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Weather: Showers likely, with thunderstorms also possible after 2pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 74. Windy, with an east wind around 24 mph, with gusts as high as 36 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. Wednesday Night: A chance of showers and thunderstorms, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 2am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 63. Very windy. Chance of precipitation is 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:
In Court: Docket sounding is scheduled in the case of Kristopher Henriqson at 1:30 p.m. before Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols. Henriqson is representing himself. A 48-year-old state and federal felon and Palm Coast resident, he faces accusations of having routinely raped and abused his stepdaughter since she was 9. See: “Facing Life in Prison, Man Wants to Represent Himself and Depose Step-Daughter Accusing Him of Rape.”
In Court: Docket sounding in the case of Gary Durso is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. before Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols at the Flagler County Courthouse, Courtroom 401. See: “Flickr Child Abuse Case Moves To Trial as Palm Coast Sex Offender Withdraws Plea, Objecting to Prison Term.”
The Public Safety Coordinating Council meets at 8:45 a.m. at the Emergency Operations Center in Bunnell, 1769 E. Moody Blvd., Bldg. 3, Bunnell. The council, chaired by Sheriff Rick Staly, is a statutorily required panel that assembles law enforcement, judicial, social services and local government representatives to discuss public safety and direct related grants to the appropriate agencies. The council meets roughly quarterly.
River to Sea Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee meets at 9 a.m. at the Airline Room at the Daytona Beach International Airport. The TPO’s planning oversight includes all of Volusia County and Flagler County, with board representation those jurisdictions. The committee is responsible for reviewing plans, policies, and procedures and rank priority projects as they relate to bicycle and pedestrian issues within the TPO planning area. See the full agendas here. To join the meeting electronically, go here.
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.
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.
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.
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
Contractor Review Board Meeting
Free Tax Preparation Services in Flagler County
In Court: Kristopher Henriqson Trial
Flagler County’s Technical Review Committee Meeting
Tourist Development Council Meeting
Conversations in Democracy
Flagler County Industrial Development Authority Meeting
The Circle of Light A Course in Miracles Study Group
Bingo Night at Palm Coast Elks Lodge 2709
Palm Coast Planning and Land Development Board
Flagler Beach United Methodist Church Food Pantry
Flagler County Drug Court Convenes
Story Time with Miss Kim at Flagler Beach Public Library
Model Yacht Club Races at the Pond in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Palm Coast Democratic Club Recap Meeting
For the full calendar, go here.
“The whole hierarchical structure of totalitarian movements, from naive fellow-travelers to party members, elite formations, the intimate circle around the Leader, and the Leader himself, could be described in terms of a curiously varying mixture of gullibility and cynicism with which each member, depending upon his rank and standing in the movement, is expected to react to the changing lying statements of the leaders and the central unchanging ideological fiction of the movement. […] Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.
–From Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951).
Pogo says
Better late than never.
Ed P says
Achieving a balanced Federal Budget within 10 years requires approximately $12-$15 Trillion in combined savings and revenue. We hate Trump. We hate Doge. We hate tariffs. Dang.
Congress is adding $200Billion monthly. The debt milestones. $34 trillion Jan 2024. $35 Trillion July 2024. $36Trillion Nov 2024. $37 Trillion August 2025. $38Trillion Nov 2025.
Opps, we just reached $39 trillion on April 3 2026…maybe $40 Trillion by August?
The proverbial federal credit card is being maxed out.
Projected interest payments for 2026 will be $1 trillion alone. Government shut downs cost more than they save. Dang.
If changes are not made interest costs potentially reach $2.1 trillion annually by 2036.
Maybe, the radical left fringe will convince confiscation of all U.S. billionaires’ total wealth. Oh, wait, that only covers the tab for 9 months. Dang.
Wait. Here’s an idea. Every adult American should cut a $140,000 check. $280,000 for married couples. A one time payment would be more compassionate. Who’s in? Dang.
Maybe a nationwide hope and prayer program will rocket our GDP toward 8-10% to buy a few years. Let’s hope Trump’s “Golden Age” can be achieved. We’ll leave it for our grandchildren to fix. Sounds like that’s the only plausible strategy because no one wants to feel the pain. Dang.
Hmmm, what to do?
How far will we kick the can down the road? Dang.
Laurel says
“We’re Fighting Wars. We Can’t Take Care of Daycare” says the no foreign wars President. Keep having babies, ladies, you’ll figure it out.
“It’s not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things,” the president said. “We have to take care of one thing: military protection.” He needs a new battleship named after him.
The America First President! Well, after helping Netanyahu demolish countries and kill masses of civilians, and getting far right authoritarian Viktor Orban reelected. After taking over Venezuela, and threatening the takeover of allies Canada and Greenland. Oh, and there’s a lot of public properties that need Trump’s name and face on it, and there’s the Arc du Trump that is yet to be built, and Trump does need to play a lot of golf and fly back and forth to Florida, and we do need to get rid of any green, renewable energies…so much to do and so little money.
https://www.usdebtclock.org/
Sorry Americans, no time or money for us. Keep paying your taxes like good little people. The “concept of a [health] plan” is dead.
Ray W. says
Concerning Hannah Arendt’s description of the willingness of followers to ascribe to their leaders the magical ability to play three-dimensional chess when the leaders, in reality, are lying in hopes that their followers will launder their lies, during the last presidential campaign, candidate Vance told a rally audience on August 28, 2024:
“Kamala Harris let in 25 million illegal aliens. …”
I sought data to support or refute that claim.
First, immigration research consistently uses “unauthorized immigrant” as the appropriate description for immigrants who “enter without inspection”, who overstay their work or student visas, who are DACA or TPS immigrants, who await immigration court proceedings, who await outcome of application for LPR status (green card holder), and others.
Researchers, both government or private, measure the unauthorized immigrant population dating from entry on or after 1980. I infer that 1980 was the year when the Census Bureau adopted a specific statistical process requiring researchers to assess particular data sets.
The Census Bureau has measured immigration figures since the 19th century. After 9/11, the Bureau fell under DHS jurisdiction. The DHS soon began issuing the reports.
According to an April 2024 DHS report on the number of unauthorized immigrants of all types residing in the country, on January 1, 2010, the number of residing unauthorized immigrants was 11.6 million. On January 1, 2015, from a differently dated DHS report, the figure was 11.4 million. From the April 2024 report, for 2020? 10.5 million. On January 1, 2022, the latest date for DHS figures, the number was 11.0 million.
I cannot find a DHS report for January 1, 2023 or January 1, 2024. That does not mean that information is being withheld. The April 2024 report describes a need for time to gather and interpret data, which offers one explanation of why an April 2024 report has statistical information through to January 1, 2022.
But the Bureau of Labor Statistics issues a “household survey”, based on a different statistical analysis. The BLS survey, for one thing, is quarterly, not monthly.
The Center for Immigration Studies, using the BLS statistical methodology, puts the number of first quarter 2022 unauthorized immigrant residents at 11.8 million, 800,000 more than the DHS January 1, 2022 figure. From first quarter 2024 BLS data, the Center puts the number of unauthorized immigrants residing in the U.S. at 14.0 million.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
It appears that Kamala Harris did not let 25 million illegal immigrants into the country after all. The Vance apologists among us will magically argue that Vance was playing three-dimensional chess when in reality he was just lying.
FlaglerLive readers should remember that in 2024, after he admitted having lied about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio eating pets, Vance told a reporter that if it took him lying in order to get the press talking about issues he wanted reporters to talk about, then he would continue to lie.
As an aside, other research reports have the first-quarter 2024 figure for immigrants who entered “without inspection” at 8 million of those 14 million residing unauthorized immigrants, with the other 6 million comprised of immigrants who had overstayed their work or student visas, or were green card holders, or were DACA, etc.
Ed P says
Hello Ray W,
Estimates of the undocumented population is often considered low because they rely on Census/ACS surveys that frequently miss hidden populations, fear of detection causes underreporting, and methodologies struggle to accurately capture high turnover transient residents.
If you just add up the monthly southern border encounters, northern border encounters, add estimated getaways, include water entries and include large groups who are given temporary status from 2020-2025 then your estimates appear low. Maybe they are accurate, maybe not.
All estimates are just that, estimates.
Depending on the lean, 11-15 million people arrived, yes a possible 6 million have some degree of temporary protection.
California, Texas, Florida, and New York are home to 8 million alone.
Ray W. says
The Telegraph reports that the two week ceasefire between Iran, Israel and the United States may soon see shipping traffic exiting the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz, but it is less likely that shipowners will send vessels into the Persian Gulf, for a variety of reasons.
If ships are to soon be sent into the Gulf, they will likely dock at ports located closest to the Strait.
The reasons given for this position include a belief that the ceasefire is not a peace pact. No one knows whether the ceasefire is firm or fragile. And, it is for two weeks, meaning ships might get caught on the wrong side of the Strait should shooting break out at time of expiration. Insurance companies will be hesitant to offer coverage.
The Telegraph reporter then relied on three sources.
Lars Jensen, a shipping analyst, talked on BBC TV4:
“The Iranians have said, yes, you can pass through freely, but you need to coordinate with the Iranian military forces, and it’s unclear exactly what that means.”
Peter Sand, container shipping analyst for Xeneta, a logistics specialist company, said:
“Everybody is assessing the risk according to their own guidance, but as the ceasefire is specifically stating two weeks, nobody is planning a full return. … It’s a positive development but one that will not see an immediate surge in ships. It is still a war. There’s a cease fire, but the uncertainty is just as great.”
Maersk issued a statement:
“At this point, we take a cautious approach, and we are not making any changes to specific services. The ceasefire may create transition opportunities, but it does not yet provide full maritime certainty and we need to understand all potential conditions attached.”
Make of this what you will.
Ray W. says
While other news outlets have begun to report that the three-party ceasefire announced yesterday in the Iran War has collapsed and that the Strait of Hormuz has been reclosed, after Israel announced that it had launched a missile barrage on some 100 targets in Lebanon, the Wall Street Journal, apparently prior to receipt of the breaking news, reported that Iran had told negotiators that, for its part of the negotiations, it had agreed to permit 12 ships per day to transit the Strait and that the ships would have to pay transit tolls to the Iranian government.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I have no idea what will become of the proclaimed ceasefire, other than to assert that when no one governmental party to an agreement trusts the others, it seems reasonable to believe that no ceasefire is likely to last.
And, why would Iran claim that it was limiting daily passage through a strait to 12 fee-paying ships per day when thousands of vessels are reported stranded on the Persian Gulf side of the Strait?
As an aside, the Journal reports that yesterday, before announcement of the ceasefire, five ships moved through the Strait.
Ray W. says
Yahoo Finace is reporting than Iran, through FARS, its media agency, announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, “over Israel’s continued strikes on Lebanon.” The White House says the Strait is still open.
Make of this what you will.
Ray W. says
Retired Army General and former CIA Director David Petraeus recently told a CBS News interviewer that, in his opinion, Russia “no longer has the upper hand” in the Ukraine. He says that, despite being outmanned, outgunned, and economically out-resourced, Ukrainian forces are stopping “cold” all Russian attacks.
Make of this what you will.
Ray W. says
The earliest producing oil well in the Permian Basin that spans western Texas and eastern New Mexico entered service in 1920. Hundreds of thousands of wells have since been drilled. Over the decades, an entire network of natural gas and crude oil pipelines between the Basin and Gulf-area seaports and refineries was built.
But the Basin never produced much more than five million barrels of crude oil per day prior to the onset of what the energy industry now calls the Shale Revolution.
In 2010, at the onset of that revolution, the Basin was producing only around one million barrels of crude oil per day, if that much. According to the EIA, the average daily crude oil production figure for the Permian Basin throughout 2026 will be between 6.6 and 6.7 million barrels per day.
According to a Midland Reporter-Telegram story, Permian Basin energy extraction operators say they are reluctant to raise crude oil production despite $100 per barrel WTI prices because they think today’s high prices due to geopolitical disruption from the Iran War will prove “transitory.”
According to the reporter, recent escalation of the conflict may point to a “more durable shift in global supply-demand dynamics”, a shift that could result in increased Permian Basin drilling activity.
But one “bottleneck” factor may hinder any increase in drilling activity. That aging pipeline network referred to above is already at or near capacity, meaning that any significant increase in Permian Basin crude oil output may have to be transported out of the Basin east via tractor-trailer or rail car. Both options are significantly more expensive compared to the cost of pipeline transport.
Of three major pipelines connecting the Basin to Corpus Christie, two are near capacity and one is slightly above “nameplate” capacity. Of four major pipelines connecting to Houston, all are near-capacity.
Short-term fixes involve filling any nearby unused storage tanks, addition of more powerful pipeline pumping stations, or employing the use of drag-reducing crude oil additives. Each option adds costs that might be wasted if the Iran War ends soon and international markets return to whatever price may come. Long-term? New pipelines.
Make of this what you will.
Ray W. says
In a social media post, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, per a CNBC story, qualifiedly welcomed news of the Iran War ceasefire agreement:
“Ceasefires are always good news. Especially if they lead to a just and lasting peace. But this momentary relief cannot make us forget the chaos, the destruction, and the lives lost. The government of Spain will not applaud those who set the world on fire just because they show up with a bucket.”
Make of this what you will.
Ray W. says
According to a story put out by what appears to be a specialty news outlet, Natural Gas Intelligence, at the end of 2025, American LNG exporters could load onto tankers 17 billion cubic feet of liquified product per day. By the end of 2026, due to new export capacity coming online, the export figure will grow to loading 19 billion cubic feet of product per day.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
It is no secret that America has a glut of natural gas. Much of that type of fossil fuel is wasted through “flaring.” Even flaring isn’t the answer, because only so many permits exist to allow for flaring, according to a different story, so on occasion excess natural gas that cannot be flared off is being sold at negative prices, meaning that some energy extractors who are selling oil from a well at a profit are having to pay other companies to take their excess natural gas extracted from the same well. This may explain why data center owners are willing to put new facilities powered by new natural gas power plants in remote West Texas regions located close to multiple natural gas wells. Increased LNG export options might reverse that economic benefit to data center owners.