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PORT ORANGE, Fla. -- What a way for Port Orange City Councilman Don Burnette to kick off 2014.

Burnette was still celebrating his UCF Knights' big win over the Baylor Bears in the New Year's Day Fiesta Bowl hours after the game. Then again, he was two time zones away from home, knowing he'd feel the jet lag when he returned home to Port Orange.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Though Frank T. Bruno, Jr. stepped off the dais in November 2012 after a 20-year-run as the face of Volusia government -- the final eight as the first elected county chair -- his political legacy remains in place, considering his successor and others meet twice monthly in the council chambers re-named in his honor.

SANFORD, Fla. -- A 7-year-old diabled veteran a carjackd at gunpoint in the 100 block of Country Club Circle on Thursday night, Sanford cops said.

The Sanford Police Department is currently investigating an armed carjacking that occurred on the 100 block of Country Club Circle on August 13, 2015 at approximately 8:00 p.m. The victim in this crime is a 72 year-old disabled veteran.

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PORT ORANGE, Fla. -- The body of a woman was found floating in the Halifax River early Wednesday near the Seven Seas Marina at 3300 S. Peninsula Drive, police said.

Here's a synopsis of what cops came across as described in an email to HeadlineSurfer.com from Port Orange Police Lt. Scott Brozio: "Responding officers found an unidentified female floating in the vicinity of the marina. Port Orange Detectives responded to the scene and the Volusia County Medical Examiner’s Office was contacted to remove the deceased."

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EDGEWATER, Fla. -- Volusia County Sheriff's investigators are seeking the public's help in identifying a suspect who fraudulently used a woman's credit card information to make purchases at two stores in Edgewater, an agency spokesman said.

"The suspect pictured used the victim's information (last) Thursday at Publix and Dollar General stores on Ridgewood Avenue in Edgewater," Sheriff's spokesman Andrew Gant told HeadlineSurfer.com, in supplying a still surveillance photo with information on the case.

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EUSTIS, Fla. -- Gov. Rick Scott has appointed William R. Giffing, Jr. to the Early Learning Coalition of Lake County.

Giffing, 39, of Eustis, a financial advisor with Wells Fargo Advisors, succeeds Jeanie Rowin on the Early Coalition.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- Perception is the reality former New Smyrna Beach Mayor Adam Barringer is counting on if he's to have any chance in his quest for Congress against frontrunner and GOP rival Sandy Adams.

Barringer let it be known through an intermediary in trying to woo a prominent Republican party insider from Volusia County to join his campaign that he had amassed $125,000 as a sign that he was serious and with this insider's help he could prevail.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Joie Chitwood, III, president of Daytona International Speedway, was evasive in answering questions during a press conference early Monday after the last-lap crash that sent Austin Dillon's No. 3 Chevrolet airborne and into the catch fence at the end of the Coke Zero 400, tearing a section out in the process with debris causing minor injuries to 13 fans in the grandstands before the car tumbled back onto the track upside down.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Who needed fireworks any way when thy were enough sparks and some flames to boot at the finish of the Coke Zero 400 just after Dale Earnhardt Jr., the checkered flag: A race car ripped down a section of fencing that sprayed debris into the stands injuring several fans in the process at Daytona International Speedway early this Monday morning.