To include your event in the Briefing and Live Calendar, please fill out this form.
Weather:
- 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:
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<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.
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.
The Flagler Beach City Commission meets at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall, 105 South 2nd Street in Flagler Beach. Watch the meeting at the city’s YouTube channel here. Access meeting agenda and materials here. See a list of commission members and their email addresses here.
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.
Evenings at Whitney Lecture Series hosted by the University of Florida Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience at 6 p.m. This free lecture will be presented in person at the UF Whitney Laboratory Lohman Auditorium, 9505 Ocean Shore Boulevard, in St. Augustine. Tonight: Conservation Bright Spots: Making a Difference for Nature, Climate and People, presented by Dr. Nancy Knowlton. Those interested also have the option of registering to watch via Zoom live the night of the lecture. Go here to register for this month’s lecture. See previous lectures here.
‘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.
The Palm Coast Democratic Club holds its monthly business meeting at noon at the Flagler Democratic Party Headquarters in City Marketplace, 160 Cypress Point Parkway, Suite C214, Palm Coast. This gathering is open to the public at no charge. No advance arrangements are necessary. Call (386) 283-4883 for best directions or (561)-235-2065 for more information. For further information, please contact Palm Coast Democratic Club’s President Donna Harkins at (561) 235-2065, visit our website at http://palmcoastdemocraticclub.org/ or Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/palmcoastdemclub/permalink
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Notably: As the two and a half readers of this space know I have a love-hate relationship with AI, my Googly-glopped Gemini version particularly. We’re in couples therapy. But in our happier moments we can have a bit of fun. I asked it to reduce a few great works of literature to haikus. Here are some results (Gemini did not think it necessary to versify them, nor do I):
Joyce’s Ulysses: Dublin day unfolds, Bloom wanders, Stephen searches, Molly says yes, yes.
Mann’s Magic Mountain: High in Alpine snow, Three weeks turn to seven years, War ends the long dream. (I found that one weak.)
The Old Testament: Covenant and law, Exile, kings, and prophets’ cry, Waiting for the light.
The New Testament: Word becomes the flesh, Grace upon the wooden cross, New life starts again.
The Koran: One God, none beside, Words recited to the soul, Straight path through the world.
Trump’s Art of the Deal: Think big, find the edge, Leverage is the winning hand, Brand the skyline gold.
Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint: Hand and raw liver, Frantic lust and mother’s guilt, “Now we may begin.”
Any Randy Fine press release: All caps, #BombsAway, Fighting mice and “woke” shadows, Look at me, I’m big.
My own columns: Five thousand words deep, Gide meets a zoning dispute, Readers’ eyes glaze o’er. (Now that’s what I call a haiku.)
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.
All great works of art are somewhat difficult to access. The reader who believes them to be easy has simply failed to penetrate the heart of the work. This mysterious heart requires no darkness to defend itself against an overly bold approach; clarity suffices just as well. The immense, beautiful clarity—as is often the case with our French works by Rameau, Molière, or Poussin—is the most deceptive barrier for defending a work; one begins to doubt whether there is any secret there at all; it feels as though one has reached the bottom immediately. But one returns ten years later and enters deeper still. It is for these same reasons that the French language appears at first childishly easy to learn, and then increasingly difficult as one’s understanding of it grows.
–From Andre Gide’s Journals.
Laurel says
I’m not kidding, I’m very serious. I fully believe Trump should be Baker Acted. His behavior appears nowhere near normal. He throws baby tantrums, now closing a brand new bridge to Canada, our long time friendly neighbor and ally. He’s coming up with yet another new reason, to get rid of windmills, all because they could be seen off the coast of his Scottish golf course, not because of all the bs reasons he is making up. I don’t think there is a prefrontal cortex filter there, and I don’t believe he has moved on since about the age of ten, not to insult ten year olds. The boy ain’t right.
And what is up with Karoline Leavitt? Is someone putting tacks on her chairs? She makes Sarah Huckabee Sanders look like Pollyanna! Her and Bondi, not only do they make themselves looks seriously stupid, but amazingly hostile! No logic, no responsibility, and no sensibility required.
Geez, I wish this stuff would pass.
Trump is not your retribution, you are his.
Ray W says
According to Gide, language over time can deepen in value. Yet, over time, the meaning “woke” has shallowed and become worthless. The NFL is “woke” now, claims a disgruntled one.
Ed P says
Ray W,
The issue today is that if everything is woke, nothing is woke.
Same can be applied to racist, fascist, or even liar….
News cycles keep shortening, and it appears that any on line help, be it social media or AI, people’s critical thinking skills are becoming even more under developed.
Applying a hackneyed label is now preferable. Quicker and easier than civil debate.
Part of the win/lose mentality of persuasion.
Ray W says
Thank you, Ed P.
Ray W says
According to ERCOT, Texas’ electricity grid operator, on August 10, 2023, during what FlaglerLive readers may recall as the time of a massive national heat dome that saw Flagler county heat indexes as high as 120 degrees, electricity demand peaked at an all-time record 85.508 gigawatts.
The Cool Down just reported that new solar power capacity added to the Texas grid in the third quarter of 2025 alone was three gigawatts. Yes, annualized, the figure added in the third quarter would comprise more than 12% of the grid’s 2023 day of record demand.
The reporter opined that in the Texas grid the free market is working.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Once again, according to studies of the levelized cost of energy, from permit seeking to attracting financing to construction to operation to end-life shutdown, new solar power cost is less expensive than new natural gas and far less expensive than new coal.
In a free market economy, solar is winning. Texas is proof of that. The investment money is flowing to solar.
Yes, at one time long ago, solar was a more expensive choice. No longer. I will comment again and again. FP&L, according to its current 10-year plan, is adding only solar and battery backup to our grid in 2026. Zero new natural gas plants are planned.
The invisible hand of the marketplace is working. No thumb on the scale, like the Texas legislature suddenly voting to put nearly $10 billion of taxpayer money into a natural gas trough, needed to get natural gas plant developers to seek permits to build.
Ray W says
This from the Washington Post:
Yesterday, based on an earlier issued executive order that declared a national energy “emergency”, President Trump signed an executive order directing the military to buy more electricity from coal-fired power plants.
Said our president:
“We’re going to be buying a lot of coal through the military. … It’s going to be less expensive and actually much more effective than what we’ve been using for many, many years.”
The reporter wrote:
“Experts warn that the administration’s efforts to revive coal threaten to raise electricity prices for all ratepayers.”
Last September, a trough filled with taxpayer money in the amount of $625 million was established. Money from the trough will drawn, said our president, to “upgrade” coal plants to “keep them online and keep those plants open.”
The Post article shifted to Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who has in recent months issued five agency executive orders to force five coal plants to stay open past planned shutdown dates. According to the article, any extra costs incurred by the executive orders will be shouldered by consumers.
A Harvard University energy scholar told the Post:
“Each of the five plants were slated to retire because they are expensive to operate and there are cheaper sources of power available to meet consumers’ needs. … Plant owners aren’t just flipping a switch to turn the plants back on – they’re spending millions on maintenance, renewing expired coal contracts and rehiring workers.”
Two of the five coal plants were slated owners filed a statement with the government that the agency executive orders were an “illegal taking”, claiming they were costing both the power plants and their customers money. A third of the five owners says the agency executive order pertaining this that plant is illegally forcing the plant to stay open.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Is it fair to argue that, no matter what, the American taxpayer will pay the costs forced on them by our president’s order? Will Dennis C. Rathsam soon be all over this blatant example of waste and lies and fraud?
The irony is that for years the Republican Party had a valid argument that Democrats were spending taxpayer dollars to prop up renewables. But the world has changed. Now, Republicans are forced to place their thumbs on the scales of the free market to keep alive an aging and dying coal industry, potentially costing us all billions and billions of dollars.
There remains a certain political value to one of our two political parties in coal, but only if there continues to exist enough gullibly stupid lie launderers willing to launder lies spread by professional liars. There is no longer an economic value in electricity-quality coal. Coking coal, crucial to the steel industry, remains economically valuable.
Can it be argued that today’s Republicans are no longer fiscally conservative and that the Democrats were right all along about the American long-term energy future?
That Hillary was prescient when she announced in 2016 that coal was dead?
Should Secretary Wright by agency executive order require all soon-to-retire coal plants to remain operating after planned shutdown dates, by 2028, utility customers will have to shoulder an extra $3 billion in electricity bills.
I will comment on this again and again. According to articles I read, decades ago, before the Shale Revolution, FP&L contracted long-term to buy electricity from two coal-fired power plants at then-market rates. The price of natural gas soon dropped. Gas-fired power plants provided electricity at lower costs. The market rates for electricity changed. Obligated by a myopic contract, FP&L simply bought the two plants and shut them down before planned retirement date. It was an economic decision, not a political one. Plenty of people criticize FP&L. I don’t. Not this time.
Skibum says
So here’s the latest from the “untrained boys with their latest toys” debacle…
Up until yesterday the new requirement for ICE and border patrol agents to be equipped with body cams was something that had been uppermost in my mind, knowing how law enforcement body cams that have been used by many of this nation’s law enforcement agencies for quite awhile aid in transparency, protect the GOOD officers from malicious and false citizen complaints, and help protect citizens from BAD officers who use excessive force and are untruthful about the circumstances involving their dealings with people they come in contact with.
But NOW we hear a whole new and frightening aspect about these two federal agencies, after the El Paso, TX international airport was completely closed down without notice, without cooperation or communication with the FAA or local authorities, and the feds lied to everyone about the reasons for the closure. It turns out that border patrol agents were using a new toy… a very dangerous one to be sure, without adult supervision or proper oversight. They received, on loan from the U.S. military, a deadly laser designed to shoot down airborne targets. And decided it would be a great idea to try it out in the vicinity of an international airport where hundreds of flights take off and land, putting in danger all types of commercial and private aircraft, thousands and thousands of passengers, as well as people on the ground. What absolute BOZOS!
Homeland Security (HSI) has been gifted by the felon in the WH billions and billions of taxpayer dollars, and is today the largest law enforcement agency with the fattest budget allocation in America. I wonder how many of these deadly military lasers are currently on order by the feds, so instead of targeting suspected undocumented aliens on the ground these untrained boys with their deadly military “toys” could simply aim at aircraft in the sky and shoot them down?!
Why in the world either ICE or border patrol needs to have deadly, military grade lasers is head scratching, not to mention exceedingly concerning to sane Americans like me who have witnessed so many unconscionable, unlawful acts of brutality by federal agents already! These federal agents need to be REIGNED IN, not allocated more deadly means of killing people!
Sure, they already are trying to justify using this deadly military laser, lying to the American public at first saying they were targeting a drug cartel’s unmanned drone. All lies, like is the norm coming from this corrupt, felon led federal government. They had offered multiple excuses for having to quickly close down the El Paso airport, but eventually it was learned that the only thing the military laser in the hands of untrained border patrol boys with new toys shot down was a party balloon!
Just how many taxpayer dollars were spent on that misadventure? How many lives of airline passengers and crews, including people on the ground, were put in jeopardy just so border patrol boys with new toys could shoot a military laser at an airborne object, then quickly someone had to make a decision to shut down an entire international airport before anyone was killed?!
I believe this is just one more, but very important reason for Congress to continue to withhold ALL funding from HSI before any more innocent Americans are put in danger, or even worse, KILLED by bozos with deadly military grade weapons they want to play with. This is NOT a game! HSI is a completely rogue federal agency with an unhinged maga sycophant, Krisit Noem, in charge, who has a documented history of lying to the American public and making excuses for her murderous thugs’ killing of two American citizens.
Not one more dime should be allocated to HSI by Congress until that out of control agency is reigned in and strict constraints placed on it to ensure accountability for each federal dollar allocated to it as well as proper oversight into it’s activities including independent investigations have been conducted into all of the shootings by it’s agents!
Pogo says
@Banned in Floriduhstan
“Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
Ray W says
There was a time quite long ago when coal was king of the American electricity utility industry. Even 20 years ago, just before the Shale Revolution, coal held some 50% of national electricity generating capacity. Natural gas soon came to be seen as heir-apparent.
Twenty years ago, solar power was a minor player in the grid, but America led the world in solar research and development. We were a player in solar panel manufacturing. But we threw away our lead. Professional liars came to dominate the conversation. The Chinese ignored what the professional liars offered. Now, the billions and billions of dollars to be made each year from manufacturing solar panels flows to China. And the professional liars continue to spread their lies.
Now, the economic reality is that King Coal is nearly dead. Natural gas has to be propped up. Solar, wind and battery backup are the future.
These figures come from ERCOT, a quasi-governmental agency that oversees the Texas electricity grid.
ERCOT projects that by the end of 2026, shares of maximum grid generating capacity will be:
Natural gas – 37.5%.
Wind – 22.4%.
Solar – 19.7%.
Battery storage – 8.6%.
Coal – 7.6%.
Nuclear- 2.9%.
Hydropower – 0.3%.
Other – 0.1%.
In December 2013, an ice storm that came to be called Cobblestone struck northern Texas. Hundreds of thousands of households lost power. Seven people died. The ERCOT after-action study placed blame on the fact that natural gas plants and pipelines, lacking winterizing protections, froze and then the power plants failed. There was no renewable presence to speak of in the Texas grid, so Republican politicians could not blame solar and wind. Utility experts recommended that regulators require grid weatherizing. No one possessing regulatory authority listened.
Less than eight years later, Winter Storm Uri struck. Much of the Texas grid collapsed. More than 240 Texans died.
Professional liars, including the governor, immediately blamed renewables. And why not? The grid had failed during the night, but that had never stopped professional liars before. There is great political value to be gained by lying to the gullibly stupid. Who knows how many of the gullibly stupid lie launderers out there laundered the professional lies, but a number of the pestilential partisan members of faction among us posted the lies on the FlaglerLive site.
The ERCOT after-action study showed that a number of natural gas power plants froze. Others raced at full capacity to make up the difference, but as pipelines also began to freeze, one by one, additional natural gas plants shut down. Demand passed supply and the grid faced damaging undersupply. Controllers, seeing the developing situation, shut down significant portions of the grid to forestall the pending equipment damage.
Once again, the lack of winterizing natural gas pipelines and power plants was named as primary cause. Yes, wind and solar output lessened, but not by enough to cause the collapse. This time, outdoor supplies at coal-fired power plants froze solid in the sleet and freezing rain and the coal plants, too, shut down one by one when the blocks of frozen coal and ice prevented use of the coal.
The Texas Tribune wrote:
“According to ERCOT’s post-event review presented to Texas lawmakers, the grid lost 1,500 megawatts of generation within minutes in the early morning hours on February 15 as power plants began tripping offline in quick succession, quickly followed by more failures as extreme cold froze equipment and fuel supply problems spread across the system.”
The emergency grid shutdown became the biggest controlled power outage in American history.
This time, regulators, prompted by the governor and the legislature ordered winterization. In some instances, winterization meant draping tarps over pipelines, like homeowners placing sheets over shrubs and flowers during a freeze. It was that simple, but natural gas pipeline owners couldn’t see fit to spending money until ordered to do so.
ERCOT ordered additional power plants to provide a more robust grid reserve capacity.
The Tribune reporter wrote that the vast majority of the ordered new capacity additions came from solar farms and battery backup. Between 2023 and 2025, solar power capacity doubled. Battery storage capacity tripled. Since 2021, it was reported, Texas has come to lead the nation in solar farms and battery storage.
Last month, Winter Storm Fern struck across much of the nation. It was a true ice storm caused by moisture-laden air coming up from a Gulf with waters at record high winter temperatures. When the arctic blast caused by a shift in the jet stream hit the moisture-laden Gulf air, sleet and freezing rain dropped tree limbs onto power lines, but the Texas grid held. Demand never exceeded supply. Newly-installed battery backup capacity, serving as a “peaker” power supply, at one point in time provided almost 10% of overall Texas electricity demand, enough to power 1.75 million homes, as it was designed to do.
Ray W says
For years, some of my comments about the Shale Revolution centered on the convergence of three technological breakthroughs. 3D seismic imaging permitted energy extractors to locate the richest concentrations of crude oil in shale rock. Improvements in horizontal drilling techniques allowed energy extractors to drill into those precise locations. New fracking compounds permitted energy extractors to access higher volumes of oil from the shale rock.
Because of these three innovations, America extracts more oil and natural gas each day than does any other country.
But industry journals have long predicted a fall in crude oil output from shale rock formations, as more and more of the low-hanging fruit is picked.
The Wall Street Journal just published an article about declining output per well in the Permian Basin. In both 2016 and 2017, the average number of barrels released per foot of lateral drilling was 65. Now, it is down to 46 barrels per lateral drilled foot.
Many new crude oil stories focus on American energy extractors moving on to international shale rock formations for profits. Argentina’s vast and barely exploited Vaca Muerta shale formation is a common destination for American drillers. Many nations offer unexplored fields promising wealth to those who know how to find it.
100 years ago, America held giant pools of crude oil. Those pools were exploited long ago. Most are now dry. Shale formations were a niche industry for decades until the technological breakthroughs. The Permian was first exploited over a hundred years ago. But it dried up. At the beginning of the Shale Revolution, output from the vast field was about one million barrels of oil per day. Recently, output topped six million barrels per day. Now, the oil supply may be drying up again.
Specialized deep-water drilling equipment, certified for use only a few years ago, is the new frontier. How long will this last?
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I have long favored a rapid transition from fossil fuels to clean sources of energy. But I can’t ignore the obvious. Only about one billion of the world’s population can easily attain an energy-intensive lifestyle. These one billion people enjoy climate-controlled homes, personal transport, modern appliances. Compared to the other seven billion, energy use is on a vastly higher plane.
Does anyone believe that the other seven billion of us don’t want what the most developed one billion have? Does a young Indonesian professional woman with a doctoral degree want a car and a climate-controlled home if she can afford it? And why shouldn’t she want these things? How about a young Thai business owner? Brazilian soybean trader?
Increased electricity demand is not going to continue to rise only because of data centers!
I am old enough to remember a time when Florida homes all over the county switched over to central heat and air. My childhood ocean-front home wasn’t air conditioned. We enjoyed one window unit in the late sixties. But beach breezes made a difference. Electricity demand all over the land shot upwards. Many small Florida beachside bungalows had jalousie windows that leaked out cool air like a sieve. Those types of windows are long gone.
When cooling homes meant cranking open the jalousie windows, people adapted. Who is to say that that type of transition from breeze to AC shouldn’t happen everywhere?
Last year, Africa as a continent installed some 4.5 gigawatts of solar capacity, up 54% over 2024, but that is a fraction compared to what is being installed in more developed regions. I don’t suppose anyone thinks that growth in solar installations in Africa will or even should suddenly slow.
Ray W says
Once per year, wrote a Politico reporter, the Congressional Budget Office releases its “marquee” fiscal outlook report.
Here are snippets from the 172-page 2026 document.
The FY 2026 federal deficit will be $1.9 trillion, growing to $3.1 trillion in 2036, assuming current fiscal policies remain unchanged.
The current federal debt of some $36 trillion will be $64 trillion by 2036, assuming current fiscal policies remain unchanged.
The roughly $3 trillion economic boost from the 2025 tax bill will be nearly completely offset by the negative effects of tariff and immigration policies.
Make of this what you will.
Sherry says
Maniac trump dismisses “Scientific Facts” on Climate Change. . . placing our nation and planet in greater peril! This from the AP:
President Donald Trump on Thursday revoked the 2009 endangerment finding, which has long been the central basis for U.S. action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change.
But in making the announcement, Trump and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin made false claims regarding the government declaration, climate change, and energy.
Here’s a closer look at the facts.___
TRUMP: “Known as the endangerment finding, this determination had no basis in fact, had none whatsoever, and it had no basis in law.”
THE FACTS: This is false. The endangerment finding was adopted in 2009 by the EPA after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that greenhouse gases are air pollutants that can be regulated under the Clean Air Act.
“The idea that the endangerment finding has no basis in law is ludicrous,” said Ann Carlson, a professor of environmental law at the University of California, Los Angeles. “The Supreme Court in Massachusetts v. EPA specifically directed the Environmental Protection Agency to determine whether greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. The endangerment finding is the result.”
Scientific evidence to support the endangerment finding was provided by the EPA at the time of its inception and is still available on the agency’s website today.
TRUMP: “We’ve basically stopped all windmills in this country. It’s the most expensive energy you can get.”
THE FACTS: Onshore wind is one of the cheapest sources of electricity generation, with new wind farms expected to produce around $30 per megawatt hour, according to July estimates from the Energy Information Administration.
This compares to a new natural gas plant, around $65 per megawatt hour, or a new advanced nuclear reactor, which runs over $80. Offshore wind is among the sources of new power generation that will cost the most to build and operate, at $88 per megawatt hour, the EIA said in July.
TRUMP, asked about the cost to health and the environment: “It has nothing to do with public health. This is all a scam, a giant scam. This was a rip off of the country by Obama and Biden, and let’s say Obama started it and got it rolling and a terrible rip off.”
THE FACTS: Thousands of peer-reviewed scientific studies connect health harms to climate change. They find increasing deaths from heat waves, extreme weather such as hurricanes and floods and air pollution from worsening wildfires. A 2021 study in Nature Climate Change calculated that globally about 9,700 people die a year from heat-related deaths attributable to human-caused climate change, based on data from 732 cities, including more than 200 in the United States.
A separate study last year listed dozens of climate change health harms and concluded, using the EPA’s own calculation method, that the health costs are at least $10 billion a year, probably much more.
The science of climate change dates back nearly 170 years to studies done by American Eunice Foote showing that carbon dioxide heated cylinders with thermometers inside more than ambient air. The first national climate assessment, done in 2000, before Obama and Biden, “concluded that climate variability and change are likely to increase morbidity and mortality risks.”
ZELDIN: “The Obama and Biden administrations used the endangerment finding to steamroll into existence a left-wing wish, including electric vehicle mandates.”
THE FACTS: Trump has made this claim before. There was no federal mandate to force the purchase of EVs.
“If you looked at some of the tables that were in the Biden rules, you could see that there were a variety of different ways that companies could comply with the standards,” said Carrie Jenks, the executive director of Harvard Law School’s environmental and energy law program. “The endangerment finding nor the regulations mandated a shift from one type of vehicle to another.”
Former President Joe Biden did set up a non-binding goal that EVs make up half of new cars sold by 2030. Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office revoking that goal.
Biden’s policies tightened restrictions on pollution from gas-powered cars and trucks in an effort to encourage Americans to buy EVs and car companies to shift from gas-powered vehicles to electric cars.
Ray W says
This comment derives from an ERCOT fact sheet.
On February 15, 2024, combined wind and solar power reached at one time 71.8% of total customer demand, at 31.366 gigawatts of power produced.
On June 21, 2025, combined wind and solar power reached at one time 64% of total customer demand, at 46.966 gigawatts of power produced.
Between 9 am and 4 pm, September 9, 2025, solar power provided over an extended period of time more than 40% of total customer demand.
For the summer months of June, July and August, 2025, 24 hours per day, solar power provided, on average, 15.2% of total customer demand.
From January to September 2025, 24 hours per day, wind and solar combined provided, on average, 36% of total customer demand.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Of the more than 1,250 power plants of all types available to choose from to power the ERCOT grid, the most efficient and least costly of all power plants will be operated as often as possible. The most expensive of all power plants will be fired up only during times of peak demand, winter or summer.
It is clear from these ERCOT figures that, on average, power produced by renewables is drawn upon first or nearly first.
Ray W says
Many FlaglerLive readers may remember Marimar Martinez, the American citizen and 31-year-old Montessori School worker who was shot five times in Chicago by a federal immigration agent on October 4, 2025, leaving seven holes in her body. The shooter later bragged about his shooting skills on restricted access social media.
According to a USA Today story, Ms. Martinez was arrested and charged with ramming her car into an agency SUV while armed.
A person licensed to carry, she had a holstered handgun in her purse, not on her person.
Almost immediately, a DHS spokesperson branded her a domestic terrorist, a person who had “ambushed” the agents in the SUV.
On November 20, 2025, a DOJ prosecutor asked the judge to whom the case had been assigned to dismiss the charges filed against her, with which request the judge complied.
Two days ago, a video from a body-camera worn by a second agent in the SUV was released. From the video, it is reported, she is recorded as having steered her vehicle away from the SUV, not into it. Instead, the agent driving the SUV is recorded as having steered the SUV “sharply” to the left in her direction. The agent wearing the body-camera at the time of the sharp turn contemporaneously called out on a radio, “we’ve been struck”, even though the video showed otherwise.
All of this happened before the agent driving the SUV stopped it, opened the door, and fired into Ms. Martinez’s car, including a shot fired into the back of a car seat.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Exactly what should a federal prosecutor do when he or she learns from the evidence that the government witnesses are liars? The body-camera-wearing agent immediately lied on the radio as he watched his fellow agent turn sharply to the left, and not the other way around. Shooting into a moving vehicle on a city street from behind is a big LEO no-no! Lying under oath is an even bigger LEO no-no. Someone had to sign under oath the complaint affidavit for Ms. Marimar to be arrested.
I ask all FlaglerLive readers.
Is lying considered a negative character trait? Does lying make a person less than virtuous? Is lying considered an act of moral turpitude, something the act of improper entry is not? An immigrant improperly entering the country with the intent to build a better life for herself and her family can never be considered as her having committed an act of moral turpitude. Indeed, improper entry is more properly defined as a regulatory or administrative violation. Moral turpitude can be defined as morally base, dishonest or inherently fraudulent.
Why are we hiring so many of the lesser among us so that we can deport so many of the better among us?
Ray W says
This is an update on the Marimar Martinez story.
Apparently, all three of the immigration agency officials in the SUV swore under oath that the SUV had been boxed in when the driver swerved “sharply” to the left. A second and independent video shows that the SUV was never boxed in. Zero vehicles were in front of the SUV.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I ask again, what should a federal prosecutor do when he or she realizes that competent and reliable independent evidence proves the government’s witnesses capable of lying under oath?
Sherry says
Immigration. . . Most Disapprove of trump’s gestapo tactics. . . This from the AP:
Trump’s approval on immigration appears to have fallen among independents since last spring, from 37% in March 2025 to 23% in the new poll. There is greater variability in surveying small groups, like independents, which creates more uncertainty about the magnitude of changes. About 6 in 10 independents now say Trump has “gone too far” in deporting immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, an apparent increase from 46% in an AP-NORC poll in April.
Most U.S. adults, including independents, have an unfavorable view of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, commonly referred to as ICE. Overall, only about 3 in 10 U.S. adults have a favorable view of the agency, the AP-NORC poll found.
There is an large partisan gap, with independents much closer to Democrats than Republicans. Only about 1 in 10 Democrats and roughly 2 in 10 independents have a favorable view of ICE, compared to about 7 in 10 Republicans.
Sherry says
ICE Horror. . . Shooting people and then making up stories and lying under oath is ICE SOP! Take a good read of this story from the AP:
https://apnews.com/article/immigration-prosecutors-assault-shooting-minneapolis-charges-d713836a06471af9f38ee6ee8976a20c
Ray W says
Here is a new story about federal prosecutors earlier today asking a Minnesota federal judge to dismiss assault charges previously filed against two men by two ICE officers.
The ICE officers had sworn in an “initial affidavit” to a certain set of facts. The two men, one of whom had been shot in the leg, had been indicted.
Independent video evidence was then uncovered.
In the formal request to dismiss charges, wrote the reporter, federal prosecutors wrote that “newly discovered evidence” was “materially inconsistent with the allegations” set in the initial affidavit and preliminary testimony.
The reporter continued that the two ICE agents are now under investigation to determine whether they had lied under oath.
Make of this what you will.