Local News Now

BREAKING NEWS: Sanford cops arrest man on gun-related homicide charges after early morning argument over a cigar turns deadly

City
Newspaper Section

SANFORD, Fla. -- Sanford Police investigators said they have arrested Joseph A. Irwin for the gunshot-homicide of James Gilson, after an argument over a cigar turned deadly several hours before sunrise today.

NSB book club to meet July 25 to review ‘House of Sand and Fog’

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- Members of the NSB Select/Reflect Book Club will meet at 10 a.m. Tuesday, July 25, at the New Smyrna Beach Regional Library to watch the movie “House of Sand and Fog” and then discuss the novel of the samename by Andre Dubus III.

Retired Judge Hubert Grimes new acting president of financially-troubled Bethune-Cookman University

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Retired Circuit Judge Hubert Grimes has been named the acting president of historically-African-American Bethune-Cookman Universiy, whose president has resigned amid controversy over millions in finances.

Sinkhole in Tampa swallows two homes & a boat

Newspaper Section

YouTube download / AP video / A sinkhole that started out the size of a small swimming pool and continued to grow in Florida swallowed a boat, destroyed two homes and prompted officials to evacuate residents from nine other homes on Friday. (July 14)

TAMPA, Fla. --  A sinkhole that officials said earlier on this Friday started out the size of a small swimming pool soon mushroomed, swallowing  one home and a boat and then about 80 percent of another home, said Kevin Guthrie, Pasco County's assistant county administrator for public safety.

By mid-afternoon, the hole stretched up to 250 feet (76 meters) wide and 50 feet (15 meters) deep, and threatened to damage a third home, Guthrie said.

BREAKING NEWS: Ghyabi + Associates of Ormond Beach merges with Chicago-based engineering giant Benesch

City

ORMOND BEACH, Fla. -- Maryam Ghyabi may be a big fish in a small pond in Central Florida with her Ormond Beach-based transportation planning and engineering firm, where she clearly has been the standard bearer over the years on major projects, but her company has merged with one of the country's engineering giants headquartered in Chicago -- Alfred Benesch & Company.

Colleagues 'shocked and saddened' by Fourth of July cancer-related death of Daytona-based Circuit Judge Kellie J. Miles at age 51

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The 7th judicial circuit community is "shocked and saddened" by the Fourth of July cancer-stricken death of Circuit Judge Kellie J. Miles, who was 51 years old.