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Weather: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Sunny, with a high near 94. Heat index values as high as 102. Calm wind becoming southeast 5 to 8 mph in the morning. Tonight: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 10pm. Partly cloudy, with a low around 75. Southeast wind 5 to 7 mph becoming southwest after midnight.
Today at a Glance:
Palm Coast Farmers’ Market at European Village: The city’s only farmers’ market is open every Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. at European Village, 101 Palm Harbor Pkwy, Palm Coast. With fruit, veggies, other goodies and live music. For Vendor Information email [email protected]
That Girl Lay Lay, 7 p.m. at the Florida Theater, 128 E Forsyth St #300 Jacksonville. This gifted Nickelodeon Star and emerging music sensation That Girl Lay Lay is poised to grace stages far and wide, captivating audiences with her electrifying stage presence. The Growing Pains tour guarantees an unforgettable experience, spotlighting Lay Lay’s remarkable talent, infectious energy, and undeniable charisma. Audiences can anticipate a vibrant and immersive show that showcases Lay Lay’s evolution as an artist and her knack for connecting with fans of every generation
Grace Community Food Pantry, 245 Education Way, Bunnell, drive-thru open today from noon to 3 p.m. The food pantry is organized by Pastor Charles Silano and Grace Community Food Pantry, a Disaster Relief Agency in Flagler County. Feeding Northeast Florida helps local children and families, seniors and active and retired military members who struggle to put food on the table. Working with local grocery stores, manufacturers, and farms we rescue high-quality food that would normally be wasted and transform it into meals for those in need. The Flagler County School District provides space for much of the food pantry storage and operations. Call 386-586-2653 to help, volunteer or donate.
Al-Anon Family Groups: Help and hope for families and friends of alcoholics. Meetings are every Sunday at Silver Dollar II Club, Suite 707, 2729 E Moody Blvd., Bunnell, and on zoom. More local meetings available and online too. Call 904-315-0233 or see the list of Flagler, Volusia, Putnam and St. Johns County meetings here.
| In Coming Days: River to Sea Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) meets at 9 a.m. at the Airline Room at the Daytona Beach International Airport. The TPO’s planning oversight includes all of Volusia County and the developed areas of eastern Flagler County including Beverly Beach and Flagler Beach as well as portions of the cities of Palm Coast and Bunnell, with board member representation from each of those jurisdictions. See the full agendas here. To join the meeting electronically, go here. |
In medias res: This doesn’t bode well for the lawsuits in Florida challenging book bans. From the Aug. 9 New York Times: “A law in Iowa that bars public schools from having books that depict sexual acts can take effect, following a ruling by federal appeals court judges on Friday. The ruling overturned a preliminary injunction issued in December by a federal judge. The case will now go back to District Court. The law, known as Senate File 496, was signed by Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds in May 2023, and bans any titles that describe sexual acts from K-12 schools, with the exception of religious texts. The law also limits instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity before seventh grade, which has led some schools to remove books that address those issues. After the law was passed, thousands of books were banned from schools around the state, according to The Des Moines Register. Titles that have been removed include classics and popular fiction like “The Color Purple,” by Alice Walker, “Looking for Alaska,” by John Green, and “The Handmaid’s Tale,” by Margaret Atwood.”
—P.T.
Now this:
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I was in no state to talk about freedom. It was a word that had become a minefield. Ever since conservatives started laying claim to it (Freedom Tower, freedom fries), liberals and progressives had started backing away from it toward new definitions of the social good according to which people would no longer be entitled to dispute the new norms. Protecting the rights and sensibilities of groups perceived as vulnerable would take precedence over freedom of speech, which the Nobel laureate Elias Canetti had called “the tongue set free.” This move away from First Amendment principles allowed that venerable piece of the Constitution to be co-opted by the right. The First Amendment was now what allowed conservatives to lie, to abuse, to denigrate. It became a kind of freedom for bigotry. The right had a new social agenda too, one that sounded a lot like an old one: authoritarianism, backed up by unscrupulous media, big money, complicit politicians, and corrupt judges. All of this, the complexities created by new ideas of right and wrong, and my desire to protect the idea of freedom—Thomas Paine’s idea, the Enlightenment idea, John Stuart Mill’s idea—from these new things, was beyond my power to articulate. My voice was weak and faint. My body was in shock. Talking about miracles was about as much as I could manage.
–From Salman Rushdie’s Knife (2024).
The Cartoon and Live Briefing Archive.
