Local News Now

Freddie Lee Giddemns Jr. of Palm Coast will  spend the next 25 years in prison for a brutal prescription drug robbery of an Ormond Beach pharmacy last September. The minimum-mandatory sentence handed down would keep him behind bars until the age of 57.

DAYTONA BEACH -- A 32-year-old Palm Coast man convicted at trial in May of sticking a gun in the face of a phamacy tech in Ormond Beach for painkillers and other prescription drugs was sentenced Tuesday to 30 years in prison that requires him to serve a mandatory minimum of 25 years behind bars.

 It is very satisfying to go against the grain with the truth on one’s side. One might begin humming the “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Slipping into smugness is not recommended, but it’s privately tempting.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- In their only media debate of the Aug. 14 primaries, three candidates running for the City Commission zone 4 seat made the most of the opening session Saturday in a marathon series of debates at the Brannon Center sponsored by Headline Surfer.

The CVS pharmacy on Howland Boulevard in Deltona was the target early Sunday of a cross-dressing robber with a green wig, black lipstick and a handbag.

DELTONA -- A cross-dressing thief claiming to have a bomb failed early this morning morning in an attempt to rob a Deltona drug store of its prescription pills after the pharmacist refused to give him what he craved.

The would-be-robber ran from the CVS pharmacy, 2187 Howland Blvd., empty-handed just before 6 a.m. and managed to get away just prior to the arrival of responding Volusia County Sheriff's deputies.

"Witnesses said the suspect -- they weren't sure if it was a man or a woman -- claimed that their children were being held hostage," Sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson said. "The suspect also claimed to have a bomb and threatened to blow up the store if the prescription drugs weren't handed over."

Kathy Woods Burrows, shown in the inset photo, was Nicole Carni's assistant when they worked at the NSB Visitor's Center.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Fired Southeast Volusia Advertising Authority Director Nicole Carni and her trusted assistant, Kathy Woods Burrows, were best friends, sisters even. At least that's what people were led to believe.

ORMOND BEACH -- Senators Kelly Ayotte of New Hampsire, Mike Johanns of Nebraska, Rob Portman of Ohio and Johnny Isakson of Georgia were among the 34 brave souls in the U.S. Senate to give the “Law of the Seas Treaty” the deep six.

“Proponents of the Law of the Sea treaty aspire to admirable goals, including codifying the U.S. Navy’s navigational rights and defining American economic interests in valuable offshore resources. But the treaty’s terms reach well beyond those good intentions,” Ayotte and Portman wrote in a Monday letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

NEW SMYRNA -- It is very satisfying to go against the grain with the truth on one’s side. You find yourself humming the “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” You don’t want to slip into smugness, but it’s tempting.