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Weather: A chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 11am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 79. Light east wind increasing to 6 to 11 mph in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 17 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Wednesday Night: A 10 percent chance of showers before 8pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 64.
- 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:
The Flagler Beach City Commission holds a daylong goal-setting session starting at 8 a.m. at the Wickline Community Center, 700 South Daytona Avenue, Flagler Beach. The whole session is open to the public. See the agenda here.
The Palm Coast Code Enforcement Board meets at 10 a.m. every first Wednesday of the month at City Hall. For agendas, minutes, and audio access to the meetings, go here. For details about the city’s code enforcement regulations, go here.
The Flagler Beach Parks Ad Hoc Committee meets at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 105 S 2nd St, Flagler Beach. The Committee’s six members, appointed by the City Commission, provide recommendations related to the maintenance of existing parks and equipment and recommendations for new or replacement equipment and other duties as assigned by the City Commission.
Conversations in Democracy: An open, freewheeling discussion on topics here in our community, around Florida and throughout the United States, noon to 1 p.m. at Pine Lakes Golf Club Clubhouse Pub & Grillroom (no purchase is necessary), 400 Pine Lakes Pkwy, Palm Coast (0.7 miles from Belle Terre Parkway). Call (386) 445-0852 for best directions. All are welcome! Everyone’s voice is important. For further information email [email protected] or call Merrill at 804-914-4460.
Bingo Night at Palm Coast Elks Lodge 2709, 53 Old Kings Road North, Palm Coast. Doors open at 4:30 p.m., first draw at 6 p.m.
The Circle of Light Course in Miracles study group meets at a private residence in Palm Coast every Wednesday at 1:20 PM. There is a $2 love donation that goes to the store for the use of their room. If you have your own book, please bring it. All students of the Course are welcome. There is also an introductory group at 1:00 PM. The group is facilitated by Aynne McAvoy, who can be reached at [email protected] for location and information.
The Flagler Beach Library Book Club meets at 1 p.m. at the library, 315 South Seventh Street, Flagler Beach.
The Flagler County Republican Club holds its monthly meeting starting with a social hour at 5 and the business meeting at 6 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn, 55 Town Center Blvd., Palm Coast. The club is the social arm of the Republican Party of Flagler County, which represents over 40,000 registered Republicans. Meetings are open to Republicans only.
Artemis II launch with four astronauts is scheduled for 6:27 p.m. from Kennedy Space Center, assuming it is not renamed the Donald Trump and Kennedy Space Center before nightfall.
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: The Artemis II rocket, with Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen–as DEI a crew as ever shot for the Moon–is scheduled to lift off from Kennedy Space Center this evening at 6:24. I’m not sure that I’ll be watching, mostly out of cowardice: I did not watch, but I remember, the Challenger explosion in 1986 like it was yesterday, and the doge-dingbatted clunkiness of American enterprises from Washington to the Persian Gulf these days doesn’t fill me with much confidence about human-tipped rocketry. The Artemis program also seems a little out of step–not just because we’re raining fire on another part of the globe (it’s not as if the Apollo program wasn’t lit up by napalm’s glow all the way to the Moon), but because it begs the question: what are we doing, and to what end? There’s an element of old glory-seeking, with goals as fuzzy as so much else this country is taking on. There’s a French documentary called “À demain sur la lune” (“See you tomorrow on the Moon”), released last year and playing on Apple TV. But it’s about a young French woman’s life with terminal cancer in a Normandy town (that land of so many white crosses to Americans). Anyway, godspeed.
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
River to Sea Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) Meeting
Conversations in Democracy
The Circle of Light A Course in Miracles Study Group
22,000 Home Western Expansion Developer’s Public Meeting
FPCHS Starlets Spring Dance at the Fitz
Flagler Beach United Methodist Church Food Pantry
Flagler County Drug Court Convenes
Model Yacht Club Races at the Pond in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Palm Coast Beautification and Environmental Advisory Committee
Flagler Beach City Commission Meeting
“The Sound of Music,” at Athens Theatre
For the full calendar, go here.
The International Space Station, assembly of which begins with a space shuttle mission scheduled for launching on Thursday, is being touted as a giant leap into space and a step toward the stars. In truth, the space station is little more than a Motel 6 in low earth orbit, and it marks a step toward the stars only in the sense that cleaning out your attic gets you closer to the Moon.
–From Timothy Ferris’s “NASA’s Mission to Nowhere,” New York Times, Nov. 29, 1998.
Ed P says
The concept of an AUTOMATION TIPPING POINT is no joke.
As governing bodies continue to raise the minimum wage floor, very soon the hourly employment rate will cross the point of inelasticity. Automation and reduction of hourly employees becomes a business necessity for survival.
The reality is that it has already arrived in some regions of the country.
Unskilled jobs will be the first casualty.
The Kaitz index would suggest California and Washington are currently at or above that tipping point.
Dennis C Rathsam says
Where were the protesters when we actually had politicians attempting to be kings? Where were they when Obama, the Clintons & others tried to destroyed president TRUMP with suprious claims? Where were Springsteen & his cohorts when illegal aliens murdered Americans? The radical left always talks peace, love & togeatherness….When they really stand for anger hate & disunion! James McCaffrey.
Pogo says
Also notable
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/donald-trump-left-shocked-after-top-ally-s-husband-caught-cross-dressing-in-major-security-risk/ar-AA1ZRYzy?ocid=nl_article_link
“Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.”
― Mark Twain
Skibum says
The orange menace in the WH went to the Supreme Court today and sat in the gallery observing the government’s solicitor general argue against birthright citizenship. News reports state that even the conservative justices on the court seemed skeptical of the government’s arguments. The pedo prez presumably showed his orange face trying to intimidate the court’s justices to do his bidding, which did not go well for him so he abruptly left before the plaintiffs even started presenting their arguments in support of birthright citizenship, which is clearly spelled out in the U.S. Constitution.
Right after leaving the Supreme Court, the orange faced idiot posted on his social media platform, or should I say LIED on that app, saying “We are the only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow ‘Birthright’ Citizenship!”
Obviously, the moron in the WH really is STUPID enough to not know better, because in addition to the U.S., there are 32 other countries that also have birthright citizenship laws. And those other countries include the other 2 nations in North America… Canada and Mexico. DUH!
He is the STUPIST, most ignorant, moronic bald faced liar that mush brains have ever supported and elected to serve as president!!! Aren’t all you maga misfits proud of your daddy dipshit!
James says
Well, I don’t know about the Clinton, Obama or Biden. But I think we all know where Trump will be tonight… on television… right after the rocket launch to the moon.
After all, we might forget that the moon and stars revolve around him.
Just an observation… no telescope needed.
Ray W. says
Stellantis, parent company to Chrysler, among ownership of several other major legacy automakers, including FIAT, purchased some three years ago for $2.5 billion a 20% interest in Leapmotor, an emerging Chinese EV manufacturer, according to a Seeking Alpha story and other news outlets. The jointly-owned company was formed to distribute EV products throughout the world.
Stellantis recently opened discussions with Canadian government officials to develop EV manufacturing capacity in Canada.
Leapmotor introduced its first EV in 2017, two years after the company formed. In 2025, the company sold just under 600,000 EVs, a year-on-year 103.1% increase in sales. Leapmotor, for the first time, turned a profit in 2025.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Stellantis listed a $2.7 billion loss during the first six months of 2025, deriving from a number of tariff impacts, including the stoppage of Jeep Compass production at a factory employing some 3,000 workers.
Does it make sense for operators of the jointly-owned subsidiary EV company to open negotiations with the Canadian government to expand Leapmotor manufacturing capacity into a new market, where a recently idled factory is already available and a laid-off workforce awaits opportunity?
So long as a 102.5% U.S.-imposed tariff exists on all imported Chinese EVs, no matter where they are built, the American car and truck marketplace will be effectively closed to any Canadian-built Leapmotor EVs. But Canada’s population of 41 million may be large enough to justify a new EV presence.
Ed P says
Hello Ray W,
Stellantis’ problem existed and go well beyond any tariff issues.
Their miscalculated to move upmarket was costly. Their 20% price increase in 2023 drove away their core customer.
Ray W. says
Today saw the opening of the New York Motor Show. Hyundai announced that by 2030, a body-on-ladder-frame midsized pickup truck would be purpose-designed and American-built for the American market. All told, 36 new or refreshed Hyundai products and another 22 new or refreshed Genesis products will be released here over the next five years, including a sister to the truck SUV.
Make of this what you will.
Sherry says
Meanwhile. . . “Art of the Deal” Daddy’s bullying has those who were our European allies lining up against us! This from Politico:
LONDON — Donald Trump’s anger at NATO allies for refusing to join the war against Iran has so far achieved one thing: uniting them against him.
In private, over intimate dinners, and on the sidelines of meetings in Brussels and elsewhere, European leaders and officials are discussing how to handle the U.S. president’s threats to quit NATO and what they would do if he followed through.
They now share the grim view that Trump’s increasingly angry attacks on Britain, Spain, France and others confirm a fundamental breach in the transatlantic alliance. And while they aren’t yet sure what the final answer should be, some countries are already looking to expand their defense and security arrangements to work around a broken NATO.
“NATO is paralyzed — they can’t even have meetings,” said one European diplomat, like others granted anonymity to speak freely. “It’s pretty clear NATO is already falling apart,” an EU official said, adding that Europe must urgently bolster its own defenses: “We can’t wait for it to be completely dead.”
The blunt assessment, drawn from POLITICO’s interviews with 24 ministers, officials and diplomats, vividly depicts the shift in the postwar world order that Trump has done so much to bring about.
In recent days the Trump administration has plunged the military alliance into perhaps the deepest crisis of its 77-year history. The president and his team have vowed to reassess U.S. membership in NATO once the Iran war is over, in retaliation for the failure of European allies to join the conflict against Iran.
Trump himself has been happy to stoke the flames, calling NATO a “paper tiger” in an interview with The Telegraph.
America’s biggest gripe is the refusal of European powers such as Spain, the U.K. and France to let U.S. forces use their military bases or air space to conduct operations against Iran. In the month since the war began, Trump’s ire has only intensified in a stream of increasingly embittered posts flowing from his Truth Social media account.
For the Europeans, the question, as always, is how to protect themselves from the worst of it — and save what matters most.
Nordic table talk
In Helsinki last week, 10 European leaders met for a private dinner without their officials and aides in the intimate surroundings of the Mannerheim Museum, the home of Finland’s World War II leader Gustaf Mannerheim.
Amid the 1940s interiors, decorated with the former president’s hunting trophies, the leaders of countries including the U.K, Sweden, Finland and Norway held a frank discussion about the dire state of the transatlantic alliance. Trump’s stream of invective via social media is bad and getting worse, they all agreed.
But they resolved they couldn’t consent to the U.S. president’s demands to join the fighting against Iran.
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks with Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during a working dinner on Oct. 23, 2025. | Pool photo by François Walschaerts via AFP/Getty Images
“We all want the war to end but we are not on the same page as the U.S.,” said one official briefed on the discussions. Trump wants NATO to help, but the leaders remain resistant because “most Europeans were not informed beforehand and the Gulf has nothing to do with NATO.” In Europe, conversely, the crisis is having a unifying effect: “These 10 countries have always been really close to each other but I would say they’re even closer now,” the official added.
The verdict of these governments, which include Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania and the Netherlands, isn’t restricted to Northern Europe.
In fact, what’s remarkable about the international response to the war in Iran is how united European leaders have been in their refusal to send military assets to join the American and Israeli bombing.
Trump has “destroyed” the transatlantic relationship and “unified” Europe in opposition to this war, one EU diplomat said. Another senior European government official said the Americans must now deal with their own mistake in attacking Iran.
During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the U.K. and Poland were among the countries that sent troops to fight with the Americans. This time, the British and Polish prime ministers have been clear they won’t be part of it.
Spain closed its airspace to U.S. jets on Monday after refusing American forces permission to use its bases at the start of the war, while France banned U.S. planes from using its airspace if they’re carrying military cargo to the Gulf.
“The United States chose not to consult European allies before launching its campaign against Iran. It is not surprising that some European allies are now withholding use of their airbases — or airspace in the French case,” said Fabrice Pothier, CEO of Rasmussen Global and former director of policy planning at NATO.
“Trump is facing the consequences of his unilateralism and for taking Europe for granted,” Pothier said. “The key now for European allies is to stay united in dealing with the consequences of Trump’s ire.”
Not Churchill
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer has borne the brunt of Trump’s personal attacks, the president repeatedly dismissing him as “not Winston Churchill” for his reluctance to join offensive action against Iran. On Wednesday Starmer brushed aside the abuse, saying: “Whatever the pressure on me and others, whatever the noise, I’m going to act in the British national interest.”
Starmer added that NATO was “the single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen” and the U.K. remained “fully committed” to it. British finance minister Rachel Reeves, however, lifted the lid on the real frustrations in London. “I’m angry that Donald Trump has chosen to go to war in the Middle East — a war that there’s not a clear plan of how to get out of,” she told the BBC.
Even so, Starmer is working hard to show that Britain and other countries really do want to help — not least because their economies depend on restoring trade through the Strait of Hormuz and bringing down oil prices.
On Thursday, the U.K. is set to host a virtual summit of 35 nations to discuss “all viable diplomatic and political measures” to restore freedom of navigation and trade in the region — with every member of the G7 except for the U.S. expected to be in attendance, as well as many smaller states including the tiny Marshall Islands.
President Donald Trump speaks during the Future Investment Initiative Summit in Miami Beach, Florida, on March 27, 2026. | Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
The U.K. and other allies will also explore how potentially to help in peacekeeping or policing efforts in the Gulf — but only once the fighting has ended.
There are even hopes in Britain and elsewhere in Europe that King Charles III’s state visit to the U.S. this month will help soothe the troubled relationship with the U.S. The president is a fan of royalty and enjoyed his own state visit to Britain last year.
So far, however, none of these efforts has sufficed to move Trump.
Don’t mention the war
Among NATO officials there is private concern at the rupture in the alliance, along with some bafflement because the U.S. hasn’t yet formally requested assistance from NATO in the Gulf. It’s not clear exactly what Washington wants, officials said.
Secretary General Mark Rutte has “irritated” some allies by resolutely sticking to his policy of refusing to criticize America and maintaining there’s no problem with NATO, according to one European diplomat.
“Any turmoil within the alliance with the U.S. in the epicenter is a cause of embarrassment and concern,” a senior NATO diplomat added. Rutte is making “a strategic choice” to keep a “low tone to avoid escalating” the dispute between Europe and Washington, the NATO diplomat said.
In private, officials concede the relentless criticism from the U.S. inevitably weakens NATO because at its heart, the alliance is an idea. Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty states that members will be ready to defend any member who is attacked.
The moment that promise is questioned, NATO loses its potency as a deterrent against Russian aggression. Trump has questioned the idea so often he has turned doubting NATO into official policy.
Yet for Europeans there is still no single answer to how to restore NATO’s credibility, or what to replace it with if the worst happens.
Increasingly, European officials are looking to build or strengthen alternative structures to hedge against NATO’s collapse.
The Helsinki dinner took place at the end of a summit of the Joint Expeditionary Force, a British-led defense cooperation group for Northern European countries. As a body, the JEF is designed to muster rapidly deployable forces for situations where NATO’s Article 5 is not invoked, according to Antti Häkkänen, Finland’s defense minister. “I’m not speculating that Article 5 is not working,” he said. “It’s working.”
Even so, if Article 5 doesn’t hold up, the JEF still might. Ukraine has already joined an enhanced partnership agreement with the JEF, and at some point Canada could also forge closer links to the group, one official said.
Another network that’s assuming greater importance is the Nordic Defence Cooperation partnership (Nordefco) consisting of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
Ray W. says
The U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee reports that in February 2021, the weighted average interest rate on all Treasury securities was 1.512%. In February 2025, the weighted average interest weighted on all Treasury securities had jumped to 3.346%. This past February, the average had increased again, this time only slightly, to 3.355%.
From a June 19, 2025, FOX News article, in the 12 months dating from April 30, 2025 to April, 2026, 31.4% of the larger than $36 trillion federal debt, or approximately $11 trillion, would have to be refinanced.
Several days ago, Fortune reported that some $10 trillion of the country’s $39 trillion federal debt would have to be refinanced over the next 12 months. And, another $2 trillion in corporate bond debt over the same 12 month period would be competing with the refinancing of the federal debt for investment dollars.
Wrote the Fortune reporter:
“The bottom line is the growing supply of investment grade fixed income product is putting upward pressure on rates and credit spreads.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Upward pressure on rates and credit spreads cannot be a good thing with so much federal debt needing refinancing. I am not an economist, but I can read.
Anyone can look this up. Between 2009 and 2020, the average CPI inflation rate was under 2%. That means that, arguably, during the eight years of the Obama presidency and the four years of President Trump’s first term, the Fed presided over a comparatively stable period of measured GDP growth and steady yet impressive job creation. Lending rates remained low. That 12 year period witnessed a drop in the average interest rate on all Treasury securities to 1.512%. Interest payments on that debt were quite low.
But the pandemic disrupted economies all over the world.
Yes, there are a number of FlaglerLive commenters who are unable to accept that in response to the pandemic governments all over the world shut down economies. Supply chains were disrupted at the same time that trillions of dollars were pumped into the demand side of the world’s economies. These commenters believe that only one president is responsible for all the economic damage wrought by the pandemic.
Our federal debt grew by over $8 trillion during Trump’s first administration, largely because Congress passed legislation ordering him to start spending $2.9 trillion in unfunded stimulus money.
Our federal debt grew by another $8 trillion during the Biden years, mainly because he spent almost all of the rest of Trump’s $2.9 trillion, plus he spent a large portion of the additional $3 trillion that Congress ordered him to spend. Right now, President Trump is spending the remainder of that Biden money.
In the 14 months or so that President Trump has been in office in his second term, the federal debt has grown by some $3 trillion, and a fourth trillion dollars is expected to be added by October.
Two associated things are happening. The amount we pay in interest on our federal debt is skyrocketing right alongside a skyrocketing federal debt. This is what Fed Chair Powell has long been referencing when he repeatedly argues that our economy is heading to a tipping point driven by ever rising interest payments on ever rising federal debt. In 2025, interest paid on the federal debt passed $1 trillion.