Volusia News Now

The Great Depression: Are we doomed to repeat the same mistakes of the past?

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- I am a child of the Great Depression. I was a mere 4 years old when it ended a couple years after after Germany's 1939 invasion of Poland. When I came into the world in 1935, six years had already passed since the New York stock market crash of 1929, that sent seismic shocks around the world for a decade. Rations were part of my youth in Cincinnati before my family moved to New Smyrna Beach where I started my high school years. Are we destined now to repeat history?

New advertising authority executive Jeffrey Hentz on the job in Daytona Beach

Jeff HentzPhoto for Headline Surfer / NSBNews.net
Jeffrey Hentz President/CEO Daytona Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau Hentz Assumed his leadership position Friday with the Daytona Beach Area Convention and Visitor's Bureau, the marketing arm of the Halifax Area Advertising Authority.

DAYTONA BEACH -- The head of the Halifax Area Advertising Authority welcomed tourism executive Jeffrey Hentz who began his has duties today as the new president and chief executive officer of the Daytona Beach Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"We are excited to have Jeff join and lead our tourism marketing team," said Sean Belgrade, chairman of the Halifax Area Advertising Authority, which oversees the Daytona Beach area's tourism marketing efforts. "This is the start of an exciting era for the Daytona Beach area."

Ex-con suspected of killing DeLand restaurant owner in March found dead in mobile home, along with girlfriend, after standoff in Hillsborough County

J. SeagravesKayla NemotoJames Seagrave and his apparent girlfriend, Kelly Nemoto were found dead inside a mobile home Thursday afternoon after a lengthy standoff with a Hillsborough SWAT team. Seagrave was the prime suspect in the March 31 fatal shooting of Tom Walsh, the manager of the Mainstreet Grill restaurant during a botched robbery.

DELAND -- The man believed responsible for murdering the manager of the Mainstreet Grill on New York Avenue in March was found dead in a mobile home today in Hillsborough County after a standoff with a SWAT team, authorities said.

James Seagraves, a convicted felon, shot and killed the manager, Tom Walsh, during a bothed robbery on March 31. The 29-year-old suspect had just been released from prison March 2, after serving a two-year term for an armed robbery in Marion County.

The standoff ended just after 6 p.m. in Gibsonton, a rural unincorporated community in Hillsborough County. The SWAT team entered the mobile home where Seagraves had barricaded himself after tear gas cleared and found his body and that of a woman presumed to be his girlfriend, Kayla Nemoto, Hillsborough County Sheriff's Detective Larry McKinnon said. How they died has not yet been released.

Bravo to all who made Oak Hill's charter school such a success this year

OAK HILL -- Now that its almost the end of the school year, people need to reflect on how well Burns Sci-Tech. Charter School has done. We have won awards for the best school, our teachers have gotten the Crystal Apple award for excellence, and we have almost 100 kids on the waiting list for next year.

Teamsters business agent optimistic about new pact for Ponce Inlet cops

Headline Surfer / NSBNews.net photo by Sera Frederick /
Robert Walker, business agent for Teamsters 385, as shown here, is optimistic about a new pact for the officers with the Ponce Inlet Police Department.

PONCE INLET -- The business agent for the Teamsters Local 385 said he's optimistic a new contract will be hammered out between the union and the town for the small police force.

"We're going to request negotiations sometime in June," said Robert Walker, who has been the union's business agent the better part of 15 months. "I met the new chief in April and we had a good discussion. I feel good about getting a new contract in place for the officers."

Not everyone can sing the blues

Create: Mon, 05/07/2012 - 17:01
Author: Anonymous

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- I had a musician friend of mine who is a blues musician ( he won’t play any other style of music no matter how much you pay him) send me this memo. It is adorable and so true. Musicians and non-musicians will laugh and enjoy. My wife Ann is an excellent vocalist. She has performed with me in concert all over the world. I kid her all the time about not being able to “sing the blues.”

Edgewater cops: Edgewater man struck and killed overnight Thursday; ID being withheld until relatives contacted

EDGEWATER -- Police are withholding the name of a man struck and killed overnight Thursday, while he was crossing the road in the vicinity of the 300 block of North Ridgewood Avenue, while they make every effort to contact family members.

Here is a synopsis of what happened as described by Edgewater cop C. Anderson in the 12:04 a.m. incident i a press release: "A white male was discovered in the roadway by a patrolling police officer. The male had just been struck by a vehicle as he crossed the roadway."

If we could read the first lady's mind, this is what she would be thinking

EDGEWATER -- If we could read First Lady Michelle Obama's mind, this would probably be what she is thinking: "Please! Please! Vote for my Husband!

"When he is re-elected I will be able to go on trips like I did in the past. Like my trip to Spain, where we stayed at a 5-star three-story hotel at the cost of $2,500 per night, with 70 Secret Service men keeping a watchful eye.

Rich Gailey of DeBary running for County Council seat 5 with mission of cutting government spending

Rich Gailey with wife Lisa and their childrenPhoto for Headline Surfer /
Rich Gailey, with his wife Lisa and their two children shown here, call Southwest Volusia home. The family lives in DeBary and he owns property in Deltona. Gailey is running for the Volusia County Council dist. 5 seat against incumbent Pat Northey and fellow challengers Dennis Mulder and Stony Sixma.

DELTONA -- Rich Gailey loves God, his family and his country. And like many of you struggling to make ends meet in this entrenched recession, he's grown tired and weary of paying taxes and seeing from his vantage point diminishing returns in the Southwest Volusia community he and his wife and children call home.

That's why Gailey's running for the district 5 seat on the Volusia County Council.