Stephen Monroe again declined a deal of 25 to 50 years in prison today for the murder of 16-year-old Noah Smith three years ago in Bunnell. Monroe faces life in prison if convicted. His trial starts Monday. Monroe is the last of four defendants in the gunfight that resulted in Smith’s death as he stood on the stoop of his house in Bunnell and was struck by a bullet not intended for him. He was on probation for robbery at the time of his arrest.
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Daily Cartoon and Briefing
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, February 6, 2025
Flagler, Palm Coast & Other Local
Eroding Management Plan, Cities Bluntly Tell Flagler County: Not One Extra Dime for Beach Protection,
Palm Coast, Beverly Beach and Bunnell officials told Flagler County in blunt, at times almost belligerent terms Wednesday evening that their constituents will not accept any new tax or fee to pay for beach management, whether it’s renourishing beaches or maintaining them. The tone of the discussion during a joint meeting of local governments Wednesday left county officials reeling.
Mom Tearfully Pleads with Son Risking Life in Prison: ‘Take the Plea’ (15 Years, Out in 9). He Refuses.
It was an unusual, if not an unheard-of scene in Circuit Court this morning, before Judge Dawn Nichols. Derrius Bauer’s mother stood at the podium in front of the judge, sobbing, begging her son, who was sitting a few feet from her, to take the plea the state was offering him. Bauer is insisting on going to trial on a charge of first-degree murder. He is alleged to have conspired with Marcus Chamblin in the murder of Deon Jenkins at a Palm Coast Circle K in October 2019.
Sen. Rick Scott Aide Tours Palm Coast’s Troubled Wastewater Plant, Raising Hopes for Help with $240 Million Upgrade
The first-ever visit by an aide to Sen. Rick Scott–or by any senator or his aides–to Palm Coast’s troubled Waste Water Treatment Plant #1 today left City Council member Charles Gambaro, who arranged the visit, thinking “it’s a 50-50 chance” that the city may get financial help to lessen a projected $240 million bill to upgrade and expand the sewer plant.
More Flagler, Palm Coast & Other Local
Rallying Behind Pontieri, a 5-0 Council Defies Developer’s Threat to Sue Over Limiting Seminole Woods’ Cascades to 416 Houses
Defying the threat of a lawsuit by a developer, the Palm Coast City Council late Tuesday evening voted 5-0 to stand by its decision last year to limit the Cascades development in Seminole Woods to 416 single-family houses. The council had in 2023 approved a limit of 850 dwellings, then reversed course in the face of staunch opposition. The additional housing units would have been apartments–always a volatile subject in Palm Coast, where prejudices against apartment complexes persist despite a shortage. But a city infrastructure under strain also factored into opposition to the higher density.
Missile-Like Hunk of Ice, Possibly from Commercial Plane, Tears Through Seminole Woods Roof
Local and federal officials don’t know what may have caused a missile-like shaft of ice 6 feet long to tear through the metal roof of a Seminole Woods house in Palm Coast Monday afternoon on a warm, cloudless day. But they have ideas.
35-Year-Old Palm Coast Man Loses Stand Your Ground Motion Over Bizarre Confrontation with Cyclist, 67
Eric Cooks, a 26-year-old resident of Palm Coast’s P Section and a supervisor at SMA Healthcare’s crisis-stabilization unit, where Baker Acts are triaged, lost a Stand Your Ground motion in circuit court Monday, clearing the way for his prosecution on a felony count of battering a man older than 65. The case touches on several elements that blur the line between good samaritanship and road rage, between the meanings of self-defense and provocation, and with an overlay of race and age disparities.
Sheriff’s Gala Raises $80,000 for Agency’s Employee Assistance Fund
More than 180 guests attended the 2025 Sheriff’s Gala, held on February 1 at Hammock Beach Resort, helping to raise over $80,000 to benefit the Flagler Sheriff’s Employee Assistance Trust, also known as FSEAT.
Judge Refuses to Release 14-Year-Old Girl Accused of Hateful Death Threats as Her Lawyer Claims She’s in Danger
County Judge Melissa Distler today rejected a request by the attorney representing L.H. to release her to her parents, for lack of proof that she is in danger in a youth detention jail in Daytona Beach. The girl, 14, was arrested last week in palm Coast for making death threats laced in homophobic slurs, and for violating her probation. Her attorney argued that the attention the case has drawn, including the posting of her picture, name and address, has led to death threats against her family in Seminole Woods, and threats against the girl in detention.
Deadline Looming, Palm Coast Council Prepares Response to Lawsuit Threat by Developer of Cascades in Seminole Woods
The Palm Coast City Council is almost certain to discuss, for the first time, the threat of a lawsuit by the developer of Cascades, a 375-acre planned development in Seminole Woods, who was denied more than half the 850 housing units he was seeking when the council approved the development in November 2023. Public anger at the higher density caused the council to reverse course from an initial approval. The developer last November filed what’s called a Bert-Harris claim. If it goes to court, the developer will seek $12.2 million in damages from the city. The council will decide Tuesday how to respond.
An 82-Year-Old Palm Coast Resident Dies After He Is Pulled from the Surf, Disoriented, in Marineland
Carmelo Legato, an 82-year-old resident of Palm Coast on an outing in Marineland Friday morning, was pulled out of the surf after he had stumbled in the water, lost consciousness, and died after CPR efforts by a good Samaritan and Flagler County Fire Rescue proved unsuccessful.
Your Tax Dollars Are About to Fund Religious Schools, Salafist Madrassas and Satanic Temples
Let’s examine why Saudi Arabia’s Islamists are so aroused over the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling by June that using public money to fund religious madrassas is perfectly fine. The court took on the case last week from Oklahoma, where an online Catholic school, St. Isidore of Seville, but really more of 7501 NW Expressway in Oklahoma City, across from Home Depot and the Mattress Firm Clearance Center, sued after it was denied a charter and tax dollars.
Bullied Buddy Taylor Student Arrested for Bringing BB Gun to School for ‘Protection’; 4 Student Arrests in a Week
A 13-year-old Buddy Taylor Middle School students became the fourth Palm Coast teen in the span of six days to face a felony charge and arrest, in this case for bringing a BB gun in the shape of a Glock. The student said he did so to protect himself against bullies, knowing that school officials would not protect him.
In Rare Vote Against Business, Bunnell Sides with Residents and Rejects Rezoning That’d Have Allowed Concrete Plant
In a rare rejection of a land-use change that would have opened the way for a new company and new jobs in the city, the Bunnell City Commission voted 3-2 to turn down the rezoning of 1.4 acres at the end of Hibiscus Avenue from residential to light industrial. The vote closed the way for Hard Rock Materials Inc., a concrete manufacturing company, to build a batch plant there and on a much larger parcel attached to it. A batch plant mixes cement to produce concrete for delivery. It can be noisy, affect air quality and significantly increase traffic on Hibiscus Avenue with concrete trucks.
Daytona Solisti String Quartet Will Feature Mozart, Irish Tunes and Guest Guitar Soloist Miles McConnell
A work Mozart wrote for a king, but which the cash-strapped composer sold “for a song” to a music publisher, will be featured during “Chamber Music Masterpieces,” a concert by the Daytona Solisti String Quartet. The concert, the second in Daytona Solisti’s Winter Festival celebrating the group’s 20th anniversary, also will include a Mozart serenade featured in the 1984 Oscar-winning biopic “Amadeus,” and Orlando-based guitarist Miles McConnell will perform classical works and Irish tunes.
The Conversation
Why False Claims About Vaccines and Autism Refuse to Die
The idea that autism is caused by vaccines has recently been revived by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the presumptive nominee for US Secretary of Health and Human Services, as well as by president-elect Donald Trump. There is strong data from different countries showing that these vaccines do not cause autism or underlie the vast increase in autism diagnosis rates. So why do suspicions that vaccines cause autism remain?
Florida and Beyond
Senate Proposal Expands Opportunities for Children with Autism and Their Families
The bill (SB 112) filed by Sen. Gayle Harrell, expands a health care grant program established by the Legislature last year to include free screening, referrals, and related services for autism. It also creates two education-related grant programs: one for specialized summer programs for children with autism and the other to support charter schools exclusively serving them.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, February 5, 2025
Palm Coast officials meet with a Rick Scott aide to discuss sewer-plant improvements, joint workshop of local governments, docket sounding for Derrius Bauer and Michael Jennelle, Flagler Beach Fire Chief Bobby Pace retires.
Why Those Insufferable English Accents Persist in Hollywood
Hollywood has long resorted to this posh-but-unspecific English accent when telling stories set in European spaces where English isn’t the native language. This imperial accent appears in countless major productions. Where does this false British accent come from?
More Florida and Beyond
Ag Commissioner on Heat-Related Farm Deaths: Blame Humans, Not Climate
Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson told state lawmakers Tuesday morning that human error was to blame for heat-related deaths on farms, which he described as few and far between. Florida’s sweltering heat became one of the hottest topics for lawmakers last year as the Republican-led Legislature passed a law prohibiting local governments from enacting their own heat-safety protections for employees.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, February 4, 2025
The Palm Coast City Council, the Flagler Beach and Bunnell planning boards all meet, Celebrating Black Composers, a concert presented by the Stetson School of Music, on cartoonist Jules Feiffer.
Demonizing Migrants Can Be Part of a Violent Design
Using hateful, polarizing language to gain a political advantage or make an argument against a group of people, like immigrants, is not unique to the U.S. The use of this language is associated with populist shifts in many parts of the world. In Italy, such language was accompanied by mob violence, mass evictions and demolition of informal camps set up in the streets.
Sen. Tom Leek Files Bill to Name St. Johns County Site for Florida’s Black History Museum
Sen. Tom Leek, a North Florida Republican, filed a bill Monday to officially name St. Johns County as the site for Florida’s Black History Museum. Leek’s filing of SB 466 comes more than six months after a panel tasked with making recommendations for the museum’s construction issued its final report to Gov. Ron DeSantis and the leaders of the Republican-led Legislature.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, February 3, 2025
The Beverly Beach Town Commission meets, on Peter Singer’s ethics about animal rights and the annual slaughter of turkeys, Jeff Koterba on the Statue of Liberty’s deportation.
Is Capitalism Falling Out of Favor? Don’t Bet On It.
Since the 1940s, positive sentiment toward capitalism has improved. In the 2020s, the average article with capitalism got a more balanced 37% negative and 34% positive sentiment score. While capitalism clearly isn’t loved in the press, it’s also not disparaged as much as it was just after World War II.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, February 2, 2025
‘Crimes of the Heart’ at St. Augustine’s Limelight Theatre, Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village, the inability of half of Americans to name a single concentration camp from the Holocaust.
Germany’s Far Right Is Roaring Back
A vote in Germany’s national parliament (Bundestag) has led to fears that the firewall supposedly separating mainstream political parties and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has been blown apart.
DeSantis Will Seek an Increase in Homestead Exemption and Pay Increase for FHP Troopers
With home prices continuing to be a big flashpoint for Floridians, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday that he plans to work on an overhaul of property taxes, including an increase in the state’s homestead exemption, which shields part of the value of homes. DeSantis floated the idea when he noted that he is plans to release his budget recommendations over the weekend.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, February 1, 2025
Coffee With Commissioner Scott Spradley, St. Augustine and the 1964 Civil Rights Act, a presentation by Dr. Butler of Flagler College at the Flagler County Public Library, when your cat shows white supremacist tendencies.
Inside the Collapse of Disney’s America, the US History Theme Park
In the 1990s Disney began buying land in northern Virginia for a planned theme park called America. It would be centered on American history. It was a colossal failure. Questions over how Disney would tell the complex – often discriminatory – history of the nation spurred a group of historians, led by David McCullough, to lodge their concerns: How would Disney construct its narrative of the United States? And how would the park affect Manassas, one of the most important Civil War battle sites?
Education Department Kills Biden’s Title IX Protections Against Gender-Based Discrimination
The U.S. Department of Education said Friday it is scrapping a Biden administration rule about gender-based discrimination in education programs. The department will use a previous rule about enforcement of Title IX, a landmark 1972 law that bars discrimination in education programs based on sex. In 2020, the Flagler County School Board revised a policy that added “gender identity” to the list of explicit protections in the school district’s anti-discrimination policy. That wording may now be in question.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, January 31,. 2025
Palm Coast City Council member Ty Miller and Code Enforcement Manager Barbara Grossman on WNZF’s Free For All, the Friday Blue Forum, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, contending with the carpet-bombing of executive orders.
Commentary
RFK’s Nomination and the New Era of Anti-Intellectualism in US Politics
The many controversial people appointed to the Trump administration, from Elon Musk to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have at least one thing in common: They dislike and distrust experts. While anti-intellectualism and populism are nothing new in American life, there has hardly been an administration as seemingly committed to these worldviews.
Insults and the Power of Taboo Language
“Off limits” words – a category ranging from insults and swear words through to racial slurs and hate speech – have extraordinary power. They elicit strong emotional responses, and reveal a massive amount about a society’s values, cultural norms, and psychological processes.
Behind Bishop’s Plea to President to ‘Show Mercy’
Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde’s sermon on Jan. 21, 2025, in which she appealed to President Donald Trump to have mercy toward groups frightened by his position on immigrants and LGBTQ+ people – especially children – drew reactions from both sides of the aisle. In a post on his social networking site, Truth Social, Trump called her comments “nasty in tone” and remarked that she “brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way.” Christian history is full of examples of people who have spoken out, unafraid to risk official censure, or even death.