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Weather: Sunny. Highs in the upper 60s. Northwest winds around 5 mph, becoming southwest in the afternoon. Friday Night: Mostly clear. Lows in the mid 40s.
- 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:
Free For All Fridays with Host David Ayres, an hour-long public affairs radio show featuring local newsmakers, personalities, public health updates and the occasional surprise guest, starts a little after 9 a.m. after FlaglerLive Editor Pierre Tristam’s Reality Check. Today: Paul Renner. See previous podcasts here. On WNZF at 94.9 FM, 1550 AM, and live at Flagler Broadcasting’s YouTube channel.
The Friday Blue Forum, a discussion group organized by local Democrats, meets at 12:15 p.m. at the Flagler Democratic Office at 160 Cypress Point Parkway, Suite C214 (above Cue Note) at City Marketplace. Come and add your voice to local, state and national political issues.
The Bronx Wanderers at the Fitzgerald Performing Arts Center, 7 p.m. (Flagler Auditorium, 5500 State Road 100, Palm Coast), $54-$64. Book here. What comes to mind when a father, his sons, and their two high school classmates get together and form a show? For starters, you can say a diverse recipe of hilarious personal stories, a vast repertoire of songs spanning all genres and decades, and one family’s journey together through life and music. The Bronx Wanderers pride themselves on being one of the only shows able to entertain audiences of all ages in one sweeping musical tour deforce. With no focus on one specific genre or artist, except this show adds holiday cheer.
‘Annie,’ at Limelight Theatre, Limelight Theatre, 7:30 p.m., 11 Old Mission Avenue, St. Augustine. The beloved musical about the optimistic orphan who captures hearts (and maybe even saves a billionaire). Perfect for families and the holiday spirit. Book here. (Note: all Sunday matinees are sold out, but there is a wait list you may join.)
‘Greetings,’ A Christmas Comedy, Daytona Playhouse, 100 Jessamine Blvd., Daytona Beach. 7:30 p.m. Box office: (386) 255-2431. tickets, $15 to $25. A comedy about a young man who brings home his Jewish atheist fiancée to meet his very Catholic parents on Christmas Eve. With the inevitable family explosion comes an out-of-left-field miracle that propels the family into a wild exploration of love, religion, personal truth, and the nature of earthly reality.
Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn, at Athens Theatre, 124 North Florida Avenue, DeLand. 386/736-1500. Tickets, Adult $37 – Senior $33. 7:30 p.m. Student/Child $17. Book here. Celebrate the magic of Christmas with Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn—a heartwarming holiday treat packed with show-stopping dance numbers, dazzling costumes, and a treasure trove of timeless tunes. When Broadway performer Jim leaves the bright lights behind for a quiet Connecticut farmhouse, he ends up transforming his home into a seasonal inn, open only on the holidays. But with love in the air, rivalries heating up, and performances for every festivity, the holidays get a lot more exciting than he ever imagined. Featuring 20 beloved Irving Berlin classics—including “White Christmas,” “Happy Holiday,” “Blue Skies,” and “Cheek to Cheek”—this delightful musical delivers all the laughter, romance, and seasonal sparkle of a Christmas card come to life. Presented through special arrangement with Concord Theatricals
Rotary’s Fantasy Lights Festival in Palm Coast’s Town Center: Nightly from 6 to 9 p.m. at Palm Coast’s Central Park, with 57 lighted displays you can enjoy with a leisurely stroll around the pond in the park. Admission to Fantasy Lights is free, but donations to support Rotary’s service work are gladly accepted. Holiday music will pipe through the speaker system throughout the park, Santa’s Village, which has several elf houses for the kids to explore, will be open, with Santa’s Merry Train Ride nightly (weather permitting), and Santa will be there every Sunday night until Christmas, plus snow on weekends! On certain nights, live musical performances will be held on the stage.
Notably: Pendentives, Gemini tells us, “are curved triangular structures that are used in architecture to support a dome by transitioning from its circular base to the square or rectangular shape of the supporting walls below. This innovative structural element allows for an open, expansive interior space beneath the dome.” In the era of Byzantium, between the fall of Rome and the 10th or 11th century, architecture saw a transformation of so-called “pendentives” going from a square to a dome. Like this:
Which made possible domes like this:
Which made me think of what Alexander Calder may have been thinking of when he created those majestic sculptures such as his Flamingo, in Chicago:
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.
January 2026
ESL Bible Studies for Intermediate and Advanced Students
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village
Al-Anon Family Groups
‘Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill,’ the Billie Holiday Story, at City Rep Theatre
East Flagler Mosquito Control District Board Meeting
Nar-Anon Family Group
For the full calendar, go here.
People who are used to the beautiful figures of Italian art are sometimes shocked when they first see Rembrandt’s pictures because he seems to care nothing for beauty, and not even to shrink from outright ugliness. That is true, in a sense. Like other artists of his time, Rembrandt had absorbed the message of Caravaggio, whose work he came to know through Dutchmen who had fallen under his influence. Like Caravaggio, he valued truth and sincerity above harmony and beauty. Christ had preached to the poor, the hungry and the sad, and poverty, hunger and tears are not beautiful. Of course much depends on what we agree to call beauty. A child often finds the kind, wrinkled face of his grandmother more beautiful than the regular features of a film star, and why should he not? In the same way, one might say that the haggard old man in the right-hand corner of the etching, cowering. one hand before his face, and looking up, completely absorbed, is one of the most beautiful figures ever drawn. But perhaps it is really not very important what words we use to express our admiration.
–From E.H. Gombrich’s The Story of Art (1950).
Skibum says
Another day in America, and just another day of the pedophile protecting prez refusing to release his DOJ’s Epstein files that HE reluctantly signed bipartisan legislation for. Just WHO is he protecting and standing up for anyway??? It certainly is not all of the victims of child sex abuse at the hands of powerful, perverted men!
RELEASE ALL OF THE FILES, Donnie! Let America see what YOUR real involvement with Epstein really was! Sexual deviants and abusers need to be unmasked!
Ray W. says
Here is an unusual story reported by the Atlanta Black Star News.
In 1975, then 15-years-of-age, Godfrey Wade immigrated from Jamaica to the United States. He had a green card from the beginning that gave him permanent resident status.
After a few years, Mr. Wade enlisted in the Army; he served for eight years, mostly in Germany. He was honorably discharged.
He moved to Georgia, where he raised his family. He worked as a fashion designer, master tailor, tennis coach, and chef, most recently at the Georgia Capital Cafe.
In the interim, during former President Biden’s term in office, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement implemented a policy to be applied when considering deportation of immigrants who had honorably served our country; it read:
“A noncitizen’s U.S. military service, or the active duty U.S. military service of a noncitizen’s immediate family member(s), is a significant mitigating factor that must be considered when deciding whether to take civil immigration enforcement action against the noncitizen based on the totality of the circumstances.”
In April of this year, the Trump administration issued a policy memo that rescinded in part the Biden era policy memo. Now, only active duty military service may be considered as a mitigating factor during deportation proceedings.
At the age of 65, on September 13th, Mr. Wade was pulled over in Conyers, Georgia, for the civil traffic offense of failure to use a turn signal. He was arrested when police learned that he was driving without a driver’s license, a misdemeanor criminal traffic offense.
Mr. Wade has been held in the Stewart Detention Center, operated by Core Civic, a for-profit company, ever since. The Office of Detention Oversight, a sub-agency within ICE that oversees federal detention centers, found 12 “deficiencies” in Core Civic’s Stewart Detention Center related to health and safety, food service, phone access, use of force, and more.
During an interview with 11 Alive News, Mr. Wade announced that there were 80 detainees in a pod with two urinals, in violation of an ICE regulation that mandates one urinal per 12 detainees. He spoke of being given what detainees call a “boat”, in which he puts a 2-inch-thick mattress, in order to sleep on the floor. He alleges that sewage runs on the floor of the pod. He has no immigration court date to date.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
If the claims of corporate malfeasance are accurate, can it be argued that some of the worst among us are being paid to house in squalor some of the best among us, pending extradition of the undeserving? In other words, is Mr. Wade the “worst of the worst?”
Pogo says
@Hello Ray
Thank you.
The reckoning for all of Trump’s (and his supporters, including the nonvoters, picky eater protesters, et al.) reckless criminality, hate mongering, destructiveness, uselessness, and stupidity is already beyond comprehension.
Poison pills washed down with gasoline by chain smokers…
CC: File
Ray W. says
This story tells of a potential of a new technology capable of disrupting decades of lead-acid battery technology dominance.
According to a reporter, for more than 70 years, the car industry has used lead-acid batteries for “Starting, Lighting, and Ignition (SLI)” functions. The global lead-acid 12V battery industry is valued at $50 billion per year.
According to an Interesting Engineering article, UNIGRID, an American start-up battery maker, recently introduced a sodium-ion battery that carmakers can use as an “original equipment manufacturer” (OEM) part, meaning it can displace entirely the need to use lead-acid batteries.
In a press release, UNIGRID wrote:
“With NA+ Fleet, OEMs will be able to directly integrate NCO sodium-ion cells into their own range of 12V Na+ packs for distribution.”
From my youth, I have known that car batteries have had a limited lifespan. During the lifespan of an ordinary car, batteries are changed out three or four times. Most lead-acid batteries fail after fewer than 500 deep cycles. Under high-heat conditions, such as the American Southwest, lead-acid batteries must be replaced relatively often, perhaps as often as every year. Lead-acid battery makers advertise “cold cranking” amps, which are fewer than a lead-acid battery’s normal cranking amps, because lead-acid batteries lose cranking amps when very cold. A film builds up on the battery posts. If battery acid boils off enough to expose the plates during quick recharging or when a voltage regulator fails, the battery can be quickly wiped out. We use trickle chargers to make sure lead-acid batteries do not fully discharge.
None of these things happen with sodium-ion batteries.
UNIGRID’s sodium-ion battery, using as its chemistry sodium-chromium-oxide in one side of the battery and tin in the other, is rated for 5,000 deep charging cycles, 10 times more than lead-acid batteries. A sodium-ion battery can discharge to 0% “State of Charge” without damage.
According to UNIGRID, “[u]nlike traditional lead-acid batteries, sodium-ion enables a design that is smaller and lighter, while providing superior power, enhanced efficiency and a substantially longer operational lifespan.”
The new sodium-ion battery design operates “within a voltage window of 8 to 14.4V. It provides twice the cold cranking amps of a lead-acid battery across a temperature spectrum of -40 degrees Celsius to 60 degrees Celsius. It does not overheat during rapid charging and discharging.
According to CEO and co-founder of UNIGRID, Darren H. S. Tan, who was a doctoral candidate at UC San Diego:
“NCO sodium-ion available today beats lead-acid in almost all metrics relevant for SLI applications, including total cost.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
If the company’s claims are accurate, a lighter and smaller battery with a less expensive battery chemistry that uses tin and chromium-oxide and salt, instead of lead, just might be a game changer.
That sodium-ion batteries will last 10 times as long, recharge and discharge faster, hold more charge at cold temperatures and at higher temperatures, and doesn’t need its terminals repeatedly cleaned and its acid levels checked, is only icing on the cake.
I repeatedly parrot Ford’s CEO, who said that EVs are at their “Model T” moment in evolution. Innovation in the worldwide battery industry is not going to stop. Billions and billions are being spent each year to improve battery technologies of many types for many applications. The worst thing that American industry can do is to stand aside and watch as we are being left behind. An alliance of American carmakers of all types just sent to Congress a plea for protection from Chinese carmakers; they want legislation to protect them, not just executive orders. They see what is happening beyond our borders and they know they will cease to exist if Congress does not protect them from Chinese carmakers.
Yes, China subsidizes its EV industry to the tune of about $15 billion per year, which is less than the estimated $20 billion that we give to the oil and gas industry each year.
So, here we have an American battery maker that has developed a 12V starter/lighting/ignition battery chemistry that is qualitatively and economically better than the lead-acid batteries currently used in gas-powered cars and light trucks.
Time will tell whether the new company thrives or shrivels.
Ray W. says
Per reporting by Road & Track, President Trump recently asked Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffey to consider amending current regulations against a category of vehicle known in Japan as the Kei car.
During Trump’s recent trip to Asia, he saw Kei cars. Proclaiming them “cute” and “beautiful”, he wants them sold here.
Kei cars are also called city cars; they are strictly limited in dimension (length, width, height, and wheelbase) and cannot have an engine larger than 660 cc. The class includes tiny pickups and mini-sports cars.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I am unconvinced that there is a sizable market in the U.S. for Kei cars. They are quite popular in Japan and Korea in cities where traffic is commonly clogged and parking is limited. But who knows?
Sherry says
Meanwhile. . . Finally, there is a lawsuit against trump’s destruction of the White House. . . This from Politico:
A preservationist group is suing President Donald Trump for his construction of the East Wing ballroom, arguing in a lawsuit filed Friday that the wing’s demolition did not undergo appropriate reviews and demanding the rebuilding cease immediately.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation — a nonprofit chartered by Congress to support the preservation of historic U.S. buildings and neighborhoods — is asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block the ongoing construction until the administration seeks congressional approval and consults federal commissions and the public.
“No president is legally allowed to tear down portions of the White House without any review whatsoever—not President Trump, not President Biden, and not anyone else,” the group wrote in the lawsuit. “And no president is legally allowed to construct a ballroom on public property without giving the public the opportunity to weigh in.”
The group argued the construction violated the Administrative Procedure Act and the National Environmental Policy Act on multiple occasions, including by failing to consult the National Capital Planning Commission — a federal agency designated to provide guidance on urban planning — on the large-scale project.
A Virginia couple filed a similar lawsuit in October attempting to block the demolition, but the case was voluntarily dismissed days later. But Friday’s lawsuit from the prominent preservation group is the largest stride yet in effectively halting the renovations.
The White House declined to comment on whether it would pause construction in response to the pending litigation but continued to defend Trump’s project as legal.
Ray W. says
Czech President Petr Pavel recently commented:
“If we allow Russia to come out of this conflict as a victor, we have all lost.”
He added, according to a Ukrainska Pravda reporter, “everything must be done to prevent Ukraine from losing the war.”
Meanwhile, RBC Ukraine reports that EU nations currently hold approximately $210 billion in frozen Russian assets.
The United States, reportedly, is pressuring the EU to preserve the $210 billion for a possible peace agreement.
In the reporter’s words:
“The initial version of the US peace plan, published by the media, provided for $100 billion of frozen assets to be invested in the reconstruction of Ukraine, and part of the remaining funds to be invested in a joint US-Russian fund.”
The EU is working on a “reparations loan” to the Ukraine of $164 billion, secured by the frozen Russian funds.
Said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz:
“This is a European matter, and I see no way, in any form of economic benefit, to transfer the money we then mobilize to the United States of America. This money must go to Ukraine.”
Make of this what you will.
Laurel says
Looking at your dome, it is interesting as the sections labeled “a” curve in towards the center, yet the sides of the arches are upright at 90 degree angles. Without being inside, and looking, I would assume that the fact that each arch bends away from its neighboring arch, would be the cause of the curvature, or would allow for the curvature, inward towards the center. The curve of an arch is structurally superior to a square or rectangle, overhead, so a dome would repeat that structurally superiority.
Just over 50 years ago, I visited my friend in French Lick, Indiana. She took me to, what I remember as an old college, or hotel, yet looking at it now, on the internet, seems so very different. I remember it as separate from the French Lick Sheridan, but now I’m not so sure. Anyway, it had an internal building with a gigantic dome. What was so cool about it was, I stood at one end of the building (inside) and my friend stood exactly opposite from me. We could talk to each other, clear as a bell! Our voices carried easily from one side of the dome to the other!
Apparently, there have been renovations since I was there. There were “swastikas” in the tiles, but as the tiles were put in place in the 1800’s, I believe that they represented the original meaning, of the four seasons, not what the Nazis hijacked and redefined. I bet renovations removed them, but I don’t know. It’s a shame the Nazis get credit.
https://www.frenchlick.com/west-baden-springs-hotel.htm
Pogo says
@P.T.
As this day ebbs, thank you for sharing the immortal genius (both men) in today’s YouTube video — what a pleasure.
Laurel, likewise; any bucket list would be improved by a visit to the subject of your recollection.
Possums ain’t fancy, they just is what they is.
Laurel says
Pogo: The old French Lick Sheridan’s symbol was the devil. There were, I believe, two red devils atop the hotel’s front entrance. On the property, there was (is?) a well, that reeked of sulfur, and it had its own little dome over it. Inscribed inside the dome it read “When nature won’t, Pluto water will.” Some things, you don’t forget!
P.T.: I love Calder! You see structure; I see free forms in space. They both work!
Ray W. says
Purdue University researchers tested a “patent pending dynamic wireless power transfer system” embedded in a US Highway 52/231 concrete highway in West Lafayette, Indiana.
A “specially modified” Cummins Class 8 electric semi-tractor” was driven at 65 mph over the modified roadway. 190 kilowatts of power transferred during the test, which an Interesting Engineering reporter wrote was enough energy to power 100 “average” homes.
Coils in the roadway were specifically designed to operate in concrete road surfaces, and the semi-tractor carried “receiver coils” under its chassis.
The Purdue research team reported that delivering 200 kilowatts of power from a roadway had never previously been achieved.
Said Dionysios Aliprantis, PhD, a Purdue University engineering professor:
“Transferring power through a magnetic field at these relatively large distances is challenging. … What makes it more challenging is doing it for a heavy-duty vehicle moving at power levels thousands of times higher than what smartphones receive.”
Cummins’ chief technology engineer, John Kresse, stated:
“With its high power and promising cost structure, this technology represents a practical, and potentially game-changing, solution for the future of on-highway commercial transportation.”
In the reporter’s estimation, since the power transfer worked with a semi-tractor, that means that lighter vehicles “automatically” fall within the range of power transfer.
Previous efforts to electrify semi-tractors have meant large batteries, significant weight, and long charging down times. With experimental charging coils embedded in enough miles of highway concrete, battery sizes can be downsized, with significant weight savings.
Charging downtime and range anxiety would be “erased.”
Concluded John Haddock, PhD, a Purdue University Lyles School of Civil and Construction Engineering professor:
“With this system, you’d be able to drive your vehicle down the road and it would charge the battery.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
It is about efficiencies and economies.
Jacksonville is a major freight hub. With its seaport and rail infrastructure, plus a web of connecting highways, paving a single lane of I-95 north and south and I-4 west for a number of miles would provide short-range semi-tractors to deliver freight throughout the region without having to stop to recharge batteries.
Many FlaglerLive readers know that both Publix and Winn-Dixie have distribution centers near the I-10 railroad marshaling yard west of Jacksonville. In a pilot project, electric semi-tractors could easily run back and forth between the freight hub and either of the two distribution centers without ever having to stop to recharge a depleted battery. That could be a first step to see if this type of recharging process is financially feasible and time-efficient. These rail hubs and distribution centers exist all over the country.
Who knows how many cars are shipped into the United States through the port of Jacksonville, but it is one of the larger import centers in the country? I have seen large South Jacksonville lots holding thousands of new foreign-made vehicles. Semi-tractors transport the cars from port to holding lot. Again, a roadway lane can be electrified between the seaport and the storage lots and the trucks that transport the cars could run entire shifts without having to stop to refuel or recharge.
How does one think that new vehicles get from the Jacksonville lots to Flagler County dealerships? As the charging network builds out, electric truck transport ranges will increase.
Innovation abounds. Electric vehicles are having their “Model T” moment. The question is whether the United States will compete in a vast, relatively inexpensive, and profitable emerging energy sector or will we look the other way as the rest of the world leaves us behind.
Yet another story that brings me closer to a comment about batteryless electric vehicles. I have been thinking about how to construct the comment for over a year now. I started on the subject more than once, and even submitted a comment, but it didn’t go through. I have since learned to wait a while without going to another link on the FlaglerLive site to ensure that the comment isn’t cut off or lost.