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Seminole schools collecting relief supplies for Hurricane Maria victims in Puerto Rico & islanders relocating to greater Sanford-Lake Mary and other areas of the county

Newspaper Section

LAKE MARY, Fla. -- Some two dozen students, teachers and staffers joined Seminole County School Board Chairwoman Amy Lockhart in receiving, sorting and packing disaster relief supplies for Puerto Rici brought in by countless citizens last Friday and Saturday in a large bay on district property at 239 Rinehart Road.

Most of the items were loaded into three larget U-Haul trucks and transported by plane Tuesday from Orlando-Sanford International Airport to San Juan. The equivalent of a truckload remained behind forr the expected arrival of serveral thousand Puerto Rican families in Central Florida over the next few weeks and months, said Lockharrt and school leaders from other school districts along the I-4 corridor, including Osceola, Orange and Volusia counties.

Post-Hurricane Irma: Daytona's homeless front & center

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Within 36 hours of Hurricane Irma's blast through Daytona Beach, with many of the tourist-destination's traffic lights still out, motorists started venturing out and the homeless panhandlers were already in place at nearly every major intersection to greet them. 

UPDATED: Las Vegas cops: Gunman from 32nd hotel floor opens fire on country music fans at outdoor concert; at least 58 killed, surpassing Orlando's Pulse shooting massacre

City
Newspaper Section

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Fifteen months after the Pulse nightclub massacre here in Orlando, a lone gunman overnight in Las Vegas opened fire from a 32nd floor balcony of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino into the crowd at an outdoor country music concert during a closing performance by Jason Aldean, killing at least 58 and injuring 500-plus others.

City of DeLand honors Clerk of Court Laura Roth with proclamation for contributing to betterment of Spring Hill community

DELAND, Fla. -- When crack cocaine first hit the streets in the mid-1980s, an already-impoverisherd and historically black community by the name of Spring Hill outside the DeLand city limits had become a major drug den for the better part of the next two decades -- its poor and law abiding citizens caught in the cross fire between rival drug dealers.

Sheriff Mike Chitwood suffers 2 cracked vertebrae after being struck by a pick-up truck while riding his bicycle without a helmet in Ponce Inlet

PONCE INLET, Fla. -- Sheriff Mike Chitwood suffered two cracked vertebrae and assorted other iinjuries Friday morning in Ponce Inlet when he was struck by a pick-up truck while riding his bicycle without a helmet.

Seminole County School Board Chairwoman Amy Lockhart: 'We're going to do all we can for Puerto Ricans who need to relocate here'

Newspaper Section

SANFORD, Fla. -- School Board Chairwoman Amy Lockhart is all too aware of the suffering of Puerto Ricans with the utter devastation inflicted on the island a week ago by Maria, which made landfall on the commonwealth as a Category 4 hurricane.

Plight of loved ones, including children unaccounted for in Puerto Rico, hits home for my wife & her close-knit family members here in Central Florida

By HENRY FREDERICK
Headline Surfer
Column: People, Places & Things

SANFORD, Fla. -- My wife, Sera King-Frederick, is a native of Ponce, Puerto Rico, who was raised in Aguada, both communiities on the western side of the island.

She and other family members here in Sanford, Lake Mary and Orlando, have had very little contact with literally dozens of loved ones on the island, many of them forced to feek shelter, their homes reduced to rubble.

Daytona International Speedway: Infield improvements under way for Rolex 24 race & NASCAR weekends

Key Words

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Daytona International Speedway has undertaken a new project to further improve the infield for the Rolex 24 At DAYTONA and NASCAR Weekends.

"Daytona International Speedway is putting the construction vehicles to work as the 'World Center of Racing' has undertaken another improvement project in the infield that will provide benefits to the fan experience for Rolex 24 At Daytona and NASCAR weekends," DIS spokesman Andrew Booth said in a press release.