To include your event in the Briefing and Live Calendar, please fill out this form.
Weather: Sunny, with a high near 71. North wind 7 to 11 mph, with gusts as high as 16 mph. Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 51.
- 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. Today’s guests: Tax Collector Shelley Edmonson and Clerk of Court Tom Bexley, with a legislative update from Rep. Sam Greco. See previous podcasts here. On WNZF at 94.9 FM, 1550 AM, and live at Flagler Broadcasting’s YouTube channel.
The Flagler County Cultural Council (FC3) meets at 11 a.m. at the Tourism Development Office, 120 Airport Road, Palm Coast, in the 3rd-floor conference room. The meetings are open to the public. Contact [email protected] for additional information. See: “Over Mayor’s Objections, Palm Coast Signals It’ll Extend Agreement with Cultural Council to Manage $100,000 in Grants,” and “How Peter Johnson’s ‘Bullshit’ Trespass Led to Sunshine on FC3 Cultural Board and Its Accountability to Palm Coast.”
Yasmina Reza’s “Art,” at City Repertory Theatre, 160 Cypress Point Parkway (City Marketplace, Suite B207), Palm Coast, 7:30 p.m. except Sunday, 3 p.m. Tickets: $25 for adults $15 for students. Book here. When Serge buys an all-white painting for a small fortune, it sparks an uproar between three longtime friends—leading to sharp wit, biting truths, and big laughs. Art by Yasmina Reza is a Tony and Olivier Award-winning comedy that examines the fine line between friendship and ego, taste and absurdity. Smart, stylish, and irresistibly funny, this theatrical gem will have you laughing and thinking all at once. In this production, it’s an all-women cast.
“Steel Magnolias” at Athens Theatre, 7:30 p.m. except Sunday, 2:30 p.m., 124 North Florida Avenue, DeLand, (386) 736-1500. Cost: Adult $37, Senior $33, Student/Child $17, groups of 8 or more $30 per ticket, all including processing charge. Book here. Truvy’s beauty salon is where life happens. It’s where women gather to laugh, cry, share stories, and carry one another through everything life throws their way. Steel Magnolias is a funny, deeply moving story about friendship—the kind that’s loud, loyal, and shows up when it counts. It’s about finding strength in the people who know you best, and love you anyway. This heartfelt comedy-drama is as sweet and soulful as Southern tea—and proves that “laughter through tears” just might be the finest emotion of all.
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.
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.
Readings: Gideon Levy, the Haaretz columnist who, like Haaretz, tackles subjects the America press never dares tackle or touch, had a piece on March 15 about the Sde Teiman Israeli military base and torture camp. The Sde Teiman Affair is Israel’s Abu Ghraib. A leaked video showed Israeli soldiers forming a barrier with their shields so a Palestinian prisoner could be tortured and sodomized behind the shield. The original scandal, to detractors with the moral compass of a flea, was not the act itself, but that the video had been leaked. The new scandal is that the inquiry has fizzled, all charges against the criminal soldiers dropped on March 12, and the affair forgotten. “But the affair is not over,” Levy writes. “Instead of the lost issues of justice and equality before the law, of good and evil, of crime and punishment, we have a clear statement by state institutions whereby from here on, military pris-on guards are allowed to rip the anus of every prisoner, as long as he is Palestinian, to break his ribs, puncture his lungs. Not only will no harm come to them, they will become heroes. If the heroes of our childhood were, to our shame, soldiers in the shady commando unit 101, the heroes of the new zeitgeist are the criminal prison guards in Unit 100. That is the history of Israel in a nutshell. The affair is not over because instead of these questions, which Israel fled from and refrained from addressing, a much more fateful question arises in all its might: What is the role of truth in our lives and is it still relevant? The Sde Teiman affair has delivered its response: No, truth has no importance any more. What really happened is irrelevant, reality has no more role to play, only fabrications do. In the prevailing atmosphere that’s taken over, any lie can conceal any truth. This is a scram-bling of all values, even more important than the existence of a military prison where torture took place.”
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
Flagler Beach Farmers Market
Coffee With Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley
Democratic Women’s Club
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Flagler Schools Jon Fair for Teachers
Chess Meet-Up At the Flagler Beach Public Library
“The Sound of Music,” at Athens Theatre
“Godspell,” at the Limelight Theatre
“The Sound of Music,” at Athens Theatre
Random Acts of Insanity’s Roundup of Standups from Around Central Florida
ESL Bible Studies for Intermediate and Advanced Students
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village
The Gallery of Local Art’s Bloom and Sip English Tea Party
Al-Anon Family Groups
For the full calendar, go here.
According to a February 2025 indictment, the five soldiers beat the man, dragging him across the floor, stepping on his body, breaking his ribs and puncturing a lung. One of the charges also describes the detainee suffering an internal rectal tear after being stabbed in the buttocks. All five of the soldiers denied any wrongdoing. Explaining why the charges were being dropped, the army’s top lawyer – known as the Military Advocate General (MAG) – said the security camera footage captured on the leaked video did not “clearly and irrefutably show acts of severe violence at the level required for a criminal conviction.” The MAG also cited multiple “exceptional circumstances” in the case including misconduct by senior officials working in the Military Advocate General’s Office at the time of the investigation, as well as the fact that the detainee had been released to Gaza as part of the October 2025 ceasefire agreement, and was therefore in no position to be cross-examined in any trial. Netanyahu and members of his right-wing government hailed the decision. Netanyahu, who once decried the affair as “the worst PR disaster in Israel’s history,” said in a statement, “It is unacceptable that it took so long to close a case pursued criminally against IDF soldiers who are confronting the worst of our enemies. Israel must pursue its enemies – not its heroic fighters.”
–From a CNN report, “Assault charges against Israeli soldiers dropped in controversial end to a yearlong scandal,” March 12, 2026.
Dennis C Rathsam says
HO, HO, HO… I guess your all happy now, Iran hung a 19 yr old wrestler. 19! Yet Im waiting for all you fools to grow a beard, & wrap your head in a rag to support your love for Iran! How many Irainians have been murdered by the Mullers? Do you even care? France,Germany,Italy,Japan, the Nwtherlands & the United Kingdom are ready to take action. These so called leaders, talk a lot of bullshit. But when push comes to shove, they listen to thier daddy. Freedom of navigation is a fundamental principal of international law, including under the United Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Strait, will be open soon no matter what! Last night on CNN ( THE COMMUINIST NEWS NETWORK ) showed the GOP was 100% behind TRUMP!!! Republicans aren’t crying over the price of gas, you suck it up for love of country. Seems this is the problem in a nut shell. Republicans love Americans, while the Dems love illegals! That is a prooven fact, one that cant be denied! Sept 11th America was bombed, America came togeather, & help one another, Bush had the chance to destroy Iran, sadly like the president before him & those who came after were too busy lining the pockets with money! TRUMP works for free, none of you would do that. Why you ask, He loves America plain & simple! TRUMP was ellected because of all the Jackass scandals, 9% inflation, $10.00 eggs, $12.00 bacon! We were all sick of that open border, & the Kous, murders, rapes! Our cities desimated, our social well being destroyed! If you all think America is going back to that twilight zone, forget it. Dems better find a whole lot of new voters, since TRUMP tossed Obamas refugees out! We thought the Minn welfare was bad, looks like Ca, is ten times worse. Gee those Democrats did a swell job didn’t they? Ripping off the tax payers! And ya,LL have the balls to complain about TRUMP….. You got TDS real bad! Enjoy
The dude says
Those Mullers are at it again are they?
YankeeExPat says
Yup , they are the the terrorist that make egg noodles, Mr. Dude
and why is Dennis C. Rathsam concerned about our balls ?
Laurel says
Republican politicians can’t find theirs.
Just a thought says
I know more Republicans than Democrats and I can assure you none of those are Republicans are happy about spending nearly 4 dollars on a price of gas. But you go keep telling yourself that and licking Trump‘s cankles
A republic if you can keep it says
Dennis, you’re hyperventilating , calm down. Iran has a terrible murderorous government . They are killing their citizens for protesting. Russia has been killing their soldiers by sending them to Ukraine while they also kill innocent people. Are you saying that the United States should attack and send armed soldiers to attack a government that has nuclear weapons aimed at the USA? They have been our enemy far longer.
We understand , Qatar expects something for a $400,000,000 airplane, Saudi Arabia has invested a great deal of money in Trump Inc and wants to see what it bought. American soldiers will die just so private bone spurs can play at war.
Laurel says
“Trump works for free” and all the money he can steal.
Laurel says
Hey Dennis, your “daddy” is down south, playing golf today while his war goes on, because he cares about you.
A republic if you can keep it says
We are now acting like a satellite of Israel with Donald Trump as Bibi Netanyahu’s Vice President and a number of politicians in Congress and the Senate heavily influenced by the Israel lobby. Lets face it, Israel has always looked for their interest first , including spying on the United States through their history.
The Trump family currently has billions of dollars in business with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Bahrain and policy is heavily influenced by these interests . Jarred Kushner has billions of Saudi investments and is currently looking for more. Should your children and grandchildren die in order to safeguard Trump money and Netanyahu interests ?
Whoever believes that this will be a short term conflict and that millions of arabs watching the destruction of Lebanon, the deaths of innocent civilians including children in Iran and Lebanon will not increase their hate for the USA as an ally of Israel is woefully wrong.
Ultimately our debt and cost of living will continue to climb while the wealth of the Trump family and those that surround him increases. The American citizen with the exception of the Epstein billionaire class will pay for this excursion in money and perception in the eyes of the world.
Ray W. says
Bloomberg reports that during the first two months of calendar year 2026, Brazilian soybean exports to China are up over 80% compared to 2025, at 6.56 million tons. U.S. soybean exports to China over the same term of time are at 1.83 million tons.
According to the two reporters, U.S. soybean futures, recently on the rise, will be down 4.5% on the week, in part because of a “better forecast” for the Argentine soybean crop yield and in part because of the cancellation of the Trump-Xi summit that was to take place at the end of the month.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
February, from what I have read, is the traditional end of the U.S. soybean selling season and the traditional beginning of the South American soybean selling season, based on differences in harvesting seasons. The fact that Chinese purchases of Brazilian soybeans are up may not mean much in the fullness of time. Then again, a greater than 80% rise, year-over-year, in Brazilian soybean sales to China may be a harbinger of long-term lost U.S. market share; it cannot be ignored. It very well may be that recent tariff disputes prompted China to permanently pivot away from American soybean farmers to embrace more and more Brazilian soybean farmers and American farmers know it.
Ray W. says
Bloomberg reports that immediately after President Trump signed an executive exemption to the Jones Act, a 1920 bill requiring that only U.S.-registered ships may transport goods between U.S. ports, two foreign-registered ships have filed plans to carry cargoes between American ports.
Make of this what you will.
Keenan Hreib says
This os Israel’s war. Fighting it for Israel is something we do at our own peril. America, and the West as a whole in many cases have very very short memories. We have constantly lost the narrative understanding of both CAUSE and EFFECT, as we blindly align ourselves with the “TOXIC BEDFELLOW” we know as Israel.
Our government, leadership, and President have been infiltrated and above all….. Compromised by Israel. This has been the case for decades however; now Benjamin Netanyahu has a “UNICORN”!! A rare idiot so easily compromised, shaped, and molded to whatever Israeli whim and “GREATER ISRAEL” dream it has in mind. This is becoming the end result of the self proclaimed 40 year fantasy of a hard line psychopath in Benjamin Netanyahu.
In the last 70 some years we have gone from a superpower playing a very biased pro Israel game of “MONOPOLY” in the Middle East, to now becoming ” THE MAKE A WISH FOUNDATION” for Israel in the last 2 1/2 years.
Historically the United States has de stabalized the Middle East since 1948. We helped Israel displace 1 million Palestinians from their land in the first “NAKBA”. What is happening now in Gaza is overwhelmingly considered a second “NAKBA”. The first “NAKBA” would be what Israel would have you believe was the “Birth of Israel.”
A Zionist like Netanyahu pushes the credo that “we are the chosen people” because the Bible says so??? Don’t forget the constant drumbeat and Holocaust narrative that Israel used to self victimize themselves in order to subjugate and eventually control and occupy Gaza in 1967.
Israel moved forward with their ownership of a territory and the un brideled support financially by the United States to an occupier that suffered a Holocaust just 22 years previous. Fast forward 11 and 15 years respectively, now Israel invades Lebanon in both 78 and 82 based on “proxi resistance” in defence of what Israel now does in relation to the Gaza strip and surrounding countries in the Middle East. The playbook was the same then… Bomb and kill everyone and use resistance/terrorist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah and the like as an excuse to do so.
What Israel has now done in Gaza post October 7, 2023 lifted the veil of secrecy to reveal the obvious Genocide and Ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in a open air prison controlled by Israel in the first place. A starvation campaign was initiated as well as the shut off of water and electricity that took the Genocide to unpresidented levels. Israel used the Holocaust their parents and grandparents suffered through in WWII. If you questioned this or criticized it you were called a anti semite or a self hating Jew. They failed spectacularly.
Now here we are in a war with Iran that we started. We bipassed Congress, had 7 different false explanations as to why, and broke every International law known to man.
Trump is now caught in a trap of his own making. He told everybody a quick in and out, liberty for Iranians that you are bombing anyway? Trumps MAGA base are realizing the are not shareholders in Exxon/Mobile or Chevron.
Attacking Iran knowing there was no eminent danger to our country, while on the precipice of a negotiation and a deal that was stronger than Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.
Now the U.S. jeopardizes the business model and GDP of all the gulf states, while supporting the suicidal ambitions of Israel to bring everyone down. For what? To promote Netanyahu and his forever wars in the Middle East that do not serve any interest to the United States whatsoever?
All Empires at some point collapse, and as the United States tries to push it’s hegemony as it falls deeper and deeper into the RED.
America’s refusal to use “Soft Power” to get what it wants furthers it’s demise and destroys the region…. Again.
The U.S. has not engaged in anything but false flag wars since the end of WWII. Leadership has become so drunk with power that we have wanted to force feed our own ideologies to everyone else. Those flawed tennants and a healthy dose of power and paranoia have put us in war after war after war. We have a special talent for punching down while we propagandize what we do in order to stomach it.
America is in desperate need of a “MORAL ENEYMA.”
Whether fair or not,at the risk of being provocative… Israel has lost enough morality for anyone to question their right to excist, especially given the abject suffering Israel, the IDF and the governments have inflicted on Palestinians and the Middle East as a whole.
Every resistance/terrorist organization birthed in the last 40 years has been a direct result of our , whole hearted support for the most de stabalizing bully with nukes in the Middle East.
Jews and The State of Israel are two very different things. Gaza is gone and now we fight Iran in the name of Israel and their expantionist ideology.
Peace in the Middle East is unfortunately only reached by the Arab world being witness to the U.S. sanctioning. Pulling the annual 4 billion dollars ayear for being Israel, as well as all the weapons. Let the powerful Jewish lobbies and donars handle it.
Pulling support for Israel doesn’t make you an Anti Semite. We should support Judaism as we support all races and religion, but there is no place in the modern world for Zionism.
Ray W. says
Vox.com reports that Qatar’s government revealed yesterday that damage caused by Iranian missile or drone strikes to the nation’s natural gas infrastructure has taken some 17% of its production capacity off-line for at least three years and for perhaps as long as five years.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
The Vox reporter opines that synthetic nitrogen fertilizers made from natural gas-derivative chemicals make possible a large portion of the food supply for the more than eight billion people who inhabit the earth. Without synthetic fertilizers, the reporter writes, the earth could grow only enough food to support between three and four billion people.
The chemical process is straightforward: methane (natural gas) chemically converted under heat and pressure into ammonia then chemically converted again into nitrogen in order to grow more food. Qatar produces 14% of the world’s urea supply, which product is an enriched form of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. The U.S. is a significant importer of urea.
Pogo says
What a waste, an entire world, led by monsters like trump, with the support of fellow travelers and other fools: revenge obsessed dead-enders from every tribe and creed.
Eat up while you can — the last battle will be chronicled by worms and flies, the sound will be the wind itself.
Impotent hatred is the most horrible of all emotions; one should hate nobody whom one cannot destroy.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
https://www.azquotes.com/author/5628-Johann_Wolfgang_von_Goethe/tag/hatred
Ray W. says
Out of curiosity and a hope, perhaps, of better understanding, I looked for rules defining the justification for preemptive military strikes. International law differs from just war theory.
Here are four factors consistent with “just war” preemptive action.
First is the concept of “imminence”, or what has come to be called a clear and present danger. It is more than a potential future danger. The threat must be immediate or acute and nearly certain, among actors with some measure of military equivalency, i.e., strategic military parity.
Second, there must be a just cause, such as self-defense. The action must be taken to protect either national existence or the life of the citizenry or a measure of the nation’s offensive weaponry that is imminently vulnerable to destruction.
Third is proportionality. The act must bring to the fore no more force than the amount necessary to remove the immediate threat.
Fourth, is the concept of last resort, i.e., all other possible efforts have failed.
To me, the apparent preemptive strike by Israel that initiated the Six-Day War of 1967 might meet the four criteria. The many Arab neighboring nations had ceased participation in any form of diplomacy and there military forces, particularly offensive military aircraft, had been massed near or on all borders of Israel, save the sea.
But I concede that I have not studied the multitude of facets and issues in detail.
Make of this what you will.