The number of people with jobs in Flagler increased to 43,000, up 2,200 from the previous month, but still more than 4,000 workers short of where the labor force stood a year ago, suggesting that thousands remain on the sidelines.
Coronavirus
State Claims Inspectors Won’t Go Easy On Bars and Breweries That Violate Covid Rules
The state on Monday began allowing bars and breweries to again serve alcohol for on-site consumption, after a similar attempt ended in June because of a lack of compliance with safety rules.
31 Test Positive At Grand Oaks Rehab; Flagler’s Covid Death Toll Up to 21 as Cases Spike Again to Near Peak
Two more covid-related deaths were added to Flagler’s tally and a serious spike in cases at the Grand Oaks rahab and nursing home, in schools and at social clubs has resulted in a return of near-peak case loads for the county.
America Is About to Lose Its 200,000th Life to Coronavirus. How Many More Have to Die?
As a nation, we became inured to a national death toll that has only recently dropped below a thousand people a day. Think about that. Every week, we lose far more of our fellow citizens than died 19 years ago in the most devastating terrorist strike in American history.
Joe Mullins Fires Demeaning Personal Insults at Commissioners in a Meeting, Repeating ‘Dangerous’ Pattern
Flagler County Commissioner Joe Mullins called fellow-Commissioner Greg Hansen a “fat sonofabitch” and Charlie Ericksen a “useless old man” at a meeting Wednesday just months after Ericksen had felt so threatened by Mullins that he called on Sheriff Staly for help.
Heroes
If Flagler County had a Nobel Prize, Flagler Health Department Chief Bob Snyder and Dr. Stephen Bickel, the medical director there, would have won it this year for their management of the coronavirus pandemic, absurd claims against them notwithstanding.
FPC and Matanzas Face Off Sept. 18 on Gridiron as Fall Sports Return and Uncertainty Outnumbers Fans
Attendance at FPC will be limited to 640 people in the stands, or about 13 percent of the stadium’s capacity of 5,000. No tickets will be sold at the gate, no interactions between fans and athletes will be allowed.
County Commission Meeting Turns Circus as Defiant Anti-Maskers Spread Falsehoods Before They’re Asked to Leave
A group of anti-mask militants held up the county commission meeting for 30 minutes today before addressing the panel in brews of misinformation, social media memes and alternative facts and calling for the removal of the Health Department’s Bob Snyder and Dr. Stephen Bickel. The commissioners explicitly rebuffed the militants in turn.
Flagler Sees 3 More Covid Deaths, New Spike in Cases and Hospitalizations; 14 Cases at Old Kings Elementary
There’s been 184 new cases in the last 14 days alone in Flagler, and 28 positive cases in the Flagler County school district through today since school reopened on Aug. 24, half of them at Old Kings Elementary, as a renewed spike has the local health department chief concerned.
America Doesn’t Have a Coherent Strategy for Asymptomatic Testing. It Needs One.
While it battles a virus that can spread quickly via silent carriers, the United States has yet to execute a strategy for testing asymptomatic people. This is a problem, especially as the CDC pushed guidelines that people without symptoms didn’t necessarily need to be tested.