The Flagler Beach City Commission meets, Evenings at Whitney Lecture Series–on tape worms, the Palm Coast Democratic Club, a lady’s hat catching fire at a theater has precedence over news of Jules Verne’s death.
All Else
School Board’s Christy Chong’s ‘Cause’ Letter to Fire Attorney Is a Tissue of Fabrications, Petty Grievances and Cluelessness
The six “causes” Flagler County School Board member Christy Chong listed as reasons to fire attorney Kristy Gavin come nowhere near “just cause” as defined in Gavin’s contract. Rather, they’re petty, inaccurate, gossipy and falsified grievances that have more to do with Chong being out of her depth, her embarrassment, her hatred for the press and her contempt for transparency and the public than anything to do with the quality of Gavin’s work in nearly two decades of representing the board.
Nonwhite People Are Drastically Underrepresented in Local Government
Across cities in the U.S., one commonality stands out: Nearly universally, the percentage of elected officials who are white is higher than the white share of the population. This overrepresentation persists from the early 1990s to more recent years among mayors.
U.S. News Ranks Daytona State’s Online Bachelor’s Programs Among the Best in U.S. for 12th Straight Year
For the 12th straight year, U.S. News & World Report has ranked Daytona State College’s Online Bachelor’s Programs among the best in the nation. And DSC is again the top-ranked non-university college in the United States, advancing in the overall rankings among all colleges and universities nationwide.
Palm Coast Clears Way for $31 Million Connector to Loop Road Through Vacant West of the City, With a Warning to FPL
The Palm Coast City Council on approved four related measures that will advance the opening to development of 12,000 acres on the west side of U.S. 1, from the Matanzas Woods Parkway area, including a $25 million state grant contributing to the cost of a $31 million connector road, dubbed a “flyover,” that will cross above the Florida East Coast railroad corridor. But FPL drew withering criticism from council members over the manner in which the company is charging the city for an “estimate” about moving its infrastructure as part of the Matanzas Woods project.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, February 7, 2024
Christopher Lemke, who pulled a gun on neighbors setting off fireworks, is sentenced, the Flagler County Republican Club meets, choosing Eubie Blake over Charles Dickens.
Trump Does Not Have the ‘Divine Right of Kings To Evade Criminal Accountability’
Trump can be criminally prosecuted for the actions he took to overturn the 2020 election. Whether the case makes it to trial or results in a conviction, what happens to all the other pending cases involving Trump, and whether the former president is returned to the White House, are unanswered questions so far. The Supreme Court will surely be asked to provide some of those answers.
County Gives Its Constitutional Officers Extra Month to Prepare Budget in a Year of ‘Uncertainties’
The Flagler County Commission on Monday voted to give its constitutional officers an extra month–until June 1–to turn in their proposed budgets for the fiscal year beginning Oct.1, ahead of what County Administrator Heidi Petito described as a year of “uncertainty.” The commission also appeared to agree, without a formal vote, to reduce the tax rate next year, though that may end up being more of a symbolic than an substantial reduction.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, February 6, 2024
Brenan Hill’s sentencing is scheduled for today, the Flagler County School Board holds a workshop, dubbed a “retreat,” before meeting for another workshop at 3 p.m., the Palm Coast City Council meets in the evening.
Biden Against the Poison of the Latest Lost Cause
Biden’s Mother Emanuel speech should rank with some of the most important speeches in our history. Biden acknowledged that he is not only running against the GOP front-runner Donald Trump but also against a “second lost cause” myth.
DeSantis Lends Support to Proposal Banning Local Governments from Giving Refuge to Homeless on Public Property
Saying that while no city in Florida is contending with the issues of homelessness that are prevalent in places like San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday came out in support of a proposal moving through the Florida Legislature that would ban local governments from allowing people to sleep on public property without a permit.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, February 5, 2024
The Flagler County Commission meets and says farewell to the Baptist school in the old courthouse, remembering the joys and insults of Pat Buchanan, James Bennet.
Do Plastic Bag Bans and Fines Actually Reduce Waste?
Most people don’t set out to use more plastic. So the best solutions help consumers achieve their goals and make access to reusable bags easier. The key is to determine the biggest impediment to shoppers bringing reusable bags.
Florida’s Open Season on Civil Liberties
Florida lawmakers don’t care about the insurance crisis; they don’t care about runaway rents; they don’t care about hungry children or sick women or the climate crisis or pollution or the teacher shortage or anything that you and I and anyone else with two brain cells to rub together would identify as pressing problems here in the increasingly dysfunctional State of Florida. What they care about is ending your liberties. Here’s a list.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, February 4, 2024
Facebook at 20, Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village, a few lines from From Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge at San Luis Rey, Grace Community Food Pantry.
Black Journalists Have Always Known What These Confederate Monuments Really Stood For
Defenders of Confederate monuments like Donald Trump have argued that the statues should be left standing to educate future generations. But since the end of the Civil War, journalists at Black newspapers have told a different story. The statues were never designed to tell the truth about the Civil War. Instead, the monuments were built to enshrine the myth of the “Lost Cause,” the false claim that white Southerners nobly fought for states’ rights – and not to preserve slavery.
Florida’s Sunshine Law Is Dying
The battle, mostly lost, is not those individual exemptions to the Sunshine Law. It’s the totality of what’s been lost over the years: a presumption of openness has been replaced by the reverse, thanks to an unspoken but very effective bureaucracy of secrecy by process. The secrecy isn’t explicit. Most of your average government gatekeepers would never think of themselves as suppressing information. But the rules they have in place, allowing them to delay, obfuscate, censor and charge a ton of money before they comply, amount to the same thing: secrecy as standard operating procedure.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, February 3, 2024
Palm Coast hosts the 3rd Annual Tunnel to Towers 5K Run/Walk, Invincible: A Glorious Tribute to Michael Jackson, at Flagler Auditorium, Palm Coast Historical Society Speaker Series, Flannery O’Connor.
What If He Stood Down?
Practically, the odds of Biden changing course now look small. The two main reasons for pressing ahead haven’t changed since Biden announced his reelection bid last April. First, Biden is the only candidate who’s proven that he can beat Trump. Second, there’s no obvious heir apparent.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, February 2, 2024
The Blue 24 Forum, First Friday in Flagler Beach, descending the Flagler Beach Bridge into the sight of the rising Margaritaville Hotel, a few words from Walter Kerr on ice cream.
Why Taylor Swift Is an Anti-Hero to the GOP
Public opinion data suggests that most Americans think Taylor Swift is good for the NFL. But with her beau Travis Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs heading to a fourth Super Bowl in five years, and with Swift herself reportedly preparing for a journey across the globe to cheer him on in the big game, the right-wing talk machine has gone into overdrive.
Disney Is Appealing Decision Dismissing Its Free-Speech Lawsuit Against DeSantis
Disney filed a notice of appeal on Thursday, one day after U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor ruled against the company’s lawsuit seeking to overturn the governor’s replacement of the old Reedy Creek Improvement District with another governing entity that DeSantis personally controls.
Palm Coast Mayor Spotlights State of City’s Heroes and Names Flagler Cares’ Carrie Baird Citizen of the Year
At Palm Coast’s State of the City Thursday evening, Mayor David Alfin awarded David Lydon the Public Service Award for his work with veterans. Erik Libby and The To-Do-Dudes got the Next Generation Award, and Flagler Care’s Carrie Baird received the Citizen of the Year Award for her dedication to “building a robust social safety net for our community.”
Flagler Beach Breathes Sigh of Relief as Beach Front Grille Announces It’s Here to Stay
After days of uncertainty when Beach Front Grille owner Jamie Bourdeau had publicly announced that the business was over half a million dollars short of the money needed to buy out the location, Bourdeau today announced that the deal had worked out, and that the restaurant, which opened in 2014, would remain at its A1A location.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, February 1, 2024
Palm Coast State of the City address at the Community Center, Flagler Schools FAFSA/Financial Aid Night, Conan O’Brien on 60 Minutes, the Upanishads on the human condition.
Challenging Medieval Art’s Dark, Gloomy Reputation
The Middle Ages as typically imagined in cinema, television, literature and Romantic paintings are dark and sinister, plagued by the diseases that ravaged Europe, with filthy, unhealthy cities and buildings. Research by Medieval scholars in recent decades – combined with new digital reconstruction techniques – has shattered these myths, presenting us with a wholly different picture.
Flagler Pride Installs Its New Board as It Looks To Be a ‘Beacon of Support and Empowerment’
Flagler Pride, the non-profit Eryn Harris established four years ago as the county’s first LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, and the organizational muscle behind the annual Pride Fest, installed its new, four-member board at Coquina Coast Brewing on Jan. 12. It’s led by President Tyler Jones, with Skyler Loder as vice president, Margaret “Maggie” Potter as secretary and Calvin Vincent Neugent as treasurer. The organization’s founding board members–Harris, Erica Rivera and Garrett Marinconz–have taken on advisory roles.
Ending Speculation, Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin Announces Re-Election Run and Joins Crowded Field
Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin, first elected in July 2021 to complete the term of Melissa Holland, will run for a full four-year term in an Aug. 20 primary that has drawn four other candidates so far. In 2021, Alfin won in a six-way race, taking 36 percent of the vote. His absence from the list of declared candidates had begun to draw speculations about his intentions, though he left no doubt about those in an interview on Tuesday.
Palm Coast City Council Hold Strategic Action Planning Orientation on Feb. 5
The Palm Coast City Council will hold an orientation session focused on the strategic action planning process on Monday, February 5th, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Palm Coast Community Center. Facilitated by Dr. Joe Saviak, an expert in strategic planning, the session aims to chart a course for the city’s future growth and prosperity. The session is open to the public.
Threatening Charges, Florida Forbids Trans’ Preferred Gender Identity on Driver’s Licenses
Transgender people can no longer obtain a driver’s license that reflects their gender identity under a new policy that treats “misrepresenting one’s gender, understood as sex, on a driver license” as fraud punishable by civil and criminal penalties plus cancellation, suspension, or revocation of the license.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, January 31, 2024
The Bronx Wanderers, at Flagler Auditorium, Separation Chat, Open Discussion, Weekly Chess Club for Teens at the public library, Alabama proudly revives the gas chamber.
The New York Times v. ChatGPT
On Dec. 27, 2023, The New York Times filed a lawsuit against OpenAI alleging that the company committed willful copyright infringement through its generative AI tool ChatGPT. The Times claimed both that ChatGPT was unlawfully trained on vast amounts of text from its articles and that ChatGPT’s output contained language directly taken from its articles.
Defense Files Motion to Dismiss Manslaughter Charge Against Migrant in Arrest Followed by Deputy’s Heart Attack
Two weeks after all but accusing the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office of fabricating parts of the account surrounding the arrest of 18-year-old Virgilio Aguilar Mendez, the migrant’s defense attorney has filed a motion to dismiss the manslaughter count against him, calling it “legally insufficient” and arguing that there’s no connection between Mendez and what led to the death of Sheriff’s deputy Michael Kunovich of a heart attack after the arrest.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, January 30, 2024
Docket sounding is scheduled in a series of cases including that of Marcus Chamblin, one of two defendants facing a first degree murder charge in the Circle K shooting, Trump owes the New York Times $400,000.
Bad News About OCD: Much Higher Chance of Earlier Death
People with obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD for short, are 82% more likely to die earlier – from natural or unnatural causes – than people without the condition, a new study reveals. OCD affects about 2% of the population. The disorder significantly impairs daily life, affecting relationships, social activities and the general ability to function.
Florida Lawmakers Want to Raise Constitutional Amendment Approval Threshold to 66.67%
A House panel Monday approved a proposal that would make it harder to pass state constitutional amendments. Under the proposal, constitutional amendments would need support from 66.67 percent of voters to pass, up from the current 60 percent.
Veranda Bay Courtship: Flagler Beach Swiftly Changes Its Annexation Rule In Defensive Move Against Palm Coast
Flagler Beach is in an annexation race with Palm Coast to win over Veranda Bay and its hundreds of homes along John Anderson Highway. To that end, Flagler Beach changed its annexation rule. By convincing it to annex into Flagler Beach, the city is hoping to limit development impacts on its rim. It fears that under Palm Coast standards, Veranda Bay could be an intense cluster of high rises and high-density developments.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, January 29, 2024
The cold weather shelter opens tonight as temperatures again fall below 40, No government meetings in the county today, Chekhov’s birthday and how he revolutionized storytelling.
How Much Influence Does Iran Have Over Its Proxy Armies?
In Middle Eastern geopolitics, Iran’s strategy of aligning with violent nonstate actors – notably Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen – influences the regional balance of power. But to what extent?
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, January 28, 2024
EDGES: A Song Cycle, at City Repertory Theatre, Blue Spring Manatee Festival, Jackson Pollock’s birthday and how paintings have a life of their own.
Western Moral Credibility Is Dying Along With Thousands of Gaza’s Palestinians
The West claims it champions a liberal rules-based international order and human rights on the global stage. This rhetoric now appears completely disingenuous to most of the Global South. Even as Russia escalates its violence against civilians and infrastructure in Ukraine, most Global South states find the American condemnation of Russia grotesquely hypocritical as the United States supports Israel’s war in Gaza and attacks on civilians that are even more devastating than Russia’s.
This Hyper Talk of a Border ‘Invasion’ Is an Old American Playbook
With persecution, poverty, and climate change driving large numbers of migrants to the southern border, some in politics and the media are again pushing the panic button and purposely but inaccurately using words like “invasion” to describe problems at the border.
Palm Coast’s Eric Galdabini, 56, Randomly Attacks and Stabs a Man After Attempting to Pick-Up His Girlfriend
Eric Philip Galdabini, a 56-year-old resident of 126 Birchwood Drive in Palm Coast, had circled by a couple walking in the B-Section and asked a 21-year-old woman if she wanted a ride before he stopped the car and rushed her boyfriend. The two scuffled, Galdabini slashed at the man with a pocketknife, and was later arrested on an aggravated battery with a deadly weapon count.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, January 27, 2024
Flagler Woman’s Club 1st Responders Chili Challenge at Veterans Park, EDGES: A Song Cycle, at City Repertory Theatre, Blue Spring Manatee Festival, consumer confidence, Fran Lebowitz, Art Buchwald on Ronald Reagan.
Holocaust Memorial Day and the Unsung, Ordinary People Who Made a Difference
The theme for the 2024 Holocaust Memorial Day, which takes place on January 27, is the “fragility of freedom”. This year is an especially poignant one, marking 80 years since the deportation and murder of Hungarian Jews, when the gas chambers of Auschwitz were working at full capacity, and also the 30th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide.
Bill Lowers Florida State Guard Training Standards, Allows Use Outside the State, and Broadens In-State Mission
The Florida State Guard, revived by Gov. Ron DeSantis, could operate outside Florida and be called into service anytime he “deemed necessary,” under a bill approved Thursday by a House panel. The bill also removes a requirement that state guard standards and training be equivalent to the Florida National Guard.
3rd Annual Tunnel to Towers 5K Palm Coast Is Set in Town Center on Feb. 3
The City of Palm Coast will host its 3rd Annual Tunnel to Towers 5K Run/Walk Palm Coast on Saturday, February 3, 2024 at Central Park in Town Center, beginning at 8 a.m. The previous two events raised nearly $30,000 with all proceeds going to the foundation.
County Commissioners Plan to Develop 4 or 5 New Economic Development Incentives to Diversify Tax Base
The Flagler County Commission is looking to step up its incentive programs for economic development, focusing on certain approaches more than others, as it looks to diversify the local tax base and expand on the availability of local jobs in a county where nearly half the working population of 51,000 people commutes out of county.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, January 26, 2024
Gladys Knight in concert at Flagler Auditorium, Edges: A Song Cycle, at City Repertory Theatre, Mozart, Vivaldi and Handel at Jacksonville Symphony, the resurgence against DEI.
How AI Threatens Free Speech
A serious danger which gets surprisingly little media attention is the impact new artificial intelligence technologies are likely to have on freedom of expression. And, in particular, how they’re able to undermine some of the most foundational legal tenets that protect free speech.