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Weather: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 54. Breezy. Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 38. Breezy.
- 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.
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.
Candidate Forum: The Flagler County Republican Executive Committee (FlaglerGOP) hosts a Candidate Forum from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Palm Coast Community Center, 305 Palm Coast Parkway. This forum will focus exclusively on local Republican candidates seeking office in Flagler County and its municipalities, providing voters with an opportunity to hear directly from those running to represent their community.
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.
‘I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change,’ At Limelight Theatre, 11 Old Mission Avenue, St. Augustine. 7:30 p.m. except Sundays, 2 p.m. A witty, fast-paced musical revue that takes a humorous and heartfelt look at modern love in all its stages-from awkward first dates to long marriages. Directed by Daniel Starling.
Notably: Very notably at that: today is the 400th birthday of Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, known as the marquise de Sévigné, known for having written the greatest letters in French, along with Voltaire and Flaubert. She was the subject of the last Saturday in Byblos, so no need to repeat any of that. But last Saturday my son Luka through his Disney Springs perks got us a couple of free tickets to the parks. We headed straight for the creperie at the French pavilion for Calvados crepes and a bit of French banter. Our waitress, Manon, was from Marseille, which is less than a two hours drive to Grignan, and the Chateau de Grignan, where Mme de Grignan–daughter of Mme de Sévigné and recipient of the 700 letters that made Sévigné’s fame–lived with her apparently not too good looking but still cheating husband. It is also where Mme de Sévigné died. So I asked the waitress: do you know of Mme de Sévigné? I was expecting a “bien sûr,” thinking French education even at its lowest could not possibly have soured. But she said no. She said no. She had no idea who I was referring to. I repeated the name. She wrote it down. Still no. I couldn’t believe it. Does the average American waiter of college age not know Hawthorne or Melville, or Twain? I don’t mind if they’ve not read a word. But to at least have heard of them, to know they were writers sometime in the pre-Twitter past. Oddly, when I mentioned Grignan and the chateau there, the waitress knew about that. It’s a tourism destination, like her restaurant at Epcot. She just didn’t know its family connection. “I despise trivial occurrences; I am only for those which surprise and astonish,” Mme de Sévigné had written. This encounter was trivial and astonishing.
Now this: Sure it’s in French and the English subtitles wouldn’t work, but it’s still fun for the sights:
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.
Madame de Sévigné’s gaiety, Roger de Bussy-Rabutin occasionally finds a bit forced. “Jest prevails,” he notes. His judgment on this point joins the spirit of the moralists of the time, who recommended against laughing excessively. Having freed himself from the hold of his cousin’s charm, he judges “that she wants to be a bit too witty.” For his part, Tallemant des Réaux, at times biting, noted at the time of her debut in society that “she is blunt and cannot keep herself from saying what she believes to be pretty, although quite often these are things that are a bit ribald.” This “spirit of fire” does not meet with unanimity, depending on whether one considers it her flaw or a quality. Might the mischievous Marie allow herself to be intoxicated by approval, a bit beyond what would be desirable? The two opinions say more about the masculine attitude than about Marie’s. They agree on the fact that a woman—and Marie no more than any other—must not showcase her wit in a free and provocative manner. A mirror of a narrow conception of the distribution of speech on the social stage, rather than a singular testimony to the attitude of the young widow in society.
–From Geneviève Haroche-Bouzinac’s Madame de Sévigné (2023, Gemini translation).
Laurel says
Between frivolous, and politically motivated law suits, Trump is costing the taxpayer an exorbitant amount of money. But don’t worry, he’ll send you a pittance of your own money back in April.
Ray W. says
Many FlaglerLive readers may know of President Trump’s several assertions that foreign investment pledges during his first year back in office totaled $18 trillion. Sometimes he says $20 trillion. Others, $21 trillion.
I read in a Raw Story article that the White House lists the total as $9.6. I looked it up. Sure enough, on the White House website, the figure is $9.6 trillion.
This morning, on Morning Joe, a guest economist and investor said that the foreign investment pledge figure is closer to $1 trillion per quarter thus far during President Trump’s second term in office. I checked. The total of foreign investment pledges in 2025 may be as much as $5 trillion.
Some FlaglerLive readers may also know of President Trump’s repeated claim that President Biden attracted only $1 trillion in foreign investment pledges in 2024, when the actual figure is closer to $4 trillion. According to the Morning Joe guest, foreign investment pledges during President Biden’s term in office averaged $4 trillion per year.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I will always agree that $5 trillion in foreign investment pledges is better than $4 trillion. Credit should be given wherever due. But the issue isn’t about figures; it is about blatant dishonesty.
About a month ago, I commented on a New York Republican House member who claimed during a groundbreaking ceremony at a $100 billion chip-making factory located in her district that she had worked had for passage of the bill, the Chips Act, that made possible $6.1 billion in incentive funding that made possible the decision to build the factory. In reality, she had not only voted against the Act, but she had denounced the Act from the House floor.
I have long maintained that the modus operandi of the professional lying class that sits atop one of our two political parties is to lie in hopes that the more gullibly stupid among us will launder the lies. Vice President Vance admitted this when he told a reporter that if lying about Haitian immigrants eating pets would get reporters talking about immigration, then he would continue to lie.
Yes, $21 trillion in foreign investment pledges sounds really good to the ear. Yes, if it were true, America likely would be in for a healthy and happy economic future.
If the Morning Joe guest is accurate in his figures, the American economy may have to settle for a little bit better than more of the same. And that just might be a good thing. After all, both the Wall Street Journal and The Economist wrote that President Trump was inheriting an economy that was the “envy of the world.”
Few could successfully argue that foreign investment pledges of $4 trillion per year for four consecutive years is a bad thing. If the figure jumps to $5 trillion for 2025, that would not magically transform the $4 trillion four-year average from a good thing into a bad thing; it would simply be that $5 trillion is something better than a good thing.
Laurel says
One thing that Trump is really good at, is marketing. He should be, he had a 80 year learning curve. He knows that repetition turns lies into *truths*. If something is repeated enough, such as “witch hunt.” it becomes a reality for the gullible you speak of.
Well, here’s another repetition he is very aware of, and practices daily: lying itself. He has lied so often, nearly every time he opens his mouth, that his followers simply blow it off as Trump being Trump. The only people who get away with consistently lying, are cult leaders, oh, and politicians. Trump is always telling us he is better, at whatever, than anyone has ever seen, in the history of the world. On the topic of being the best liar, he is correct, and he has made being a chronic, habitual liar, acceptable to many.
The dude says
You confuse “marketing” with the ability to gin up false outrage amongst the perpetually aggrieved.
Laurel says
Nope, not confused. Trump is a marketer, and he knows his target market well. Does he stir it up? Oh yeah, it’s his modus operandi.
Skibum says
Laurel, while I agree with you on your overall point about the lying liar in the WH, I don’t think it took him 80 years to realize that he has been a student of the W.C. Fields philosophy of life unknowingly for most of his own life. Here’s just a sample of some of W.C. Fields more well known quotes:
“You can fool some of the people some of the time — and that’s enough to make a decent living.”
“I personally stay away from natural foods. At my age I need all the preservatives I can get.”
“Money will not buy happiness, but it will let you be unhappy in nice places.”
“If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull.”
And, of course: “Never give a sucker an even break.”
Laurel says
Maybe that’s where Grace Slick came up with her comment on preservatives, so many years ago. She said they very well may preserve her!
Skibum says
The photo of Tulsi Gabbard skulking around the corner of a building, apparently trying to hide the fact that she was at the Fulton County election HQ during the FBI raid is very concerning. She is talking on the phone and is reported to have been in contact with the felon prez during the raid when all of that county’s 2020 election ballots were confiscated by the feds.
No matter that the presidential election ballots were counted and audited three separate times to verify the results which showed the orange menace LOST bigly. No matter that both the GA republican governor and republican Secretary of State who had hoped for a republican victory in that year’s presidential election confirmed that the democrat candidate had fairly won that state’s electoral votes. No matter they refused to be complicit in the orange menace’s coercive and illegal demand that GA “find me 11,780 votes”, knowing full well that was the total number of extra votes he needed to fraudulently surpass Biden’s vote total in that state.
The convicted felon isn’t just wanting to revisit the 2020 presidential election that he lost… NO! He is maneuvering every lever, pushing every button, and confiscating every Fulton Co. election ballot in an unheard of and highly suspicious plot to try to re-engineer the outcome of a six year old election that he lost because the man-child cannot bear to be seen as the loser he is and will always be. Cannot bear to be embarrassed by that fact that Americans spoke loudly at the polls in the states which he lost, and decided that Joe Biden was a better choice for president. Cannot bear the thought that despite all of the 63 court decisions against him, despite his failed attempt to send fraudulent elector certifications to Congress, despite drumming up all of the anger that lead to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by his maga mob, and despite his failed attempt to coerce his VP, Mike Pence to defy his oath of office and stop the certification of that year’s presidential election, every single one of the convicted felon’s ploys FAILED, and Joe Biden was affirmed and sworn in to office as the U.S. president in January of 2021.
And the man-child will never forget or forgive American voters for rejecting him.
Jack says
Leading up to the 2020 election 200 polls in a row showed Trump Losing.
The average of all the polls was spot on. Here’s the link.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_biden-6247.html?fbclid=IwAR36x9ms7wKrG38PzV9uGMYb3NAmFXMZD6-1q1oZG2YzVF0Q-X7sfFSDFIM#polls
Laurel says
I’m afraid the Republican Party is toast. Will we swing to the far left as a reaction? I don’t know. What I do know is that the Republican Party is no longer a healthy alternative, which is a shame, as we need balance to keep our system in check. I’m completely blown away at how much the Republican Party accepts lies, and finds the rejection of the law, and the rejection of the Constitution acceptable.
The Republican Party, when in total control, is fascist, while if the Democratic Party were to be in complete control, would be socialist. As I look around the world, socialism is preferable to fascism and communism, fascism and communism being totalism. Totalism being “The principle of complete and unrestricted power in government.” (Wordnik).
What did make America great was, we were different. We had both parties that met in the middle and compromised. We have lost that. We are in the mist of fascism. Can we get back? Only rejecting this fascism and voting for those who are willing to compromise, will get us back.
I don’t know if we can do that anymore.
Skibum says
One thing we all can be certain of is that the spineless, immoral and contemptable republi-con members of Congress will undoubtably do a 180 as soon as the felon in the WH is gone. Many of them have repeatedly been reported to lambast him, berate him, make a complete fool of him in private, while in public they contort themselves into pretzels and muddy their knees in deference to him as their underlord.
You can bet your last dime that they all are already coming up with lies themselves in what will be furious attempts to distance themselves from all that they have allowed to happen, justifying their moral collapse in the hope that the very same voters who saw with their own eyes how cowardly they have been will somehow continue to love their new, inside-out thinking so they can continue to politically rape their constituents while these unethical sub-humans twist in the wind with their political ideologies to stay in power.
The circus will continue even long after the clown is gone.
Laurel says
Well, “…grab ’em by the pussy” didn’t do it. Generating over 30,000 lies in the first term didn’t do it. An adjudicated rape didn’t do it. Conviction of 34 felonies didn’t do it. Grandiose, corruption and self enrichment didn’t do it. Money laundering didn’t do it. Protecting pedophiles didn’t do it. Ignoring the law didn’t do it. Masked, unidentified, armed goons in the streets didn’t do it. A meme of dumping excrement on American citizens didn’t do it. Stomping on the Constitution didn’t do it. But, after more than 10 years, two, white, American citizens murdered in the streets and our previous President and First Lady depicted as monkeys extracted a few ruffled Republican feathers.
A little too little too late.
Ray W. says
Over a year ago, I read an article about a Chinese university research team developing a chemical process that shaped waste engine oil from its liquid state into a solid multi-faceted structure that increased the storage area for electrons on the surface of the medium more than a thousandfold.
From my youth, I have had a passing awareness of the differences between a condenser and a battery, because I swapped out condensers, i.e., capacitors, on my motorcycles and cars when engines began to misfire under load. Many old-timer FlaglerLive commenters may know of points-and-condenser ignition systems.
I don’t remember how old I was when I cut open a used condenser, but I saw and felt a waxy or oily strip of paper affixed inside a small metal can. I learned that condensers work by holding an electrostatic charge on the surface area of the waxy or oily strip of paper. The greater the surface area, the greater the electrostatic storage capacity. In time, condensers began to be more commonly called capacitors.
Today’s cars might contain hundreds or thousands of tiny capacitors for many different purposes.
But the idea behind a condenser is simple. When an ignition point closes, electrons from a source of electricity such as a magneto or a battery form an electrostatic field on the surface of the waxy or oily paper. When the ignition point opens, the electrostatic field collapses and the electrons travel to the coil, where voltage is increased. The energy then jumps across the spark plug gap, igniting the air-fuel mixture in the combustion chamber.
Since a motocross engine of the day could rev to perhaps nine or ten thousand times a minute, that meant that the condenser could discharge and recharge that many times a minute. No battery could ever achieve that rate, because batteries work not by electrostatic storage, but by electrochemical storage. Electrochemical processes work too slowly.
Over the past year or so, I have mulled whatever I knew and could learn about electrostatic energy storage.
Some 20 years ago, a Chinese company began selling a supercapacitor-powered city bus. Range was only four miles or so, but the supercapacitor could recharge in seconds. Since city buses don’t travel far between stops, automated recharging stops kept the supercapacitor fully charged.
Over the past twenty years, supercapacitor-powered city bus range has increased and cities in other countries than China have been adopting the bus technology.
Theoretically, supercapacitors can charge millions of times without degradation. My two-stroke road bikes could go 10 or 15 thousand miles or more before starting to misfire. I knew from the misfire at high rpm that it was time to replace the condenser. Who knows how many millions of times the condensers in my vehicles instantly charged and discharged before degradation set in.
Today, I checked in on Donut Labs new power source. Perhaps a battery and perhaps a supercapacitor, the Donut Labs manufacturing process uses advanced 3D printing to deposit a slurry resembling ink onto a flat medium, just like the waxed or oiled paper surface in the condensers of my youth. Surface area is vastly increased by use of a titanium oxide process that encases billions of carbon nanotubes. Electrons can be stored in and around the nanotubes, greatly increasing energy storage surface area.
The Donut Lab product was revealed last month at the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show, billed as a solid-state battery, though it may not be a battery at all.
Manufacturing cost is said to be comparable to today’s EV batteries. Recharging time is listed as 10C, meaning full charge in six minutes. Energy density is 400 kWh, nearly double that for most of today’s EV batteries. Light weight. But the major improvement is in the number of recharging cycles. Many of today’s EV batteries can recharge only 1,500 to 2,000 times before degradation sets in. Some claim 3,000 cycles. Donut Labs? 100,000 times without degradation.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Donut Labs claims it is manufacturing for sale on a dedicated assembly line an energy storage device that lasts millions of miles, perhaps as many as 50 million miles, without degradation, at a manufacturing cost comparable to today’s EV batteries that are good for hundreds of thousands of miles before degradation sets in. Electrochemical charging creates hear and expansion. Electrostatic charging does not.
Is it a battery? Doubtful. Is it a supercapacitor? Much more likely.
The idea is as ancient as magneto ignition systems, but the Donut Labs technology is cutting edge.
If Donut Labs is for real in what it is claiming, this is a significant step forward in energy storage. Battery backup grid storage is an obvious application. Donut Labs claims its device handles temperatures from negative 30 degrees C to 100 degrees C, numbers more consistent with supercapacitors than batteries. Tractor-trailer transport would benefit.
I keep channeling Ford’s CEO:
EVs are at the Model T moment in their development cycle. Look forward, never back.
If Donut Labs has accomplished a technological leap in titanium oxide carbon nanotube energy storage surface area, the company’s possibilities are huge.
Jack says
Leading up to the 2020 election 200 polls in a row showed Trump Losing.
The average of all the polls was spot on. Here’s the link.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/general_election_trump_vs_biden-6247.html?fbclid=IwAR36x9ms7wKrG38PzV9uGMYb3NAmFXMZD6-1q1oZG2YzVF0Q-X7sfFSDFIM#polls