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Weather: Mostly clear. A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 80s. Lows in the lower 70s. 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 three-member East Flagler Mosquito Control District Board meets at 10 a.m. at District Headquarters, 210 Airport Executive Drive, Palm Coast. Agendas are available here. District staff, commissioners and email addresses are here. The meetings are open to the public.
Conjunction: The picture above and the picture below seemed to bracket the Florida experience one morning a few days ago, when I drove to Orlando to retrieve my son for a couple of days. The one below, snapped outside the bathrooms at Buc-ees, is called “Tailing Redfish,” retailing for $260. It’s by Steve Whitlock, “a renowned artist specializing in wildlife and marine art, particularly focusing on sport fishing and coastal scenes.” Geographically marketable, too, at Buc-ees: note the “Gulf of America” bow to that clientele. I don’t imagine anything resembling the Gulf of Mexico would make it past the parking lot at that store.
—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 United Methodist Church Food Pantry
Flagler County Drug Court Convenes
Model Yacht Club Races at the Pond in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Palm Coast Democratic Club Meeting
Flagler Beach City Commission Meeting
Evenings at Whitney Lecture Series
‘Sweeney Todd’ at Athens Theatre
Free For All Fridays With Host David Ayres on WNZF
Friday Blue Forum
‘Sweeney Todd’ at Athens Theatre
Flagler Beach Farmers Market
Coffee With Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Second Saturday Plant Sale at Washington Oaks Gardens State Park
American Association of University Women (AAUW) Meeting
For the full calendar, go here.
In his bid to end some of the more symbolic aspects of the Revolution once he had declared it to be over, Napoleon ordered that the red bonnets that had been put on church steeples and public buildings during the Revolution be taken down. Monsieur and Madame replaced citoyen and citoyenne, Christmas and Easter returned, and finally, on January 1, 1806, the revolutionary calendar was abolished. Napoleon had always been alive to the power of nomenclature and so he renamed the Place de la Révolution (formerly the Place Louis XV) as the Place de la Concorde, and demolished the giant female statue of Liberty there. ‘Concord,’ he later wrote, ‘that is what renders France invincible. Other examples of his passion for renaming included rechristening his invention the Cis-alpine Republic as the Italian Republic, the Army of England as the Grande Armée (in 1805), and the Place de l’Indivisibilité–the old Place Royale–as the Place des Vosges. Over the Consular period, Napoleon’s written style subtly altered, with revolutionary clichés such as inaltérable and incorruptible being replaced by the more incisive grand, sévère and sage.
–From Andrew Roberts’s Napoleon: A Life (2014)..
Ray W. says
In 1970, the Securities and Exchange Commission modified the agency’s six-month business earnings reporting requirement to what remains today a business quarterly earnings reporting requirement.
Earlier this morning, according to Reuters, President Trump called for a return to the six-month earnings reporting requirement. Many European countries require of their companies six month reporting schedules.
President Trump had asked the SEC to eliminate business earnings reporting requirements during his first term in office.
The reporter wrote:
“Some supporters of the proposal have argued that a move to fewer financial statements could benefit investors by encouraging companies to focus on long-term goals, while others say having to wait longer for financial information would mean less transparency and increase market volatility.”
According to the reporter:
“Investors argue that one of the reasons U.S. stocks trade at a premium to equities elsewhere is due to greater financial reporting requirements.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Is it reasonable to argue that quarterly business earnings reports allow investors better access to more immediate quality economic data, from which better investment decisions can be made? According to the reporter, where the European six-month reporting model is in effect, the STOXX 600 exchange is trading at 15.28 times the 12-month average earnings estimates. In comparison, the S&P 500 exchange is trading at 24.3 times the 12-month average earnings estimates.
I do not argue one way or the other on this story. Food for thought. There are a lot of reasons why investors place their money in certain stocks, and immediacy of quality economic information is just one of those many reasons, though arguably it is one of the bigger reasons out there on choosing where to place one’s money.
As an aside, it is being reported that the 30-year fixed rate mortgage average lending rate is at or near 6.3%, down from a lending rate of at or near 7% just a few months ago.
How can long-term mortgage rates drop when the Fed’s lending rate has remained stable? If the setting of long-term mortgage rates can be independent of the Fed’s setting of its lending rate, what could be the primary driver of long-term mortgage rate changes?
Argued another way, if the Fed’s preferred lending has not changed since last October, what does the fact that mortgage rates have been trending down without changes to the Fed’s lending rates say about the claim that the Fed reducing today’s lending rate by 25 basis points must bring down long term mortgage rates?
Numerous economists argue that lowering the Fed’s lending rates more directly impacts shorter-term consumer loans, but not so much for longer-term consumer loan. According to these economists, long-term Treasury rates are more directly related to long-term mortgage lending rate than are the Fed’s lending rates.
Is it possible that an upset in the Treasury marketplace could bring about a rise in long-term mortgage rates, even if the Fed were cutting its preferred lending rates to lending institutions at the same time?
Ray W. says
Per a Cryptopolitan article, the Austrian contract automobile manufacturer, Magna Steyr (meaning part of Magna Steyr’s business model is to provide manufacturing services to any car company that seeks its manufacturing capacity) has contracted with a Chinese EV manufacturer, XPeng, to build XPeng EVs in Europe, thereby avoiding higher EU tariffs on XPeng’s Chinese-made EVs.
Currently, the EU places a 20.7% tariff on “partner” car manufacturing, a rate significantly lower than the EU’s tariff rate on imported Chinese EVs.
The news outlet also reports that XPeng has completed construction on a new Munich-based research and development center.
The article includes this stand-alone blurb:
“The firm’s [XPeng’s] American depository receipts have also increased by approximately 77% since January.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I am intrigued by the blurb about XPeng’s depository receipts increasing 77% since January. Why increase deposits in America when XPeng doesn’t do business in America?
The U.S. tariff on Chinese-made EVs is 100% over the 2.5% that was in place prior to former President Biden putting the 100% tariff in place last year. President Trump has not yet changed that tariff, but who knows what will happen on that subject? Thus far, the 102.5% tariff has been more of an embargo than a tariff.
Is XPeng searching for manufacturing capacity in already existing American factories in order to get around the tariffs, like it is doing with Magna Steyr in Europe?
Chrysler’s parent company, Stellantis, reports a significant downturn in sales over the past year. Could Chrysler shift dwindling output from one of its several U.S. manufacturing plants to another plant and then contract with XPeng to build XPeng cars in the vacated factory?
I do not claim to know, but the idea is intriguing.
Ray W. says
Newsweek reports that two individuals have been arrested after an “incendiary” device was found to have been placed underneath a news van that had been driven to a location at or near the shooting location of Charlie Kirk.
The story provided no motive for the placing of the device, though the news outlet reported that a fuse had been lit, but the fuse failed to ignite the device.
Two persons, Adeeb Nasir and “Adil”, were tracked to a home in Magna, Utah, about 15 miles west of Salt Lake City. Firearms, narcotics, “explosive components”, and “hoax” weapons were found inside the residence.
And, from the story, numerous HBCU institutions received “swatting” calls, forcing lockdowns on the schools.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Was this event independent of the Charlie Kirk shooting or was it a “ripple”, one of many ripples, from Kirk’s death? Are Adil and Adeeb third-generation American citizens or are they undocumented immigrants? Were they following a reporter and cameraman because of a story told months ago, or were they following any reporter and cameraman on the trail of a Charlie Kirk story who parked close enough to them for them to act?
I do not claim to know. The story doesn’t provide answers to these questions.
If the duo are disaffected by something, anything, then is it possible for the disaffected among us to have their own motives, separate from the political commentary of the day or the projections of others for political or personal gain?
Ray W. says
Drawing from an article published by the New York Times, a news outlet, Raw Story, published its own story about perceived divisions among President Trump’s followers after he shifted some of his policy stances on immigration.
The story starts with quotes from the Times story:
“President Trump entered the White House in January promising both the ‘largest deportation program in American history’ and a ‘golden age’ for American businesses.”
But after “deep anger” among South Koreans formed over the detention of 500 construction workers, including hundreds of South Korean immigrants, during an immigration raid on a partially constructed South Carolina Hyundai factory, President Trump “paused” the deportations of the South Korean workers so as to determine whether they can stay to help finish building the factory. According to the reporter, the pause has angered some of his “far-right” supporters.
Before the Hyundai factory raid, President Trump had already angered some of his “far-right” supporters when he announced an immigration policy change to allow the immigration into the country of 600,000 Chinese students so that they can attend classes at American colleges and universities.
The reporter contacted an immigration expert at The Cato Institute, which from my own readings from its site bills itself as a conservative-leaning policy center that focuses, in part, on immigration issues.
David J. Bier, the institute’s director of immigration studies, told the reporter:
“His [Trump’s] heart isn’t in the nativist purge the way that the rest of his administration’s heart is into it. He’s always been someone who likes to dabble in that type of rhetoric. But at the same time, he’s always had a soft spot for the economic needs from a business perspective.”
Make of this what you will.
Steve Ward says
@RayW
The FRB Contrils rates thru rhe overnight discount window to Money center Banks
Fyi
Keep up the good work
Ray W. says
Thank you, Steve Ward.
As I repeatedly state, I am not an economist. At best I am a curious student. And I learned a long time ago, perhaps as a baby prosecutor or perhaps even before that, that everyone knows things that I don’t know. If I can’t persuade them to teach me what I need to know when I need to know it, it is my fault.
James says
One is reminded of these strangely similar passages from Richard III when pondering our president-king.
“… First murderer: Where’s thy conscience now?
Second murderer: O, in the Duke of Gloucester’s purse.
First murderer: When he opens his purse to give us our reward, thy conscience flies out.
Second murderer: ‘Tis no matter. Let it go. There’s few or none to entertain it.
First murderer: What if it came to the again?
Second murderer: I’ll not meddle with it. It makes a man a coward. A man cannot steal but it accuseth him. A man cannot swear but it checks him. A man cannot lie with his neighbors wife but it detects him. ‘Tis a blushing, shamefaced spirit, that mutinies in a man’s bosom. It fills a man full of obstacles. …”
“… King Richard: … Conscience is but a word that cowards use, Devised at first to keep the strong in awe. Our strong arms be our conscience; swords, our law. March on …”
Just an opinion.
Btw, King Richard was eventually defeated.
Ray W. says
I would not normally comment on this type of story, but there is a nugget set out in it that caught my attention.
The Guardian recently published a story about the amount in subsidies and supports the U.S. provides to “fossil-fuel” companies each year.
An “environmental campaign group” published its assessment of the figure received each year by the energy industry. The claimed total subsidy figure is $31 billion per year, more than double that received in 2017.
Over the past five years or so, I have read many similar articles, but the figures in those articles usually are in the range of $20 billion, more or less, each year.
One new subsidy that the group explained was that provided to American energy extractors under the One Big Beautiful Tax Act. Under the Act, the energy industry is expected to receive an additional $4 billion per year is subsidies, in part because its terms lower an “already sub-market royalty rate” on oil and natural gas extracted from public lands.
This lowering of the royalty rate is what caught my eye, though the fact that the Act also allows energy companies to avoid the “corporate minimum tax” set during the Biden administration caught my eye, too.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
If it is indeed accurate that the Bureau of Land Management has long been receiving below-market royalty figures from energy companies that extract oil and natural gas from public lands, and if it is indeed accurate that the royalty rates are soon to be lowered even further below market rates, just what are we doing complaining about federal subsidies for fresh fruits and vegetables bought from American farmers that provide nutrition for needy children who are eating meals prepared at their schools when we are giving our nation’s energy extractors billions and billions of dollars per year?
It wasn’t that long ago when I commented about Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, which at last check was described at totaling just under $2 trillion in value.
Norway doesn’t drill for oil and natural gas located just off its coast. It negotiates with private energy companies and sets the royalties it is to receive from any oil and natural gas extracted from the field.
Norway gives leases to energy extractors. America give leases to energy extractors. The difference between Norway and the United States is that since 1968, from what I understand, Norway has been putting part of the royalties it receives from energy extractors into its sovereign wealth fund, which is by law independent from the government. A different portion of the royalties received have been put into a separate fund for Norway’s retirees. That fund, too, is operated independently of Norway’s government.
A board of competent individuals determines where and how the money in the fund is to be invested, with rules set according to economic principles, including a board of ethics that can veto investments.
Since 1968 (and beforehand), America has not put its royalties received from energy extractors into a sovereign wealth fund.
Even though Norway has used money from the sovereign wealth fund to build infrastructure projects, it still has nearly two trillion dollars in the fund.
The nation built numerous dams, have thousands of river locations to choose from in a mountainous countryside dotted with fjords. Norway now produces more than enough electricity for its own needs and it exports the surplus to its neighbors, bringing even more foreign money into the fund.
Roads, bridges, railroads, all sorts of infrastructure benefits from this approach to government budgeting. All it took was for the Norwegian government to decide not to give away the farm to energy extractors.
I recognize that this is nothing more than a thought exercise, but since 1968, the U.S. has been producing more oil from public lands and seas than has Norway. If American leaders had been as smart and as altruistic as the Norwegians, who knows the size of an independent and professionally managed American sovereign wealth fund?
And, yes, President Trump has started the process of setting up an American sovereign wealth fund. Alaska has had such a fund since the 1970’s, based on revenues paid into state coffers from oil and natural gas. Each year, Alaska’s residents receive dividends from the fund.
Sherry says
I know that Maga World will tell you that polls showing the majority DISAPPROVING of trump are meaningless. Hummm. . . maybe that’s because the polls make trump look really bad. On the other hand, if the polls made trump look good, Maga members would be throwing them in our faces in all caps. Cyber shouting and chest pounding, right?
In any case, the latest polls show trump’s approval rating as underwater, some of them in double digits, also the direction of the country is looking pretty BAD. . . take a look:
https://www.realclearpolling.com/latest-polls
Ray W. says
The Cool Down just released a story about an American company that is converting heavy industrial equipment from fossil fuels to electricity.
ZQuip, a subsidiary of Moog Construction, has partnered with Case to produce an electric-powered Caterpillar heavy excavator. At a trade show earlier this year, Case displayed a tracked and wheeled excavator with battery modules that can be tailored to the assigned task.
Said Chris LeFleur, Managing Director of ZQuip:
“We’ve successfully gone from concept to prototype and are now delivering these units to customers. We’ve solved the engineering challenges.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
This idea of taking diesel or gas engines off standard Caterpiller equipment and replacing it with electric motors and batteries resonates with me. My elder son switched his lawn business from gas-powered to fully electric a number of years ago.
One of his retired hydraulic lawn tractors, a 36-inch John Deere, remains in storage. He tells me that he plans as some point to purchase a metal bracket that bolts onto the lawn deck using the boltholes through which the current Kawasaki engine is mounted to the deck. The bracket will allow him to swap out the engine for an electric motor of equal power. A pulley on the electric motor matches the height and dimensions of the Kevlar-reinforced drive belt, so the twin mower blades will spin at the same speeds of the engine-driven belt. Another belt will spin the two hydraulic transmissions the drive the zero-turn tractor. The controls remain the same, except for the throttle. No more cable to the carburetor. No more gas tank.
With batteries, the conversion cost should be less than $2,000. Greenworks sells its 36-inch zero-turn electric tractor for $13,000.
Sherry says
The latest on the Federal Reserve Front:
WASHINGTON (AP) — An appeals court ruled Monday that Lisa Cook can remain a Federal Reserve governor, rebuffing President Donald Trump’s efforts to remove her just ahead of a key vote on interest rates.
The Trump administration is expected to quickly turn to the Supreme Court in a last-ditch bid to unseat Cook before the Fed’s two-day meeting, which begins Tuesday. And Cook’s lawsuit seeking to permanently block her firing must still make its way through the courts.
The White House campaign to unseat Cook marks an unprecedented bid to reshape the Fed’s seven-member governing board, which was designed to be largely independent from day-to-day politics. No president has fired a sitting Fed governor in the agency’s 112-year history.
Separately, Senate Republicans on Monday confirmed Stephen Miran, Trump’s nominee to an open spot on the Fed’s board. Barring any last-minute intervention from the Supreme Court, the Fed’s interest rate setting committee will meet Tuesday and Wednesday with all seven governors and the 12 regional bank presidents. Twelve of those 19 officials will vote on changing the central bank’s short-term rate: All seven governors plus five regional presidents, who vote on a rotating basis.
Ray W. says
Reuters reports that earlier today Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told a gathering of members of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture that:
“We are working with our colleagues in Congress and closely monitoring markets daily to evaluate the amount of additional assistance that might be needed this fall.”
No word on the amount of assistance needed to make American farmers whole from their economic losses arising from President Trump’s 2025 tariffs.
The sum expended to make American farmers whole from President Trump’s 2018 tariffs reportedly amounts to $28 billion.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
President Trump repeatedly overstates the amount of tariff money that is pouring into the Treasury, but it is accurate to say that, now that tariffs have finally reached full flower, tens of billions of dollars are coming into the Treasury each month. Is it fair to argue that each and every dollar spent to make American farmers whole should be subtracted from the tariff totals?
Ray W. says
Reuters reports that China’s General Administration of Customs (GACC) recently notified Brazilian authorities that Brazilian sorghum is eligible for export into China.
A Brazilian official said:
“The next steps are to register Brazilian companies, exporters, and producers that intend to export to China. We’ve already completed the first round of registrations for these companies and will now submit them to China.”
Initial sorghum cargoes should leave Brazilian ports within the next 60 days.
In related news, according to U.S. Census Bureau trade data, U.S. exports of sorghum to China through this past July are down 97% from the same period last year.
Pedro Ottoni, a sorghum producer and director of the International Maize Alliance, said:
“I believe that the demand for sorghum exports will encourage the growth of sorghum planting here in Brazil. … Brazil will stand out in global sorghum production.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Perhaps it is appropriate to reintroduce to FlaglerLive readers the concept of externalities. An externality is an economic factor that was not considered when the original economic strategy was adopted.
In 2018, when President Trump placed tariffs on China, the Chinese government responded by reducing orders for American soybeans and placing orders with Brazilian soybean producers. American soybean farmers ended up being reimbursed $20 billion of the $28 billion that the Trump administration doled out to all types of farmers due to their economic losses from his tariffs.
China has avoided ordering any American soybeans thus far this year, and the soybean crop is beginning to be harvested with one fewer place to go.
Looking back at it all, can it be argued and supported that President Trump’s 2018 tariffs taught Brazilian farmers how to grow soybeans?
Now, it is being reported that President Trump is teaching Brazilian farmers how to grow sorghum, too.
Does that fit the definition of an economic externality?
Skibum says
I decry and oppose any and all political violence, regardless of who it is doing it and who it is against. There have been so many documented incidents of political violence in America dating all the way back to the Revolutionary War period. Very juvenile in nature, completely unnecessary. Despicable, actually.
Political candidates as well as elected office holders dueling it out with someone after being called out by one or the other in some type of perceived or real slight that impinged upon the honor of one or both persons. Political assassinations and attempted assassinations.
Most of the political violence in our nation’s history has been one person committing violence on one other individual, but we have recently experienced such violence on multiple victims in the same incident. In June of this year, four people were shot in an act of political violence in Minnesota. One state legislator and her husband were killed, and another state legislator and his wife were nearly killed but both survived their wounds.
That cowardly act of political violence on lawmakers and their families in Minnesota was the worst act of political violence in America since the Jan. 6 mob of insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn a presidential election.
America’s most violent and deadly outbreak of political violence pitted Americans against their enemy, other Americans, during the Civil War.
This escalation of political violence that people seem to be taking sides about needs to stop. Nothing will be resolved by more violence. Nor should people be forced to change their views, because there is plenty of room in this country for a variety of opinions and nobody’s opinion, guaranteed by the 1st Amendment’s freedom of speech, should ever be so opposed that it results in violence against the person who has such an opinion or someone else.
Adults should be able to talk things out, or to simply disagree with one another. America’s young children are not only watching the violence play out in today’s society, they are learning the wrong lessons about violence from the adults who SHOULD be practicing and exhibiting the type of behavior that will teach young people appropriate ways of dealing with disagreement and conflict.
The other day a 9-year old school student was arrested by sheriff’s deputies after having a loaded gun in his backpack while on a school bus that was taking students to school. Can you believe that? A 9-year old carrying a loaded gun. There are so many BAD lessons that children are learning from seeing adults exhibit bad behavior and thinking that getting a gun is the proper way to deal with conflict or a problem.
If we don’t start being better examples for young people, by realizing that violence – particularly gun violence against other people – will only lead to more violence, and that whatever a person thinks, says or believes should never, ever justify an act of political violence against anyone, conservative or liberal, then we are certainly NOT being very good model adults for all of the younger Americans who ARE watching us… and learning. Learning either bad behavior, or good. The example is up to us.
Ray W. says
More on the emerging story about China no longer placing orders for American soybeans.
A news outlet named Barchart published a story written by an economist about American soybeans.
Here are a few bullet points from the story:
– During the 2014-2015 soybean growing season, China split its purchases of soybeans somewhat evenly between American and Brazilian farmers. The same happened in the 2015-2016 soybean growing season.
– Then came President Trump’s tariffs. Ever since those tariffs were imposed three trends towards purchasing Brazilian soybeans have emerged, though not without ups and downs.
The author writes of those three trends:
“China’s demand has continued to go up over time.”
“Brazil’s exports have exploded, more than doubling over the past decade.”
“US exports have gone stagnant, the latest estimate putting US shipments 59% behind Brazil.”
– Last Friday’s USDA “global update” projects that China will import 112.0 million metric tons of soybeans during the 2025-2026 marketing year. Brazil? It will export 112.0 million metric tons of soybeans during the 2025-2026 marketing year.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Can it be argued that since 2018, when President Trump signed an executive order imposing tariffs on Chinese goods being imported into the country that the entire American soybean farming community has lost 25% of its market, by number of bushels exported, and that the lost market share might not be coming back?
Ray W. says
On September 11, 2025, the day after the Charlie Kirk shooting, a Cato Institute researcher published an update of the levels of politically motivated killings that have been taking place since 1975 in the United States.
According to the data compiled over those 50 years, since January 1, 2020, 81 people have died from politically motivated terror attacks in the United States. The terrorism killings have been separated into categories:
Foreign Nationalism: 1 killed.
Islamism: 17 killed.
Left: 18 killed.
Right: 44 killed.
Separatism: 0.
Unknown/Other: 1.
Since 1975, excluding 9/11, but including the Oklahoma City Bombing and the Pulse nightclub shootings, 620 politically motivated killings have taken place. Again, separated into categories, the number of such killings are:
Foreign Nationalism: 8 killed.
Islamism: 143 killed.
Left: 65 killed.
Right: 391 killed.
Separatism: 4 killed.
Unknown/Other: 9 killed.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
If the Cato Institute truly is a right-leaning think tank, and since it appears that some of its funding comes from the Koch brothers, there may be something to its self-described right-leaning bent, then what should members of the FlaglerLive community take from the terrorism murder totals update issued by one of its researchers?
Is it true that since 2020 right-wing terrorist murderers have been killing Americans at a rate more than double that of left-wing terrorist murderers?
And, is it true that since 1975 right-wing terrorist murderers have been killing Americans at a rate some six times that of left-wing terrorist murderers?
Finally, is it true that since 2020 domestic terrorist murders, attributed to either left-wing or right-wing political leanings, have surpassed the number of terrorist murders attributed to Islamism?
If these things are true, then why are members of the Trump administration, including President Trump himself, appearing on varying forms of both news outlets and social media platforms to blame the “left” for most, if not nearly all, of the politically motivated terror murders that have been taking place in the U.S.?