Top 100 Stories

A man perished in a July 29 fire that destroyed his DeBary home at 54 W. Highbanks Road as shown in this locator map.

DEBARY -- The body of a man was found in the charred remains of his home in late July, a Volusia County Volusia County Sheriff's spokesman said.

The fire fatality comes in 81st in Headline Surfer's countdown of the top 100 local stories of 2012.

"(The fire) was reported at 9:19 Sunday morning, after a passerby spotted flames coming from the windows of the home," Sheriff's spokesman Brandon Haught said," of the July 29 blaze. Volusia County and Orange City firefighters began dousing the flames at about 9:25 a.m. and then entered the residence.

Snoopy is reunited with 77-year-old Bob Johnson of Deltona on Jan. 20, 2012, after his release from quarantine in a biting incident involving a leashed dog that broke free from its owner and attacked him. But because Snoopy was involved in a bite incident five years ago and declared a dangerous dog, he lost his freedom for nearly a month.

DELTONA -- Snoopy the pit bull made a lot of friends on Facebook during his nearly month-long quarantine for nipping at another dog -- more than 24,000 of them -- and in late January, he was sprung from doggie jail to his Deltona owner.

Snoopy's situation is No. 83 in Headline Surfer's countdown of the top 100 local stories of 2012.

Snoopy had been under lock and key at the Halifax Humane Society in Daytona Beach since Dec. 27, 2011, when he pit a Jack Russell that was leashed broke free from its owner and attacked him. But Snoopy was taken into custody because he was declared a dangerous dog five years ago after biting another dog in his neighborhood. He could have faced being put down and that caused quite a stir in cyberspace.

Scene of deadly crash is shown here at left, involving a Lamborghini.

ORMOND BEACH -- A 24-year-old man was killed Feb. 12, after he lost control of a 2006 Lamborghini while driving at speeds of up to 150 mph, crossed the median and struck a steel pole in the 200 block of north US 1, resulting in the vehicle bursting into flames with him pinned inside, Ormond Beach police said.

A passenger, 40-year-old Vanessa Bain, escaped with minor injuries in the 3:44 a.m. accident. Police did not indicate if she or the young man or someone else was the owner of the high-priced sports car. The tragedy comes in at No. 84 in Headline Surfer's countdown of the top 100 local stories of 2012.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- With a mere 6 percent of the 66,166 registered voters taking part in the electoral process, Tuesday's primary turnout for the dist. 2 school board seat could go down as among the lowest in modern times with only 3,390 bothering to vote.

Monte Henkenberns blew a .132 in a breathalyzer test, more than three times the legal threshold of .08 for drunken driving, when he was arrested April 15.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- When Monte Andrew Henkenberns was pulled over on an early Sunday in April in the 500 block of South Peninsula Avenue, it marked the fourth time he'd been arrested on a charge of driving under the influence.

By Michael Visconti

EDGEWATER -- I am here in Connecticut for the Christmas Holidays and I see all the people are not in the Christmas spirit: The churches are crowded and all are looking for guidance, hoping to hear words of comfort and praying over the loss of 26 lives at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.

They are praying that we can put an end to this kind of tragedy: Twenty children and six adults at an elementary school. How can this happen?

In a movie theater in Aurora, Colo. a gunman killed 12 and wounded 70. A few years ago at Virginia Tech, another gunman killed 32 and wounded 17. Back in 1999 in Columbine, two teenagers with guns killed 12 and wounded another 21.

Photos for Headline Surfer / A mail truck caught fire in Edgewater as shown here, but the carrier saved the mail inside.

EDGEWATER -- The post office motto states: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." It doesn't say anything about the mail truck catching fire.

That is exactly what occurred in the 1400 block of Willow Oak Drive in the Florida Shores subdivision when a U.S. Postal Service carrier's mail truck caught fire last March while he was making his appointed rounds. It comes in as No. 86 in Headline Surfer's countdown of the top 100 stories of 2012.

OAK HILL -- As the December calendar winds down, newly-elected Mayor Douglas Gibson sees a brighter future for the county's smallest city.

Daytona newspaper's own archives show issue was addressed in March 10, 2008 publication, despite sensational reporting earlier this month as 'news'

DAYTONA BEACH -- Even though County Chair-elect Jason Davis told a Daytona Beach News-Journal reporter in a front page story on Dec. 6, that a charge of fraud against him a decade ago had been dropped in an interview he gave the newspaper four years ago when he was running for Congress and published, it was nonetheless reported as fresh "news."

An online search of the News-Journal's print archives shows that indeed Jason Davis was telling the truth as demonstrated in a story published March 10, 2008, on the print newspaper's local section front under the headline, "Incumbent Fennel no sure thing for House seat."