Local News Now

DAYTONA BEACH SHORES -- In 90 minutes of mutually respectful, detailed and substantive debate, Mitt Romney walked away the clear winner over President Obama. The discussion focused on the economy, health care and taxes and within the first 30 minutes it was plain that Romney had the upper hand.

Both men had obviously prepared for the evening, but Obama seemed unprepared for in-depth discussion and frequently fell back on lines from his recent campaign speeches which were sometimes not wholly on target.

ORLANDO -- Recent polls indicate an increasingly tight race between President Barack H. Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. That is to say, after a week of media hyperbole pontificating President Obama had locked up re-election, was in fact, pulling away from the Bain Capital Dragon, new polls suggest a different reality.

DAYTONA BEACH SHORES -- An Atlantic High School student suffered a broken leg when he was struck by a motorist in an SUV in the 3000 block of South Atlantic Avenue this afternoon, Daytona Beach Shores cops said.

"The student’s leg was fractured and he suffered other non-life threatening injuries," Detective Sgt. Michael Fowler said in a brief media release to Headline Surfer that did not include the boy's name or age.

A New Smyrna Beach family's 8-year-old Staffordshire Terrier, similar to one shown here in this Wikipedia photo is under a brief quarantine after nipping a baby girl on the ear when she touched an inoperable tumor on its paw.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- An 8-year-old family dog, a Staffordshire Terrier named "Guiness," who nipped on a 1-year-old baby's ear that caused a small abrasion after she touched a painful tumor on its paw, has been quarantined. But the dog is expected to be returned to the family within a week, police said.

The incident was reported to the county Health Department when the father of the little girl took her to the family doctor for a "minor abrasion" on her ear on Sept. 25, according to a police report, documented Monday after the incident was reported by the health department to police here.

The dog was quarantined by NSBPD and is due to be returned to he family by Saturday. "This incident does not meet the requirements for a dangerous dog incident," police officer C.F. Norman wrote in his report dated today.

Daytona Beach police have issued a BOLO (be on the lookout) for a man who robbed the Sunoco gas station, 2501 W. International Speedway Boulevard on Monday afternoon.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Perhaps the winning lottery ticket was not a big enough score for a man who reached into the cash register after the cashier opened the drawer and scooped up the cash before running off just before 4 p.m. Monday from the Sunoco, 2501 W. International Speedway Boulevard, Daytona Beach cops said.

Though there was a brief struggle after the man leaned over the counter and snatched a wad of cash, but the cashier was not hurt. Cops don't know how much cash he got away with.

DAYTONA BEACH -- The News-Journal and its sister papers are following the lead of The New York Times in charging readers to access its online content as print media struggles to find a happy medium with keeping its broadsheet advertising in place while losing readers in droves to the Internet.

Ironically, The Times unloaded its Florida papers in a fire sale to the News-Journal's parent company, Halifax Media, earlier this year.

DELAND, Fla. -- Al Williams, chairman of the School Board of Volusia County, died this morning at Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach surrounded by family and friends. He was 70 years old.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- A 42-year-old  man was arrested on drug charges Friday after he was stopped in the 300 block of the North Causeway and a meth lab was found in the back seat of his vehicle, New Smyrna Beach cops said.

The Volusia County Sheriff's Dive Team recovers the submerged vehicle with the body of Rose Bruce in it, from a retention pond near her Ormond Beach residence as shown here, first with the initial discovery at far left and with the removal of the vehicle in the inset photo.

ORMOND BEACH -- It was a freak accident that led to the tragic death of 79-year-old Rose Bruce, the Walmart employee missing since Monday night for nearly three days before a team of divers found her body in the back seat of her car in a 9-foot-deep retention pond across from her residence.