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Far left photo courtesy Tim Dillon/USA Today. Rob and Becky Haley attend a marriage education class taught by Ed Koplin at the Grace Fellowship Church in Timonium, Md.  Koplin and his wife, Mary Beth (near photo), are holding a similar workshop here in New Smyrna Beach March 19-20 at the First Baptist Church of New Smyrna Beach.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Ed and Mary Beth want to help married couples stem the rising tide of divorce with a special workshop March 19 and 20.

An exciting grass-roots movement has taken root, providing hope and skills to married couples, the Koplins say. Fed up with the rising tide of divorce, the Koplins drew a line in the sand eight years years ago, when they saw the negative impact of divorce on teens while serving in a youth ministry. Then they decided to work with married couples in the community.

EDGEWATER -- The Edgewater Public Library will host a two-part genealogy program for beginners in February and March. The program is for people who want to learn how to research their family roots.

NSBNEWS.net photos by Henry Frederick and NSBNEWS.net video by Sera Frederick.
At left, Jeanette Humphrey, an organizer of the annual Slovenian National Benefit Society Polka Festival, shows homemade Klobase (sausage). In the video, people enjoy dancing to the polka music. More than a thousand people were expected by day's end Sunday over the course of the three-day event in Samsula at the SNPJ Lodge. Below, Kara Maruszak, 17, of Cleveland, International Miss SNBJ, was at the festival.

SAMSULA -- Kara Maruszak is the international face of the Slovenian National Benefit Society. The 17-year-old Cleveland girl lit up the dance hall at the annual Polka Festival celebrating the Slovenian heritage with food, music, dancing and great conversation.

Hundreds turned out Saturday at the SNBJ Lodge, 421 North Samsula Road, for the three-day festival that ends Sunday afternoon. Admission is $10 per person and food platters are as low as $6, including sausage and chicken salad sandwiches, salad, sliced fruit and desserts, all homemade.

But the real attraction for the predominantly Slovenian gathering, of course, is the Polka music and the dancing. With banjos, accordions, percussion and vocals, the temptation to get on the floor and dance is overwhelming.

And why not?

Having a business here and multiple investment properties I decided I needed to look at a firm "zero-based" budgeting process in my own house. Car insurance went from $4,200 a year to $1,700, after I called the insurance company and started questioning the rates. AT&T for my business, I cut by $80 a month by going to a cheaper plan.

DAYTONA BEACH -- A 24-year-old Port Orange motorist was killed early Saturday when she veered off Interstate 95 while northbound near the U.S. 92 interchange and struck several pine trees, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

Courtesy video/SoNapa. SoNapa Wine Co. owners Adam Barringer and Mike Kosmas make their first podcast for their fine-wine restaurant, SoNapa, 761 Third Ave.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Who needs a marketing firm when you can make your own video podcast and broadcast it on YouTube. Better yet, why not promote it on NSBNEWS.net?

 NSBNEWS.net video by Sera Frederick. Flare Elliott of Friends of Historic Canal Street, Inc. speaks to the City Commission earlier this month about the potential for passenger rail service through Florida East Coast tracks.

Editor's Note: The following news blog was written by Flare Elliott of the Friends of Historic Canal Street, Inc. and was sent to NSBNEWS.net by Elliott:

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The Florida Department of Transportation has applied for $268 million dollars in federal stimulus (ARRA) funding to restore Amtrak passenger rail service on the existing 326 miles of FEC railway between Jacksonville and Miami by 2012.

Courtesy photo/NASA.  This view of the port side of space shuttle Endeavour's cargo bay was recorded after separation from the International Space Station on Feb. 19, 2010, as the STS-130 astronauts prepared for a Feb. 21 landing, after spending over a week working in tandem with the Expedition 22 crew members aboard the station. Other than the docking system hardware, the cargo bay is empty after delivering the Tranquility node and the new cupola to the orbital outpost.

Editor's Note: Information for this report was taken from NASA's shuttle blog.

CAPE CANAVERAL -- Space shuttle Endeavour landed at Kennedy Space Center at 10:20 p.m. Sunday without a hitch.

Photos and video for NSBNEWS.net by Jeanette DiCara. At left, thick black smoke billows from the woods Sunday afternoon. Below left, an unidentified Edgewater police officer stands by on the perimeter while firefighters with a brush truck tackle the brush fire. A county helicopter, shown in the video, attacks the fire from the air. The smaller photo illustrates the thick underbrush that fueled the fire.

EDGEWATER  -- Sunday afternoon was a busy one for firefighters from Edgewater, New Smyrna Beach and Volusia County, fighting stubborn brush fires, one of which came within several hundred yards of an Edgewater subdivision, threatening at least a half dozen homes, but the fire was kept in check because of canals and a pond  between it and the homes.

Several brush trucks and pumpers were used on the ground to fight the stubborn fire, fueled by thick underbrush while a county helicopter did its work from the air to douse the flames.