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Weather: Showers likely, mainly after 1pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 79. South wind 5 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
Friday Night: Showers. Low around 58. Chance of precipitation is 80%.
- 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 For All Fridays with Host David Ayres, an hour-long public affairs radio show featuring local newsmakers, personalities, public health updates and the occasional surprise guest, starts a little after 9 a.m. after FlaglerLive Editor Pierre Tristam’s Reality Check. See previous podcasts here. On WNZF at 94.9 FM, 1550 AM, and live at Flagler Broadcasting’s YouTube channel.
The Scenic A1A Pride Committee meets at 9 a.m. at the Hammock Community Center, 79 Mala Compra Road, Palm Coast. The meetings are open to the public.
The Friday Blue Forum, a discussion group organized by local Democrats, meets at 12:15 p.m. at the Flagler Democratic Office at 160 Cypress Point Parkway, Suite C214 (above Cue Note) at City Marketplace. Come and add your voice to local, state and national political issues.
Acoustic Jam Circle At The Community Center In The Hammock, 2 to 5 p.m., Picnic Shelter behind the Hammock Community Center at 79 Mala Compra Road, Palm Coast. It’s a free event. Bring your Acoustic stringed Instrument (no amplifiers), and a folding chair and join other local amateur musicians for a jam session. Audiences and singers are also welcome. A “Jam Circle” format is where musicians sit around the circle. Each musician in turn gets to call out a song and musical key, and then lead the rest in singing/playing. Then it’s on to the next person in the circle. Depending upon the song, the musicians may take turns playing/improvising a verse and a chorus. It’s lots of Fun! Folks who just want to watch or sing generally sit on the periphery or next to their musician partner. This is a monthly event on the 4th Friday of every month.
“The Colored Museum,” at City Repertory Theatre, 160 Cypress Point Parkway (City Marketplace, Suite B207), Palm Coast, 7:30 p.m. except on Sunday, at 3 p.m. Tickets are $30 for adults, $15 for students. Book here. With eleven powerful vignettes blending humor, drama, and sharp social commentary, this groundbreaking play challenges conventions and redefines what it means to celebrate Black history on stage. A must-see theatrical experience—moving, hilarious, and unforgettable.
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: Darius the Great, a Persian king of the 5th century BCE–while Socrates was dying at the hands of Athens’s maga movement and Plato was building his acropolis to totalitarianism–is said to have been a writer. An inscription of Darius at Susa begins thus: “Ahura-Mazda is the Great God, who created this earth, who created this sky above, who created man, who created the happiness of men, who made Darius a king, the only king among many, the only lord among many.” Reading these lines, it felt like I was reading Truth Social. But then Darius wrote, describing himself: “I am the friend of law. I am not the friend of evil. It is not my desire that the weak should be wronged by the strong. What is right is my desire. I’m not a liar’s friend. Those things which arise in my anger I firmly control by my thoughts.” And we were back in the 5th century BCE.
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
In Court: Kristopher Henriqson Trial
Nar-Anon Family Group
Bunnell City Commission Meeting
Free Tax Preparation Services in Flagler County
In Court: Kristopher Henriqson Trial
Palm Coast City Council Workshop
Community Traffic Safety Team Meeting
Flagler Beach United Methodist Church Food Pantry
St. Johns River Water Management District Meeting
Flagler County School Board Workshop: Agenda Items
Weekly Chess Club for Teens, Ages 10-18, at the Flagler County Public Library
Tuesday Book Talk at Flagler Beach Public Library
Flagler County Planning Board Meeting
“Godspell,” at the Limelight Theatre
For the full calendar, go here.
Honest Abe, the Rail-Splitter, born in a manger—or, rather, log cabin … Thanks to the telegraph and the modernization of the daguerreotype, Lincoln’s managers had been able to impress an indelible image on the country’s consciousness. Even the famous beard that Lincoln had grown on the train from Springfield to Washington had been a deliberate calculation and not, as Lincoln had said so sweetly if disingenuously at the time, the result of a letter from a little girl who liked whiskers. Actually, the letter had come from a number of influential New York Republicans who thought that a beard might give him dignity, something that they had found dangerously wanting in the quaint western teller of funny and not-so-funny stories. So Lincoln had grown the beard.
–From Gore Vidal’s Lincoln (1984).
Ray W. says
In a Fortune article, the author writes of a softening over time of American soft power, of American cultural influence. Foreign student university enrollment is down 17% in one year. American overseas university student enrollment is up.
But one statistic caught my eye. In 2021, English-language music, as expressed by a study of the 10,000 most often streamed songs, comprised 67% of the market. Now, with the rise of K-pop and Latin strains, among so many other influences, 55% of the 10,000 most often streamed songs by listeners all over the world are English-language. Bad Bunny is the most often streamed artist in the world. To go in five short years from two out of three streamed listenings on a most democratic a market platform to eleven streams out of twenty is remarkable.
This raises a different issue.
Recently, a FlaglerLive commenter of poor reputation further bastardized the meaning of “woke” by claiming that the Super Bowl’s half-time show proved that the NFL had become “woke”. What if the NFL is one of the most successful marketing organizations in the world, now generating over $20 billion in annual revenue streams? Is the NFL reading audience tea leaves? Does the NFL understand a growing future audience?
Is the NFL “woke”, or is it prudently shrewd?
Ed P says
Hello Ray W,
Roger Goodell has been the commissioner of the NFL since 2006.
He’s the league’s CEO. His annual contracted income is estimated to be $66 million. Personal net worth $250-$300 million.
There is a reason he holds that position.
Woke or not, the reality is they are chameleons and marketing geniuses. The 2020 movement into social justice has taken 6 years to almost evaporate.
They want to move international.
The reality is the fans attending the Super Bowl are such a small portion of the days total revenue, half time entertainment decisions are made for the world wide television audience not the chumps spending $15-$20,000 to attend the event live.
My only observation is always a danger when businesses forget where they’ve came from and who helped them to get there.
Skibum says
Either something is wrong with the math, or Goodell is terrible at managing his exorbitant financial resources if he has been NFL commissioner for the last 20 years, his updated yearly salary is 66 mil, but his current net worth is only 250-300 mil?!?!
Ed P says
Skibum,
It’s called living the high life. There are lots of high paid people who are broke. A $300 million dollar net worth puts him in a very elite position.
The music Drake is a great example. He’s make a lot and spends a lot because he knows he only lives once. Check out his life style, like his “small” airplane. (Sarcasm)
Ray W. says
Hello Ed P, from one chameleon to another, thank you.
I have long maintained that if procedural due process is to be achieved, a client’s voice must be heard in a courtroom. Not the lawyer’s interpretation of what the client’s voice ought to be, but the client’s actual voice in the lawyer’s words. There is a difference.
There was at a time not so long ago when “woke” had meaning. No more. The meaning has been so bastardized that no one knows anymore. Meanings can be made up on the spot to fit everything and nothing. Entire pestilential partisan lies sprout up like weeds. Untrustworthy people just talk to hear their heads roar.
To MASCAR’s chagrin, a significant portion of its base has evaporated for decisions Dennis C. Rathsam would bastardize in meaning as “woke.” I applaud NASCAR for its decisions, but I concede that the decisions carried with them a cost.
Every FlaglerLive reader ought to know by now that no one can accept at face value anything Dennis C. Rathsam types. I oppose him because he so often presents as vengefully dishonest.
One difference between me and Dennis C. Rathsam is that I post my source or sources from the get-go and then build an argument around information gleaned from the source or sources. I then ask every FlaglerLive reader to accept or reject the information. Build on it. Tear it down. Look it up on one’s own. I then offer my interpretation of what the information from each article or opinion column or research paper might mean.
In essence, I aspire to present to the FlaglerLive community the most accurate evidence from up-to-date sources I can find and ask each reader to do whatever they want with it.
Dennis C. Rathsam does not do this. Only he is right, even when he is demonstrably wrong. Gas prices were never down by a dollar on average, as he so often claimed. Indeed, a year ago, according to AAA, a gallon of regular gasoline on average cost Americans $3.10 at the pump. A month ago, that same gasoline on average cost $2.87. A week ago? $2.93. Yesterday, before the news out of Iran hit? $2.98 per gallon of regular gasoline at the pump.
Pogo says
As stated
https://www.google.com/search?q=peace+board+members
Uncle Sam Doesn’t Want You
https://theanimalrescuesite.com/blogs/news/va-health-care
Extra credit
https://www.google.com/search?q=gore+vidal
Ibid
https://www.google.com/search?q=roy+cohn
Ibid
https://www.google.com/search?q=donald+trump+bio
I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.
— Groucho Marx
Ray W. says
Each month, different inflation figures for different types of economic activities are released.
The Consumer Price Index is perhaps the best known. Data collectors fan out each month to collect retail products prices for a huge basket of goods and services. “Core” CPI figures exclude the more volatile categories of food and energy. CPI figures measure only what consumers pay.
Then there is the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index, which measures not only consumer spending but also business focused data. This gauge is said to be the report most favored by the Fed. It, too, has a “core” category, with food and energy excluded.
And, there is the Producer Price Index, which measures prices in a wholesale setting, not a retail setting. Economists argue that the PPI is a kind of canary in a coal mine, presaging at the wholesale level what is coming at the retail level. PPI also has a “core” component, excluding not just the volatile food and energy prices, but also prices for services.
Given that each month three different reports offering six different monthly inflation measures are released, plus month-over-month figures and year-over-year figures, anyone can argue that people have much to choose from.
This morning, PPI wholesale inflation figures for January 2026 were released.
PPI inflation in all categories was 0.5% for the month, up from December’s 0.4% rate. Neither are good inflation numbers. Neither figure shows inflation dropping. Core inflation for January alone was a less bad 0.3%. Year-over-year full PPI inflation was 2.9%. Core PPI inflation, year-over-year, was 3.4%.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I commonly argue that I am not an economist. At best, I am a curious student. But I can read.
There are a number of FlaglerLive commenters who accept at face value without question whatever President Trump says, regardless of how ridiculous the assertion. They insist that inflation is gone, that the American economy is the strongest in history, and that President Trump inherited the worst economy in history from President Biden.
Oy, vey!
Jim says
Can anyone explain what the USA’s goals with Iran might be? I’m just curious as to what we’re trying to accomplish. We’ve got the largest amount of military assets there that has been seen in decades. But here, I don’t hear much about it. I hear almost nothing about what our goals are. I know Trump says “Iran needs to make a deal”. Make a deal about what? It can’t be about nuclear weapons. I distinctly remember our president stating we “obliterated” their nuclear capability in June 2025. So since it can’t be that, what exactly are we trying to accomplish? Did we send over all those military assets to protect Iran’s civilians from mistreatment (including death) from their own government? If so, that’s rich. We are protecting Iranians but at the same time we abuse and murder our own civilians with our own “internal” forces (you know, the masked men in military outfits, no identification and little or no adherence to our laws and constitution).
So I just do not understand what our goals are. Neither of the above make sense. The only other thing Iran has that Trump would use US forces for is oil. Is that it?
It’s just a sad statement of our current situation that this government would feel emboldened to put our forces at risk without bothering to inform the public (and those forces) of what we are trying to do.
But maybe I’m wrong and someone will enlighten me…
By the way, anyone want to take a bet on Trump’s odds of winning the Nobel peace prize this year????
Linda Haworth says
Persian Gulf Wars were all about oil, too (vs. “weapons of mass destruction”)
Ray W. says
At the outbreak of Russian aggression in February 2022, Ukrainian military manufacturing capacity was estimated as sufficient to supply 10% of needs. Today, a number of news outlets estimate Ukrainian military manufacturing capacity at between 40% to 60% of needs, despite the overall quantity of need rising.
Business Insider reports that Ukrainian military manufacturing designed and developed a turbofan-powered U.S. Tomahawk-replica long-range missile, named the Flamingo.
Recently, all four launched Flamingo missiles, said to possess a 1,900 mile range, allegedly struck and damaged a Russian missile manufacturing plant located some 860 miles from the Ukrainian border.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
In many ways, the Ukrainian people have modernized their nation’s manufacturing base. A story at the heart of one of my comments many months ago described how European countries more and more have begun contracting with Ukrainian heavy industry to more efficiently and economically produce what the Ukrainian military needs rather than to send to them supplies out of their existing armaments stocks.
Ray W. says
I suppose many FlaglerLive readers already know that our president has engaged in a long-term pressuring effort to persuade Fed Chair Powell to rapidly lower lending rates.
And I suppose that many FlaglerLive readers already know that the Department of Justice openly revealed the initiation of a criminal investigation involving Mr. Powell, as if the DOJ commonly announces such criminal investigations.
But I don’t suppose to know whether many FlaglerLive readers already know of Mr. Powell’s response to the pressure campaign.
Last month, Mr. Powell’s stated:
“The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than follow the preferences of the president. … This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions – or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation.”
Make of this what you will.
Ray W. says
As foundation for this comment, graphene was first created in a British university lab in 2004, though it had long been thought theoretically possible. Graphene, according to a Physics.org reporter, “is made of a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, but it is hundreds of times stronger than steel, conducts electricity and heat better than copper and is almost completely transparent.”
The Physics.org story is titled: Peanut waste can be turned into high-quality futuristic graphene
It is its hexagonal lattice structure that makes graphene an ideal battery or supercapacitor energy storage material; each hexagonal graphene atom can store three electricity ions, instead of one ion per space in other storage mediums. Graphene is a superconducting material that speeds electron movement without the resistance that generates heat in other battery materials.
University of New South Wales researchers hypothesized that graphene of high purity could be produced from waste organic materials that contain naturally occurring high lignin polymer content, like banana peels, coffee grounds, and peanut shells.
With traditional high purity graphene being produced by creating carbon black from fossil fuels and then converting it into graphene by way of expensive and wasteful chemical processes, which end up costing as much as $10,000 per kilogram, there was room to experiment.
After grinding the waste peanut shells into a fine powder, the researchers heated it to 500 degrees C for five minutes to remove impurities and “char” the powder, a process that creates porous graphite out of the lignin polymer content.
Then, the graphite is “flash jouled” to 3,000 degrees C for milli-seconds, rearranging the graphite char powder into single layers of graphene, say the researchers. The entire process takes some 10 minutes and uses $1.30 worth of electricity. No use of fossil fuels to make carbon black. No reliance on expensive and wasteful chemicals to convert the carbon black into graphene.
According to a team spokesman:
“What we identified in the experiments was that the most important aspect in terms of producing high-quality graphene was the pre-treatment or precursor engineering done to the peanut shells before the flash joule heating. … Considering how much organic materials like that is available, our work demonstrates a good balance between the energy efficiency, the quality of graphene we end up with and the economic viability of the whole process.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Rapid changes continue to unfold in battery materials technology. Weight is dropping. Volume is contracting. Energy storage capacity is increasing. Cost is falling.
As an aside, the maximum theoretical energy storage capacity for current liquid-state lithium-ion batteries is 406 watt-hours per kilogram. Sodium-ion? 458. Solid-state lithium-ion? 711 right now. LFP? 380. Graphene-aluminum oxide? 1060.
Let’s face facts. If a process of scaling the manufacture of high quality graphene sheets from waste coffee grounds or banana peels or peanut shells truly is at an electricity cost of $1.30 per kilogram, plus related costs, the sky’s the limit.
And the possibilities extend beyond energy storage. The U.S. Navy conducted sea trials with a ship’s hull painted with graphene-infused paint. Fuel efficiency increased by 10% and top speed increased. The paint is highly rust resistant, being waterproof, and it is thinner, saving weight. What of automobile paint? Home and deck paint? Longer lasting and more durable?
Ray W. says
The Cool Down reports that in 2025, and for the first time, the quantity of electricity generated globally at new solar and wind plants outpaced the total global increase in new electricity demand.
Make of this what you will.