Top 100 Stories

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A precautionary boil water notice has been issued for the next day or two for 225 customers after a pre-dawn 6-inch water break on Wayne Avenue at the intersection of Fairway Drive. Shortly after 1 p.m. water was restored, said Ellen Fisher, spokeswoman for the Utilities Commission of New Smyrna Beach.

DAYTONA BEACH -- In the race for seat 2 on the Volusia County Council, former Ponce Inlet Mayor Nancy Epps' fundraising shows she's the David to incumbent Josh Wagner's Goliath. In a field of three, she only has to score one of the top two spots in the primary to force a November showdown.

That is, unless any of three wins the primary outright with 50 percent plus one. And with an incumbent, that's asking for a lot, including for the current office holder.

Epps likes her chances to force a November showdown just like she did four years ago. 

TALLAHASSEE – Air Products, based in Allentown, Pa., plans to expand its liquefied natural gas heat exchanger manufacturing capacity by constructing a second manufacturing facility – 300,000 square feet – at a new site in Manatee County that will bring 250 jobs to the Sunshine State, Gov. Rick Scott announced this morning.

ORMOND BEACH -- America’s collective heart has been broken again. A lunatic with a gun, and in this case several weapons, killed innocent people for no apparent reason. Three men died for their heroic acts in saving their girlfriends at the theater in Aurora, Colo., where “The Dark Knight Rises” was showing.

EDGEWATER -- To say I was stunned when I heard about the tragedy in Colorado is an understatement. You would think that after all that has happened in recent years these things would not shock us so when they happen.

EDGEWATER -- The massacre in Aurora, Colo., with the gunman who killed 12 and wounded dozens of others during the midnight showing of a new Batman movie is tragic and senseless. But it's the person with a cold heart -- not the gun -- that pulls the trigger.

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.