Sen. J.D. Vance, whom Donald Trump named as his vice presidential running mate Monday, told a group of influential young conservatives in a closed-door speech in 2021 that they should stand up for “nonconventional people” who speak truth, such as Infowars founder Alex Jones, projected a time when Kamala Harris would imprison conservatives in droves, and said the financial elite is full of sex perverts.
Main Content
Daily Cartoon and Briefing
![J.D. Vance, by Randall Enos, Easton, Conn.](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/vance1.jpg?resize=474%2C324&ssl=1)
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, July 20, 2024
Flagler, Palm Coast & Other Local
![Don't let the write-ins cheat you of your vote. (© FlaglerLive)](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/write-ins.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
To Neutralize Write-In Fraud, Switch to Republican: An Open Letter to My Flagler County Neighbors
Jake Scully, a lifelong Democrat until this summer, says the only way to get around the fraud of two-write-in candidates closing two County Commission races to almost 50,000 voters is to switch to Republican before the July 22 deadline.
![Ed Danko using City Hall's chamber two years ago to film a campaign video or Alan Lowe. (© FlaglerLive via Palm Coast)](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/campaign-danko.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Sheriff Issues Cease and Desist to Ed Danko Over Unauthorized Use of Images and ‘Endorsement’ Reference
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office today issued a sternly worded letter to Ed Danko, the Palm Coast City Council member and a candidate for the County Commission, immediately to remove images of and references to Sheriff Rick Staly from a campaign video Oliver North recorded for the Danko campaign.
![Sally Byrd had been living at Pebble Beach Village. (© FlaglerLive)](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/byrd-pebble-beach.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Police Investigating ‘Suspicious’ and Violent Death of Sally J. Byrd, 66, in Flagler Beach
Flagler Beach Police are investigating the “suspicious” death Thursday morning of “Sally J. Byrd, 66, a resident of Pebble Beach Village at the south end of Flagler Beach. A man is in custody in Georgia in connection with the case, after stealing the woman’s car and fleeing the area.
More Flagler, Palm Coast & Other Local
![Pam Richardson. (© FlaglerLive)](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/pam-richardson.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Pam Richardson, Flagler County Commission District 5 Candidate: The Live Interview
Pam Richardson is one of two Republican candidates for Flagler County Commission, District 5, in the Aug. 20 primary. It’s an open seat as Commissioner Donald O’Brien has elected not to run for a third term. Richardson faces Ed Danko, currently serving as a Palm Coast City Council member. Only registered Republicans may cast a ballot in the election.
![ed danko live interview](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/ed-danko-6.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Ed Danko, Flagler County Commission Candidate District 5: The Live Interview
Ed Danko is one of two Republican candidates for Flagler County Commission, District 5, in the Aug. 20 primary. It’s an open seat as Commissioner Donald O’Brien has elected not to run for a third term. Danko, a one-term Palm Coast City Council member, faces Pam Richardson.
![One of the two images Ed Danko uses of himself with Sheriff Rick Staly in a campaign video for Danko's race for County Commission. (YouTube)](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/danko-staly.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Sheriff Staly Rejects as ‘Misleading’ Ed Danko Campaign Claim of Endorsement in Latest Ollie North Video
As he did in 2022 regarding a different campaign using almost identical techniques and using Oliver North, Sheriff Rick Staly today said he was never endorsed by Ed Danko, as a Danko campaign video claims, and called the Danko video–which uses two images of Staly with Danko–“misleading” at best. Danko said he’s frequently spoken of his support of the sheriff and equates support with endorsement.
![Sam (Seth Kirk) is infected by the aliens’ blue stuff in the City Repertory Theatre production of “The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals.” Photo by Mike Kitaif](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/crt1.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Alien Menace and Combustible Dancing Shake Up City Repertory Theatre with “The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals”
“The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals,” which opens tonight at City Repertory Theatre in Palm Coast, takes its cue from the body snatching school: After an extraterrestrial presence stealthily arrives via a meteor that crashes into a small-town theater and proceeds to uncork “some kind of blue” something, the townsfolk are suddenly and inexplicably breaking into song and dance routines in everyday life situations. Soon the infected townsfolk begin acting more and more like zombies.
![Bill Clark.](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/bill-clark.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Bill Clark, Flagler County Commission Candidate District 3: The Live Interview
Bill Clark is a Republican candidate for Flagler County Commission, District 3, in an open-seat election, as Dave Sullivan has opted not to run again. Clark faces Republicans Kim Carney and Nick Klufas in the Aug. 20 primary.
![A rendering of the future south branch of the Flagler County Public Library on Commerce Parkway, breaking ground in August and opening in late October 2025.](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/nexus-center.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Flagler County Library’s $14 Million South Branch ‘Nexus Center’ Breaks Ground in August, Ending 10-Year Wait
Almost a decade after Holly Albanese and the Library Board of Trustees first conceived it, the south branch of the Flagler County Library–to be called the Nexus Center–will break ground on Aug. 5 on the 7-acre parcel opposite the Flagler County Sheriff’s Operations Center, a short walk down from the future Bunnell City Hall now under construction. The 23,000-square-foot, one-floor library, combined with the county’s social services offices, will open at the end of October 2025.
![Tyler Habdas, right, with his attorney, Spencer O'Neal, at the beginning of this week's three-day trial. (© FlaglerLive)](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/tyler-habdas.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Jury Finds Man Guilty on 9 Counts in Video Voyeurism of 12-Year-Old Stepdaughter in Her Bathroom
At the end of a three-day trial today, and after deliberating barely an hour, a jury found Tyler Habdas, now 32, guilty on nine charges of voyeurism of an underage child, child abuse, and illegal use of a cell phone. He’d secretly and repeatedly taken video of his 12-year-old daughter as she showered at her grandmother’s home in Flagler County. He faces up to 75 years in prison when he is sentenced in September.
![Kim Carney. (© FlaglerLive)](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/kim-carney-5.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Kim Carney, Flagler County Commission Candidate District 3: The Live Interview
Kim Carney is a Republican candidate for Flagler County Commission, District 3, in an open-seat election, as Dave Sullivan has opted not to run again. Carney faces Republicans Bill Clark and Nick Klufas in the Aug. 20 primary.
!["I don't want to wrestle with pigs because at some point, you realize that the pigs like to wrestle in the mud and everybody gets dirty when we do it," Palm Coast City Council member Nick Klufas said in a veiled reference to fellow-Council member Ed Danko's continued attempts to propose a tax rate the rest of the council did not want. Both are contending for separate County Commission seats in the Aug. 20 primary. (© FlaglerLive)](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/klufas-4.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
‘I Don’t Want to Wrestle With Pigs’: Palm Coast Rejects Danko Push to Lock City Into $2.3 Million Budget Cut
Overcoming what Council member Nick Klufas called fellow Councilman Ed Danko’s “pontification,” the Palm Coast City Council today rebuffed an attempt by Danko to remove $2.3 million from the city’s proposed budget and adopted instead a slightly reduced tax rate for next year while preserving funding for the addition of nine new sheriff’s deputies and three new firefighter-paramedics.
![BJ's Wholesale Club in Palm Coast will be the company's 38th store. Its walls went up in March, its pavement was just put down, and the store itself is preparing to open in a matter of weeks. (© FlaglerLive)](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/bj-walls-march.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
BJ’s Wholesale Club Readies to Open as County Raises Traffic Concerns and Palm Coast Annexes
BJ’s Wholesale Club on State Road 1100 will open in a matter of weeks, its parking lot paved on Monday and its certificate of occupancy soon to be issued, Flagler County’s planning director said, while Palm Coast government today took the first step toward annexing the property. But county officials raised concerns about traffic lights and traffic patterns ahead. The 32-acre property will consist of BJ’s and its gas station, Miller’s Ale House, opening around Aug. 1, Longhorn Steakhouse and Chase Bank.
![Nick Klufas. (© FlaglerLive)](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/nick-klufas-5.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Nick Klufas, Flagler County Commission District 3 Candidate: The Live Interview
Nick Klufas is a Republican candidate for Flagler County Commission, District 3. The two-term Palm Coast City Council member, who is term-limited, faces Kim Carney and Bill Clark, both Republicans, in the Aug. 20 primary. Because a write-in candidate has filed expressly to close the election to non-Republicans, only registered Republicans may cast a ballot in this race.
The Conversation
![beer and breast cancer](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/beer-1.jpg?resize=474%2C324&ssl=1)
Just One Drink a Day Can Bump Up Your Breast Cancer Risk by 5% to 9%
Did you know that casual drinks with friends or having a “wine mom” moment to unwind could actually be nudging up your risk for breast cancer? It sounds like a buzzkill. But it’s a truth that many might not know: Alcohol actually causes breast cancer.
Florida and Beyond
![biden second term](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/biden-8.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
The Free Market Myth: How the US Manipulates Global Markets for Economic Supremacy
For years, Democratic and Republican administrations in the US have touted the virtues of free trade to the rest of the world, working towards establishing a multilateral trading system that limits the use of protectionist policies. But it’s hypocritical.
![Bullets and ballots by Dave Granlund, PoliticalCartoons.com](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/gunes-over-ballots.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, July 19, 2024
“The Guy Who Didn’t Like Musicals,” at City Repertory Theatre, Flagler and Florida unemployment numbers released at 10 a.m., the Blue 24 Forum, the many meanings of July 19, rocking the kasbah in Beirut.
![Former President Donald Trump’s rallies evoke nostalgia and patriotism. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/trump-nostalgia.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Trump’s Strategic Nostalgia for America’s More Racist and Sexist Past
Trump’s nostalgia is more than simple retrospection. Trump’s appeal isn’t just about a better economic past or a more stable society. It serves as an evocation of a time in America when women and minorities had less power.
Briefs and Releases
Palm Coast and Flagler Schools Collaborate at Annual Principals Breakfast
Ben Sasse Resigns University of Florida Presidency to Care for Wife’s Health
Flagler Cares and One Voice for Volusia Merge Safety Net and Substance Use Prevention Services
Flagler County Jail Wins Health Care Accreditation as Sheriff’s Office Becomes 5-Diamond Agency
More than 1 Million Floridians Couldn’t Afford to See a Doctor in 2022
More Florida and Beyond
![EV chargers on the Florida Turnpike powered by FPL. (FDOT)](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/ev-chargers.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Florida Is Sitting on $198 Million in Federal EV Money That Could Provide More Chargers
Florida is one of 15 states that won’t allow any companies to apply for $198 million in federal money the state is receiving over the next five years the Biden Administration’s National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program. The state is doing so on purpose, citing a laundry list of culture-war complaints, such as “Covid tyranny,” as well as criticism of electric vehicles.
![Dominic F. Addesso](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/dominic-adesso.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Dominic F. Addesso, 1930-2024
Dominic F. Addesso passed away peacefully at the Stuart F. Meyer Hospice House in Palm Coast, Fla., on Wednesday, June 26, 2024. He had shared 93 years of unconditional love, infectious laughter, and unforgettable memories with family and friends.
![Not my dog by John Darkow, Columbia Missourian](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/project-2025.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, July 18, 2024
Story Time at the Flagler Beach Public Library, getting ticketed in France, Jean-Paul Belmondo plays Dale Earnhardt, a few lines from Jeanne Stafford’s “Reluctant Gambler.”
![Young people in the U.S. are growing up in a very different world today than before the fall of Roe.](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/abortion-youths.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Abortion Bans Are Changing What It Means To Be Young in America
Following the Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision, more than half of U.S. adolescents, ages 13-19, now live in a state with severely restricted or no legal abortion access. As a result, today’s young people are coming of age in what one expert in health law and bioethics has termed an “era of rights retractions.”
![A display at the Lynx Bookshop in Gainesville. (© FlaglerLive)](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/display.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Escambia School Board Wants 7 Year Old Deposed in Book Fight
As it tries to fend off a constitutional challenge to removing and restricting school library books, the Escambia County School Board on Tuesday argued that it should be able to take a deposition of a 7-year-old student who is part of the lawsuit. Attorneys for the board, in a 20-page court document, urged U.S. District Judge T. Kent Wetherell to reject a request for a protective order that would shield the child, identified by the initials J.N., from having to testify in a deposition.
![Supreme Corruption by Peter Kuper, PoliticalCartoons.com](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/supremes.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, July 17, 2024
Flagler County’s Technical Review Committee meets, Separation Chat, Open Discussion, Bridge and Games at Flagler Woman’s Club, doping and the Tour de France, on the rapidity of change.
![Former president Donald Trump speaks as potential vice presidential hopefuls Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Tim Scott look on.](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/trump-18.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Ignore Most Articles About Vice Presidential Picks
Veepstakes media coverage deserves its poor reputation as little more than an electoral parlor game. Too bad: Given the vice presidency’s importance and the media’s opportunity to educate Americans about who could be next to serve in the office, it should be so much more than that.
![Plus ca change: abortion activists from both sides of the debate demonstrating outside the old Florida Capitol in 1989. (Florida Memory)](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/abortion-history.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Tendentious ‘Statement’ on Florida Abortion Ballot Measure Sparks Controversy
A state panel late Monday finished revising a “financial impact statement” that will appear on the November ballot with a proposed constitutional amendment on abortion rights — with amendment supporters accusing the panel of a “dirty trick to mislead voters.” The statement makes several unsubstantiated claims about costs the abortion measures could impose on the state budget.
![NRA country by Schot, De Volkskrant, Netherlands](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/ar-15-2.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, July 16, 2024
Identity Theft/Scams/Fraud Workshop at Flagler Woman’s Club, Food Truck Tuesdays in Palm Coast’s Town Center, Hammock Harbour public hearing before a special magistrate, tales of Scheherazade.
![U.S. Secret Service agents help former President Donald Trump offstage during a rally on July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pa.](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/trump-near-miss.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
‘One Inch from a Potential Civil War’: the Trump Near Miss Was a Close Call for U.S. Democracy
If Donald Trump would have suffered fatal injuries, the level of violence witnessed so far will be nothing in comparison to what would have happened in the next couple of months. It would have unleashed a new level of anger, frustration, resentment, hostility that we haven’t seen for many, many years in the U.S.
![marco rubio](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/marco-rubio-3.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)
Trump Chooses J.D. Vance Over Rubio for Vice President
Former President Donald Trump on Monday bypassed U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio in making his vice-presidential pick, averting what could have been a major change in Florida’s political landscape. Trump announced freshman U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio as his 2024 running mate, a short time after the Republican National Convention opened in Milwaukee.
The Live Calendar
The Live Calendar is Flagler County’s most complete list 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.
Commentary
![Roads divide what once was a larger wetland into four smaller pools in east-central North Dakota.](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/wetlands-loss.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1)
We’re Losing Wetlands at an Accelerating Pace. Can Private Sector Help?
The U.S. is losing wetlands, mainly to development and agriculture, at an accelerating rate. With Congress polarized and gridlocked, new federal wetland protection laws are unlikely to be enacted in the next several years.Some states have stepped up to fill the gap, but others have instead chosen to roll back their existing protections despite the fact that people across the U.S. strongly favored more protection for wetlands.
![clay jones trump assassination merch](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/clay-jones-8.jpg?fit=265%2C200&ssl=1)
Assassination Merch
Medieval pilgrims traded gold for relics such as the alleged thumb of John the Baptist or vials of the alleged blood of Christ from his crucifixion. This will be the first presidential race in history when blood will feature front and center in the Trump campaign’s most iconic image, the candidate bloodied but fist-pumping as an Iwo Jima-flag-like clutch of brawn props him up. Trump is the flag. Trump is America. Welcome to assassination merch.
![Christy Chong, Will Furry and Sally Hunt are the Flagler School Board's firing squad. (© FlaglerLive)](https://i0.wp.com/flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/other-peoples-money.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1)
Once Non-Partisan School Boards Are Getting Mired in Culture Wars
In more than 90% of U.S. public school districts, school board elections are nonpartisan and have been for centuries. But that long tradition may well be changing – and putting at risk the quality of the country’s education system by introducing divisive national political issues into the process by which a local community governs itself.