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Weather: Patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with a high near 82. Calm wind becoming east around 6 mph in the afternoon. Monday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 61. Southeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.
- 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:
In court: Two trials are scheduled, absent last-minute pleas: Russell Laster, on a cocaine sale charge, and Winston Rawlings, on two drug charges. Jury selection is this morning at the Flagler County courthouse.
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.
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.
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.
Notably: It’s Al Hadeed’s birthday today. Let’s not say when he was born, but that day Harry Truman announced he was running again, Gov. Thomas Dewey was counting his chickens after hatching a victory in the New Hampshire primary against Harold Stassen, and the House Un-Aerican Activities committee got a $200,000 infusion to do its dirty work. Al was one of my favorite people in local government, as was Jane Mealy, seen with him above. Incidentally, Al’s family is from Ramallah in the West Bank, where the Palestinian writer Raja Shehadeh is from. Therefore the video below. A reference to Al would not be complete without a little heckling from Jane Gentile-Youd. She died a few weeks ago, but I got this plant at her memorial (below), from a little shot replanted from her garden, so if you listen very closely, you can hear her saying Al should be fired from retirement. For once, I agree.
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.
During earlier geological eras the pressure on the land mounted and mounted until it could bear no more and cracked, forming the Great Rift Valley. Only peace could circumvent a similar rupture between the two people liv- ing on the same land. But the Israeli government was unwilling to leave the land or its people in peace.
–From Raja Shehadeh’s Palestinian Walks: Forays Into a Vanishing Landscape (2008).
Pogo says
Bondi, would approve of the moderation of comments here; unfortunate for an organ that styles itself a torch of reason and prosecutor of censoring censurers. Move over Moms for liberty…
The old refrain: do as I say, not as I do – from the lips of a Pharisee, leading lepers.
EC: File
Dennis C Rathsam says
Tired of bashing TRUMP today…..now lets pick on Bondi! As she gathers all the info to show the American people, how corrupt the Democratic party was under Biden & Obama. Im still waiting on what the Jackass will run on.Thier hate of TRUMP, wont get them a victory. Wheres the plan? What are there solutions, beside TAX & SPEND? Do they want to pull out of IRAN, & give the power back to the Mueller’s ? Especially now that Middle East is on TRUMPS side? Or maybe they can get on board with Hakeem Jefferies, & hope AMERICA LOSES!
Skibum says
I have a few questions for you, being you are such an advocate of the sitting president and believe what he has told all of his maga supporters like yourself he would do once in office for his 2nd term.
He said he would improve the economy on Day 1. How does the U.S. economic downturn look to maga now? Do YOU still believe that lie?
He said you would get a DOGE refund check – that was a year ago! Where is YOUR refund check? Do YOU still believe that lie?
He said you would get a tariff refund check, and that was before he filed appeals to prevent YOU from ever receiving a tariff refund check. Do YOU still believe that lie?
He said gasoline was below $2 a gallon just a few days ago, but nowhere has any media news outlet been able to find a single solitary place where that was true. Since his war of choice in Iran, gas prices have gone up significantly. Do YOU still believe that lie about lower gasoline prices?
He said he would comply with the federal Epstein files law, but he has put in roadblock after roadblock, and falsely claimed he has been “exonerated” when that is the furthest thing from the truth. He has allowed his AG to hide millions of documents, and his efforts to block the release of ALL of the Epstein files continues. Do YOU st
still support his lie about being transparent about releasing the Epstein files?
He campaigned on “America First”, saying previous presidents got America into foreign wars and said he would stop that, but instead he has attacked country after country… Venezuela, Nigeria, Somalia, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and now Iran. He has threatened to attack Greenland and most recently, Cuba. Do YOU still believe that lie about him not wanting to be “the world’s policeman”?
Do YOU not see a pattern here? Lie after lie, after lie, after lie.
How in the world can YOU, with a straight face and a brain (supposedly) and an ethical compass (supposedly) and knowing right from wrong (supposedly) continue to support someone who has failed on every measure to support the TRUTH and live up to what he has promised YOU he would do if elected?
Laurel says
How in the hell (appropriate) do the Evangelicals lay hands on the Devil? But they do. It’s a study in psychology.
Pogo says
Yee-Haw!!!
https://www.google.com/search?q=alas+babylon
Ray W. says
CNBC is reporting that the G7 nations are holding an emergency meeting today to determine whether energy conditions warrant opening e.mergency petroleum reserves.
West Texas Intermediate oil futures for April delivery crossed $100 per barrel.
Because the Strait of Hormuz remains closed to oil traffic, Iraq and Kuwait have began the process of shutting down oil wells. Experts contend that commonly encountered “restart complications” may impede the resumption of oil flow once the Strait reopens. The U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia may be the next oil producers to begin shutting down wells.
Exxon Mobil’s chief economist told the reporter that every nation but Russia has an interest in the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Neil Atkinson, once head of the International Energy Agency, told the reporter:
“We are in a potentially game-changing and unprecedented energy crisis.”
When asked to predict oil futures, he added:
“Sorry, we are getting into the realms of educated guesswork here. I mean there is no precedent for this. The sky’s the limit.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Less than 10 million barrels of daily crude oil production was cut by OPEC in March 2012 and by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Crude oil in time crossed $120 per barrel. Just over 20 million barrels of crude oil pass through the Strait of Hormuz on an ordinary day. Anyone who claims to know what will happen or who will “win” or when the “win” will take place in wartime is lying.
In an era in which words are bastardized to mean something they don’t mean, a new government is emerging in Iran. Will it be the same as the old one? More radical or hardline? More moderate? Constitutional? Who knows.
Few news outlets are following the Iranian submarine story, but some are. The Strait of Hormuz is not just an oil choke point, it is a water choke point, too. High volume water flow in the Strait, reportedly, creates acoustic wakes and eddies around rocky seafloor outcroppings that make it difficult to locate submarines among the clatter. Iran may have as many as 30 of them, big or tiny.
I haven’t forgotten former President Biden’s efforts in 2024 to persuade Congress to vote for money to buy more crude oil in order to replenish Strategic Petroleum Reserve stocks that had been drawn down during the “voluntary” oil flow restrictions imposed by OPEC, starting in 2021, and the further cut in worldwide oil flow when Russia invaded the Ukraine.
Crude oil crossed $120 per barrel. Biden declared by executive order an oil emergency. 180 million barrels of crude oil were slowly drawn from the reserve. Oil prices came down.
But Congress controls the purse strings and it didn’t authorize significant replenishment money until it passed the Big Beautiful Bill in 2025. A year of replenishment opportunity was wasted by one of our two political parties for partisan reasons.
Nonetheless, there exists floating in oil tankers a record amount of crude, each tanker awaiting a buyer. And, ample supplies of crude oil are in American land-based tank farms or crude oil pipelines or rail tank cars or barges. The EIA estimates that in early 2026, some 400-500 million barrels of crude oil in the U.S. sat in above-ground storage of all types. Other nations have their own petroleum reserves. I remain skeptical that, with so much crude oil already purchased and paid for sitting in American storage of all types, gas prices should be shooting up so quickly. Oil for April delivery is over $100 per barrel, not the oil that is being delivered to refineries today. If oil that was purchased at $55 per barrel in mid-February is being delivered to refineries today, …
Regardless of what the truth is, the more gullibly stupid among us are about to begin blaming the Biden administration for not replenishing the SPR. Just wait for it.
Ray W. says
March 2022. I apologize for the typo.
Laurel says
“The red pill and blue pill are symbols from the movie The Matrix, representing a choice between confronting harsh truths (red pill) and remaining in comfortable ignorance (blue pill). This metaphor has evolved to reflect various philosophical and social discussions, including themes of reality versus illusion.”
Search Assist, ebsco.com, Encyclopedia Britannica
I’m including here a link to an Epstein survivor interview. It’s 1 and 1/2 hours long, so you may want to watch it here, or later on YouTube on TV. Be aware, she cusses a lot. The first third of the movie explains how one 14 year old girl is manipulated and used by adults. The middle of the movie explains how it effected her life. The last half hour, or so, explains how, as an adult, she sees how the whole betrayal of many girls, now women, is now being handled.
Do not assume this is a political shot, or criticizes one party over another. She criticizes both. So, you can take the red pill, and see how reality works, or you can take the blue pill, and go on with your lives oblivious to your surroundings, and just keep your criticisms to yourselves. Those of you who can face reality, will need to start voting in vetted politicians who actually have plans, who actually go after pedophiles, who actually want to improve Social Security and Medicare instead of constant lip service with no action, who actually work for the middle class instead of those who can afford to significantly bolster their campaigns, both sides included.
Your pill; your choice.
Ray W. says
The Biden administration scheduled for May 2022 an oil lease auction for rights to exploit tracts in Alaska’s Cook Inlet. Citing a lack of interest the administration cancelled the auction. Following a political uproar, the auction took place. One bidder appeared; it bid only on one of the 193 blocks up for auction.
Contained within 2025’s One Big Beautiful Bill is a clause mandating that six more periodic auctions for blocks in Cook Inlet be held. The first of the six auctions recently took place. No oil company appeared to bid.
Some FlaglerLive readers may recall that last October, two coal auctions were scheduled to much partisan fanfare. Each auction drew one bidder, which bid less than a penny per ton of coal extracted. The BLM invalidated both auction bids, citing to insufficient value. I checked. From what I have found, neither of the two coal auctions has been rescheduled.
Make of this what you will.
Ray W. says
The U.S. is home to nine LNG export facilities. One is temporarily down due to “feedgas” issues. According to ever-changing MarketWatch prices, the “landed price” to the nine facilities, meaning total cost of delivery to each site, ranges from $3.12 per MMBtu to $3.68 per MMBtu.
The landed price for Europe (Dutch TTF) is $23.62 per MMBtu, as of the time of the article I found. Japan-Korea Marker? Over $24 per MMBtu.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
While more American LNG export capacity is under construction, right now American facilities can export only so much natural gas. This choke point limits how much the domestic market price for compressed natural gas will rise, supply and demand being what it is. But the rest of the world currently sees dramatic price increases for imports of LNG cargoes.
It takes time to construct an LNG export facility. America had zero LNG export capacity in 2010 when Cheniere Energy announce plans to build its first facility. Almost six years later, it opened for business. Three new LNG export plants should open by the end of 2027, with two opening in 2026, per a 2025 EIA report.
Ray W. says
Reuters reports that this past Friday, Beth Hammack, president of the Cleveland regional Fed, said during an interview that she expects inflation, which is too high right now, to moderate by the end of 2026, but if inflation does not moderate towards the 2% target rate by that time, then she expects the Fed to maintain a tight monetary policy that holds lending rates steady.
Make of this what you will.
Ray W. says
According to The Cool Down, lithium-manganese-rich (LMR) chemistry is a “next generation” EV battery chemistry, in part because it uses less of the costly lithium than do today’s electric batteries, and because manganese itself is widely available and comparatively inexpensive.
GM and Ford, among others, are racing to get to market first with these next generation batteries.
Kurt Kelly, GM’s head of its EV development efforts, told the reporter:
“We are going to win the LMR race, and in 2028, when we introduce our product, we are going to be kicking butt, we are going to be selling a lot of these vehicles.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Ford says the same thing. Apparently, LMR technology promises such a major cost and technological superiority that it will erase the current EV battery advantage currently enjoyed by Chinese automakers.