a change in current policy. Dalio is saying the same thing. Our children and grandchildren are saying the same thing. Unsustainable can be another term for the phrase beyond recovery.
As a political society, one generation has been, with a few exceptions, kicking the federal debt can down the road since the early 1980’s.
We need to be talking. We cannot afford to let retribution and retaliation rule the economic picture. We cannot claim that inflation is dropping when it is rising. That is not discussion, much less “frank” discussion. That is lying.
According to Fed Chair Powell, we can mitigate the federal debt crisis by forcing inflation down to 2% or lower for years and decades, if possible. At the same time, we need to have GDP growth at or above 3% each year for years and decades, if possible. And it is possible for these two factors to exist at the same time. America saw inflation at or below 2% for most of the decade between 2011 and 2020, and GDP growth was at or just under 3% at the same time.