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Weather: Sunny, with a high near 94. Tuesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 76.
- 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 County School Board meets at 1 p.m. in an information workshop. The board meets in the training room on the third floor of the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell. Board meeting documents are available here.
The Flagler County Affordable Housing Committee meets at 3 p.m. at the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), 1769 E Moody Blvd, Bldg 3, Bunnell. Eduardo Diaz Cordero is the Housing Program Coordinator.
The Flagler County School Board meets at 6 p.m. in Board Chambers on the first floor of the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell. Board meeting documents are available here. The meeting is open to the public and includes public speaking segments.
The NAACP Flagler Branch’s General Membership Meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the African American Cultural Society, 4422 North U.S. Highway 1, Palm Coast (just north of Whiteview Parkway). The meeting is open to the public, including non-members. To become a member, go here.
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]
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.
The Flagler Beach Library Writers’ Group meets at 4 p.m. at the library, 315 South Seventh Street, Flagler Beach.
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.
| The Latest Jail Bookings |
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| j-260713 |
| Source: Flagler County Sheriff's Office. Note: the Sheriff's Office redacts or censors the names of migrants arrested under authority of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. The federal agency requires the redactions, according to the Sheriff's Office. |
Notably: You know the irritation, the automated presumption, the deception: every time you open your computer, an app or an AI prompt, even when you start your car, you get these obnoxious greetings, as if the machine gives a shit: “Good morning Pierre!” “How should we jump-start the day Pierre?” “Where should we start?” Or this obscenity from Gemini the other day: “What’s the vibe, Pierre?” I’ve instructed Gemini to do away with those greetings. I like Google’s search page as the idea: spare, white, just that rectangle for your query. No need for more. I don’t need to feel as if my machine cares, especially when it doesn’t. A greeting is in the sincerity. Even when it is insincere, when a human–or a dog, a cat, a lizard– expresses it, there’s an emotional impulse, a little tiny fraction of that élan vital Bergson taught us about, that little puff of life, all it takes to know that you are communing with life, whatever the life form. But a machine? A fucking machine? No. The effrontery of the indifference–or the indifference of the effrontery, if we want to get Chesterton about it–is too foul to tolerate. But we have no choice. The exclamations keep appearing, like exclamation marks in the worst novel of the year. Even Franklin Loufrani, creator of the yellow smiley face, would agree. Incidentally, Loufrani created the smiley face while working at a French newspaper in the aftermath of the 1968 riots, to show readers the good-news stories. At least that’s one of the stories of the face’s creation. It appears to have more than one parent. What’s the machines’ excuse?
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.
July 2026
Palm Coast City Council Workshop
Community Traffic Safety Team Meeting
Flagler Beach United Methodist Church Food Pantry
St. Johns River Water Management District Meeting
Flagler County School Board Workshop: Agenda Items
Weekly Chess Club for Teens, Ages 10-18, at the Flagler County Public Library
Tuesday Book Talk at Flagler Beach Public Library
Flagler County Planning Board Meeting
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy
Contractor Review Board Meeting
Flagler County’s Technical Review Committee Meeting
Conversations in Democracy
Flagler County Industrial Development Authority Meeting
Bingo Night at Palm Coast Elks Lodge 2709
Palm Coast Planning and Land Development Board
For the full calendar, go here.
Every time, I am given the elements of a friendship, the pieces of an emotion, never the emotion, never the friendship.
–From Camus’ Notebooks (Carnets, May 1935-February 1942).
Dennis C Rathsam says
How is it that everytime TRUMP moves the Democrats are all over it. They still can’t believe the party’s over. Now if it was TRUMP that built that massive, ugly library, angering the folks that live there. Now we find out the $850 million dollar tribute to King Barack Obama. You need a photo ID to get in….. BUT NOT TO VOTE??????? Then to top it off, Obama STIFFED many black contractors, seems they weren’t told they were working for free!
The dude says
The orange shit stain has a long and well documented history of stiffing contractors. MAGA morons like yourself screeched that it was just more proof of what a fantabulous businessman he was…
What would color your thinking to assume differently if President Obama stiffed contractors??? Hmmmmm…?
Laurel says
Dennis: Where do you get your information? Seriously, I would really like to know.
Bobanonanon says
The Taj Mahal Casino Audit: A 1990 New Jersey Casino Control Commission audit revealed that Trump’s Taj Mahal project in Atlantic City owed $69.5 million to 253 subcontractors and small businesses. Many of these businesses were forced to accept as little as 30 to 70 cents on the dollar, while others were forced into bankruptcy.
United Steelworkers
+3
Mechanic’s Liens: Since the 1980s, over 200 mechanic’s liens have been filed against Trump-owned properties by contractors and workers seeking unpaid wages or construction fees.
AFL-CIO
+1
USA Today Investigation: A sweeping investigation found that at least 60 lawsuits were filed by contractors—including plumbers, painters, bartenders, and lawyers—specifically alleging that they were stiffed on their bills.
The Week
+1
Labor Violations: Federal records show 24 citations issued by the Department of Labor against Trump-associated companies for violating the Fair Labor Standards Act by failing to pay minimum wage or overtime.
The Week
+1
Doral Foreclosure: In a Florida dispute, the Trump Doral golf resort failed to pay a painting contractor $30,000. After the contractor sued and won, a judge ordered the foreclosure of the resort to satisfy the debt, which Trump’s attorneys fought to delay.
United Steelworkers
+1
Laurel says
Why is there a tarp over the Iran deal? Because Trump is trying desperately circle around to where Obama had it, while claiming it as his own.
Bobanonanon says
You are so wrong. Trump’s deal is a flip’n surrender.
Ray W. says
Windward reports that 20 commercial vessels entered the Persian Gulf yesterday, eight of them tankers. 16 vessels exited the Strait of Hormuz, nine of them tankers. This is the highest number since Strait activity began rising on June 14th.
The maritime tracking news outlet considers the next two days as “diagnostic”, meaning that the next two days will reveal whether Iran’s decision to re-close the Strait, with traffic exceptions for ships that obtain five-day Iranian transit permits to use northern Strait transit routes, has allowed maritime traffic to continue.
The three million-barrel-plus capacity tankers that were observed taking on crude oil at Iran’s Kharg Island two days ago were seen leaving port yesterday. A total of four tankers loaded with Iranian crude were outbound under power in or near the Strait.
Some 30 or more Iranian fast-attack boats continue to operate within the Strait.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Is any report of an increase in traffic flow through the Strait a good thing? Can it be argued that a return to normalcy can bring with it repair to the worldwide economic damage inflicted by the closure?
If normal vessel traffic through the Strait prior to onset of war was in excess of 120 ships per day, does the movement of 36 ships in one day mean that worldwide economic disruption continues to occur?
If one lives in a perfect or bad world, as the many pestilential partisan members of faction who wander among us so live, then the travel of 36 ships through the Strait cannot be anything other than a bad thing. If one lives in a good, better, best/bad, worse, worst world, perhaps the movement of 36 ships in a day can be considered less bad than it could be, with reason for optimism.
Ray W. says
The Cool Down reports that 42 acres of land around a closed coal mine, now classified as a “brownfield”, has been repurposed into a “subscription model” solar farm that is expected to produce up to 9.8 megawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 7,000 homes.
A “subscription model” solar farm is also called “community solar”; it means that individual homeowners do not need to install rooftop solar panels to obtain renewable electricity; they can subscribe with their utility company to directly purchase units of energy from a solar project, usually at a 5% to 10% discount. State law must be passed to permit such projects.
Each subscribing homeowner continues to pay the normal rate for whatever electricity is consumed each month and then their share of the value of whatever electricity is produced by the solar farm is credited each month to their electric bill at the discounted rate. If a homeowner’s share of the solar farm’s electricity output matches the electricity consumed that month, then that month’s electric bill will be reduced by the discounted amount, without the homeowner having to buy a single solar panel.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
Of what value less expensive electricity? From another story, more than one Illinois “brownfield” tract of land is being converted into a “community” solar farm. If so, does innovation abound in America? Does American ingenuity amaze? Is expensive electricity the bane of American productivity?
Sherry says
Answer to the cartoon. . . hiding his humiliating “FAILURE”. . . duh!
M Madman’s
O Obvious
U Unrelenting Screwups
Laurel says
A “Memorandum Of Understanding.” What a silly jole! I got a MOU once, after telling a supervisor (in a different department) “F*ck you!” in a meeting. I never apologized, and when I finally retired, my boss said “I wish I had ten more like you!” That’s how *powerful* a “Memorandum Of Understanding ” is! A total joke.
Trump is so, damned… nevermind.
Skibum says
The orange menace’s unfortunate excursion into the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is a great comparison to his unfortunate excursion into Iran. His humongous ego tells him that only he can solve the issue. His tiny brain doesn’t ask questions or seek the advice of experts, because after all, he is his own advisor in all things earthly. There are no red flags or warning signs to the brainiac’s impetuous brain farts. And so, he doesn’t hesitate to wade in to the depth without a paddle, without a comprehensive plan, and without a care in the world as to the appropriateness of his decision.
Of course, it is only taxpayer money that he wastes, and a LOT of it! When things go south and the consequences of his actions start raising the ire of even his own most MAGAnificent supporters, he never admits he made an error in judgement, never rethinks what was done, and never regrets wasting taxpayer money needlessly. Instead, his little mind goes where it has always gone. To fantastical conspiracies, because this little man can never, ever admit even to himself, that somehow he is not the smartest man like nobody has ever seen before.
Someone online remarked the other day that, when looking at a glass of water, some will see the glass half full, others will see it half empty. But this little self-important man will only see his reflection.
Someone else remarked that the Reflecting Pool should now be renamed the Strait of Warm Ooze. How appropriate! I’m just surprised that he hasn’t yet ordered J.D. to give press conferences in front of the green algae debacle so it would appear that he, and not his imbecilic boss, is somehow responsible and next to be thrown under the clown car.
Just another day at the circus, I suppose.
Ray W. says
The EIA now assesses that the overall average manufacturing cost for the many different chemistries that are currently used in EV battery packs has finally dropped below $100 per kilowatt-hour of storage capacity.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
If I understand this properly, it means that EV battery packs have finally reached manufacturing cost parity with the average internal combustion engine system, i.e., that the cost to make an average engine, fuel system, cooling system, exhaust system, etc., on average, is the same as the cost to make an EV battery. Operating costs after purchase are not manufacturing costs.
Several months ago, CATL, the world’s largest battery maker, announced that bringing production of the newest version of its sodium-ion EV battery chemistry to scale would lower production cost to as little as $10 per kilowatt-hour. If achieved, that battery cost figure would be one-tenth the cost to produce an average ICE product.
My argument is simple. The cost to build most of an EV is has long been the same as the cost to build most of an ICE car. The bodies cost the same. Doors, hoods and trunk lids. Wheels, headlights, bumpers and windows cost the same. Lug nuts, fasteners, dashboards and seats cost the same. The differences in costs are almost exclusively in the cost to make the battery pack, electric motor and associated wiring versus the cost to make an engine, transmission or transaxle, exhaust system, cooling system and fuel system. Per the EIA, EV manufacturing costs are at parity with ICE manufacturing costs. The question is how much further can EV costs drop compared to ICE costs.
Can it be argued that one technology is near the end of its development cycle and that the other technology is near the beginning of its development cycle? Can it be argued that American innovation can still lead the EV world into the future? Will it?
Ford’s CEO repeatedly asserts that the legacy American Big Three carmakers are a decade behind the Chinese EV industry, but he also argues that a lithium-manganese-rich (LMR) EV battery chemistry, if properly developed, would allow Ford to leapfrog the current Chinese liquid-state lithium-ion and LFP battery advantages. So Ford is investing hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars into improving LMR chemistry. GM is, too. I certainly hope the effort works.
Ed P says
Anecdotal only
Bought regular grade gasoline at BJ wholesale for $3.26/gal with club membership and Bj credit card.
Was $4.52 on May 24th with same perks.
Callmeishmael says
Yes, the discount is a loss leader intended to drive memberships. It generally saves the average consumer who drives a lot and uses all the bulk items they purchase in the store. For the average driver and consumer, the discount is pretty much break even at best when you consider membership costs and the in-store variables.