To include your event in the Briefing and Live Calendar, please fill out this form.
Weather: A 30 percent chance of showers after 1pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 74. East wind 6 to 11 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph. Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 60.
- 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:
Municipal Election in Flagler Beach, polls open at 7 a.m., close at 7 p.m. Two incumbents and a third candidate are running for two seats in Flagler Beach. Flagler Beach voters may cast ballots at Flagler Beach City Hall, 105 S. 2nd Street. See sample ballots and additional information on the two elections at the Supervisor of Elections’ web page here.
The Palm Coast City Council meets at 6 p.m. at City Hall. For agendas, minutes, and audio access to the meetings, go here. For meeting agendas, audio and video, go here.
Flagler Beach’s Planning and Architectural Review Board meets at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall, 105 S 2nd Street. For agendas and minutes, go here.
Weekly Chess Club for Teens, Ages 10-18, at the Flagler County Public Library: Do you enjoy Chess, trying out new moves, or even like some friendly competition? Come visit the Flagler County Public Library at the Teen Spot every Tuesday from 4:30 to 6 p.m. for Chess Club. Everyone is welcome, for beginners who want to learn how to play all the way to advanced players. For more information contact the Youth Service department 386-446-6763 ext. 3714 or email us at [email protected]
Hammock Community Association Meeting, 6:30 p.m. at Hammock Community Center, 79 Malacompra Road. Everyone is invited. Doors open at 6 p.m. Tonight’s guest speaker: County Commissioner Greg Hansen. Check the month’s speaker at TheHammock.org. See videos from prior meetings at the HCA’s YouTube Channel. Sign up for the Newsletter. Prior newsletters are available here. Membership is $16. Join or renew 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 Library Book Club meets at 5 p.m. at the library, 315 South Seventh Street, Flagler Beach.
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy, 8 p.m. at Cinematique Theater, 242 South Beach Street, Daytona Beach. General admission is $8.50. Every Tuesday and on the first Saturday of every month the Random Acts of Insanity Comedy Improv Troupe specializes in performing fast-paced improvised comedy.
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: “You never know what you will see at Flagler Beach at Dawn. 
,” Flagler Beach City Commissioner Scott Spradley wrote on his Facebook page below the picture above, which features him in the foreground, with fellow-Commissioner Rick Belhumeur, left, and R.J. Santore, who is hoping to unseat one of the two in today’s election. Two seats are up in Flagler Beach, Spradley’s and Belhumeur’s. The picture is emblematic of a few things: the collegiality of the commission in general and of its election race as well, with mudslinging, if any at all, kept to a minimum. Spradley is in the foreground not just because he took the picture, but because it’s really a two-way race between Belhumeur and Santore for the second spot, Spradley’s being pretty much assured. The picture is also indicative of the decency, seriousness and good cheer of the three candidates. If all election races were like that, we’d be in good shape. Spradley also wrote: “Regardless of who are your preferred Candidates, please get out and VOTE. Let’s see a big turnout, to ensure the results truly reflect the wishes of the entire Community. Thank you Flagler Beach!” To which Santore wrote: “No candidates were harmed in the making of this photo.”
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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
ESL Bible Studies for Intermediate and Advanced Students
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village
“My Fair Lady,” at Daytona Playhouse
Al-Anon Family Groups
“Godspell,” at the Limelight Theatre
Free Tax Preparation Services in Flagler County
Flagler County Commission Morning Meeting
Beverly Beach Town Commission meeting
Nar-Anon Family Group
For the full calendar, go here.
“She made New Hampshire sound like a place you wanted to go: an endless orifice among black ice, buzzing like an OPEN 24 HOURS sign. Cups of coffee in the morning, adrenaline-fueled emails in the afternoon, solitary preparations for threesomes at night.
–From Patricia Lockwood’s No One Is Talking About This (2021).
Dennis C Rathsam says
Now that TRUMP controls the oil in Venisuella, & Iran is in no condition to sell oil to anyone…. Where will China & Russia get the oil they need, they need plenty! TRUMPS, the only gas station in town. TRUMP has put the USA in the drivers seat! Watch the war in Ukraine, I don’t think it will last much longer. TRUMP has Putin by the balls, as he does Xi in China. TRUMP changed the worlds order…. They love him, they fear him, now they must kiss his ass to make a deal. TRUMP will go down in history as a great president, a shrude leader, one of Americas best! For all you suffering from TDS, you’ll still hate TRUMP! The more the Democrates push him, the more he pushes back. Since the State of the Union, we’ve watched them pick illegals over Americans. Not one jackass stood up for Americans…not one. The Democrates are on the wrong side of everything, Americans see for themselves as it plays out. No wonder why Schumer wants the Biden INVADERES to stay, and have the right to vote… No American is his right mind will even look at a wing nut, communist Democrat, the party of cover ups & Lies.
Bizarro says
Let’s not let facts get in the way!
“As of early 2026, Russia’s crude oil production is approximately 9.3 to 10.1 million barrels per day (bpd), with 2025 output holding steady around 516 million tons despite Western sanctions and logistical challenges. Production is expected to rise slightly to 525 million tons in 2026, with over 80% of exports redirected to China and India.”
Where on earth do you get your facts from?
Ray W. says
Dennis C. Rathsam gets his facts from vengeful professional liars.
Pogo says
@Ray W
Some of them anyway; I’ve always thought that he, and his comments, are just typical of Rush Limbaugh disease in its end stage — and eating off of floors of Denny’s and Waffle House restrooms.
Really, who knows?
Skibum says
Maybe the maga brain worm really is contagious after all.
Laurel says
Oh, so that’s why RFK & company are antivacxers!
Ray W. says
This is for Dennis C. Rathsam. President Trump recently posted to Truth Social his prediction that the DOW will surpass 100,000 before the end of his second term in office.
Make of this what you will.
Laurel says
Yeah Ray W, just be patient!
(Sarcasm)
Pogo says
@Great cartoon
… too bad it doesn’t mention everyone else — who made trump POTUS by action, and/or omission.
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/K/KhayyamOmar/51Moving/index.html
Elsewhere
https://www.haystack.tv/v/volusia-sheriff-update-deputy-shot-deltona?utm_source=daily_digest&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DigestEmails&utm_term=headline-7
Bo Peep says
We think that this administration is much better than the last one and we do not have a babbling idiot for a VP any more.
Thanks
The dude says
This is not the flex you believe it to be…
It’s like saying:
“We think that herpes is much better than poison ivy”…
Laurel says
Pure babbling Vance:
“…they’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating the pets of the people who live there.”
Oh yeah, much better.
Sherry says
Robo Troll “Peeps” Again!
Skibum says
https://komonews.com/news/local/bc-adopts-permanent-daylight-saving-time-influenced-by-recent-actions-from-the-us-legislation-clock-spring-forward-family-schedule-work-season-spring-disruption-light-sunshine-america-trump-federalsleep
Another nail in the coffin of twice yearly time change in North America. Hopefully, the U.S. will stop bickering about whether to go with standard time or pacific time, and just do it!
Ray W. says
Morning Overview reports that Quantum Scape, an American battery manufacturer dedicated to developing a viable solid-state EV battery, has a battery developed far enough for it to be delivered for real-world testing by potential buyers.
Nissan has built a factory pilot assembly line to build its version of a solid-state battery.
Solid Power is scaling up a solid-state electrolyte assembly line, for sale of the electrolyte to other battery makers. In its first year, 2026, the company plans to manufacture 75 metric tons of sulfide-based electrolyte.
Make of this what you will.
Ray W. says
Earlier today, according to a story by RBC Ukraine, President Zelenskyy announced that since the first of the year, Ukrainian forces have cleared 460 square kilometers of soil in southeastern Ukraine that had been previously occupied by the Russians. Other sources assert that far less than that quantity of Ukrainian land had been taken by Russian forces in the last few months of 2025.
Make of this what you will.
Sherry says
Inhumane treatment of detainees at “Concentration Camp” in Texas. . . this from The Guardian:
Officers at the large immigration detention camp located at the Fort Bliss army base in Texas are allegedly mistreating detainees, with accusations including beatings, sexual abuse and clandestine deportations of non-Mexican nationals into Mexico, according to a coalition of local and national US civil rights organizations.
In a 19-page letter, addressed to senior government officials at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency and Fort Bliss military command, the coalition accuses officers at the immigration detention facility on the base, called Camp East Montana, of being “in violation of agency policies and standards, as well as statutory and constitutional protections”.
The advocates called for the immediate closure of the camp, where more than 2,700 detainees are being held in a complex of tents.
“In light of these abuses, we urge the end to detention of immigrants at Fort Bliss,” said the letter signed by eight organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Humans Rights Watch, Estrella del Paso, the Texas Civil Rights Project and Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center.
The letter was addressed to ICE acting director Todd Lyons and others, and copied to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) office of inspector general and the Senate armed forces committee.
ICE officials in El Paso directed media inquiries to the DHS, which denied all the allegations.
“Any claim that there are ‘inhumane’ conditions at ICE detention centers are categorically false. No detainees are being beaten or abused,” said the DHS assistant secretary, Tricia McLaughlin, in a written statement.
The letter relies on sworn testimony from over 45 detainees, some of them describing how masked agents told them to “jump” the barrier, or wall, on the US-Mexico border to cross from the US into Mexico, under threat of imprisonment if they did not.
According to the letter, ICE officers have been taking some non-Mexican nationals, specifically asylum seekers from Cuba and Guatemala, shackling them and transporting them an hour west from El Paso to the desert border crossing at Santa Teresa, New Mexico.
Once at the border, detainees gave accounts to advocates of being met by masked officers, who allegedly ordered them to climb the border wall and cross into Mexico, bypassing all legal deportation proceedings and third-country agreements.
“The masked people sometimes beat on people to get them to jump the wall even if they don’t want to,” said “Eduardo”, a Cuban detainee ordered to be deported and cited under the pseudonym in the letter. He alleged that officers told him if he did not cross to Mexico, he would be charged with federal crimes and sent to a prison in “Africa or El Salvador”.
McLaughlin warned that unauthorized border crossers face potential removal to various nations, not just their home countries.
“If you break our laws and come to our country illegally, you could end up in any number of third countries,” she said. “Our message is clear: criminals are not welcome in the United States. These third-country agreements, which ensure due process under the US constitution, are essential to the safety of our homeland and the American people.”
The letter was first reported by the Washington Post on Monday, with the newspaper saying it had “independently obtained internal ICE records verifying that the four Cubans resisted removal on or around the dates they said the events took place” while adding that the Post “could not verify other details about the allegations, because the detainees had little means to document their experiences”.
It also cited lack of media access to the camp at the huge army base in El Paso.
McLaughlin also gave a statement to the Post that denied any mistreatment or deprivation of constitutional rights and said that detainees get proper meals, medical treatment and showers, and also access to lawyers and family.
The letter from the advocacy groups, however, cites claims of “excessive force” inside the Camp East Montana facility, where guards allegedly utilize sexual violence to enforce discipline.
“Isaac”, a Cuban national who adopted a pseudonym for the purposes of the letter, stated in a sworn declaration, according to the coalition, that after refusing to sign a voluntary deportation form, guards at the camp slammed his head against a wall several times, before an officer “grabbed and crushed my testicles between their fingers, which was very painful and humiliating”, according to the letter.
In another incident, a teenager identified as “Samuel” described how one officer “grabbed my testicles and firmly crushed them”, while another “forced his fingers deep into my ears”, before he was reportedly beaten unconscious by guards for turning off an overhead light in his housing unit, the letter says.
“Samuel” suffered broken teeth and testicular trauma requiring hospitalization, according to the letter, which also asserts that he was later billed for the ambulance ride required to treat the injuries allegedly inflicted by the guards.
The letter also says the facility fails to meet basic human needs. The soft-sided tents, which house 72 people per unit, reportedly have failing plumbing.
Detainees have described occasions where sewage backs up from toilets and showers, flooding sleeping quarters and dining areas with water contaminated by feces and urine. And, in some instances, they are allegedly forced to use their own clothing to mop up the waste due to a lack of cleaning supplies, the letter said.
Medical neglect was also described as constituting “deliberate indifference”. The letter details cases of diabetics being denied insulin for days, causing them to faint, and patients with high blood pressure being ignored until they suffer visible medical episodes. Food rations are described as “fist-sized” and often spoiled, leading to rapid weight loss among detainees.
McLaughlin said in response to the Guardian’s request for comment that detainees receive full access to legal counsel, hygiene facilities and dietitian-certified meals. She added that ICE provides comprehensive medical attention that exceeds what many migrants have previously experienced.
“No lawbreakers in the history of human civilization have been treated better than illegal aliens in the United States. Get a grip,” she said.
When later asked for further comment on each allegation mentioned in this article and related questions on government policy, DHS responded: “No.”
However, Eunice Hyunhye Cho, senior counsel at the ACLU National Prison Project, said that her organization and others have received numerous complaints regarding the failure to provide adequate care to migrants detained at Fort Bliss.
She said the lack of external oversight, combined with the detention facility’s allegedly cutting the detainees’ access to the outside world, has led to the accusations detailed in the letter.
“Placing thousands of people in tent camps in the middle of the desert, in a military base, without adequate staffing was a recipe for humanitarian disaster,” Cho said. “Although shocking, but not surprising, this nightmare has come true.”
Local leaders and migrant-rights advocates have previously condemned the vulnerability of detainees in tent-like conditions and raised concerns about potential human rights violations.
Texas congresswoman Veronica Escobar, whose district covers El Paso, has demanded immediate transparency from the DHS, describing having been told of “dangerous and inhumane” conditions at the detention facility and describing it as a “public health hazard” that is deteriorating.
Skibum says
There is reporting this evening that hundreds of complaints have been filed so far against some U.S. military commanders who have told troops under their commands that the convicted felon in the WH was “anointed by Jesus to attach Iran” and that the U.S. military effort in Iran is “part of God’s plan”.
https://www.newsweek.com/us-commander-said-trump-anointed-by-jesus-to-attack-iran-report-11615046
Laurel says
Not being a Christian, I’m confused. I thought that Jesus said “Turn the other cheek” and “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” So Christians, please explain how this works.
Methinks people has lost their minds.
Laurel says
🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗
Laurel says
Someone explain this rationalization to me. How do y’all wear a cross and ignore what it stands for? If you ignore your savior, why not just drop the charade? I don’t get it.
This is why I have no use for organized religion. They put their hands on a corrupt felon and pray for his leadership.
Strange behavior.
Skibum says
attack, not attach
Ed P says
Why would lights need to be left on in any detention style environment?
To reduce sexual assaults among detainees?
To reduce violence amongst individuals?
To allow for better surveillance?
To keep the vulnerable safer?
Regardless how the dictionary defines what a concentration camp is, immigration detention centers are not. It can be repeated forever but it won’t make it true.
Two questionable issues. If theses immigrants were being sent back over the border in the dark of night as claimed. Ask yourself 2 questions. First why are they using pseudonyms, they are safely in Mexico? Secondly, why hasn’t the Mexican government mentioned it?
Be more skeptical.
Almost universally, every one of these salacious allegations have been debunked, proven to be nothing move that fake news for clicks or headlines. Would it be reasonable to think some problems exist? Of course. Would it be reasonable some detainees would attack the staff on occasion? Of course.
The chronic drum beat of fictional issues or crying wolf will actually endanger those individuals who have been abused and need our help.
Urban legends are not facts.