Top 100 Stories

New Smyrna Speedway is a lot closer to where Ed Bennett was reared compared to the world famous Daytona International Speedway, home to the Great American Race, the Daytona 500. Despite the aded weight of the big responsibilities he has to carry on his shoulders as a rising star in NASCAR's corporate offices in Daytona, Bennett has his priorities straight with his emerging family, as shown in the inset. As a side note, his wife, Mindy France Bennett, was 'Miss NSB HS 1997.'  

DAYTONA BEACH -- NASCAR executive Ed Bennett has a saying from Mark Twain that he tries to live his life by: Give every day the chance to become the most beautiful day of the your life.

A DeLeon Springs man was shot and kiled by a deputy after refusing to put down a rifle while a warrant was being served at his residence as shown in the ocator map.

DELEON SPRINGS -- A Volusia County Sheriff's deputy who was part of a team serving a search warrant early this morning, shot and killed a man on June 29, who armed himself with a rifle and refused orders to put down the weapon.

The shooting occurred at 5:44 a.m., inside a home on State Road 11 in DeLeon Springs. It comes in at No. 71 in Headline Surfer's countdown of the top 100 local stories of 2012.

Daytona and Port Orange chambers co-hosts

Benjie Molina, shown here from his time with the Texas Rangers, is the oldest of the trio of Molina brothers, a trio of catchers.  The brothers are principals in Molina Impact Training.

PORT ORANGE -- The Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Port Orange Chamber will co-host a 2 p.m. Friday ribbon cutting for Molina Impact Training.

This new business, a direct result of the Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce Brawl at the Beach Softball Tournament, has hired three employees to run an 8,000 square foot training facility. Initially for baseball, the facility will also offer individualized instruction, and eventually softball and other sports. At the very least, Former San Francisco Giant and Texas Ranger Bengie Molina will be present for autographs and interviews.

Gerry Burkatovsky, shown in the larger photo, is charged with murder in the 2011 throat-slash slayings of Michael Shaffer and Danny Edwards, whose bodies were dumped in Edgewater, according to law enforcement.

EDGEWATER -- Police Chief Dave Arcieri remembers the bodies like it was yesterday -- two stabbed men with slashed throats found in a remote area of the edge of the city near Interstate 95. It was obvious they were killed elsewhere and discarded here.

Buzzards flying overhead drew the attention of passersby on Opossum Road and the grisly find, which led to Edgewater police response. That was Aug. 22, 2011. Gennadiy "Gerry" Burkatovsky, 36, was being held without bail on Jan. 18, one day after an Orange County grand jury handed up two indictments charging him with tow counts of first-degree murder in the slayings of 46-year-old Michael Shaffer and Danny Edwards, 49.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Six-year-old Nakya Jones is wise enough to know the real Santa Claus rides a sleigh when he comes to town. The so-called Santa she saw Saturday came to town in a train.

DEBARY -- How many of us thought, great we did not go over the fiscal cliff, yeah, yippee. Then you got your first paycheck of year and then thought well I am over the fiscal cliff even though the government is not.

ORMOND BEACH -- Remember how Albert Einstein sitting at his desk as an assistant patent clerk in Bern Switzerland dreamed up the Theory of Relativity just through daydreaming thought experiments back in 1905?. Well I've been thinking about the debt and deficits run by the Congress and a variety of administrations along the same lines.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- Those who walked by a vendor tent for helmet art work at the Cabbage Patch in Samsula during Bike Week wondered if the life-like figure in body paint was the real thing.

Freddie Lee Giddens Jr. of Palm Coast was sentenced in July to 30 years in prison for a brutal prescription drug robbery of an Ormond Beach pharmacy the previous September. The minimum-mandatory of 25 years handed down will 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 pharmacy tech in Ormond Beach for painkillers and other prescription drugs was sentenced to 30 years in prison, but the sentence includes a minimum day-to-day 25 years of incarceration.

Circuit Judge Frank Marriott adjudicated Freddie Lee GiddensJr., on charges of robbery with a firearm, kidnapping, trafficking drugs and possession of a firearm by a felony and imposed a $500,000 fine. Marriott called the robbery "senseless and brutal."

The tough sentence comes in at No. 73 in Headline Surfer's countdown of the top 100 stories of 2012.