To include your event in the Briefing and Live Calendar, please fill out this form.
Weather: Mostly sunny, with a high near 76. Breezy. Tuesday Night: Mostly 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:
The Palm Coast City Council meets at 9 a.m. at City Hall. For agendas, minutes, and audio access to the meetings, go here. For meeting agendas, audio and video, go here.
Community Preparedness Workshop: A monthly preparedness workshop open to the public that provides general preparedness information, practical tips, and strategies to keep households safe and ready for emergencies. 11 a.m. at Flagler County Emergency Operations Center, 1769 E Moody Blvd, Bldg 3, Bunnell. Anyone interested in learning how to prepare for disasters is encouraged to attend. For more information and to register, visit www.FlaglerCounty.gov/emergency and click on “Community Training,” or call 386-313-4200.
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]
The Flagler Beach Library Writers’ Club meets at 5 p.m. at the library, 315 South Seventh Street, Flagler Beach.
Echoes of Earth: Flutes in Concert, a performance by the Daytona State College music program students, 7 p.m. at the News-Journal Center, 221 N Beach St, Daytona Beach. From whispering winds to flowing waters, this lyrical performance brings the beauty and rhythm of the natural world to life through the expressive voice of the flute. This event is free and open to the public.
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.
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.
Notably: A friend who lives here but must’ve been visiting Chicago sent me the picture above. We could only wish.
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.
May 2026
Flagler Beach Farmers Market
Coffee With Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley
Democratic Women’s Club
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Touch-a-Truck in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Unity in the Community
Chess Meet-Up At the Flagler Beach Public Library
‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,’ an FPC Production
‘The Curious Savage” at Daytona Playhouse
‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,’ an FPC Production
‘The Curious Savage” at Daytona Playhouse
“Once on This Island,” At Limelight 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
For the full calendar, go here.
The time-lag between the formulation of the pan-movements’ ideology and the possibility of its serious political application is demonstrated by the fact that the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”-forged around 1900 by agents of the Russian secret police in Paris upon the suggestion of Pobyedonostzev, the political adviser of Nicholas II, and the only Pan-Slav ever in an influential position-remained a half-forgotten pamphlet until 1919, when it began its veritably triumphal procession through all European countries and languages, its circulation some thirty years later was second only to Hitler’s Mein Kampf. Neither the forger nor his employer knew that a time would come when the police would be the central institution of a society and the whole power of a country organized according to the supposedly Jewish principles laid down in the Protocols. Perhaps it was Stalin who was the first to discover all the potentialities for rule that the police possessed; it certainly was Hitler who, shrewder than Schoenerer his spiritual father, knew how to use the hierarchical principle of racism, how to exploit the antisemitic assertion of the existence of a “worst” people in order properly to organize the “best” and all the conquered and oppressed in between, how to generalize the superiority complex of the pan-movements so that each people, with the necessary exception of the jews, could look down upon one that was even worse off than itself.
–From Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951).
Ray W. says
USA Today reports that, during his April 16, 2026, testimony, Acting Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Todd Lyons, revealed that thus far in calendar year 2026, 16 detainees had died while in ICE detention centers; he also stated that since he had taken the role of acting director in March 2025, 44 immigrant detainees had died while in ICE detention.
According to the reporter, USA Today research reveals that, since the beginning of the second Trump administration on January 20, 2025, 48 immigrant detainees have died while in ICE detention centers, despite ICE having been given greater monetary resources and despite ICE having hired more agents and officers.
On the same date, April 16, 2026, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a more than 22-year long study (fiscal years 2004-2025 and the first months of fiscal year 2026 through January 19, 2026) of immigrant deaths while in ICE detention centers. Per capita first-half FY 2026 immigrant deaths were the highest of the years of the study, and the per capita detention death number during FY 2025 full 12 months was higher even than per capita death rates set during the pandemic.
In an opinion editorial, researchers unaffiliated with the JAMA study wrote that the recent increase in ICE detention center death rates is “indicative of ‘systemic weaknesses’ in medical care, mental health protection and mortality review than isolated instances.”
When asked during his Congressional testimony, Acting Director Lyons stated that there is no ICE policy in place to reduce the number of deaths occurring in detention centers.
Make of this what you will.
Laurel says
They ARE concentration camps, here in the USA.
Laurel says
Arc du Trump. Yet, the petrol corporations are raking in the profits, while we feel “a little pain.” People need to stop and think who is feeling this pain, and who isn’t.
Pogo says
Don’t worry, be happy
…the Kremlin on top, and Adolph’s deluxe spider hole below…
https://www.google.com/search?q=intersection+trump+ballroom+hitler+bunker
As Cronkite used to tell/warn us: that’s the way it is.
https://www.google.com/search?q=Cronkite
Ray W. says
The Houston Chronicle recently reported on a data center complex company, Fermi America, that was formed in June 2025 by former Texas governor Rick Perry and others.
Power to the complex was to be initially provided by gas-turbine plants. The reporter wrote that supplemental power demand as the site was built out was to be met by newly-constructed nuclear reactors.
Texas Tech University owns land near Amarillo on which the campus is to be built. Fermi America has a long-term lease on the tract of land. Fermi America is one of several data center companies that qualify for sales tax exemptions approved by the Texas Comptroller’s office.
According to the reporter, Fermi America has not yet broken ground on the campus.
In October 2025, Fermi America went public with a stock offering priced at $21 per share.
Around the time of that public offering in October 2025, Rick Perry told an Amarillo-based reporter:
“We are in a war. We are in a race to get to the artificial intelligence that is going to be driven by these data centers.”
That was then.
Over the past few days, Fermi America has lost both its CEO and CFO. In December 2025, a prospective campus tenant backed away from a $150 million agreement, money that was to be used by Fermi America to fund construction of the campus. An investor class-action lawsuit has been filed in which it is alleged that Fermi America “misled” investors. Fermi America shares now trade in the $5 range.
Texas state officials recently began to state that data center hype might lead to inflated “estimates of future power needs.”
In a March 2026 federal filing, Fermi America wrote:
“We expect to incur significant expenses and continuing financial losses at least until Project Matador becomes financially viable, which may never occur.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Financing, or the lack thereof, has doomed many a project. I have no idea whether Fermi America will survive or fail. But it strikes me as crucial that Fermi America lines up a number of data centers projects willing to contract long-term to purchase electricity at rates high enough to make power produced by natural gas plants profitable.
Sherry says
Before Maga starts with their “gas prices were high under Biden” BS. . . I would just like to point out that, President Biden did NOT control gas prices. Gas prices are “normally” a result of “Capitalism” and market place supply and demand pressures, often influenced by the major oil producing countries in OPEC.
HOWEVER. . . the 2026 recent extreme rise in gas prices is a “direct result” of trump’s WAR in Iran! In this case, the Maga president directly caused you to pay much more at the pump. . . no matter what BS Fox tells you!
Skibum says
Exactly. American presidents usually have zero control regarding the normal ups and downs of gasoline prices. But maga’s dear leader starting his war of choice by attacking Iran and then imposing the U.S. military blockade in the Gulf of Oman definitely has to bear some responsibility for the extremely high prices we are seeing at the pumps in the U.S.
The buffoon in the WH said nobody knew Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz if their country was attacked. WHAT??? Only a complete imbecile like him would not have known such a thing, and I am positive his military and intelligence advisors told him as much but, of course, he is such a brainiac and wanting to prove everyone else wrong so he undoubtably just ignored them and pushed on anyway, envisioning himself some kind of military genius.
Well, general bone spurs should get one more trophy, assigning him the Most Foolish Person in the World title.
Sherry says
Thank You Skibum. . . right on, as usual!
Pogo says
Word of the day
As stated
https://www.google.com/search?q=disgorgement
Ray W. says
According to a recent Global Data story, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development just approved an $82.4 million loan to construct a Hungarian-based hybrid 448 MW solar farm coupled with a 250 MW/1 GW-hour battery energy storage system (BESS). The project is expected to begin operating before the end of the year.
Electricity produced by the project will be sold on the open, or spot, market. No government subsidies. No long-term corporate power purchase agreements.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Has it become financially feasible for institutions to safely lend significant sums of money to solar power projects that are not going to rely on either government subsidies or long-term power purchase contracts to make the project viable?
What does this say about the consistently lowering cost to produce solar power, compared to the cost to produce fossil fuel power?
This project is expected to make money by profitably selling power to the highest bidder on the spot market. Battery storage capacity has to better enable the feasibility of this option.
It should not be overlooked that it is mid-to-late April and the project is expected to open before the end of the year. No five-to-six-to-seven year buildout timeframe for a natural gas-fired power plant.
Ray W. says
Per a story published by The Telegraph, Great Britain’s Labour Party is about to embrace a policy of erecting more wind and solar farms on railway rights-of-way, military bases, industrial sites, and public lands. Permitting for grid improvements will be speeded up.
From the text of a soon-to-be-expressed speech, and facing down his expected critics, Energy Secretary Ed Millibrand plans to state:
“As we face the second fossil fuel shock in less than five years, the lesson for our country is clear: the era of fossil fuel security is over, and the era of clean energy security must come of age. … To ignore one fossil fuel crisis and carry on with business as usual, as some wanted to do, was wrong. To ignore two in less than five years would be completely irresponsible.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
When in February 2021 OPEC voted to virtually close the Strait of Hormuz to almost all crude oil traffic, by agreeing to voluntarily phase in production cuts of six million barrels per day, supplemented by Saudi Arabia’s added cut of another one million barrels per day, international crude oil prices slowly began to rise. Then, when Russia invaded the Ukraine and western nations placed sanctions on Russian exports of crude oil, the first of the two recent oil shocks hit the world. Here we are in the second oil shock. Who knows how long this one will last? But soon enough, the international crude oil marketplace is going to see whether permanent demand destruction is about to set in.
If demand destruction for crude oil actually sets in, which of the already producing wells will continue to extract oil? The ones with the lowest extraction costs or the ones with the highest extraction costs? Will the new Guyanese oil platform keep producing or the old North Dakota shale oil fields? How many new Permian Basin wells will be drilled?
From a less recent CNBC story, South Korea’s energy minister told a reporter that there is “a growing consensus that we must undergo a fundamental energy transition.”
From that story, South Korea’s government approved a $17.6 billion Supplementary Budget, out of which budget a certain amount of money will be invested in the rebuilding of the nation’s languishing solar panel manufacturing infrastructure. Better to spend the money at home, it is thought, than to send it abroad to buy products made in neighboring countries.
Ray W. says
According to a recent article from The Telegraph, Hungary’s Prime Minister-elect, Peter Magyar, said that Hungary will begin to honor arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court. Should Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu visit Hungary or, for that matter, Russian President Putin, they will be detained.
Make of this what you will.
Sherry says
Thank You, Ray W.!