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Weather:
- 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:
Gamble Jam: Musicians of all ages can bring instruments and chairs and join in the jam session, 2 to 4 p.m. Note that in a temporary change from the regular schedule, Gamble Jam will be the 2nd and 4th Sunday of each month. The program is free with park admission! Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area at Flagler Beach, 3100 S. Oceanshore Blvd., Flagler Beach, FL. Call the Ranger Station at (386) 517-2086 for more information. The park hosts this acoustic jam session at one of the pavilions along the river to honor the memory of James Gamble Rogers IV, the Florida folk musician who lost his life in 1991 while trying to rescue a swimmer in the rough surf.
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.
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]
‘Nunsense,’ at St. Augustine’s Limelight Theatre, Limelight Theatre, 11 Old Mission Avenue, St. Augustine. 7:30 p.m. except on Sundays, 2 p.m. Tickets are $37.55 per person. Book here. Definitely “habit-forming”, this riotous show takes us through a fundraiser organized by the Little Sisters of Hoboken. They are trying to raise money to bury one of their sisters who was accidentally poisoned by the convent cook, Sister Julia (Child of God). Originating as a line of greeting cards, Goggin expanded the concept into a full musical that became the second-longest off-Broadway run in history.
‘All Shook Up,’ at Daytona Playhouse, 100 Jessamine Blvd., Daytona Beach. Box office: (386) 255-2431. Sept. 13, 19, 20, at 7:30 p.m., Sept. 14 and 21 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $20 for youth, $30 for adults. Book here. It’s 1955, and into a square little town rides a guitar-playing young man who changes everything and everyone he meets in this hip-swiveling, lip-curling musical fantasy that’ll have you jumpin’ out of your blue suede shoes with such classics as “Heartbreak Hotel,” “Jailhouse Rock,” and “Don’t Be Cruel.”
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.
Notably: No wonder. I periodically order books from Europe through Amazon there. Delivery is always quick and reliable. I ordered a pair of books several weeks ago, a set. They’d normally be delivered in less than a week. It’s going on a month, and Amazon is telling me to check with them by such and such a date if the parcel doesn’t show up. I could check its whereabouts: the books left arrived at an Amazon center in lower Saxony on Aug. 18, then another Amazon center in northwest Germany the following day, leaving that center on Aug. 21. After that: nothing. No word on where it went. Might as well be at the bottom of a channel in the port of Rotterdam. Then I learned this, from Statista, which apparently is affecting us all on this side of the Atlantic, thanks to the Trump tariffs: “For many years, American shoppers have been able to buy inexpensive foreign items without paying tariffs and completing complicated customs paperwork,” the Times reported on Aug. 29. “No more. On Friday, President Trump closed the loophole that gave rise to that popular flow of goods, known as the de minimis exemption. He said it had allowed fentanyl to be smuggled into the United States and had given foreign businesses an unfair advantage against American companies. Some Democrats supported the repeal of the exemption for the same reasons. The exemption ended in May for small shipments from mainland China and Hong Kong, and now it has closed for goods from the rest of the world.” Carriers in 67 countries are now restricting or banning U.S. shipments, many saying that they need more time to implement compliance with custom and tax regimes now applicable to all shipments to the country, Statista reports. “Between May 2 and May 12, air freight between China and the U.S. normally used by small parcels had already dropped by 39 percent, Reuters reported. In the case of a handful of countries, personal gifts up to a value of $100 can still be shipped. Some express and courier services with other compliance models in place might still be functioning, but use is also sometimes restricted, depending on the country.” Ridiculous.
—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.
September 2025
East Flagler Mosquito Control District Board Meeting
Flagler County Commission Evening Meeting
Nar-Anon Family Group
Palm Coast City Council Meeting
Flagler County Industrial Development Authority Meeting
Food Truck Tuesday
Flagler Beach Library Writers’ Club
Kiwanis Community Open House
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy
Contractor Review Board Meeting
Flagler County’s Technical Review Committee Meeting
Flagler Tiger Bay Club Guest Speaker: Former U.S. Prosecutor Roger B. Handberg
Separation Chat: Open Discussion
“Conversations in American Democracy” Celebrates Constitution Day
Flagler County Industrial Development Authority Meeting
For the full calendar, go here.
I tell you, son-in-law, there is nothing like trade. Those who ask what pleasure is to be found in it are simpletons. To be on the scent of a good bargain, to hold your own on ‘Change, to watch as anxiously as at the gaming-table whether Etienne and Co. will fail or no, to see a regiment of Guards march past all dressed in your cloth, to trip your neighbor up–honestly of course!–to make the goods cheaper than others can; then to carry out an undertaking which you have planned, which begins, grows, totters, and succeeds! to know the workings of every house of business as well as a minister of police, so as never to make a mistake; to hold up your head in the midst of wrecks, to have friends by correspondence in every manufacturing town; is not that a perpetual game, Joseph? That is life, that is! I shall die in that harness, like old Chevrel, but taking it easy now, all the same.
–From Balzac’s La maison du chat-qui-pelote (The House of the Cat and Racket)(1829).
The headless horseman rides again says
Regarding the cartoon.
All that has happened so far, rests at the feet of the current president and the strange “motley crew” that he surrounds himself with… a tendency he has apparently always had… all his life.
I say they rest at his feet, since he has no head.
Nor his followers.
Ray W. says
Trump administration official, Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, recently accused Federal Reserve governor, Lisa Cook, of wrongdoing for allegedly claiming as “primary residence” both a Michigan property and a Georgia property. Director Pulte then referred the matter to the Department of Justice. A federal investigation is in progress and President Trump has signed an administrative order dismissing her from her position at the Fed.
Ms. Cook has denied any wrongdoing. The accusing director bears the burden of proof in our liberal democratic Constitutional republic form of government.
Reuters reports that it has obtained from court records a copy of a “loan estimate” that was given to Ms. Cook in the weeks prior to her purchase of the Georgia property. On that loan estimate, she informed her credit union lender that the Georgia property was to be a “vacation” residence, and not a primary residence. More specifically, the loan estimate contains the language, “Property Use: Vacation Home.”
According to the reporter, there is no evidence that Ms. Cook has ever requested a tax exemption for the Georgia home as a primary residence.
When Ms. Cook filled out an SF-86 federal form required for a determination of whether she qualified for a security clearance to become a Fed employee, she listed the Georgia property as a “second home.”
According to the reporter, standardized federal mortgage paperwork has a requirement that the loan applicant must stipulate that the type of loan Ms. Cook applied for was to be for a “primary residence”, but the stipulation can be waived, provided the lender agrees in writing to the waiver.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
If the Reuters reporting is true, that it’s reporter has obtained certain mortgage documents from a court file that proves that Ms. Cook told the prospective lender that she intended the new home as a second home, and not as a primary residence. But the existence of that one document in a court file doesn’t prove the existence of all of the relevant mortgage documents in that court file. The most important remaining document would be the one containing the written release by the lender to the requirement that the home be a “primary residence.”
If I understand the story accurately, it seems imperative to me for the investigating agency to locate the rest of the mortgage application to determine whether the lender agreed in writing to provide a mortgage to Ms. Cook for the purchase of a second home that was never intended to be a primary residence. If such a document exists, without more, then the investigation into Ms. Cook’s intent should be stopped in its tracks.
Time will tell if Ms. Cook received from the lender a written waiver of the “primary residence” requirement, and therefore that she is a person whom the government decided to persecute for political gain, despite knowing that she did nothing wrong, or whether she did not receive the written waiver to the stipulation required by the form.
But it appears reasonable to determine that there is no argument sufficient to support a point that Ms. Cook misled the lender about the intended use for the Georgia property.
Sherry says
Just Take a Good Read to the Bottom . . . This is the kind of thing the FOX addicted are subjected to each and every day. . . no wonder they are filled with fear and hate. Just Kill Homeless People:
HuffPost
‘Just Kill ‘Em’: Fox Host Makes Shocking Comment On Homeless People
Hilary Hanson
Sat, 13 September 2025 at 10:17 am GMT-7
“Fox and Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade suggested this week that homeless people suffering from mental health issues who refuse help should simply be killed.
Kilmeade and fellow co-hosts Ainsley Earhardt and Lawrence Jones were discussing the fatal stabbing of Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee whose grisly killing on a North Carolina train was caught on surveillance video.
The trio argued that the suspect, who had a litany of previous arrests and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, should have been taken off the streets long ago. The conversation then shifted to a more general discussion of homelessness and the mental health crisis in the United States.
“This is happening all across the country, and it’s not a money issue,” said Jones, adding that “a lot” of homeless people “don’t want” to get necessary help.
“You can’t give ’em a choice,” Jones went on. “Either you take the resources that we’re going to give you, or you decide that you gotta be locked up in jail. That’s the way it has to be now.”
That’s when Kilmeade floated a more extreme idea.
“Or uh, involuntary lethal injection. Or something,” he said. “Just kill ’em.”
The other two hosts barely react to his remark before continuing their discussion.
Ray W. says
The Alternet just published a story about rushes to judgment by political leaders to the Charlie Kirk murder. Possible explanations are all across the board. I have already commented on other rushes to judgment that rapidly spread into the FlaglerLive community
Here are some bullet points from the article:
– Nancy Mace, (R. S.C.), upon learning of the murder, argued that “it’s time to bring back the death penalty”, as if the death penalty ever went away in Utah or under federal law. After Mr. Robinson was identified as the alleged shooter, Rep. Mace said Mr. Kirk “would want us to pray for such an evil and lost individual like Tyler Robinson to find Jesus Christ. … We will try to do the same.”
– After some commenters suggested that Mr. Robinson was a “groyper”, i.e., one of a group of followers of Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist influencer, who had taken to heckling Mr. Kirk at events because he was “too centrist”, Mr. Fuentes declared, “Currently being framed for the murder of Charlie Kirk. … I pray to God there is no further violence.”
– Utah Governor Spencer Cox says that Mr. Robinson had been “deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology”, without providing proof. He later claimed on another news outlet that Mr. Robinson had recently entered into a relationship with a man who is transitioning into a woman, as if that automatically meant that he must have been deeply indoctrinated with anything that is “leftist.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I remain unenlightened by much of what people say about the motive or multiple motives of Mr. Robinson. Perhaps in time whatever comes to be determined to be true, or at least accurate, will provide reliable proof of a motive or motives. The point remains: What if Mr. Robinson had formed a motive to kill Charlie Kirk, and only Charlie Kirk, for something Charlie Kirk had said that resonated only with Mr. Robinson, something that is not connected to a larger political narrative?
After 20 years of defending people accused of murdering others, I have accepted the idea that sometimes people work on their own, without influence to larger ideological causes championed by one political party or the other. Sometimes, on the other hand, there are indeed larger ideological issues at work.
A while ago, I represented a man who repeatedly talked to detectives in the weeks prior to my appointment to his case.
Over that short period of time, he told detectives about the locations of numerous bodies after they brought him food. He said to detectives that his motive for murder was that he wanted to die and that he had been murdering people in order to get the death penalty. Over and over, the detectives brought him cheeseburgers and pizzas. Despite his many descriptions of the location of bodies, no bodies other than the first body were ever found. Detectives stopped bringing him pizzas and cheeseburgers.
Then, one of my other and older homicide clients, diagnosed with a number of life threatening ailments, was placed in his cell. After a time, that new cellmate was found dead near the toilet. The cause of death was deemed “natural causes”, I was informed.
So another of my murder clients was placed in the cell, this time a juvenile who had confessed to detectives that he had strangled his aging and frail grandmother. When he, too, was found dead in the cell, the original client told investigators that the juvenile inmate had insisted that he was a real murderer after the older inmate had said that strangling his grandmother didn’t rise to the level of a real murder. According to the investigative report that I saw, he got up and said “you want to see what a real murderer does?” He then strangled the juvenile to death.
My point in the first part of the comment is, just like there will never be a shortage of people who will make up motives of others from scanty and conflicting facts to fit their own narrative of why someone who they don’t know killed someone else, there will also never be a shortage of the many motives that are formed on the spot, true or false, by those who are accused of killing others.
I do not doubt that a formed motive exists for the shooting of Charlie Kirk, if the allegations against Mr. Robinson are true, as there seems to be no dispute that Mr. Robinson drove a long distance from his home community to the UVU campus in a manner that coincided with with the timing of Mr. Kirk’s rally. More than that? Mystery, thus far.
The only warning I offer to FlaglerLive readers is that no one should ever take at face value anything written by those several FlaglerLive commenters who have a propensity to exaggerate or lie or launder lies.
Ray W. says
In a story that I admit I never expected to read about, Great Britain’s Royal College of Defense Studies has adopted a policy that, starting now, the college will no longer accept students from Israel.
The author of the story wrote that since the college’s establishment in 1927, there has never before been such a ban of Isreali citizens.
A British Ministry of Defense spokesperson said that while military educational courses had “long been open to personnel from a “wide range of countries”, UK military courses emphasize “compliance with international humanitarian law.” He added that “… the Israeli government’s decision to further escalate its military operation in Gaza is wrong.” And, he said, “[t]here must be a diplomatic solution to end this war now, with an immediate ceasefire, the return of the hostages and a surge of humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
According to the story, the exclusion of Israeli students from the college’s courses is only the latest in a string of “punitive actions” against Israel taken by Downing Street.
To my understanding, since March 1921, Great Britain has consistently emphasized its support for the Jewish population of Palestine, a time when Winston Churchill persuaded Prime Minister Lloyd George, first, of the need to create a Cabinet position for the Middle East, second, of the need for Lloyd George to appoint him as Cabinet Minister, and, third, of the need for Lloyd George to send him to Egypt and Palestine to host a wide-ranging committee of experts whose role was to help Churchill to determine British policy in the new region that was then called Palestine east of the River Jordan, TransJordania west of the River Jordan, and Mesopotamia, a region formerly known as a three province part of the Ottoman Empire that included Iraq, including its two capital cities of Baghdad and Basra, and most of the home of the Kurds, including Mosul, its capital city, and some of eastern Turkey and western Iran.
After the conclusion of the conference, Churchill enraged the Palestinian Arabs by rejecting their demand that no immigration of Zionists be permitted. He delighted the Palestinian Jewish community by openly supporting immigration of all Zionists who were dispossessed of the disease of Bolshevism. Bolshevik immigrants were not to be permitted to infect Palestine.
In the House of Commons, he extolled the benefits of allowing immigration of non-Bolshevik European Jews, stating such immigrants were necessary to drive a flourishing of the economy throughout Palestine. He did change course slightly when too many immigrants began flooding into the country, by adopting a policy that so long as there was an economic need for immigrants, British policy would be that they would be let in to fill the need.
I find it interesting that 100 years ago, Churchill understood fully what so many FlaglerLive commenters cannot grasp. For that matter, when you read the Declaration of Independence, your will find that one of the reasons given by Thomas Jefferson for the colonists breaking free from the King of England was that the king had for too long been restricting the flow of immigrants into the colonies.
Immigrant drive our economy. So long as immigrants are an economic boon to our economy, they should be welcomed. If they commit while here serious crimes, they should be deported. Otherwise, let them help drive our economy.
It is no secret that after the pandemic significantly damaged the underpinnings of the American economy, we needed immigrants in their millions to drive the economic recovery afforded by the trillions of dollars in stimulus funding that both Presidents Trump and Biden signed into law and then pumped into the demand side of our economy.
Ray W. says
Hello Mr. Tristam.
From what I understand, a “de minimis” exception to tariff taxes was first created in the 1930’s, the last time when America imposed average effective tariffs on imports of goods and services that are as high as they are today.
In 2016, the “de minimis” exception was raised from $200 to $800, meaning that an individual could order directly from a foreign seller so long as the purchase was $800 or less and avoid entirely the cost of tariffs when ordering from a European or other foreign seller, as you described.
A young man I know told me several years ago of his decision to order specialty springs for a broken printer directly from a Chinese spring manufacturer. He had to buy a box of 20 (as I recall, though it might have been more) springs to get the manufacturer to ship the springs directly to him, though he needed only one spring. He said it was cheaper to order the 20 springs direct from the manufacturer than to buy the one specialty spring from a middleman.
Your type of individualism in book purchasing is likely to lessen in frequency.
Just think! If your pair of books do eventually come in, they likely will have the tariff tax added directly to the cost of the books. The seller will likely have no incentive to absorb a portion of the tariffs to your benefit. And, should the tariff’s be ruled unconstitutional, because our founding fathers gave the political power to impose tariffs to Congress, and not to presidents, you might get to apply for a refund of the tariff costs that were directly passed on to you.
Ray W. says
Merriam-Webster defines fascism as:
“a populist political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual, that is associated with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, and that is characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and by forcible suppression of opposition.”
Historically, when a Roman Senate thought it necessary to place extraordinary political power in one man, a series of sticks was bound into a bundle and handed over to the chosen general, who was usually then proclaimed a Caesar. Each stick in the bundle represented a different limited political power that had been granted by the Senate. This bundle of sticks, or fasces, was supposed to be returned to the Senate after the grave threat to the Republic ended.
Mussolini fancied himself a 20th century Caesar and his movement became affiliated with the symbol of the fasces that had once been employed by the Roman Senate.
Hitler, some argue, adopted the symbology for his National Socialist movement.
Merriam-Webster defines authoritarianism as:
“1: of, relating to, or favoring blind submission to authority.”
“2: of, relating to, or favoring a concentration of power in a leader or an elite not constitutionally responsible to the people.”
From these two definitions, it is easy to understand that a fascist may not necessarily be the same thing as an authoritarian leader.
I comment of this because I came across an interesting account of a devolving debate between a GOP strategist and a New York University historian and professor.
According to news outlet called Raw Story, during a CNN program titled “Table for Five”, when the group was discussing symbols etched on bullet casings, allegedly, by Mr. Robinson, the subject of Republicans trying to use the etchings as proof that Democratic rhetoric is to blame, came up. The professor commented:
“I have seen it myself: elements of authoritarianism and of the authoritarian approach to government, which seem to emanate from the current White House … I think as an analyst you are responsible to say that.
The Republican strategist cut in, saying:
“So he’s a fascist? … Say it! That’s what you are basically saying!”
The professor responded:
“I think the Democrats and Republicans both have to stop using apocalyptic language; when you use apocalyptic language, you’re basically saying if the other side wins, it’s over. … In other words, you’re saying the stakes are so high, you should contemplate the kind of actions that we don’t want people to contemplate.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Some, perhaps even much, of the difficulty experienced by many FlaglerLive commenters comes from them not even attempting to understand what words mean. Dennis C. Rathsam, for example, clearly doesn’t understand what “destroy” means.
As an aside, the meaning ascribed to the Biblical use of the verb “to destroy” means both physical annihilation and spiritual ruin or separation from God. According to the Oxford Dictionary, destroy means to “put an end to the existence of (something) by damaging it or attacking it.”
To me, words have meaning.
To call a movement authoritarian is not the same as calling one fascist. A fascist can come to power through legitimate means. Under the German constitution, after Hitler was elected by popular vote to a seat in the German legislature, he then came to be included in the executive branch of the German government as a member of the cabinet. In short order, Hindenberg handed to Hitler the most of the political power that meant beyond the power of his cabinet position to run the entire German executive branch of government, i.e., Hindenberg handed over to Hitler the remainder of the many twigs that represented each of the many different political powers that inhered in the executive. It was only later when Hitler seized all power, legislative, judicial and executive, that he became an authoritarian figure.
By this example, the definition of an authoritarian leader does not necessarily come from one receiving political power by presentation or gift from one who legitimately holds that political power. An authoritarian leader will arbitrarily take political power by force.
Ray W. says
Hello Sherry.
It is being reported that Brian Kilmeade has issued an apology, as if anything can absolve him of the callousness and cruelty of his remark.
Everyone after maturation understands that an apology is appropriate where offense is given, but there are certain words or acts that a man never says or does to a woman. No apology can suffice should the term ever be uttered or the act ever be made out of callousness or cruelty.
Sherry says
Dear Ray W.,
What troubles me even more is that the two other talking heads on Fox did NOT push back at all when kilmeade advocated for “killing” homeless people. They all still work for Fox. . . still spewing their vile, despicable, hate filled garbage! Still indoctrinating millions to hate and now “act out” violently against others! For me, Fox is at the core of the fear and hate that is destroying not only our democracy, but the very soul of our culture and society!
Sherry says
Dear Ray W.,
Regarding Pulte’s “witch hunt” of the Federal Reserve Governor . . . hypocrisy knows no bounds:
BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Michigan (Reuters) -Close relatives of the federal official who has accused a Federal Reserve governor of improperly claiming primary residence on two properties have declared the same status on two homes in two different states, public records show.
Mark and Julie Pulte, the father and stepmother of Bill Pulte, President Donald Trump’s appointee as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, since 2020 have claimed so-called “homestead exemptions” for residences in wealthy neighborhoods in both Michigan and Florida, according to the records. The exemption is meant to give a discount to homeowners on taxes for properties they use as their primary residence.