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Weather: Areas of fog in the morning. Mostly sunny. Highs in the upper 70s. Northeast winds around 5 mph, becoming east around 5 mph in the afternoon. Thursday Night: Partly cloudy. Patchy fog after midnight. Lows in the upper 50s. Southeast winds around 5 mph.
- 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:
Drug Court convenes before Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols at 10 a.m. in Courtroom 401 at the Flagler County courthouse, Kim C. Hammond Justice Center 1769 E Moody Blvd, Bldg 1, Bunnell. Drug Court is open to the public. See the Drug Court handbook here and the participation agreement here.
The Flagler Beach City Commission meets at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall, 105 South 2nd Street in Flagler Beach. The commission takes up the annexation of Summertown along John Anderson Highway, enough acreage to increase the city’s size by a fifth. The commission will either vote on the annexation in a second reading or table the proposal yet again as questions persist. Watch the meeting at the city’s YouTube channel here. Access meeting agenda and materials here. See a list of commission members and their email addresses here.
Flagler Beach United Methodist Church Food Pantry: Flagler Beach United Methodist Church‘s food pantry is open today from 9:30 a.m. to noon at 1500 S. Daytona Ave, Flagler Beach. The church’s mission is to provide nourishment and support in a welcoming, respectful environment. To find us, please turn at the corner of 15 Street and S. Daytona Ave, pull into the grass parking area and enter the green door.
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.
The Palm Coast Democratic Club holds its monthly business meeting at noon at the Flagler Democratic Party Headquarters in City Marketplace, 160 Cypress Point Parkway, Suite C214, Palm Coast. This gathering is open to the public at no charge. No advance arrangements are necessary. Call (386) 283-4883 for best directions or (561)-235-2065 for more information. For further information, please contact Palm Coast Democratic Club’s President Donna Harkins at (561) 235-2065, visit our website at http://palmcoastdemocraticclub.org/ or Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/palmcoastdemclub/permalink
Notably: Every year around this time The New York Times runs a feature–one of a few hundred like it a year–that reminds you how little you have in your bank account and how the kind of rich you’ll never be can make good on the feature. It’s called “52 Places to Go in 2026.” My first instinct is always to see if they’ve included a spot in Lebanon or have finally gotten around to Ramallah in the West Bank or maybe this year, a special tour of the genocide side of Gaza. No to all three this year. It begins with “Revolutionary America” in anticipation of the country’s 250th anniversary. The Times tells us we can visit several places to mark the occasion, though I’m not sure we should be in a celebratory mood. There’s Warsaw, Bangkok (not for the sex), the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica, Dallas, Oran in Algeria (not for its Plague, if you’re a Camus fan), Route 66, which turns 100 this year: “Drive the Sidewinder, a stretch of 191 hairpin curves outside Oatman, Ariz., where the Black Mountains spill into the desert. See outsider art like the Blue Whale of Catoosa, Okla., whose new visitor’s center will open in April.” (Maybe we’ll do that during this year’s visit to see Grandson Felix in Phoenix). “Barcelona is grappling with overtourism,” the piece tells us, so head for Barcelona. If you don;t have the $15,000 to climb Everest, the suggestion is to try Nepal’s lesser mountains, with permit fees under $500. Then onto Bayreuth for the usual Wagner, the Canadian Rockies, two spots in Australia, including Mebourne (are you reading, Jake?), Penang, Malaysia, Memphis (Tennessee, not Egypt), Armenia, Sanibel (Florida), Portland, the Tien Shan Mountains of Kyrgyzstan, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, because the desecration it’s enduring at the Trump Interior Department’s hands is not enough (let’s make it the next Barcelona!), Vietnam, Queretaro, Mexico, if you’ve not already self-deported, Bentonville, Ark., where the Walton family has apparently financed a handsome museum expansion that will include some of Keith Haring’s lesser known sculptures starting in June, and Mon, Denmark, among others. I haven’t noted many of the places. But Oran is as close as it gets to anything Middle Eastern. Based on the splurging my son sees at the M&M store at Disney Springs by throngs to whom money is like so much air to exhale I’m sure quite a few people will take the 52 Places as their guide for the next 52 weeks. More power to them. As for the rest of us schleps, we can take refuge in Simone de Beavoir’s preference in travel: “I flee these official splendors and descend towards docks that smell of tar and fish.” (“Je fuis ces splendeurs officielles et je descend vers des quais qui sentent le goudron et le poisson.”) She wrote this, notably, about Washington DC’s more officious spots. Washington is not on this year’s 52 places to go. I wonder why.
Now this: Compare the opening words by the host to those of Camus further below.
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January 2026
Free For All Fridays With Host David Ayres on WNZF
Friday Blue Forum
‘Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill,’ the Billie Holiday Story, at City Rep 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
‘Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill,’ the Billie Holiday Story, at City Rep Theatre
For the full calendar, go here.
They found nobody on the terrace — only three empty chairs. On one side, as far as eye could reach, was a row of terraces, the most remote of which abutted on a dark, rugged mass that they recognized as the hill nearest the town. On the other side, spanning some streets and the unseen harbor, their gaze came to rest on the horizon, where sea and sky merged in a dim, vibrant grayness. Beyond a black patch that they knew to be the cliffs a sudden glow, whose source they could not see, sprang up at regular intervals; the lighthouse at the entrance of the harbor was still functioning for the benefit of ships that, passing Oran’s unused harbor, went on to other ports along the coast. In a sky swept crystal-clear by the night wind, the stars showed like silver flakes, tarnished now and then by the yellow gleam of the revolving light. Perfumes of spice and warm stone were wafted on the breeze. Everything was very still.
–From Camus’ description of Oran in The Plague.
Dennis C Rathsam says
Any way you slice the pie, the people of Venezula are free from a nasty dictator! Overdoses are down…American, fools are safer now! You can talk to your kids til your blue in the face, but pier pressure is a tuff nut to crack. My mom used to tell me 60 yrs ago. If a fool jumps from a bridge, why would you follow them? Some of my classmates {I wont call friends} did some weird wild things…But I heard my mothers voice deep inside my head, I didn’t participate, they called me chicken…. Well this may be true, but Im alive today, while many had their lives ended to soon. Parents…. put that voice in your kids head, keep both eyes on them as they grow older. Speak with them,over & over til it sinks in….It just might save you heartache & tears.
Laurel says
Yeah, we’re pirates now. So much to be proud of lately.
Sherry says
PROJECT 2025 TRACKER:
https://www.project2025.observer/en/about
Sherry says
This is an “AI Summary” connecting Project 2025 to the take over of Venezuela, Cuba, Columbia and Greenland. Maga don’t you remember when trump said, during the campaign, that he knew “nothing about Project 2025”? Are you starting to see that trump “LIED” to you again?
In January 2026, Project 2025 has been described by analysts as a “governing policy playbook” for the second Trump administration, emphasizing a modern application of the Monroe Doctrine. While the original 922-page document focused on broader systemic reforms, recent 2026 developments and administration actions have specifically targeted these regions:
Greenland: Following a January 2025 poll where 85% of Greenlanders opposed joining the U.S., President Trump renewed calls in January 2026 for an American takeover of the territory, citing national security and the presence of Russian and Chinese ships. The administration has not ruled out military force for this acquisition, a move Danish leaders warned could end NATO.
Cuba: In early January 2026, the administration signaled that Cuba’s government is “ready to fall”. This follows a strategy of economic isolation, as the U.S. has targeted Cuba’s primary economic backer, Venezuela, to hasten a regime collapse.
Colombia: President Trump has threatened military action against Colombia, accusing President Gustavo Petro of facilitating drug trafficking to the U.S.. Petro has publicly accused the U.S. of “colonialist ambitions” in Latin America in response to these threats.
Strategic Context
These actions are part of a broader “continentalism” strategy. Under this approach, often called the “Don-roe Doctrine,” the U.S. has asserted that the Western Hemisphere is “OURS”. This was underscored by a January 2026 U.S. military raid in Caracas to arrest Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, which many see as a precursor to potential actions in Cuba and Colombia.
James says
“They are all fools who seem so, as well as half the rest. … But the greatest fool is he who thinks he is not one and all others are. … Though all the world is full of fools, there is no one who thinks himself one, or even suspects the fact.”
To which one perhaps should conclude we are all born fools, but few truly die one for just the knowing of this fact… perhaps that is knowledge enough to avoid death by reason of the “fools disease?”
Doubt it.
Just pass’n along some “worldly wisdom.”