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Weather: Areas of fog in the morning. Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid 80s. Southeast winds 5 to 10 mph. Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy in the evening, then becoming mostly cloudy. Lows in the lower 60s. South winds 5 to 10 mph. See the daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here.
Today at a Glance:
The Palm Coast Planning and Land Development Board meets at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall.
Flagler County’s Technical Review Committee Meeting at 9 a.m., first floor Conference Room, at the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell. The Technical Review Committee (TRC) is a quality control committee that provides technical review of project plans. Staff Liaison is Gina Lemon, 386-313-4067.
The Flagler County Tourist Development Council meets at 9 a.m. in board chambers at the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell. See details and agendas here.
The Flagler County Contractor Review Board meets at 5 p.m. at the Government Services Building, 1769 East Moody Boulevard, Bunnell. Staff liaison is Bo Snowden, Chief Building Official, who may be reached at (386) 313-4027. For agendas and details go here.
Flagler County 4-H and FFA Livestock Show and Sale, 6 p.m. at the Flagler County Fairgrounds, 150 Sawgrass Road, Bunnell.
Separation Chat, Open Discussion: The Atlantic Chapter of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State hosts an open, freewheeling discussion on the topic here in our community, around Florida and throughout the United States, noon to 1 p.m. at its new location, Pine Lakes Golf Club Clubhouse Pub & Grillroom (no purchase is necessary), 400 Pine Lakes Pkwy, Palm Coast (0.7 miles from Belle Terre Parkway). Call (386) 445-0852 for best directions. All are welcome! Everyone’s voice is important. For further information email [email protected] or call Merrill at 804-914-4460.
The Circle of Light Course in Miracles study group meets at Vedic Moons, 4984 Palm Coast Parkway NW, Palm Coast, Fl every Wednesday at 1:20 PM. There is a $2 love donation that goes to the store for the use of their room. If you have your own book, please bring it. All students of the Course are welcome. There is also an introductory group at 1:00 PM. The group is facilitated by Aynne McAvoy, who can be reached at [email protected].
Weekly Chess Club for Teens, Ages 9-18, at the Flagler County Public Library: Do you enjoy Chess, trying out new moves, or even like some friendly competition? Come visit the Flagler County Public Library at the Teen Spot every Wednesday from 4 to 5 p.m. for Chess Club. Everyone is welcome, for beginners who want to learn how to play all the way to advanced players. For more information contact the Youth Service department 386-446-6763 ext. 3714 or email us at [email protected]
| In Coming Days: May 2: National Day of Prayer Protest: Members of the Atlantic Coast Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State (www.au.org) will gather to protest the National Day of Prayer from noon until 1 p.m. at the northwest corner of Belle Terre and Pine Lake Parkways in Palm Coast. They object to the National Day of Prayer because it involves the government, by Presidential Proclamation and Congressional Action, suggesting when Americans should pray. This event will last an hour and is open to the public: all are welcome. Participants are invited to bring their own signs promoting religious freedom, separation of church and state, and reproductive rights. For further information email [email protected] or call 804-914-4460. May 23: The Flagler County Association of Realtors hosts its 16th annual Meet the Mayors Q&A at 11:30 p.m. at the FCAR building, 4101 East Moody Boulevard. The session will include, by order of seniority in office, Bunnell Mayor Catherine Robinson, Beverly Beach Mayor Steve Emmett, Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin, and Flagler Beach Mayor Patti King. The session will also likely include a county representative. The invitation is open to the public, seats are limited register through eventbrite. Register Here. |
Trial notes: I’ve always liked to cover trials’ jury selection. It’s the most immediate, at times too intimate window into a cross-section of our community. “You’re going to be amazed at some of the qualifications and experience of your fellow jurors,” Circuit Judge Terence Perkins told the pool of 50 at the most recent trial: CEOs, bus drivers, military, physicians, lawyers, paralegals, a couple of unemployed, pharmacists, pharmacist technicians, quality engineers, teachers, truck drivers, retired. It shouldn’t be surprising: any cross-section of voters would produce a similar list. It’s unfortunate that unregistered voters aren’t represented. Or do they do it by driver’s license now? The number of people charged or arrested, or people who have family members who were arrested, can be significant, too: pot, child abuse, aggravated robbery (someone’s son), sexual abuse. DUI, DUI, DUI. Again, nothing unusual about this. “Both my brothers got arrested probably 10 times,” one juror said, describing how one of his brothers for DUI charges over and over, and the other beat the crap out of his abusive father (he was abusing his mother). I imagine any jury selection anywhere in the world at any time in history would not be much different. “My brother beat the crap out of this Viking brute who was bullying my mother.” That sort of thing, though chances are that any Viking would’ve had the better of anyone trying to be so honorable before it ever got to court. Voir dire, the old French term applied to jury selection, is a derivative of “to tell the truth,” or something to that effect, although the words alone are literally translated differently: voir is to see, dire is to tell. As in: Living to Tell the Tale, the title Gabriel Garcia Marquez chose for his wonderful autobiography from 2002. Inevitably, too, now that I’ve been in this county for a quarter century, there’s almost always someone I know in the pool, but they rarely make it to the final selection: people I know tend to be opinionated. Through it all, the defendant, about whom all this is, generally sits back, mute, like his own endless sidebar until the verdict, or until he takes the stand (there’s only been two her in all this time: Anna Pehota and Dorothy Singer. Both killed their husband.) So jury selection is really a fascinating and disillusioning look into the ordinariness or the unordinary: every juror a universe of their own, distinct and individual, especially to that juror, every juror a star, though if you were to pull back, what you’d see is one star among trillions, none so distinguishable as we might want to imagine, except, of course, in its close-up particulars, though even then, the astronomers will tell us, all these stars in the end can be categorized by the same distinctions: our differences only go so far. But they’re enough. Jury selection: our peers, unless the selection is over with. By then of course they’re barely peers of the accused. The whole point of selection is to make the jury have as little in common with the accused as possible. Especially when skin color is a factor.
—P.T.
Now this:
The Live Calendar is a compendium 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.
April 2024
Wednesday, Apr 17
Contractor Review Board Meeting
Government Services Building
Wednesday, Apr 17
Flagler County’s Technical Review Committee Meeting
Government Services Building
Wednesday, Apr 17
Tourist Development Council Meeting
Government Services Building
Wednesday, Apr 17
Separation Chat: Open Discussion
Wednesday, Apr 17
The Circle of Light A Course in Miracles Study Group
Wednesday, Apr 17
Weekly Chess Club for Teens, Ages 9-18, at the Flagler County Public Library
Flagler County Public Library
Wednesday, Apr 17
Palm Coast Planning and Land Development Board
Thursday, Apr 18
Flagler County Drug Court Convenes
Flagler County courthouse
Thursday, Apr 18
Story Time for Preschoolers at Flagler Beach Public Library
315 South 7th Street, Flagler Beach
No event found!
For the full calendar, go here.
In the end, what is at stake is whether we want jurors to understand their task primarily in terms of deliberation or representation. I have argued that the deliberative ideal is preferred for the jury. Jurors recruited randomly from different corners of the community may never be able to practice perfectly the deliberations we ask of them. But we know at least why we cherish the jury when it aspires to act as the common conscience of the community and not just as the register of our irreconcilable divisions.
–From Jeffrey Abramson’s We, the Jury: The Jury System and the Ideal of Democracy (1994).
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