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Courtesy photo/Julius Bruggeman. A bobcat like this one was reportedly seen earlier this month on the beachside in New  Smyrna Beach.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Some residents like Stan Kapp say they are nervous about walking at nights because of wild bobcats; while others are concerned these felines might get into their houses, which are not very far from the cats.

ORMOND BEACH, Fla -- A couple of young men left plenty of clues for Volusia County Sheriff's deputies to follow when they burst into an 86-year-old woman's home near Ormond Beach Monday night, ransacked the place and finally left with jewelry and credit cards in hand, an agency spokesman said.

Courtesy photo/ free share from Wikipedia. Red Hat Society members are invited to a special Red Hatters Art Walk Saturday on NSB's Flagler Avenue.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A "Red Hatters" Art Walk will be held on historic Flagler Avenue 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday. Look for the red balloons that will mark the locations of businesses offering specials to Red Hatters.

Courtesy photos / Volusia Cty. Gov't / Michelle Coats. "Hot Shot" Aundre Branch of the world-famous Harlem Globetrotters visits Samsula Academy in Samula on Monday. At left, fourth-grader Donnie Padgitt with Hot Shot. At right, children see some of Hot Shot's cool basketball-handling tricks.

SAMSULA -- Fourth-grader Donnie Padgitt was among the many children at Samsula Academy on Monday to receive a fast-break visit from "Hot Shot: Aundre Branch, a member of the world-famous Harlem Globetrotters.

WASHINGTON DC -- Congresswoman Suzanne Kosmas, D-New Smyrna Beach (FL-24), announced that new, common-sense rules will go into effect today help protect credit card holders from a wide range of unfair practices.

Courtesy photo/SDPD. South Daytona Police Chief William is an advocate of online crime mappingfor safer neighborhoods.

SOUTH DAYTONA -- For decades, police tracked crime trends by sticking color-coded push pins into a map, but here in South Daytona, a newly launched on-line crime mapping system brings that practice into the digital age and the public can now access it for free.

Photos and video for NSBNEWS.net by Jeanette DiCara. At left, thick black smoke billows from the woods Sunday afternoon. Below left, an unidentified Edgewater police officer stands by on the perimeter while firefighters with a brush truck tackle the brush fire. A county helicopter, shown in the video, attacks the fire from the air. The smaller photo illustrates the thick underbrush that fueled the fire.

EDGEWATER  -- Sunday afternoon was a busy one for firefighters from Edgewater, New Smyrna Beach and Volusia County, fighting stubborn brush fires, one of which came within several hundred yards of an Edgewater subdivision, threatening at least a half dozen homes, but the fire was kept in check because of canals and a pond  between it and the homes.

Several brush trucks and pumpers were used on the ground to fight the stubborn fire, fueled by thick underbrush while a county helicopter did its work from the air to douse the flames.

Courtesy photo/NASA.  This view of the port side of space shuttle Endeavour's cargo bay was recorded after separation from the International Space Station on Feb. 19, 2010, as the STS-130 astronauts prepared for a Feb. 21 landing, after spending over a week working in tandem with the Expedition 22 crew members aboard the station. Other than the docking system hardware, the cargo bay is empty after delivering the Tranquility node and the new cupola to the orbital outpost.

Editor's Note: Information for this report was taken from NASA's shuttle blog.

CAPE CANAVERAL -- Space shuttle Endeavour landed at Kennedy Space Center at 10:20 p.m. Sunday without a hitch.

 NSBNEWS.net video by Sera Frederick. Flare Elliott of Friends of Historic Canal Street, Inc. speaks to the City Commission earlier this month about the potential for passenger rail service through Florida East Coast tracks.

Editor's Note: The following news blog was written by Flare Elliott of the Friends of Historic Canal Street, Inc. and was sent to NSBNEWS.net by Elliott:

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The Florida Department of Transportation has applied for $268 million dollars in federal stimulus (ARRA) funding to restore Amtrak passenger rail service on the existing 326 miles of FEC railway between Jacksonville and Miami by 2012.