Volusia News Now

By Stan Escudero of Daytona Beach Shores

This Tuesday, Aug. 2, the supposed drop dead date for raising the debt ceiling, is really getting close now. If you listen to the news anchors on television, you probably think that the United States will automatically default on its debt on that date. This is not true.

The United States would default next week only if it declared that it is unable to pay its debts and then failed to pay the interest on the debt due on August 2nd – approximately $29 billion. That will not happen.

By August 2nd the government will have about six times as much in tax revenues as it owes in debt interest and the very first thing it will do is pay that interest whether the debt ceiling is raised or not.

The problem we will have if the debt ceiling is not raised by August 2 or soon thereafter is that the government will not have enough money to pay all of its bills. If the ceiling is not raised, we cannot borrow and, if we cannot borrow, the amount of money available to the government decreases by 42% of the budget (or what the budget would be if we had one).

DAYTONA BEACH SHORES -- A 33-year-old female beach visitor from Witchita, Kansas, was hospitalized in stable condition this afternoon after being struck earlier in the day Sunday by a vehicle while sunbathing on the beach in the 3300 block of Daytona Beach Shores. The driver of the vehicle was Tommy Moderie, 21, a part-time Volusia County lifeguard.

Moderie was driving in the northbound driving lane of the beach when he was alerted by a beachgoer of broken glass at the water’s edge.

"In response, Moderie made a right turn and struck the female who was laying on her stomach on the beach east of the driving lane," Volusia County spokesman Dave Byron said in an e-mail NSBNews.net and other media outlets.

Erin Joynt, she was struck with the right front wheel of the county-issued truck, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. The victim was transported to Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach by EVAC ambulance following the accident which occurred at 10:04 a.m. Her husband was with her at the time of the accident.

Moderie, a seasonal employee, has "worked for the county off and on for about five years and has a spotless record," Byron added in his media e-mail.

The House took an historic vote Friday to cut federal spending immediately, reduce the rate of growth of government by nearly a trillion dollars over the next ten years, and guarantee a vote on a balanced budget amendment.

Blog: MISS INFORMED 

After moving Daytona State College Senior Vice President Bob Williams from Economic Development to the College television station, Dr. Frank Lombardo reluctantly accepted Williams' resignation on Thursday.

Courtesy photo / Robert Olen Butler

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Pulitzer Prize winning author Robert Olen Butler will discuss his literary works and read from his new novel, “A Small Hotel,” at the New Smyrna Beach Regional Library at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 10.

NSBNews.net photos by Sera Frederick / On the drawing boards for five years-plus, the proposed Hampton Inn & Suites is the new reality for historic Flagler Avenue in New Smyrna Beach. The developer is South Carolina-based David Swentor (with hand out to the drawing) shown here with CRA Director Tony Otte during a public hearing earlier this year.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Residents soon will see the beginning of the first significant hotel development in the City in more than 20 years. Developers of the Hampton Inn Hotel on Flagler Avenue are expecting to break ground on the project in the next few weeks.

"After nearly five years of meetings and public hearings, we're excited to have a new hotel coming to New Smyrna Beach," said New Smyrna Beach Mayor Adam Barringer.

"The project will serve as an economic generator in the short term with construction jobs and in the long term with the travelers expected to stay here. We anticipate this hotel will exceed the expectations for occupancy."

NSBNews.net photo illustration by Sera Frederick 

OAK HILL -- Talk about the pot calling the kettle black: In a shocking turn of events, NSBNews.net has learned that embattled Police Chief Diane Young -- whose past use of cocaine and marijuana is well chronicled -- was the driving force behind Sheriff's narcotics investigators showing up at 84-year-old Mary Lee Cook's house last month to confront her about marijuana plants on her property.

Young had denied any involvement in the episode in media interviews, including NSBNews.net, which broke the story Monday night. The mayor was not charged and the marijuana plants were destroyed, but what remains a mystery is how they got there in the first place.

OAK HILL -- Oak Hill Mayor Mary Lee Cook's insistence that marijuana plants were placed on her property to frame her was reported in 181 media outlets nationwide Wednesday, two days after NSBNews.net broke the story live from Monday night's City Commission meeting.

Courtesy photos / The man shown in these gruesome photos is none other than Henry Ford Wheeler, greater New Smyrna Beach's notorious ex-con who got beat up in a beachside bar. Wheeler made headlines last year by costing then-County Judge Mary Jane Henderson her seat on the bench in the November elections after she tried to help him turn his alcoholic life around, only to see him continue getting into trouble, including being at the center of a murder.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Henry Ford Wheeler, a career criminal with more than 60 arrests on his record, has actually found himself on the right side of the law in the wake of being beaten to a bloody pulp inside a New Smyrna Beach bar in April.

David Fernendez, the manager of Traders Pub on Flagler Avenue where the beating took place, was arrested Wednesday on a warrant charging him with felony battery.