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Weather: Sunny, with a high near 71. Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 46.
- 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 Commission meets at 5 p.m. at the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell.
The Flagler County Library Board of Trustees meets at 4 p.m. at the Nexus Center and again at 4:30 p.m. at the Emergency Operations Center.
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.
Nar-Anon Family Groups offers hope and help for families and friends of addicts through a 12-step program, 6 p.m. at St. Mark by the Sea Lutheran Church, 303 Palm Coast Pkwy NE, Palm Coast, Fellowship Hall Entrance. See the website, www.nar-anon.org, or call (800) 477-6291. Find virtual meetings here.
The Bunnell City Commission meets at 7 p.m. at the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell, where the City Commission is holding its meetings until it is able to occupy its own City Hall on Commerce Parkway in 2025. To access meeting agendas, materials and minutes, go here.
Notably: So much for “Democracy dies in darkness.” So much for Jeff Bezos. Remember that one? The cutsey tagline the Washington Post ran across its front page starting in 2017, a few weeks into Trump’s first term? The Post had never had a slogan before. Couldn’t rival the Times’s “All the News” etc. The Post advertised itself at the 2019 Super Bowl, with Tom hanks narrating the line. You could almost imagine Bezos pulling it off. He had the money. Back then he seemed to have the principles. He caved. Then came last week’s announcement of that Wednesday massacre: 300 journalists laid off, 30 percent of the paper’s employees, and 300 of the 800 in the newsroom. “The cuts are a sign that Jeff Bezos, who became one of the world’s richest people by selling things on the internet, has not yet figured out how to build and maintain a profitable publication on the internet. The paper expanded during the first eight years of his ownership, but the company has sputtered more recently,” the rival Times reported. The executive editor said there will be more national news and politics (read: syndication, wire services, curated content), more focus on business porn and health narcissism, less local news, less sports, less everything else. The Middle East is no longer on the Post’s radar. The New Yorker: “How could it have come to this? The paper had some profitable years under Bezos, sparked by the 2016 election and the first Trump term. But it began losing enormous sums: seventy-seven million dollars in 2023, another hundred million in 2024. The owner who once offered runway was unwilling to tolerate losses of that magnitude. And so, after years of Bezos-fuelled growth, the Post endured two punishing rounds of voluntary buyouts, in 2023 and 2025, that reduced its newsroom from more than a thousand staffers to under eight hundred, and cost the Post some of its best writers and editors. Then, early Wednesday morning, newsroom employees received an e-mail announcing “some significant actions.” They were instructed to stay home and attend a “Zoom webinar at 8:30 a.m.” Everyone knew what was coming—mass layoffs. The scale of the demolition, though, was staggering.”
Now this: And this was 7 years ago:
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
Flagler County Commission Morning Meeting
Beverly Beach Town Commission meeting
Nar-Anon Family Group
Free Tax Preparation Services in Flagler County
In Court: Anne Mae Demegillo Arraignment
Flagler Beach United Methodist Church Food Pantry
Weekly Chess Club for Teens, Ages 10-18, at the Flagler County Public Library
Flagler County Library Board of Trustees
Flagler Beach Library Writers’ Club
Flagler Beach Planning and Architectural Review Board
Palm Coast City Council Meeting
Bunnell Planning, Zoning and Appeals Board
Hammock Community Association Meeting
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy
For the full calendar, go here.
Three Star Final
Wait here, and I’ll be back, though the hours divide,
and the city streets, perplexed, perverse, delay
my hurrying footsteps, and the clocks deride
with grinning faces from the long wall of day:
wait here, beneath your narrow scrip of sky,
reading the headlines, while the snowflakes touch
on scarce-dried ink the news that thousands die,
die, and are not remembered overmuch:
yes, the unnumbered dead, whom none esteemed,
our other selves, too late or little loved;
now in the dust, proud eyes unknown, undreamed,
those who begged pity while we stood unmoved.
How can we patch our world up, now it’s broken?
You, with your guilty heart, wait here and think,
while I strive back through lies and truths unspoken,
and, in the suburbs, the sunset snow turns pink:
you, in this dead-end street, which now we leave
for a more expansive, a more expensive, view;
snow falling, on a disastrous Christmas Eve,
and neon death at the end of the Avenue.
–Conrad Aiken.
Dennis C Rathsam says
TRUMP cut hundreds of workers, from the Dept of Education {hanger ons collecting a paycheck for doing nothing} !!!!! Now with all those workers gone…The Dept run like a well oiled clock, never skipped a beat!
Samuel L. Bronkowitz says
Hey guys the dude that I have an absolute crush on, you know, the guy that had sex with children? That guy, yeah he totally gutted the educational system for kids too and now it runs perfect because it doesn’t do anything anymore. Great, right? Total pedophile, and I love him so much <3
Ray W. says
I hope every FlaglerLive reader comprehends just how difficult it was for Mr. Tristam to start from scratch an online news outlet and then build it over the next 17 or so years.
I am not certain whether every reader fully understands just how fractious and combative 135,000 people can be. I accept that the cacophony and chaos maintained by certain of those 135,000 people will always be beyond the limits of my imagination. But I have not forgotten the extraordinary levels of gullible stupidity exhibited by those few FlaglerLive commenters who demanded that Mr. Tristam be escorted by deputies whenever he entered the courthouse because he was a Muslim terrorist.
There will always be people willing to present themselves as those who wander through life fooling themselves.
Thank you, Mr. Tristam.
Ed P says
Referencing the cartoon, doubtful events are connected in any meaningful way.
Even if true, it’s his money.
Finally, even a billionaire can’t breathe life into a corpse. Newspapers are from a bygone era. A large scale daily print or even digital daily news source charging a subscription is over. It’s the industry not the owner.
The Washington Post has not and is not competing from the position of strength.
The NY Times is the Amazon of Newspapers. Leaders dominate their fields.
It’s just business, nothing more.
Ray W. says
Winter ice storm Fern recently impacted a huge swath of the nation. Reports of cuts in crude oil and natural gas production due to frozen equipment appeared.
According to the EIA, during the week ending January 30th, the average daily crude oil output in the U.S. was down 481,000 barrels per day from the average daily figure the week before, for a total reduction of more than 3.3 million barrels for the week. Likely, Fern is the major cause of the decline.
The EIA maintained its 2026 projection of U.S. daily average crude oil production as between 13.5 and 13.6 million barrels per day, near the 2024 average monthly peak of 13.6 million barrels per day, and down from the 2025 monthly average peak of 13.8 million barrels per day.
Yes, compared to a week ago, AAA has the national average price of a gallon of gas at the pump up by more than 2 cents. Yes, there can be more than one reason for any short-term rise or fall in national average gas prices, but the widely accepted idea of supply and demand still exists, at least in my estimate.
In other news, from the weekly Baker Hughes operating miscellaneous rigs and natural gas rigs and crude oil rigs report, the number of all operating rigs rose slightly to 551, down 35 rigs from a year ago.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I maintain my position that energy is one of the main subjects about which the current administration lies the most.
Yes, American crude oil production was at an all time record high in December 2024, just before President Trump took office, despite the many lies issued by professional liars that Democrats hate energy. Yes, a new all time record high was set in 2025, but only barely so. Yes, crude oil production had since settled to a level below the 2024 record high just before winter ice storm Fern blanketed much of the country with sleet and freezing rain and snow from moisture-laden air flowing up out of a Gulf with a water temperature at a historic high that was well above daily winter average water temperatures hitting a rapidly moving arctic cold front.
Let’s face facts. There was a time when a valid argument existed that renewable energy sources cost more than energy derived from fossil fuels. We all paid higher electricity rates for renewables. But that time is long gone.
Not one company has applied for a permit to build a coal-fired power plant since 2008. The cessation wasn’t because of Democratic policies. Rather, it was because companies that purchase electricity stopped signing long-term contracts to buy electricity from coal-fired power plant projects. Without these long-term purchase contracts, financing of the projects stopped.
The same thing is happening with natural gas. Long-term electricity purchase contracts are drying up, except in West Texas natural gas fields where data centers are planned. The Texas legislature recently passed two bills making available to proposed natural gas projects some $10 billion of taxpayer money. Suddenly, some 130 companies have queued at the deep trough, seeking their perceived share of the public money. If the public money triggers additional private funding, the projects will proceed. If renewables continue to drop in price, at some time, even the newest of the natural gas power plants will shut down before the planned end dates and the public money might be lost.
What was once public funding for renewable power projects has turned into public funding for natural gas power projects.
The irony is that Republicans could, years ago, legitimately argue that Democrats wanted electricity customers to pay more for the electricity they consumed, in the name of climate change; it was a powerful argument.
But the world has changed. Lenders no longer risk as much of the financing needed to build fossil fuel plants. Electricity purchasers no longer risk as often signing long-term electricity purchase contracts. The market is speaking and renewables are the future.
Now, it is the Republicans who want electricity customers to pay more for the electricity they consume, all in the name of protecting the profitability of the fossil fuel industry. And they are willing to lie about it, as they still claim that renewables cost too much. At least the Democrats truthfully said the money that subsidized renewables was to address climate change.
The head of our Department of Energy has been issuing executive orders to keep aging coal-fired power plants open beyond planned retirement, at an estimated cost to consumers of billions of dollars by the end of 2028.
I looked up a 10-year plan recently adopted by FP&L. Zero natural gas plants are being constructed. This year, only the electricity produced by solar farms currently under construction will be added to the grid. Grid capacity will be supplemented by additions to existing battery storage capacity. Every aging power plant that can replaced by new and cheaper sources of electricity production means the possibility of long-term lower rates for customers.
Ray W. says
I recently commented on some of the differences between batteries, which store and release energy electrochemically, and supercapacitors, which store and release energy electrostatically.
All battery chemistries degrade over time. From my youth, the phrase has always been that a lead acid battery must be replaced when “it no longer holds a charge.”
Supercapacitors do not significantly degrade in the capacity to hold the original charge over time.
So, I thought it important to comment when I learned that BYD had just extended its lithium-iron-phosphate Blade battery warranty to 250,000 kilometers (155,000 miles). No gas-powered engine comes with that long a warranty. At the time of that story, BYD was claiming battery life without significant degradation in the capacity to hold a charge of 3,000 charging cycles.
A news outlet named Benzinga just reported on BYD’s announcement that its newest LFP Blade batteries can now hold a charge without significant degradation through 5,000 charging cycles. And, BYD announced that its latest version of its sodium-ion (table salt) batteries can hold a charge without significant degradation over 10,000 charging cycles.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
The math is straightforward. A salt battery that holds a 300-mile charge over 10,000 charging cycles means the battery will last 3 million miles before it significantly degrades. A 300-mile LFP battery good for 5,000 charging cycles is good for 1.5 million miles before it significantly degrades.
I recently commented about BYD’s mid-sized truck that in Mexico sells at base price for just over $50,000, several thousand dollars less than the base prices for each of its competitors. In China, the Shark is expected to sell for about $36,000. BYD can charge more in base price in Mexico because its competitors charge an even higher price.
Here is the question:
If BYD were to sell decide to sell its truck in Mexico for $36,000, with more horsepower than its competitors, with the same rated load capacity and the same rated towing capacity of its competitors, with a battery warranted for longer mileage than its competitors warrant their gas engines and with an expectation of 1.5 million miles on the road before battery degradation of significance sets in, and with lower maintenance and fuel costs than its competitors, does it make sense for former President Biden to impose a 100% tariff on all Chinese EVs and for President Trump to keep the 100% tariff intact?
Ray W. says
Despite Russian President Putin’s repeated claims of his invading forces capturing Pokrovsk, after nearly two years of arduous defense, Ukrainian forces still hold much of the city.
Make of this what you will.
Ray W. says
Last August, two Politico journalists devoted a story to claims issued by DOGE, re: government savings.
Some FlaglerLive readers may recall Elon Musk stating before the 2024 November election that DOGE would save $2 trillion in government spending. And some FlaglerLive readers may recall Elon Musk saying before the 2025 January Inauguration that DOGE would save $1 trillion in government spending. And some FlaglerLive readers may remember DOGE announcing that it had, through cancelling almost 10,100 contracts as of July 31st, saved the government some $56.8 billion.
When the two Politico reporters went through each of the listed contracts, it found that many didn’t exist. Of the contracts that it could confirm, the value totaled $32.7 billion. But many of the contracts were long-term, meaning money for future years that had not yet been allocated by Congress. Of the contract sums for 2025, DOGE actually saved $1.4 billion in government spending. But since that $1.4 billion had been ordered to be spent by Congress, the only way to save the money is for the current administration to ask Congress to rescind the order to spend it. Otherwise, the “saved” money goes back to the agency to be spent on other projects.
The reporters asked a George Washington law professor to explain how DOGE had inflated the numbers.
With a long-term contract that had not been funded, DOGE lumped the years together to get to a total amount and then cancelled the fictional total and added it to the savings. This is a government activity known as establishing “ceiling value.”
The professor analogized:
“That’s the equivalent of basically taking out a credit card with a $20,000 credit limit, cancelling it, and then saying, ‘I’ve just saved $20,000. … Anything that’s been said publicly about [DOGE’s] savings is meaningless.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
If all this is true, the professional lies started at $2 trillion and ended up at $1.4 billion. It very well might be that the personal data contained in agency files that was stolen by DOGE is worth more to the thieves than the amount they saved.
Ed P says
Hello Ray W,
DOGE did spot light waste and fraud. Had it been possible to follow the money down the line to where the rubber meets the road, actual estimates by Musk might be too small. Minnesota being an example.
Also, the real money that was or will be saved is significant because it’s tax payers who will be the beneficiaries of the savings.
I suspect that the unfathomable inefficiencies exposed, like the OPM storage facility, antiquated computer systems without the ability of interagency communication will eventually pay dividends as well.
I think your analysis is a case of the glass being half empty instead of half full.
Ray W. says
Hello Ed P.
Thank you.
I have long accepted that government waste is beyond reckoning.
I have repeatedly commented on the newspaper stories during my young adulthood about how, in the name of small government, federal government positions had been cut in the welfare system initiated by LBJ’s “Great Society” legislation. The gist of the articles was that the positions cut were only for the fraud investigators whose average salary and benefits package cost $14,000 per person per year in the mid-70’s. On average, each of the fraud investigators had been saving about $40,000 per year in fraud detected.
The moral of the story was clear. The political need to claim reduction in the size of government is divorced from the fiscal importance of actually saving money.
From a 2023 study of the $4.3 trillion in pandemic stimulus money disbursed by both the Trump and Biden administrations, some $280 billion is estimated to have been fraudulently lost and another $123 billion wasted. The problem is that none of the many stimulus spending bills contained funds sufficient to hire enough investigators to track possible fraud. Small government advocates won again.
Estimates of Medicare and Medicaid money lost to fraud each year range from $60 billion to more than $100 billion, but estimates are so wide ranging because there are too few fraud investigators authorized by the legislation. Small government advocates win again.
Once again, the prime focus, arguably, of DOGE was to cut the employee base of the federal government. No one knows how many fraud investigator positions were cut.
Frankly, for 50 years I have thought it more important to have a larger government that pays for some of the additional positions by fraud exposed and money saved.
I was a prosecutor when the Clinton administration disbursed the billions of dollars allocated by Congress to hire 100,000 new police officers. Volusia law enforcement agencies got their share of the new positions. This is anecdotal, but the word from the agencies was that the new officers really helped.
Just read the comments about Sheriff Staley when he asks for new positions! Small government arguments will never go away, mainly because of the outsized political value the arguments provide.
You can wax rhapsodic about DOGE’s accomplishments as they have been proclaimed by the current administration. You might be right. You might be wrong.
To me, just another story in a 50-year adult lifetime play. More Kabuki theater. It is hard to believe Musk when he comes out with a $2 trillion savings figure just before the 2024 federal election. That was the thrust of my comment. Don’t ever take at face value anything said by members of the professional lying class that sits atop one of our two political parties.
Ray W. says
Here is another comment on the recent Cato Institute study that found that between 1994 and 2023, immigrants contributed $14.5 trillion more in tax revenue to the Treasury than they received in government benefits.
Wrote the study’s authors:
“Immigrants pay more in taxes than the average person. This is counterintuitive because they have lower hourly wages, but because they work at much higher rates (the blue line), they end up with higher per capita incomes (the gray line) and pay more in taxes than their share of the population predicts (the dotted line). Thus, immigrants have been better at generating revenue for the government than the average person. …
“Are their tax revenues overwhelmed by the costs they impose? Here’s everything the federal, state, and local governments spent money on over past 30 years in per capita dollar amounts. Immigrants did not create significantly higher costs for any items and saved the government enormously in two areas: old age benefits and education costs.”
Make of this what you will.
Sherry says
The depime of the Washington Post is a huge blow to the “FREE” press in the US! Oligarch billionaires like Murdoch and Besos are doing their “EVIL” best to use their $$$ and power to publish right winged propaganda and indoctrinate the weak minded into the hate filled, fascist Maga cult! These are indeed challenging times for our democracy!
Contact your government representatives and urge them to find the spine to STOP fascism! RESIST! RESIST! RESIST! Potest! Protest! Protest! VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!
Sherry says
OOPS! Please excuse the typo. . . that’s “demise” . . . which I do despise BTW!