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Weather: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Increasing clouds, with a high near 93. Heat index values as high as 105. West wind 5 to 7 mph becoming northeast in the afternoon. Thursday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 8pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 75. Calm wind.
- 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: Opening arguments this morning in the fourth day of the trial of Jermaine Williams Sr. begin at 8:30 a.m. before Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols in Courtroom 401 at the Flagler County courthouse. Williams, 52, faces the death penalty for the stabbing death of his wife, Yolonda Williams, in the driveway of the couple’s Bunnell house in August 2024. See:
- Angling for Life in Prison in Williams Trial, Defense All But Concedes Murder in Jury Selection Strategy
- ‘Hardships’ and Anxious Reactions to Death Penalty Prolong Jury Selection in Williams Murder Trial
- Judge Bars Heat Of Passion Defense In Husband’s Killing of Yolonda Williams On Eve of Death Penalty Trial
- Flagler’s 1st Death Penalty Trial in 2 Decades Begins Monday For Man Accused Of Stabbing His Wife To Death
- Jermaine Williams Loses Two Dozen Motions Contesting His Death-Penalty Trial for Killing of Wife Yolonda
- No Plea Offers in Jermaine Williams’s Death-Penalty Trial for Murder of His Wife, Yolonda Williams, in Bunnell
- Prosecution Seeks Death Penalty For Jermaine Williams, Who Stabbed Wife to Death in Bunnell
- The Arrest Report
- Yolonda Williams, 50, Is Stabbed and Killed by Husband, Jermaine Williams; He Is Charged with 1st Degree Murder
Town of Marineland Commission Meeting, 6 p.m. in the main conference room at the GTMNERR Marineland, 9741 N Oceanshore Boulevard, St. Augustine. See the town’s website here.
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.
Story Time with Miss Kim at Flagler Beach Public Library, 11 to 11:45 a.m. at the library, 315 South Seventh Street, Flagler Beach. It’s where the wild things are.
Model Yacht Club Races at the Pond in Palm Coast’s Central Park, from noon to 2 p.m. in Central Park in Town Center, 975 Central Ave. Join Bill Wells, Bob Rupp and other members of the Palm Coast Model Yacht Club, watch them race or join the races with your own model yacht. No dues to join the club, which meets at the pond in Central Park every Thursday.
The Palm Coast Democratic Club holds an “After Dark” Recap Meeting (previous daytime business meeting) at 6 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month to accommodate working Democrats. We will meet at the Flagler Democratic Party Headquarters in City Marketplace, 160 Cypress Point Parkway, Suite C214, Palm Coast. Hope you will join us. This gathering is open to the public at no charge. No advance arrangements are necessary. Call (386) 283-4883 for best directions or (561)-235-2065 for more information.
| The Latest Jail Bookings |
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| j-260807 |
| 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. |
Trial notes: When the jury–or the jury pool, during selection–is out of the room a strange chumminess sets during a prolonged trial amid the lawyers, the judge, the court reporter, even the few people in attendance, the more so when the lawyers and the judge don’t mind a little humor and use the occasional break to distend what can otherwise be tense proceedings. Death penalty jurors are forced to confront questions many of them have never thought about beyond bumper-sticker slogans, or to talk about how their own past could affect their judgment. The lawyers and the judge are as if walking on on high-power tension lines most of the time, each their own Philippe Petit highwiring it between paradoxes, so stepping off is a necessary relief. They laugh a bit, they banter, they understand each other when a particularly bizarre juror has just invited being excused. All that is to be expected. But how does a defendant see all this chumminess? How is Jermaine Williams, the killer, the man whose life is on its own highwire, seeing this as anything other than a system arrayed against him down to its ritualistic ribbing? He’s always excluded of course, the way bailiffs whisk him out for any extended break, for lunch, for anything not on the record. The exclusion reminds him: you are outside of all this. You are not part of so much as the freedom to banter, to linger, to idle, even in your civilian clothes you borrowed for the trial. This is what it means to have been severed–to have severed yourself–from civilized society, which so often defines itself by the pettiest routines. We don’t give them a second thought. The freedom of a quip is as irrelevant as the freedom to go to the rest room, though for the defendant, either would be a momentous subversion. It might have been different if there were realistic doubts about his guilt. It would have added an element of tragedy, with the possibility of an innocent person getting convicted, even eventually killed. Our chummy rituals would have taken on an absurd dimension. They would have seemed inappropriate. They would have made us complicit in the flagrance of a possible injustice. But that’s not what we have here. We know he’s guilty. We know he killed. We know he killed with animus, with barbarism. What we don’t know is whether he will be sentenced to die. Whether he will spend decades thinking back, if ever, to these last days of spending time outside of a prison, or whether he’ll see his life flash before his eyes in a David Foster Wallace “Good Old Neon” way as the needle serves him the triple cocktail we still pretend is a humane way to murder in the state’s name. That’s all this comes down to: ending a life with a killing, making us all, in some ways, witnesses to an execution, or ending a life with life in prison, making us all–not just the jurors by any means–complicit, as Hugo might say, to society’s failure to keep a man like Jermaine Williams from becoming the Jermaine Williams he is. But let’s not absolve him of his own agency, and let’s not begrudge ourselves the banter that, to his eyes and ears, may be a form of torture. If so, it is, I am surprised to acknowledge, the kind of torture I am not entirely sorry to be witnessing, if not–by my presence on the other side of his fate–partially inflicting.
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.
August 2026
Free For All Fridays With Host David Ayres on WNZF
In Court: Flagler Home Builders Association v. Palm Coast
First Friday Garden Walks at Washington Oaks Gardens State Park
Friday Blue Forum
First Friday in Flagler Beach
Free Family Art Night at Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens
Flagler Beach Farmers Market
Coffee With Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Second Saturday Plant Sale at Washington Oaks Gardens State Park
American Association of University Women (AAUW) Meeting
Randy Fine Press Conference/Campaign Stop at Beverly Beach Town Hall
Gamble Jam at Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area
For the full calendar, go here.
My whole life I’ve been a fraud. I’m not exaggerating. Pretty much all I’ve ever done all the time is try to create a certain impression of me in other people. Mostly to be liked or admired. It’s a little more complicated than that, maybe. But when you come right down to it it’s to be liked, loved. Admired, approved of, applauded, whatever. You get the idea. I did well in school, but deep down the whole thing’s motive wasn’t to learn or improve myself but just to do well, to get good grades and make sports teams and perform well. To have a good transcript or varsity letters to show people. I didn’t enjoy it much because I was always scared I wouldn’t do well enough. The fear made me work really hard, so I’d always do well and end up getting what I wanted. But then, once I got the best grade or made All City or got Angela Mead to let me put my hand on her breast, I wouldn’t feel much of anything except maybe fear that I wouldn’t be able to get it again.The next time or next thing I wanted. I remember being down in the rec room in Angela Mead’s basement on the couch and having her let me get my hand up under her blouse and not even really feeling the soft aliveness or whatever of her breast because all I was doing was thinking, ‘Now I’m the guy that Mead let get to second with her.’ Later that seemed so sad. This was in middle school. She was a very big-hearted, quiet, self-contained, thoughtful girl — she’s a veterinarian now…
–From David Foster Wallace’s “Good Old Neon” (2001).
Pogo says
A reminder — of our grand and glorious past…
https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/londons-public-executions/
And present…
“…Which country has the most public executions?
China
The countries with the highest number of executions were China (1000s), Iran (2,159+), Saudi Arabia (356+), Yemen (51+), USA (47) – in that order. Women were known to have been executed in five countries: China (+), Egypt (1), Iran (61), Kuwait (1) and Saudi Arabia (5).May 18, 2026…”
https://www.google.com/search?q=public+execution+by+country+2026
Dennis C Rathsam says
What’s all the fuss over TRUMPS free plane? The USA has been building a new one for years now….Where the hell is it? The Democrats are mystified, of all TRUMPS success. He,s here, he,s there, seems he,s everywhere, but not hiding in the basement! TRUMPS a hands on guy, smart as they come…. He takes no salary, & donates the money. Name 1 thing Obama & Biden donated? TRUMPS on TV quite often telling America what’s really happening, & what he,s really doing. Its called transparency, a word the Jackass party never heard of. Then theres the Senate minority leader giving a speach on the floor yesterday, you can here him fart, then grin while continuing speaking! Schumere is a discusting old fool, not only full of shit, but gas too! As the infighting in the Democraric party worsens, the left wing, AOC & her socialist buddies continue to fool the young people of the USA, with there lies of free shit, work 4 days not 5, free rent, free everything!!!! It all sounds great until you run out of other peoples money! WAKE UP AMERICA!
Laurel says
Dennis, you are actually a study in psychology. Try checking out a few books on cult behavior, and see if any alarms go off.
If anyone would list all the time and money Obama donated for the good of others, you would completely ignore it all, and go right back to believing that Trump isn’t scamming the shit out of us while in public office.
Well, it’s your bubble, but it is negatively effecting our lives.
Dennis C Rathsam says
YOUR RIGHT!!!!!! OBAMA did give the Irainian people billions of dollars of CASH! Then they turned around & started their regime of terror! Laurel, how much American blood is on Obamas sticky fingers. & by the way TRUMP did more for black Americans then Obama & Biden COMBINED! Use you laptop to learn something, in stead of getting your jollys on me. Do a little digging, you’ll be amazed what those 2 did. Opposed to what TRUMP did
Sherry says
@dr. . . either post credentialled factual evidence for your constant, demented, ridiculous claims. . . or, …
Laurel says
Trump took out full page newspaper ads calling for the execution of five black men, all who turned out to be innocent. He never apologized to them. That’s what Trump did for black people.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6131533-trumpdeathpenaltyad05011989/
That, and he and his father prevented black people from moving into Trump owned apartments.
Dennis, your bias is so strong that it does not allow you to see what the man is really about.
You did, as predicted, ignore the Obama supported charities.
Trump will never be the man Obama is, which is why he is obsessed with him.
I don’t get the “jollies” you described, but I know you are a good, and caring man. I just wish you could let go. You are a better man than Trump is.
Laurel says
Here you go, Dennis, you asked:
https://www.looktothestars.org/celebrity/barack-obama
Mark Webb says
Dennis, every time you post your thoughts.
You prove to the world where you get your information.
Even the major news outlets won’t carry Trumps lies.
One day, if you live long enough you will experience what most people in Germany felt. When they WOKE up.
Sherry says
Something you will not see on Fox (Maga Propaganda):
https://apnews.com/article/ice-david-brouillette-johan-guerrero-maine-shooting-
https://apnews.com/article/ice-camp-detention-trump-homeland-security-dhs-immigration-deaths-abuse-30ec92636a5601b0071895efa871b990dbc30d6d59e2a95fb470afc188e125c6
I DARE you to become educated by reading these articles Maga!
Sherry says
Regarding the Maga president’s BS Speech:
Politico 06/22/2026 02:25 PM EDT
A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from creating a database of millions of Americans’ private information — including Social Security numbers and citizenship status — saying the administration has fed knowingly inaccurate data to states that are now “actively” and “haphazardly” purging purported non-citizens from voter rolls.
“The federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote,” U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan wrote in a 75-page ruling. “This Court cannot stand idly by while that happens.”
Ruling in a lawsuit brought by the League of Women Voters and other advocacy groups, the Biden-appointed judge said the Trump administration’s new system — an updated version of the so called “SAVE” database operated by the Department of Homeland Security — combines citizenship data with information from the Social Security Administration to create a clearinghouse that Congress has expressly prohibited.
Despite deep concerns about the accuracy of the records, Sooknanan said, the administration has shared the database with states.
“Since then, states have run their voter rolls through the modified SAVE system, and some of the Plaintiffs’ members have been wrongfully identified as non-citizens by SAVE, resulting in the cancellation of their voter registrations,” Sooknanan wrote.
The ruling halts a pillar of Trump’s efforts to overhaul American elections, many of which have been tied up by judges who say the administration is attempting to bulldoze through Trump’s preferred voting system without congressional approval — from attempting to coerce states to impose new voter ID rules to constraining mail-in balloting.
DHS and the Treasury Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The ruling immediately halts the implementation of the revised SAVE system, which has been a flashpoint in Trump’s effort to implement both a mass deportation agenda and overhaul of federal election laws.
Sooknanan’s ruling rests on what she concluded were violations of protections enshrined in the Social Security Act and the Privacy Act, allowing states such as Texas and Louisiana to access the sensitive information and rely on it to purge voter rolls.
Sooknanan also said the reliance on inaccurate information to falsely label some people as non-citizens amounts to defamation — and that the Trump administration’s effort to downplay the consequences of an erroneous label “border on the absurd.” Non-citizen voting can imply criminality, she noted.
Plaintiffs who sued celebrated the decision, which is likely to be appealed quickly to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“The data at the heart of this lawsuit was unlawfully consolidated in violation of privacy laws intended to protect sensitive personal information,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which represented some of the plaintiffs in the suit, along with the ACLU and others.
Laurel says
Whatever Trump does, he blames on others. So, if you want to know what he’s up to, just look at his claims about others.
JACK D HOWELL says
Dennis,
I love reading your posts! Your comments are right on the mark. That mark is the mark of stupidity and just how gullible you are.