Truck Weigh Station Image Gallery

Pierre Tristam | December 31, 2009

New Fees at Belle Terre Swim Club

FlaglerLive | December 30, 2009

The school-board owned and managed club in Palm Coast is lowering some fees and offering a new, six-month deal to appeal to snowbirds.

My Ten Predictions for 2010

Pierre Tristam | December 29, 2009

“All prophesies are wrong, therefore this one will be wrong,” Orwell said. So here are mine for the coming year of our blogs, 2010.

Why It’s Taking So Long to Close Guantanamo

FlaglerLive | December 28, 2009

By Dafna Linzer
As we have reported throughout the year, the Obama administration has been serially hampered in its efforts to shutter the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. It underestimated [2] the time needed to close the facility and was unprepared for Congressional opposition.
Finding countries to adopt detainees has proven difficult, and only this month did [...]

Brighthouse, Worst Company in Florida

Pierre Tristam | December 27, 2009

Brighthouse puts a happy face on its business. For customers of cable and internet service, Brighthouse can be a miserable experience. If it’s customer care you’re looking for, it ain’t there.

Disney’s Monorail System: A Primer

FlaglerLive | December 24, 2009

A quick ride through the facts and history of the monorail system at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

Disney’s Monorail System Goes Off Course

FlaglerLive | December 24, 2009

An accident, a death, 300 stranded passengers: Disney’s monorail system is in disarray. 911 calls included.

Teddy Roosevelt on Socialism

FlaglerLive | December 20, 2009

Many of the men who call themselves Socialists to-day are in reality merely radical social reformers, with whom on many points good citizens can and ought to work in hearty general agreement.

A Health Care Deal out of Arab Bazars

Pierre Tristam | December 20, 2009

For all the missteps, for all of Obama’s prevarications and defanged tactics, the end result will (should the bill pass) vindicate whatever he did, however he did it. What was bound to be a colossal battle turned out to unravel the worst and little of the best about America.

One Arrest, One Get-Away in Palm Coast Armed Robbery

FlaglerLive | December 15, 2009

A 19-year-old Palm Coast teenager was arrested and charged with armed robbery on Dec. 15 shortly after allegedly pulling a gun on two individuals walking along Boulder Rock Dr. in Palm Coast around 11:18 a.m. that morning. A second suspect allegedly involved in the robbery is still at large.
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office reports that [...]

Hot Air Over Climategate

FlaglerLive | December 12, 2009

Oklahoma Senator and chronic denier James Inhoffe claims the Climatic Research Unit e-mails show that the science behind climate change “has been pretty well debunked.” He’s wrong.

A Weigh Station Runs Through It

FlaglerLive | December 11, 2009

A state proposal to move and supersize a weigh station closer to Palm Coast on U.S. 1 is drawing concerted opposition from Palm Coast, Bunnell and the School Board. The transportation Department may not be listening.

Nimby, Nimbyism and Nimbyists

FlaglerLive | December 11, 2009

Nimbyism is a particularly American reflection of the material value ascribed to real estate. The materialism is expressed through the more high-minded lens of property rights or the idealistic, if often opportunistic, lens of environmental stewardship.

Limbaugh’s Oxycontin Math

FlaglerLive | December 11, 2009

Rush Limbaugh claims the November drop in the unemployment rate is questionable because it was calculated “over two days of the Thanksgiving week.” He’s wrong.

The 10 Most Ridiculous Commandments

FlaglerLive | December 11, 2009

In order for any Republican candidate to receive support from the Republican National Committee, they have to sign off on eight out of 10 newly-mandated, government-approved, “conservative” principles.

Obama’s Nobel Lecture: “Bend History”

FlaglerLive | December 10, 2009

In his Nobel peace prize lecture, Barack Obama evoked the notions of just wars to counter the irony of being “the Commander-in-Chief of the military of a nation in the midst of two wars.”

Initial Unemployment Claims Up 17,000

Pierre Tristam | December 10, 2009

Weekly unemployment claims are up 17,000 from the previous week’s unrevised figure of 457,000. The 4-week moving average was 473,750, a decrease of 7,750 from the previous week.

Best of the Rest: December 9, 2009

FlaglerLive | December 9, 2009

Copenhagen’s A-to-Z guide, how to know when you’re being an absolute bore, mucking up Alaska (again) and more.

A Chopin Polonaise

FlaglerLive | December 8, 2009

“Simplicity is the final achievement,” Chopin said. “After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.”

Rev-Up Time for the Flagler Youth Orchestra

Pierre Tristam | December 7, 2009

They’re practicing as I’m writing–the Flagler Youth Orchestra’s four music teachers (Jonathan May, Jack Jeffe, Justin McCulough and Linda VavBuren–in preparation for tonight’s inaugural concert of the new season: the quartet is putting on a few pieces of its own for the occasion, including, from what I hear, a Christmassy jaunt or two.
It’s barely two [...]

Switzerland’s Minarets Ban a Pretext

FlaglerLive | December 7, 2009

It is important to look beyond these symbols and understand what is really happening in Europe in general and in Switzerland in particular: While European countries and citizens are going through a real and deep identity crisis, the new visibility of Muslims is problematic — and it is scary.

Gerrymandering

FlaglerLive | December 6, 2009

Gerrymandering’s origins had plenty to do with the wily efforts of Elbridge Gerry, governor of Massachusetts in 1812, whose redistricting scheme ensured that Democrats would clobber Federalists in elections.

Soldiers, Kids Reunite, but Cameras Exploit

Pierre Tristam | December 6, 2009

In one video, Army Master Sgt. Joseph Myers walks unannounced into his 10-year-old daughter Hanna’s classroom in Texas after a long deployment. In split seconds Hanna’s expression goes from blank to shock to joy to meltdown. She barely manages to make it toward her father’s embrace. In another, at a Jacksonville Jaguars football game last [...]

Paige Dalporto’s Latest Disillusions

Pierre Tristam | December 6, 2009

To describe himself, West Virginia’s T. Paige Dalporto evokes a hollow tunnel carving his veins somewhere around the dirty tracks of his disillusions. Here he is singing his latest.

Forget Obama’s. What About Sadie’s Vietnam?

Pierre Tristam | December 6, 2009

Sadie’s relationship with Vietnam was a complete surprise. But it explains an adolescence rife with post-traumatic stress disorder and reenactments of napping through napalm.