FlaglerLive | August 26, 2018
Defending the press against Donald Trump’s “enemy of the people” attacks may have its place, but reporters’ best bet is to shut up and do their job well: it’s the most eloquent response.
FlaglerLive | April 18, 2018
Tony Lagano, 35, was upset over a family court issue and alluded to a school shooting in a sarcastic Facebook video last week, only to be visited by sheriff’s deputies.
FlaglerLive | February 6, 2018
Florida universities and colleges could be sued for up to $100,000 in damages if students or others “willfully” interfere with campus speakers or protestors.
FlaglerLive | February 27, 2017
A Legislative committee pondered on proposed legislation called the Campus Free Speech Act. Stanley Kurtz, a conservative academic, told lawmakers the measure would defend the right for people to speak their minds at the state’s universities.
Pierre Tristam | February 25, 2017
The media has been the enemy since the earliest days of the Republic. But to be an enemy in America is what all of us at one point or another have been or will be. It is an American responsibility. It’s proof of our beloved American citizenship.
FlaglerLive | February 17, 2017
Freedom for the thought we agree with is as cheap as a Facebook click on the like button. Freedom for the thought that we hate is what separate Americans from thuggery.
Pierre Tristam | September 9, 2016
Blasphemous as it seems, Colin Kaepernick’s freedom to sit out the Star Spangled Banner is written in the anthem’s very words, though his tormentors are more disturbed by his message, which they would rather not hear.
FlaglerLive | August 9, 2016
Richard Rubin, a twice-arrested local resident and supporter of Mark Whisenant’s sheriff’s campaign, attempted to rattle candidate John Lamb Monday evening by riding masked and in camouflage and holding up a sign claiming Lamb and his family did not live in the county, a false claim.
FlaglerLive | January 6, 2016
The FOP’s protest was triggered by false claims that filmmaker Quentin Tarantino had called cops “murderers.” The lie didn’t stop FOP organizers from going ahead with their plans or standing by their protest even when shown Tarantino’s actual words.
FlaglerLive | December 18, 2015
The Flagler school board shirked its responsibility when it chose to be a cheerleader for a principal instead of offering guidance and oversight after a student’s art work was censored at FPC.
FlaglerLive | May 24, 2015
It is up to the citizens of Flagler County–no matter your political persuasion or your party affiliation, your social views and religious beliefs–not to allow the voices of ignorance and intolerance decide what information you are permitted to consume.
FlaglerLive | February 8, 2015
President Obama’s speech at the National Prayer Breakfast cautioned Christians against shutting their eyes to their own brutal past, but was rebuked by Evangelicals and the conservative press, often with flurries of historical inaccuracies.
FlaglerLive | January 16, 2015
Kelvin Cochran, the former Atlanta fire chief, and his supporters, are using the veil of religious freedom to justify homophobic and bigoted views that have no place in the workplace.
FlaglerLive | January 13, 2015
Cartoonist Khalil Bendib, an American Muslim and native of Algeria who’s known his share of censorship and death threats, writes of grief and human solidarity in the wake of the attack.
FlaglerLive | January 8, 2015
We should celebrate differences of opinion. We have no duty to embrace differences of principles, and in many cases—and this is one of them—we must oppose them, angrily and militantly if need be.
FlaglerLive | December 5, 2014
The Florida Department of Management Services this week approved the proposed holiday display from the Satanic Temple, which a year ago was rejected because the agency said its proposal was “grossly offensive.”
FlaglerLive | August 17, 2014
The problem isn’t the county’s ban on campaign signs at the public library, it’s the dismal slate of candidates on this year’s primary ballots, but Flagler’s Ronald Reagan Assembly candidates and Supervisor of Elections Weeks have teamed up to play up a bogus controversy.
FlaglerLive | January 7, 2014
The threat of a lawsuit is hovering over the state’s rejection of a satanic display, and the rotunda exhibit policy is set to undergo a staff review. But the prevailing view among those who have recently jumped at the chance to use the public floor space to express their beliefs is to simply let everyone have their say.
Pierre Tristam | December 20, 2013
The Rick Scott administration’s illiterate interpretation of the Bible and the first amendment turned the Florida Capitol rotunda into a comedy of absurd Christmas displays and discrimination, all of which could have been avoided with a reason and respect–for the holidays and the Constitution.
FlaglerLive | December 17, 2013
Without net neutrality, the Web would look a lot like cable, with the most popular content available only on certain tiers or with certain providers: Imagine AT&T as the exclusive home of Netflix and Comcast as the sole source of YouTube.
Pierre Tristam | April 7, 2013
Employers’ presumptions on workers’ behavior on and off the job have more in common with the inquisition or police states than with the bill of rights. Transgressors are routinely humiliated, silenced, censured or fired over speech or behavior companies should have no right to police.
FlaglerLive | March 15, 2013
Flagler County Sheriff Jim Manfre has rescinded a policy that for the last two years, under Sheriff Don Fleming, prohibited inmates at the county jail from receiving letters at all, or writing letters longer than two pages.
FlaglerLive | February 9, 2013
A group of students at Carver Middle School in Lake County, Fla. have tried to establish a GSA, saying the student-led club is needed to address name-calling, bullying and harassment in school. In response to the students request, the Lake County School Board has begun the process of banning every non-curricular club at every school in the district rather than follow their legal obligation to recognize the GSA at Carver Middle School.
Pierre Tristam | January 6, 2013
When John Swartz was arrested for flipping off a cop, he sued, and appears headed for a win–as he should: rude expression is not a crime, and the obscenity is far surpassed by that of cops exercising arbitrary authority over bruised egos.
FlaglerLive | April 13, 2011
Colleen Conklin has been an outspoken advocate for education as a Flagler County School Board member for 10 years–and as the COO of a largely state-funded education foundation for the last four. One job cost her the other.
FlaglerLive | February 2, 2011
The rejected policy had called for supporting plays “that challenge, nurture and extend student skills” while respecting community sensibilities. Instead, the board retreated to more general “tweaks” of two existing policies.
FlaglerLive | January 6, 2011
Citing savings and security, the sheriff is banning non-postcard correspondence beginning Jan. 15. The ban costs inmates money and chills their speech, a federal lawsuit filed over a similar policy in Santa Rosa County charges.
FlaglerLive | January 5, 2011
The school board is debating a new policy and procedure controlling the staging of controversial plays. Matanzas Principal Chris Pryor doesn’t want to be “second-guessed.” Board member Conklin doesn’t want unilateral decision-making.
FlaglerLive | November 11, 2010
Interviews with appeals committee members reveal a divide between instinctive revulsion of censorship and hesitancy over second-guessing a principal’s decision even as the facts of the case continue to be muddled by unspecified generalities.
FlaglerLive | November 1, 2010
Unearthing a district policy on “the appropriateness of books or materials,” School Board member Colleen Conklin appealed the decision to cancel the play. A committee will be appointed to handle the appeal.
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