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Weather: Mostly clear. Highs in the upper 60s. Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy in the evening, then becoming mostly cloudy. 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:
Joint workshop of local governments: Flagler County, Flagler Beach, Palm Coast, Bunnell and Beverly Beach governments hold a joint meeting, 5:30 p.m. in board chambers of the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell. The topics:
a) Flagler Beach Lifeguards
b) Beach Nourishment
c) 2027 and 2028 Fourth of July Fireworks (City of Flagler Beach)
d) Legislative Bills Under Construction (City of Bunnell)
e) Joint Planning (City of Palm Coast)
f) Exploring Health Care/Insurance Savings Opportunities (City of Palm Coast)
g) Animal Control (Flagler County)
h) Other items for discussion as needed
The Flagler Beach Parks Ad Hoc Committee meets at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 105 S 2nd St, Flagler Beach. The Committee’s six members, appointed by the City Commission, provide recommendations related to the maintenance of existing parks and equipment and recommendations for new or replacement equipment and other duties as assigned by the City Commission.
Separation Chat, Open Discussion: The Atlantic Chapter of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State hosts an open, freewheeling discussion on the topic 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 Flagler Beach Library Book Club meets at 1 p.m. at the library, 315 South Seventh Street, Flagler Beach.
The Flagler County Republican Club holds its monthly meeting starting with a social hour at 5 and the business meeting at 6 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn, 55 Town Center Blvd., Palm Coast. The club is the social arm of the Republican Party of Flagler County, which represents over 40,000 registered Republicans. Meetings are open to Republicans only.
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.
Free Tax Preparation Services in Flagler County: The AARP Foundation’s Tax Aide provides free tax preparation services at six locations in Palm Coast, Flagler Beach and Flagler County through April 15, but you must make an appointment first and fill out paperwork. To do both, go here.
Notably: Many years ago when I lived in Lakeland and Bill Clinton hadn’t yet christened the blue dress and Cheryl hadn’t yet appeared I used to take the Florida Turnpike after work Fridays to head for Miami Beach to visit a girlfriend who was into Wittgenstein and the X Files (she has since, naturally, become a philosophy teacher at Washington & Lee). It was a pleasant enough three-hour drive as I recall, passing by that perfectly American landmark called Yeehaw Junction before the metal jungle of South Florida. I remember the Turnpike as pretty sparsely trafficked, even lonely at times, its pit stops mostly empty, but a nice break from I-95. Cheryl and I took the turnpike just before New Year’s on a drive to Hollywood to pick up a strand of hair or two. It was probably the worst long-distance driving experience in Florida in years, I-95 nightmares included. The turnpike is still two lanes in each direction. It’s jammed, slow, chugged with drivers blind to highway etiquette. Its few monopolistic pit stops with their overpriced shops and bland slop are dirtier and busier than stops along te Jersey turnpike, which I missed as much as I did sightings of I-95 paralleling us to the east, where cars were flying by. After a much more restorative pit stop at Funky Buddha on the way back, we took I-95 and loved every mile. I now know why the Florida turnpike took a turn for banana republic shittiness: a year after I stopped driving it, the legislature renamed it the Ronald Reagan Turnpike.
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
Free Tax Preparation Services in Flagler County
Free For All Fridays With Host David Ayres on WNZF
First Friday Garden Walks at Washington Oaks Gardens State Park
Friday Blue Forum
“My Fair Lady,” at Daytona Playhouse
First Friday in Flagler Beach
Free Family Art Night at Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens
Flagler Beach Farmers Market
Flagler Beach All Stars Beach Clean-Up
Coffee With Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
2nd Annual Italian Festival
Book Dragons, the Kids’ Book Club, at Flagler Beach Public Library
“My Fair Lady,” at Daytona Playhouse
Celebrating Celine! with Jenene Caramielo, at the Fitz
For the full calendar, go here.
The New Jersey Turnpike, that is, a 148-mile, 4- to 12-lane monstrosity that snakes from the state’s southeast corner north to the George Washington Bridge through some of the meanest terrain in the civilized world: macadam deserts; belching smokestacks that make Gary, Ind., look like a Scottish pasture; trucks roaring on every side of you as though you were strapped to the bottom of a Boeing 737 during takeoff; strip malls that go on and on like the laughter of a lunatic.
–From Lee Siegel’s “The Hidden State of Culture,” The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 24, 2009.
Dennis C Rathsam says
It was a great month for TRUMP, only the Fake news, & media don’t report it…. Too bad America,s patriots, 77 Million strong, care less about the lies, the Jackass party tells. No leader, no plan, & losing voters by the thousands. Soon you’ll be getting your refunded checks from the IRS, Dont forget to thank TRUMP for his great tax plan!
Laurel says
So far gone…
Skibum says
Uh huh, yes, sure Dennis, LOL! Too many “greatest hits” in Trumpuary to even have room for the convicted felon sex abuser pedophile protector in the WH to proclaim FIFA as the GREATEST PEACE ORGANIZATION IN THE WORLD… possibly the entire universe!
Look in your bathroom mirror and you will only see a lost soul. One of the easily brainwashed maga pawns. Certainly NOT something to be boastful about… just pitied or laughed at!
Dennis C Rathsam says
Brainwashed…. Not Me, Its all you liberal jackasses, who support the Biden surge of illegals , needed because the Democratic party is losing voters daily! SKID, When you can produce proof, of all the lies you tell about TRUMP! Its obvious TDS has taken a dramatic toll on you & Laurel…. Truth hurts, your party is grasping at straws, with no direction. TRUMP is finding FRAUDE in every city, run by Jackass. From Minn to Ca the moneys stolen could give everyone healthcare. Ya,LL don’t want to believe it, but its real as rain. COMMIES pay protesters to destroy America, & you protect them….You fight for them… Can they make you out to be bigger fools, you bet. Rico charges are Comming there way, the Clintons forced into testifying, instead of just Comming forth, What goodies are they hiding? How did there daughter, afford a mansion? How did the “SQUAUD get so rich? Soon we will see, wont we…. My moneys on TRUMP! Your moneys in SOMALIA, & Newsome pocketts
BillC says
Wrathsome blames Biden, the far left and illegals for all his woes and failures:
https://youtu.be/efHzGxEzDQA
Deborah Coffey says
Perfect response, Skibum. None are so blind as those that WILL NOT see. I think “pitied” is the right word. So much hate must be exhausting.
Samuel L. Bronkowitz says
Imagine saying something like “this dude that rapes kids and shits his pants during press conferences is someone I look up to and am gonna defend openly.” It boggles my mind. Just posting day after day things like “man you’re going to thank this child sexual predator for that tax break you get, I’m so happy I voted for the guy that had sex with a porn star while his wife was giving birth.” And yet here we are, Dennis just posting away. It’s embarrassing, I can only imagine the people that actively avoid him in daily life because he’s exhausting.
Ed P says
Could the problem with reporting on the economy or anything else accomplished by the Trump Administration be their fault? Probably. Trump’s messaging feels like it’s from a defensive posture. Actual accomplishments are presented via bluster, exaggeration and theater. In fact, theater and spin is all there seems be from both sides of the aisle. Not only theater, but singing and dancing too.
It’s time for an intermission.
There is a good deal of seriously solid information that gets intentionally drowned out by the media focusing instead, on the messengers, rather than the message.
People are unwittingly being encouraged to stop listening to, interacting with , or debating individuals with opposing views. Danger occurs when dismissing everything from the other side as irrelevant, irrational, or just plain wrong. Maybe it’s just fatigue.
Either way, there’s trouble ahead if it continues.
Ray W. says
I am reminded by Dennis C. Rathsam’s comment of a day some 40 years back.
A prosecutor at the time, I came home to my first wife telling of an older neighbor having knocked at the door. He waved a handgun in her face and demanded that we take less care of our yard. Our grass was sucking up too much water, he said; it was lowering the water level in his yard and killing his grass.
I walked over and knocked on his door. His wife told me he wasn’t feeling well enough to come to the door.
I asked her to tell him that if he felt the need to wave a gun again to wave it at me and not at my wife.
To paraphrase Wittgenstein, one of the most difficult things in life is to not wander about fooling ourselves.
Sherry says
This from Joyce Vance:
Today, the Supreme Court told California that it could use its new congressional voting maps, which create more leans-Democratic districts. It drew them last year after voters passed Proposition 50, which they did in response to rank political gerrymandering in Texas.
The Texas gerrymander happened in response because Donald Trump demanded that his party create more Republican seats in the House of Representatives ahead of the midterm elections. Texas Governor Greg Abbot was quick to salute and get it done.
The California Democratic Party explained the whole mess like this:
“Proposition 50 is a direct response to a Republican power grab orchestrated by President Trump and state leaders in Texas, who redrew Congressional district lines to gain five more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Proposition 50 proposes new lines for many of California’s 52 congressional districts, which would negate the five Republican seats drawn by Texas.”
The Supreme Court, at first seemingly with distaste and increasingly in the last few years with more abandon has adopted the view that political gerrymanders can stand. It’s reasoning is that while racial gerrymanders violate the Constitution and are illegal, the Court lacks jurisdiction to invalidate purely political ones. That’s the principle they seem to have applied with today’s one-sentence decision.
The Court’s unsigned order reads, “The application for writ of injunction pending appeal presented to Justice Kagan and by her referred to the Court is denied.” The plaintiff, California Assembly member David Tangipais sought an injunction to prevent the new maps from going into effect after the lower court permitted them to go forward. The Court told him no.
Even though this is another shadow docket decision about an injunction, not a substantive decision about the merits of the case following full briefing and oral argument, it’s likely to stand, at least for this next election. California’s primaries are held in June, and it’s impractical for the Court to upset the state of play after candidates have qualified and ballots are being printed. There is also the so called-Purcell principle, that prohibits election changing decisions made too close to the start of elections.
Instead, the Court will permit both Texas, which acted like a sword here, and California, which played the role of a shield, to maintain an uneasy political equilibrium. Although we don’t know what the vote on the Court was beyond the fact that at least five Justices voted for this result, no Justice wrote in dissent. What was good for the goose in Texas has now been approved for the California gander.
But this is about more that tit for tat. The real story is the origin of the gerrymander race to the bottom with Donald Trump’s demand that Republicans hold onto a Republican majority in the House with unprecedented midterm redistricting plans, based on nothing other than raw partisan politics. Trump believes politicians can choose their voters, and that they can deny voters the ability to decide who to elect. We can’t lose sight of that just because California blocked this particular effort. This is about Donald Trump, who is determined to hold onto power, no matter what voters want.
Make sure you’re prepared to have that conversation if a friend or family member approaches you with outrage about what California is “getting away with.” This is about Donald Trump and his efforts to prevent us from having free and fair elections.
We’re in this together,
Joyce
Mountain Man says
It would have been easy to make a Calendar for Biden. He slept every day and the Idiots he had in his so- called Cabinet was just there for the money. This Country was in the worst condition under Auto-Pen Biden.
Pierre Tristam says
Have there been reports of hallucinogens in Palm Coast water? or is this Mountain Man referring to the crag in Afghanistan where he’s been hiding for the past year?
Sherry says
Thanks for the chuckle Pierre! Yep trump is sure emptying out the septic tank of humanity for all to see . . EEK!
Skibum says
Mountain Man = troglodyte
Look it up.
Ray W. says
I concede at outset that this new solar technology is not ready for scaling up to mass production, but researchers have developed a device that converts heat radiating from the ground during the night into electricity. The device can be added to the bottom side of horizontal solar panels so that electricity can be harvested by the panel 24 hours per day. The amount of radiant energy captured at night is comparatively small, being enough to power a cell phone, but it is enough to boost panel productivity nonetheless.
Make of this what you will.
Ray W. says
MotorTrend recently tested on Mexican roads BYD’s first pickup truck offering, the plug-in hybrid Shark. The two-motor 4WD mid-sized truck competes with the Tacoma, Ranger and Colorado; it beats all three on price by several thousand dollars. Base price in Mexico is $50,060. Top-level price is $53,949.
Tow capacity is 5,510 pounds. Payload capacity is 1,750 pounds. Both figures are class competitive.
Horsepower is 430. Torque in lb-ft is 480. Both figures far exceed those of its rivals.
0-62 mph takes 5.7 seconds, much less time than for the competition.
The small battery provides roughly 60 miles of driving range before the extended range 1.5-liter turbocharged direct-injection gas engine starts to power a generator to keep the battery charged. The truck lacks a transmission. Total driving range with a full gas tank and a fully charged battery is 522 miles.
Since many drivers commute fewer than 60 miles per day, there will be days when the gas engine never starts. Simply plug in each evening and drive each day on battery power only.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
The EV world is rapidly changing. Lower cost. Greater power. Longer lasting. Less maintenance and repair.
The 102.5% American tariff on Chinese EVs was imposed for a reason. A Mexican factory is assembling BYD vehicles and sales in that country nearly doubled, year-over-year, to 80,000 in 2025, taking about a 70% share of the Mexican EV market.
Sherry says
Maga ICE and DHS. . . All for “Law and Order”. . . right?
This from Robert Reich:
Last week, Judge Patrick J. Schiltz — a Reagan appointee and top federal judge in Minnesota — accused ICE of violating nearly a hundred court orders in the month of January alone. He wrote: “ICE has every right to challenge the orders of this Court, but, like any litigant, ICE must follow those orders unless and until they are overturned or vacated,” adding that “ICE is not a law unto itself.”
Judge Schiltz had issued an order on January 14 that the government must give an immigrant a bond hearing or release him within seven days. Seven days passed without a hearing or release. Judge Schiltz then took what he called the “extraordinary step” of ordering Todd Lyons, the acting head of ICE, to appear at a hearing on January 23 to explain why he shouldn’t be held in contempt for violating the Jan. 14 order.
“The Court acknowledges that ordering the head of a federal agency to personally appear is an extraordinary step, but the extent of ICE’s violation of court orders is likewise extraordinary, and lesser measures have been tried and failed.
Judge Schiltz said he would cancel the Friday hearing if the government released the man by then. The government released him. Schiltz canceled the hearing.
But threatening the acting head of ICE with contempt of court is a cumbersome way to get ICE to follow court orders. A threatened of loss of funding for ICE and Border Patrol is necessary.
Democrats should inform congressional Republicans who are objecting to this that obeying court orders is part of the job (and Constitutional responsibility) of every public official — whether an agent of ICE or Border Patrol, or a member of Congress.
While they’re at it, Democrats (and the rest of us) should make sure the public knows the extent to which ICE and Border Patrol agents have been violating court orders —and are still utterly lawless.
Ray W. says
A Kennesaw State University research team, funded by a National Science Foundation grant, stumbled onto a new sulfur-based solid-state electrolyte battery chemistry that speeds lithium-ion electron flow within the electrolyte.
One drawback to solid-state electrolyte development has been that electron flow through the electrolyte is slower compared to flow speed through a liquid-state electrolyte.
The team, when testing a ceramic polymer composite material, introduced a sulfur-zirconium material into the solid-state electrolyte, something never before tested. They noticed higher-speed electron travel through the electrolyte, i.e., they saw a “strong interaction between sulfur and zirconium in the ceramic portion of the compound.”
Said the research team’s leader:
“We are the first group proposing this strong reaction between sulfur and zirconium. … We believe that this interaction is the main reason for the improved performance we are seeing.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
The team leader emphasizes that their discovery is early in development, with any scaling to mass production likely far in the future.
I comment on this only because battery development is rapidly evolving. Tesla spent billions to develop an improved liquid-state lithium-ion battery cell that was outdated before its release. It’s a good battery, but no longer economically useful.
A month or so ago, I commented that some 1600 battery chemistries had been tried in many different types of batteries. Sulfur-zirconium is just one more chemistry to add to the total.
Research teams all over the world are racing to develop batteries that are energy dense, fire resistant, long lasting, lightweight, inexpensive, easily recyclable, less reliant on toxic metals, and easy to assemble.
Last year, CATL announced its Naxtra sodium-ion battery, which when scaled to full production will cost as little as $10 per kWh hour of energy density, some 65% less than the least expensive lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries currently on the market. Hundreds of thousands of delivery vans already use the sodium-ion batteries.
The batteries hold 90% of charge at negative 40 degrees C. Battery lifetime is listed at 3.6 million miles. Made from table salt, it uses no toxic or expensive materials. The battery is considered ideal for electricity grid energy storage.
Who knows when or how the battery innovation will end? But so long as there are hundreds of billions of dollars at stake each year, the innovation race will continue. Last year, over 91 million cars and light trucks were sold worldwide. Market share of that scale is a huge motivator.