A jury of six convicted Qwinntavus Jordan, 34, of armed robbery of a Palm Coast Circle K in 2023 at the end of a three-day trial at the Flagler County courthouse today. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
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Daily Cartoon and Briefing
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Flagler, Palm Coast & Other Local
Jury Convicts Man Who Turned Down 1-Year Plea Deal for Hit-and-Run; He Faces Up to 15 Years in Prison
Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols had warned Joao Paulo Fernandes just five weeks ago: don’t go to trial. You’ll lose. Fernandes, a 50-year-old Palm Coast contractor, thought he knew better than the seasoned judge. He turned down a plea deal for hit-and-run with injury that would have had him serve less than a year in prison. Today, a jury convicted him, and that offer is off the table. He faces up to 15 years in prison.
Palm Coast Council, with 2nd Censure Vote, Will Ask Governor to Remove ‘Toxic’ Mayor Norris
The Palm Coast City Council in a 4-1 vote today censured Mayor Mike Norris for the second time in three months and agreed to send a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis asking him to unseat the mayor. Both acts were extraordinary for this or any city but for controversies Norris has been provoking since his election last November, making a routine of the extraordinary.
Palm Coast Council’s Five Charter Review Picks Reflect Politics and Experience, Not Diversity
The Palm Coast City Council today appointed five residents–five men, four white, one Hispanic–to the Charter Review Committee, along with five alternate members, out of 27 applicants. The council’s choices reflect some appointments with an eye to politics and some to experience. The appointments include former two-term County Commissioner Donald O’Brien and current East Mosquito Control District board member Michael Martin. O’Brien especially has deep familiarity both with governance and parliamentary procedures, as well as the difference between charters and ordinances.
More Flagler, Palm Coast & Other Local
County Money for Flagler Beach’s Lifeguards Survives for One More Year After Outcry
To Flagler Beach’s relief, the Flagler County Commission today agreed to reverse course from a plan to eliminate paying for half the salaries of Flagler Beach’s lifeguards, as the county has been doing for years. The commission agreed to the one-year extension of what will be a $106,000 payment even as it directed County Administrator Heidi Petito to continue talking with the city to prepare it for an end to the county subsidy. The decision today was part of a budget overview as Petito presented the tentative budget for next year.
Flagler Beach Commission Votes 4-1 to Start Negotiating Sale of Ocean Palm Golf Club, But Residents Skeptical
To more skepticism than support from residents, the Flagler Beach City Commission on Thursday voted 4-1 to enter into negotiations to sell its chronically ramshackle 37-acre Ocean Palm Golf Club to Jeff Ryan, who has held the property’s lease for over a year and a half. If the course is sold, there’s no guarantee against a future commission approving the land for development. It would only take a unanimous vote of the commission to do so.
Flagler School Board’s Lauren Ramirez Challenges Ethics Commission’s Pending Restrictions on Her Private Business
Flagler County School Board member Lauren Ramirez is contesting a proposed finding by the Florida Ethics Commission that would severely restrict local public school students and employees from her business. Prohibiting local students from using her company’s services, she argued, would “have broad, unintended implications for public officials who own businesses unrelated to their elected duties and who operate in good faith under the assumption that members of the public, including students or parents, can choose where to spend their time and money.”
Judge France Signs Order Against Palm Coast Mayor Norris, Ending Attempt to Unseat Gambaro
Circuit Judge Chris France on Thursday signed the judgment against Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris, who had filed suit to have the court remove fellow Council member Charles Gambaro and order a special election. France ruled on the matter at the end of a 50-minute hearing last July 3 with Norris in attendance. The written judgment spells out the ruling and closes the case, unless Norris appeals.
Data Center Planned for 2028 in Palm Coast Cloaked in More Secrecy and Undocumented Boasts than Answers
Following up on an announcement Wednesday by Google that it would be building a transatlantic cable and land it in Flagler Beach, Palm Coast and Flagler County for the first time this week disclosed what has been reported since last August–that a company would build a large data center in Palm Coast’s Town Center. But the two governments’ releases provided more boasts than information.
5 Felony Charges for Palm Coast IT Administrator Accused of Launching Cyber Attack on His Company After He’s Fired
Richard Clayton Wozniak, a 41-year-old resident of Palm Coast’s P Section, was arrested Wednesday on five felony charges following a Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation that found him to have allegedly carried out a cyber attack on his company’s computer infrastructure in retaliation for the company firing him. The attack crippled some of the company’s functions.
Don’t Paint Your House Purple Just Yet: Palm Coast May Reconsider Stricter Color Regulations or Referendum
A week after a unanimous Palm Coast City Council vote to move toward revoking all outside paint-color restrictions, Council member Theresa Pontieri said on Tuesday she’ll request a reconsideration, pausing the process. She will seek either a “more reasonable change to the code” or possibly put the matter to voters in a referendum. At least two other council members are willing to think about a referendum.
At Flagler County Jail, Inmates in Mental Health and Addiction Recovery Now Foster Kittens as Part of Their Therapy
In collaboration with the Flagler Humane Society, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office has launched a kitten-fostering program at its nationally recognized mental health and addiction recovery program at the county jail, enabling participating inmates to care for homeless kittens in need, providing a unique therapeutic experience aimed at long-term recovery for both the kitten and the inmates.
Sean Moylan Withdraws from Contending for County Attorney, Citing Divided Commission; 2 Applicants Left
In a letter remarkable for its grace and sense of service, Assistant County Attorney Sean Moylan on Monday night told Flagler County commissioners he was withdrawing from contention to replace Al Hadeed as the county attorney. He said he “did not did not want my candidacy or appointment to foster division on the commission.” That leaves just two candidates in the running: Marsha Segal-George and Michael Rodriguez. The County Commission interviews them July 15. Scott McHenry had also been short-listed. He withdrew.
Dodging and Defiant After Losing Lawsuit, Palm Coast Mayor Norris Says He Doesn’t Care If He ‘Cost the City $1 Million’
A defiant Mike Norris Tuesday evening said he didn’t care if he “cost the city a million dollars.” He was not repaying a dime of the $30,000 the lawsuit he just lost cost taxpayers. He gave no indication that he accepted the court’s ruling. He blamed his colleagues for not taking his advice in December to protect the city against the lawsuit he ended up filing. He warned his colleagues on the Palm Coast City Council that he would be seeking reimbursement of his legal fees over the pending ethics complaint they filed against him. And he renewed conspiratorial claims about city staff and “what’s going on in this city.”
Flagler School Board May Soon Have an Open Seat Again as Derek Barrs Heads for Senate Confirmation Hearing
Derek Barrs’s days as a Flagler County School Board member may be numbered. Barrs’s confirmation hearing to be Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is scheduled for 10 a.m. July 16 before the Senate Transportation Committee. If he is confirmed, which appears likely, Barrs’s departure will require another gubernatorial appointment to the school board seat, with a year and four months left in that term before the 2026 election.
The Conversation
Florida Fronts $450 Million for ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Amid Scarce Information on Prisoners
While touring Alligator Alcatraz, the president said, “This facility will house some of the menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet.” But new reporting from the Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times reveals that of more than 700 detainees, only a third have criminal convictions.
Florida and Beyond
Supreme Court Redefines Education Opt-Outs Along Religious Lines
An interfaith coalition of Muslim, Orthodox Christian and Catholic parents in Montgomery County, Maryland – including Tamer Mahmoud, for whom the case is named – questioned the school board’s refusal to allow them to opt their young children out of lessons using picture books with LGBTQ+ characters. Ruling in favor of the parents, the court found that the board violated their First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion by requiring their children to sit through lessons with materials inconsistent with their faiths.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, July 15, 2025
trial of Quinntavus Kwame Jordan and Joao Paulo Fernandes, the Palm Coast City Council meets, Food on pickleball’s rise and war with tennis, cheating in chess and in Steinbeck’s “Sweet Thursday.”
The Meaning of ABC’s and CBS’s Surrender
It’s not certain what the ABC and CBS settlements portend, but many are predicting they will produce a “chilling effect” within the network news divisions. Such an outcome would arise from fear of new litigation, and it would install a form of internal self-censorship that would influence network journalists when deciding whether the pursuit of investigative stories involving the Trump administration would be worth the risk.
More Florida and Beyond
Making Ignorance Great Again
Most Americans once celebrated our heterogeneity, our pluralism, and our tendency to expand freedoms. We valued knowledge and tried to foster understanding; we welcomed the new. Not so much these days, not here in Florida. This state now has statutes forbidding teaching the truth about slavery and Jim Crow, threatening educators who discuss gender, sexuality, systemic racism, and other disfavored topics. Universities are scrubbing their websites of words like “women,” “Black,” “colonialism,” and “diversity” — even if it’s “biodiversity” — anything seen as threatening to white, male Christian hegemony.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, July 14, 2025
The Flagler County Commission holds a 1 p.m. workshop to discuss the potential leasing of Bull Creek, and to discuss next year’s budget. It meets again at 5 p.m. The Bunnell City Commission meets. The menhirs of Carnac in Brittany, and the magnificence of a scene from Casablanca on Bastille Day.
Grover Norquist Gets His Wish: Drowning Government in a Bathtub
As he has done since the 1980s, Grover Norquist continues to exert outsized influence over the GOP. For more than four decades, Norquist has been a relentless advocate for fiscal conservatism. He is the living embodiment of an ideological thread that stretches from Goldwater to Reagan to Gingrich to current GOP leadership.
Lawmakers Describe ‘Disturbing, Vile Conditions’ at Everglades Migrant Prison
U.S. Democratic representatives characterized the state-run migrant prison in the Everglades as a cruel and wasteful political stunt following a guided tour Saturday. “There are really disturbing, vile conditions, and this place needs to be shut the hell down,” said U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. The South Florida Democrat said 32 men slept in each of the cages with bed bunks and three sinks attached to the toilets. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced hundreds of people started arriving on July 2.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Sunday, July 13, 2025
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village, Gamble Jam: in Flagler Beach’s Roger Gamble Recreation Area, Edouard Riou’s illustrations for Jules Verne’s extraordinary journeys, and the Florida shipwreck.
Self-Censorship Is Silencing Americans in Public
For decades, Americans’ trust in one another has been on the decline, according to the most recent General Social Survey. A major factor in that downshift has been the concurrent rise in the polarization between the two major political parties. Supporters of Republicans and Democrats are far more likely than in the past to view the opposite side with distrust.
The Texas Flood Is a Preview of the Chaos to Come
The rapid onset of disruptive climate change — driven by the burning of oil, gasoline and coal — is making disasters like this one more common, more deadly and far more costly to Americans, even as the federal government is running away from the policies and research that might begin to address it.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Saturday, July 12, 2025
The Saturday Flagler Beach Farmers Market, Peps Art Walk at Beachfront Grille in Flagler Beach, re-reading Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and the earliest origins of the Nautilus.
The Justice Department Is Planning to Strip Citizenship from Naturalized Americans
Denaturalization is different from deportation, which removes noncitizens from the country. With civil denaturalization, the government files a lawsuit to strip people’s U.S. citizenship after they have become citizens, turning them back into noncitizens who can then be deported. The current administration wants to do this on a massive scale.
Cancer’s Leading Cause? Aging.
If you were to ask most people what causes cancer, the answer would probably be smoking, alcohol, the sun, hair dye or some other avoidable element. But the most important risk factor for cancer is something else: aging. That’s right, the factor most associated with cancer is unavoidable — and a condition that we will all experience.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Friday, July 11, 2025
Free For All Fridays with Host David Ayres features Palm Coast Council member Charles Gambaro on the latest Norris follies, the very good and the very bad of Harry Elmer Barnes, and a sum-up of the mostly very bad Supreme Court term.
‘Big Beautiful Bill: Dirtier Energy, Higher Prices
The nearly 900-page bill that the president signed slashes incentives for wind and solar energy, batteries, electric cars and home efficiency while expanding subsidies for fossil fuels and biofuels. That will leave Americans burning more fossil fuels despite strong public and scientific support for shifting to renewable energy.
The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Thursday, July 10, 2025
The Flagler Beach City Commission meets, Model Yacht Club races in Central park in Town Center, a text exchange on the next Nobel Peace Prize, remembrances of Kissinger and Le Duc Tho.
Commentary
Hezbollah Weakened, Iran Crippled, Syria Defeated: Lebanon has a Chance to Cut Its Own Path. Will It Seize It?
Iran is weakened and vulnerable after a 12-day war with Israel. Hezbollah, Tehran’s main ally in Lebanon, had already lost a lot of its fighters, arsenal and popular support during its own war with Israel in October 2024. Changing regional dynamics give the Lebanese state an opening to chart a more neutral orientation and extricate itself from neighboring conflicts that have long exacerbated the divided and fragile country’s chronic problems.
Is Universal Rent Assistance a Solution to Housing Crisis?
Research shows little connection between a shortfall of housing and rental affordability problems. Even a massive infusion of new housing would not shrink housing costs enough to solve the crisis, as rents would likely remain out of reach for many households. However, there are already subsidies in place that ensure that some renters in the U.S. pay no more than 30% of their income on housing costs. The most effective solution is to make these subsidies much more widely available.
Why Texas Hill Country Is Such a Deadly Place for Flooding
Texas Hill Country is known for its landscapes, where shallow rivers wind among hills and through rugged valleys. That geography also makes it one of the deadliest places in the U.S. for flash flooding.