Volusia News Now

Editor's Note: This write-up by Michael W. Gerowchowski is being published exclusively in the Sunshine State via HeadlineSurfer.com as a public service for online readers.

By Michael W. Grochowski

ATLANTA -- Spring is officially here. Before you get started with your spring cleaning, perhaps another matter deserves some dusting off—that long-term financial plan. April is National Financial Literacy Month—the perfect time to spring into action when it comes to planning your financial future.

Headline Surfer® celebrating 5th anniversary by recognizing outstanding individuals

Photo for Headline Surfer® /

DAYTONA BEACH -- Bike Week starts Friday and what better way to introduce the nation's largest motorcycle rally than recognizing Michael Politis, selected as one of the Headline Surfer® recipients of a lifetime achievement award for service to greater Daytona Beach for his motorcycle safety advocacy and biker rights.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.  -- The future is now at Daytona International Speedway, thanks to two historic votes in less than 24 hours involving municipal and county governments.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) will hold a public Scoping Meeting 6 p.m.Thursday, March 20, at the Kissimmee Civic Center, 201 East Dakin Ave.

The purpose of these scoping meetings is to provide the public an opportunity to learn more about the Commission's environmental review process, and to verbally comment on the SMP Project. Representatives from Sabal Trail, FSC, and Transco, as applicable, will be present one hour to each scoping meeting to answer questions about the respective SMP Project component. Affected landowners and other interested parties are encouraged to attend and to give their comments on the issues they believe should be addresses in the EIS.

YouTube upload / Video by Simon Besmer / Volusia County Beach Patrol rescues occupants of this motor vehicle, swept into the surf in Daytona Beach on Tuesday afternoon near the Silver Beach Approach. A rescuer carries two of the children to shore in the snapshot at left.

DAYTONA BEACH -- A South Carolina woman drove her van into the surf with her three children inside just south of Silver Beach, before all were rescued and the vehicle became completed submerged.

One of the children reportedly told rescuers, "Our mommy's trying to kill us, please help."

Photo for Headline Surfer® / The largest proposed residential-commercial development in the history of Daytona Beach, the so-called Russian Towers, approved by the city last year for location at water's edge east of the Seabreeze Boulevard Bridge, already is six months past a scheduled groundbreaking and may be on shaky financial ground.

DAYTONA BEACH -- With an August groundbreaking that came and went with no dirt moved and growing whispers in recent days that the $150 million Russian Towers condo-hotel development may prove to be a bust rather than the economic boom propagated ad nausea in the News-Journal.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Governor Rick Scott today announced the appointments of Stanley Escudero and Garry Lubi to the Daytona State College Board of Trustees.

Headline Surfer® photos / Justin Kennedy, 2012 County Council candidate shown at far left, who accepted in-kind advertising from Waverly Media on its popular bus benches, refused to honor a subpoena issued by private attorney Jon Kaney (in the inset) and was a no-show for a deposition Wednesday. Kaney was hired by the County Council to look into Waverly, a move seen by some as politics at its worst.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Volusia County Council special investigator Jonathan Kaney, Jr's subpoena power is being put to the test by a defiant former County Council candidate who said it's not worth the paper it's written on.

"It came in the mail and it may as well have gone in the trash," 2012 district 3 County Council candidate and former Edgewater City Councilman Justin Kennedy told Headline Surfer® this morning, adding he was a no-show for his scheduled deposition Wednesday with Kaney.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Bike Week starts March 7-17, and is second only to Speedweeks and the Daytona 500 in importance as a special tourism event in greater Daytona Beach, typically drawing upwards of half a million bikers.

Born Feb. 17, 1934; died Jan. 11, 2014

ORLANDO – A gentle soul who wasn't afraid to challenge convential wisdom, Harry Garrett had two main pursuits in life besides his love of family: his career as a media/specialist librarian for two decades at Seminole High School in Sanford, Fla., until the mid-1990s, and a soft spot for animals of all kinds -- wild and domesticated.

Harry Ashley Garrett, 79, died Saturday, Jan. 11, 2014, at Halifax Health Hospice Center in Port Orange, Fla.,  where he had been staying since the previous Tuesday. He entered Florida Hospital the day after Christmas, losing a long battle with heart disease and other health complications.