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Weather: Partly sunny, with a high near 69. Northeast wind 6 to 9 mph. Wednesday Night: Cloudy, with a low around 55.
- 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 Flagler County Technical Review Committee meets at 9 a.m. at the Emergency Operations Center, 1769 E. Moody Blvd., Building 3, Bunnell.
The Palm Coast Planning and Land Development Board holds a workshop on the Land Development Code at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall.
Flagler Tiger Bay Club: Guest Speaker, Jeff Brandes, former Florida senator, founder and president of Florida Policy Project. 11:30 a.m. at Hammock Dunes Club, 30 Ave Royale, Palm Coast. $45 for members, $45 for guests. Brandes is a strong advocate for free market principles and has worked to reduce regulations and taxes to promote business development in Florida. He is a vocal supporter of cutting-edge technologies and has played a vital role in the state’s advancing self-driving vehicles, rideshare, and other emerging technologies. For over a decade, he has hosted the Florida Automated Vehicle Summit, which assembles industry leaders from around the country to address transportation technologies, operations, and policy issues.
Separation Chat, an open, freewheeling discussion on various topics here in our community, around Florida and throughout the United States, noon to 1 p.m. at Pine Lakes Golf Club Clubhouse Pub & Grillroom (no purchase is necessary), 400 Pine Lakes Pkwy, Palm Coast (0.7 miles from Belle Terre Parkway). Call (386) 445-0852 for best directions. All are welcome! Everyone’s voice is important. For further information email [email protected] or call Merrill at 804-914-4460.
The Circle of Light Course in Miracles study group meets at a private residence in Palm Coast every Wednesday at 1:20 PM. There is a $2 love donation that goes to the store for the use of their room. If you have your own book, please bring it. All students of the Course are welcome. There is also an introductory group at 1:00 PM. The group is facilitated by Aynne McAvoy, who can be reached at [email protected] for location and information.
Juxtapositions: You remember “Funeral Blues,” the WH Auden poem, so often quoted, so often recited, though who has done it better than Simon Callow as Gareth in “Four Weddings and Funeral,” one of the first major movies to portray a same-sex relationship as noble, if so often not more noble, than the more imperious kind:
Then over the weekend I came across this poem thrown in among the first couple of dozen nights of the Thousand and One Nights:
Since you left, friends, the house is no longer the house, since you left, the neighbors are no longer neighbors.
And the friend I once knew, over there, is no longer my friend, even the moon is no longer the moon.
You are no longer here, and your departure leaves the world empty, the shadow, after you, spreads over plains and lands.
Ah! If only the raven that foretold our parting could lose its feathers and no longer find the shelter of a nest!
I can bear it no longer! With you gone, my body languishes.
Oh! How many veils have been torn on this day of parting!
Will they ever return, those nights we lived, unchanged, when the house found us together?
It’s translated of course, and translated here pretty badly from the French by Gemini, itself translated from Arabic, so there’s no telling how bowdlerized it is, but the idea is there.
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.
April 2026
Flagler Woman’s Club Charity Golf Tournament
Flagler Beach Farmers Market
Coffee With Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Gamble Jam at Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area
Dead Men Tell No Tales…. Or Do They? Murder Mystery Dinner Show
“The Sound of Music,” at Athens Theatre
‘Line’ and ‘All In the Timing’ At City Rep Theatre
ESL Bible Studies for Intermediate and Advanced Students
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village
Dead Men Tell No Tales…. Or Do They? Murder Mystery Dinner Show
“The Sound of Music,” at Athens Theatre
Al-Anon Family Groups
‘Line’ and ‘All In the Timing’ At City Rep Theatre
For the full calendar, go here.
I often reflect and ponder, and I find the conditions of life quite harsh. It seems to me that I have been dragged, against my will, to this fatal point where one must endure old age. I see it. Here I am. And I would at least like to manage not to go any further, not to advance along this path of infirmities, pains, memory loss, and disfigurements that are almost an affront to me, and I hear a voice that says: “You must walk on despite yourself, or else, if you don’t want to, you must die,” which is another extreme to which nature recoils. Yet this is the fate of all who advance a little too far. But a return to the will of God, and to this universal law to which we are condemned, restores reason to its place and brings patience. So take heart, my dearest child, and may your overly tender friendship not cause you to shed tears that your reason should condemn.
–From Mme de Sévigné to Mme de Grignan (her daughter), Nov. 29, 1689.
Ed P says
Another Canadian cartoonist weighs in…anything about results or policy?
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but I’m Canadian and have free health care.”
As the left continues their personal attacks, fear mongering, and criticisms, everyone else keeps asking where’s their alternate plan? Where’s the beef?
Defund the police worked so well that now we should abolish ICE.
Hey Kamala, if you believe in climate change, why buy a Malibu home just a “just a few” meters from the beach? Hmmmm?
The chronic drum beat over the last year from the left can only be described as a failure unless they believe that whipping up enough civil unrest, maybe an actual insurrection can result.
Because:
If you are going to see a “wipeout” of midterms like Carville believes, there better be something more than “we hate them, they are bad, we are good”. Because when all the tax refund dollars, reduced withholdings, lower gas prices, and overall economic improvement hit, the kitchen table politics will rule the midterms.
ICE complaints will melt when families are doing better and feel better about their individual economic situation.
Common sense will prevail.
Pierre Tristam says
Ed P, are you wishing you could invade FlaglerLive’s desk, such as it is, and snatch the editor running these Canadian cartoons? Are you seriously knocking a healthcare system of a country with a life expectancy of four to six years longer than in the United States? And are you the one asking about “alternative plans,” coming from the perspective of a party whose, wars aside, last new idea, repeated under every one of its presidents since Reagan, is cutting every tax in sight? But what am I doing. You are our reigning champion of disingenuity. Attempting any evidence-based reasoning with you is like trying to avoid the crude-oiled Styx of sycophancy hurling out of Karoline Leavitt every time she opens her mouth. Not that Ari Fleischer and the progeny that sucked at his teats were any better. Suck on by all means.
Ed P says
You help solidify my theory. Not one alternative, just negative criticism and name calling.
Talk about being disingenuous, nay a confirmation of any success from this administration can cross the lips or finger tips of Flagler lives’s esteemed editor.
The reality is the resistance for the sake of resistance is not being disingenuous but actually the unwillingness to display any intellectual honesty. It’s impossible that everything being accomplished or how it’s being executed is wrong.
We both know we know.
Ps. Where do Canadians with money go for their life saving surgeries?
Sherry says
Perfection Pierre! Thank You!
JML says
Flagler Live is a gossip column dictated by a liberal agenda
Sherry says
@jml. . . You are taking your valuable time reading “Award Winning” Flaglerlive and commenting here. So, what does that make you? A “dumpster diving” gossip yourself perhaps?
Jim says
Ed P,
Here are some items that you didn’t mention that may play into the election:
-Pardoned 1800 or so “patriots “ who stormed the capitol and beat and killed capitol police.
-threatening Denmark over Greenland in the name of national security although the USA has existing agreements where we can reopen multiple bases now Of course all that could have been avoided if Norway had just given Trump the Nobel Prize…
-Accepted a “free” $400m jet from a questionable country for Trump’s personal use when/if he leaves office
-Succeeded in turning all our closest allies into potential enemies
-Raised the cost of living for Americans through tariffs
-Paid farmers to reimburse them for huge losses because China stopped buying soybeans (and haven’t bought any although Trump said months ago that they would)
-Turned a federal police agency into a military force in our cities using excessive force all day every day and blaming the citizens for the violence
-Cuts off funding to states that didn’t vote for him on the slightest accusation (with no evidence)
-Gives US tax dollars to Argentina to prop up their president because the guy sucks up to him
-Does everything possible to slow/stop the Epstein files being made public (after running on doing just that)
-Weaponizes the DOJ against his per sieved enemies
-Institutes law to assure many Americans can no longer afford healthcare
-Attacks Venezuelan because of the drugs entering the USA. Grabs the president and then only wants to discuss American control of that country’s oil reserves. (After all they stole the oil from us). Are we still shooting up their boats and killing survivors? Isn’t that the American way?
I could go on and on but I’m guessing you tuned out on my first point. The sad part of what is going on right in front of all of us is the amount of damage being done to our leadership of the world, our long term defense position and our economy. You may think everything is better now and you are entitled to your opinion regardless of inconvenient facts and truths. I’m at the last leg of my life but I am just sick when I think of what is waiting for my children and grandchildren as a result of the Trump administration. I hope you live long enough to see the results although by watching Fox News it’ll be spun as the next few president’s fault and I’m sure you will be comfortable with that.
Ed P says
Jim,
To start, no police were killed on Jan 6. Care to debate a fact?
Brian Sicknick of the capital police died the following day of a stroke. 4 others in subsequent months committed suicide.
No officer was beaten to death or directly killed.
Do you bemoan any of the thousands of ice agents being abused daily? They are government law enforcement.
Greenland? An agreement will be reached that will benefit America first as well as the rest of the world. Two words- golden dome.
All your other conspiratorial assumptions are viewed through a prism of hatred for Trump. Each of your accusations are talking points from the left. To march lock step is easy, isn’t it.
Finally, the hackneyed cliche of blaming Fox is ridiculous.
If and when the left clearly presents a platform of common sense that’s for all Americans, we all win.
The concept of common sense escaped the left a long time ago. For instance, who can’t see that boys shouldn’t compete in girls sports? Or that a man can’t get pregnant? That a man doesn’t belong in a girls locker room? Climate change isn’t our biggest problem? That DOGE was needed, and fraud and waste is rampant? Or a 400 million dollar government jet is going to be misappropriated?
Or that a vice presidential candidate who proclaimed at times he could be a knuckle head, was the right person for the job?
Remember, when you are up to your ass hole in alligators, you don’t worry about your feet getting wet.
I endorse Trump’s business acumen of monetizing everything, America first, and willingness to say to everyone’s face what universally is said behind everyone’s back. That directness is not what feckless politicians spew but is not racist, homophobic, or any of the myriad of names bestowed upon MAGA. Sometimes, the truth hurts feelings. Dang.
I also firmly believe that tariffs will settle into a neutral cost for consumers once the re-shoring and near shoring kicks in. The economy and GDP are set to propel everyone, even the naysayers, into an economic period with opportunities for everyone. So wipe the tears, open your eyes, stop complaining, and grab hold of a piece of prosperity. If not, I doubt your views will change.
Ever hear of the military 7 Ps. It’s our time to plan.
Ed P says
Jim,
FYI Argentina already paid back the taxpayer money you erroneously claim Trump gave them. It was a loan/draw.
Laurel says
Ed P: Regarding ICE, get the local feel from the local Police and Sheriff’s Deputies on the topic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCs5zDuXOM8
Regarding Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada:
“Mark Carney is the current Prime Minister of Canada, having taken office on March 14, 2025. He previously served as the Governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England before entering politics”.
– Search Assist, Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia
Mark Carney is an economist who headed banks, not a blusterous fool with an inflated ego.
Trump got in front of an audience in Davos, and made a complete ass out of himself, and embarrassed us in front of the world. He repeated lied, and you know he did, making up inflated statistics, and insulting the other countries present. He looked like a lunatic, and I personally believe he is.
Mark Carney spoke, and sounded like a real leader, not a spoiled, foolish child. If you really believe in “common sense” then watch this speech, come back and tell me who has the common sense, the man, Trump, who criticized our former President several times, criticized our citizens, blurted out false statistics, telling everyone how wonderful he is, or the man, Carney, who talked about raising his country up for all its citizens. Carney got a standing ovation from the representatives of the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE981Z_TaVo
I do not expect the magas to watch these videos, as they have made it perfectly clear they do not want to know about truths, evidence and real common sense. But, Ed P, I expect you to watch.
Good “policy” is not instability.
Ed P says
Laurel,
Didn’t need to watch video, I watched live.
Carney is a consummate politician and has chutzpah. His liberal education at both Harvard and Oxford serves him well.
But since you reference music on occasion, the only song I can equate to his speech is from Jim Croce. You Don’t Mess Around With Jim.
The lyrics of you don’t spit into the wind, you don’t tug on Superman’s cape and you don’t pull the mask off the long ranger and you do t mess around with Slim…Aka Trump (metaphorically of course)
Canada is not in the pilots seat and needs America a full Canadian country kilometer more than America needs Canada.
One should never let their alligator mouth write a check that their canary ass can’t cash.
Simple math. Reality. The mid sized counties see it as bullying. It’s really about rebalancing. If freedom is not free, why does the United States always pay the bill? Our foreign allies have the means to pay their fair share and should. That’s exactly what this about.
Now you ponder this:
if the rest of the world paid their fair share, could we afford universal national health care.
The math says yes.
Why aren’t liberals willing to restructure, not rupture our global relations to stop paying for everything?
Laurel says
Ed P: You didn’t comment on the local law enforcement statements, but that’s fine.
I’m sorry, Ed P, but those who consider the absurd ramblings of a felon, grifter, sex offender, bigot as “common sense,” I can no longer take them seriously. I cannot take the others who are stuck on Biden-Harris a year after they left office, seriously. I cannot take the rantings of another man, who butchers the language while calling others “Jackasses,” seriously. I cannot take the man who states the Editor’s name as “gay,” seriously, and believe me, there are folks on the left I don’t take seriously, either.
Speaking of the left, as a lifelong Independent, I never considered myself as a “liberal,” but if it means my feet are still on the ground, I believe in logic and evidence, I care about others and dislike cruelty and abuse of both people and the law of the land, then I will be gladly accept the label of “liberal.” Not sure why the word “liberal” was demonized, considering their savior certainly talked like a liberal, but that’s another inconvenience for another day.
I cannot join the ranks of those who have little use for facts and evidence, and excuse the man, who with one comment, could release all the files detailing the rape and abuse of children and bring the perpetrators to justice, regardless of who they are. Instead, he creates chaos to avoid the delivery of the files he said he would release. The followers of this man are throwing away the abused lives in hopes of getting a pittance of a break on their tax refunds
No thank you. It is like hitting one’s head against a brick wall trying to talk to those who refuse to listen. Bless their hearts, if they refuse logic and evidence, I sincerely hope they never suffer the very plague they are complicit to bring on us.
Ed P says
Laurel,
No one is asking you to do anything. You don’t have to read any post or interact with anyone. That’s a choice.
However, it’s a double edged sword.
I’m guessing we all have “crazies “ that we either don’t read their post or read them and discard. I do. I’m sure I meet that criteria for some as well.
However, people are similar to fruit, they grow when they are green ( learning ) and rot (know their outlook is absolute) when they are ripe.
Anyone who is not “gullible” recognizes that all media has an agenda and a lean. There isn’t any outlet that is 100% neutral.
My point is listening to an alternate view is healthy and actually could help to keep you grounded. Whether you realize it or not, everyone has to diligently practice listening to conflicting views. Those who choose not to, will reside in a bubble or echo chamber that reduces their knowledge, circle of friends, and over all happiness in life. Besides, it is boring and unchallenging. But easy and lazy.
Pogo says
@It must be admitted
… the disaster that is Trump — is totally real.
Dennis C Rathsam says
Liberals & Democrates unite! TDS is traveling throughout every state with a Jackass as its leader! Call him what you want fools, TRUMP is just what the USA needed now. The more ya,LL complain, the more we know TRUMPS doing right by the people that elected him. Cartoons are for simple minded Democrates, who have nothing but hate in thier hearts for our president. Notice when the Jackass party rebells TRUMPS policies , only to find out the Dems did it 1st, and nobody said shit just because it was THIER elected president. Now because its TRUMP…. IMPEACH him, & his team. Hippacrites every single one of you! I cant wait to hear you bitch, now that tax season is fast approaching, & many many Americans will get a nice tax payday. Any way you look at it, anyway you slice the pie, TRUMP has made life easier for us, put more money in our take home pay, our gasoline, { saving20/40 bucks for each fill up compared to BIDEN} that leaves you extra money a month, just on that alone! YEAH !!!! BUT your still crying,still lying…..America has seen first hand, how the Democratic party does business . Most every program to help the needy, the Dems had their hand in the cookie jar, stealing tax payers money! How did Omar go from a poor lady to a mass 30 MILLION today? The indictments are rolling in, its a Democrat usmani in Minn! That’s just the tip of the FRAUDE. All caused by OBAMA! with his Somali invation! TRUMPS cleaning up the mess every day. Thousands are being rounded up & sent packing, & you know the best thing…. Every seat fiilled on a plane to Somalia, Mexico. 0r the Middle East…. is one less JACKASS VOTE!
Laurel says
Dennis you seem to forget about the fraud you committed when you collected unemployment and worked under the table for cash, paying no tax. This you admitted right here recently.
Talk about hypocrisy!
Maybe you should sit back, and learn a little about the Trump family untrackable bitcoin grift. You won’t find it on Fox. Read a little about the Bitcoin grifter Trump pardoned from prison.
Then, tell us about
“jackasses.”
Sherry says
The legal guardrails preventing trump from becoming a “complete dictator” are very weakened, yet some are still holding for now, thank goodness:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lindsey Halligan, who, as a hastily appointed Justice Department prosecutor, pursued indictments against a pair of President Donald Trump’s adversaries, is leaving her position as her months-long tenure has now concluded, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Tuesday night.
Halligan’s departure from the role of interim United States attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia came as multiple judges were casting doubt on her ability to remain in the job legally following a court ruling two months ago that declared her appointment illegal. She was appointed in September to a 120-day stint, which concluded Tuesday.
“The circumstances that led to this outcome are deeply misguided,” Bondi said in a social media post on X announcing Halligan’s exit. “We are living in a time when a democratically elected President’s ability to staff key law enforcement positions faces serious obstacles. The Department of Justice will continue to seek review of decisions like this that hinder our ability to keep the American people safe.”
The move brings an end to a brief but tumultuous tenure. Trump tapped Halligan, a White House aide who had served as his personal lawyer but had no prior experience as a federal prosecutor, to lead one of the Justice Department’s most important and prestigious offices. She quickly succeeded in securing indictments at Trump’s urging against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. But a judge later concluded that her appointment was unlawful and that the two indictments must therefore be dismissed.
The Trump administration had kept Halligan in place despite that ruling, but on Tuesday, two judges made clear that they believed it was time for her tenure to end. Hours later, Halligan became the latest Trump ally to give up her title amid scrutiny from judges about the administration’s maneuvering to install the president’s loyalists in key posts.
Last month, for instance, another of Trump’s former personal attorneys, Alina Habba, resigned after an appeals court said she, too, had been serving in her position unlawfully.
Laurel says
More of that hiring on merit.
Pogo says
@Trumpholes (no, not u — the rest of us)
… don’t be one — and don’t fall into one.
Natural law punishes inattention, laziness, stupidity and dishonesty…
https://www.google.com/search?q=financial+news+today
… now, tomorrow, always — broke, hungry, homeless, sick, and dying: there really are better choices.
Until there is no choice.
Ray W. says
After each twentieth of the month, I present to the FlaglerLive community how the Dow stands, relative to previous presidential administrations. Not to prove much, if anything. More to disprove certain comments by the many lie launderers who wander among us.
Here are the 12-month Dow figures, by administration, dating back to the first Reagan administration, which was when America began to emerge from its 15-year bout with stagflation.
It should be remembered that our bout with stagflation occurred in part because President Nixon pressured the Fed Chair to improvidently lower the Fed’s lending rates at a time when inflation was barely under control. It wasn’t until a new Fed Chair, Paul Volker, raised the Fed’s lending rates to as high as 20% in mid-1981 that inflation was brought under control. Among economists, his decision is referred to as “Volker Shock”. Here are the Dow figures per president after 12 months:
Trump I: Up 31.6%.
Obama: Up 25.8%.
Clinton: Up 20.2%.
Biden: Up 17.2%.
Trump II: Up 10.8%.
GHW Bush: Up 10.6%.
Reagan: Down 8.0%.
HW Bush: Down 8.9%.
As an aside, in calendar year 2020, the federal deficit was $4.6 trillion, the highest in American history. In part, that year, Trump spent the trillions of dollars that Congress ordered him to spend. By 2023, the federal deficit was down to $2.6 trillion, if down is the right term, the second highest figure in history. Again, part of these record deficit figures was because Congress ordered Biden, too, to spend the money. In calendar year 2025, the federal deficit was $2.29 trillion, up from 2024.
Our federal debt, according to the Treasury, is approximately $38.45 trillion, as of mid-January.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Many economists argue that our federal debt is nearing crisis. Fed Chair Powell says he sees a narrow path out of crisis, but it requires bringing inflation under control, with control being spread over a long term of years. According to many economists, the best tool available to the Fed to bring inflation under control is managing the Fed’s lending rates from an economic perspective, not from a political perspective.
The strongest economic argument leveled against the Fed in recent years has been that it kept lending rates at artificially low levels for too long after the pandemic, as low as zero percent. According to many economists, these low lending rates triggered, in part, the highest inflation seen since the early Reagan years. The economic lesson, taught the hard way, is that artificially lowering Fed lending rates at the wrong time can trigger inflation. The political argument of today disregards this economic lesson.
The Fed meets later this month. Who knows which argument will prevail? But the interest we are paying on the federal debt recently surpassed $1 trillion per annum for the first time. This is most certainly not good economic news.
To me, Fed Chair Powell is correct, in that it is imperative that inflation be brought under control. Right now, inflation, year-over-year, is at 2.7%. That figure is far too high. The Fed’s lending rates need to remain at or near the status quo until inflation is brought down. Then again, I am not an economist. At best, I am a curious student.
Laurel says
I did not know that Greg Biffle, my favorite NASCAR driver, was killed along with this wife and children, a month ago. I am brokenhearted. He was a good man, who engaged in charities, and especially loved and helped animals. I hope there is more goodness out there in the universe for a man like him.
Too bad we are so involved with so many who are not worthy of our time.
I will miss you Greg. Thanks for the fun.
Ed says
The author cannot write so there’s a picture featuring the word “fake.” The left is nauseating.
Laurel says
How are the Epstein files coming along? Only 1% released. Bondi in contempt. Trump not forcing the release. Well, it was only children, right?
Sherry says
ICE has no problem abusing/traumatizing 5 year old children! Maga. . . are you really OK with this shit?
A 5-year-old boy arriving home from preschool in Minnesota was taken by federal agents along with his father to a detention facility in Texas, school officials and the family’s lawyer said, making him the fourth student from his Minneapolis suburb to be detained by immigration officers in recent weeks.
Federal agents took Liam Conejo Ramos from a running car while it was in the family’s driveway on Tuesday afternoon, Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik said during a news conference Wednesday. The officers then told him to knock on the door to his home to see if other people were inside, “essentially using a 5-year-old as bait,” she said.
Stenvik said the family has an active asylum case and has not been ordered to leave the country.
“Why detain a 5-year-old?” she asked. “You cannot tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal.”
Laurel says
Sherry: Let me give you a maga answer.
The kid was in the wrong place at the wrong time!
Are they okay with this shit? Yes they are.
Sherry says
@ Laurel. . . Yes, “they” really are!
There is a lethal mental sickness in our land and it is Maga!