Local News Now

DAYTONA BEACH -- Due to periods of heavy rain expected throughout the remainder of the week, the city is offering sandbags at its Public Works facility, 950 Bellevue Avenue in Daytona Beach, the city's public information officer said.

"Materials are available now until further notice," Daytona Beach PIO Susan Cerbone told Headline Surfer® this afternoon. "City crews are currently on hand to assist residents throughout the day."

'All that needs to be done is for the House to take up the Senate bill out of Messages, vote on it and send it to the Governor!'

By MARIO VALLE

TALLAHASSEE -- The State of Florida through chapter 760 of the Florida Statutes provides vital protection against discrimination for individuals on the basis of several categories, including sex, color, and religion.

One category of individuals noticeably missing from such beneficial protection is pregnant women. Federal law has afforded them protection since 1978.

Over the last decade, there have been multiple attempts to amend Florida law to include pregnant women as a protected class; however to date, including this current legislative session, all such attempts have failed. The main issue preventing the amending of the statute is the apparent ambiguity within Florida's Civil Rights Act.

Photo for Headline Surfer® / Ramara Garrett and James Sotolongo, of greater Daytona Beach couple who have a baby girl in addition to five older children from their previous respective relationships, may have but a few precious months together before Sotolongo is sentenced to what could be a prison sentence of at least five years, and possibly twice that and maybe more  later this summer in the wake of his guilty verdict and her acquittal in US District Court.  

ORLANDO -- A jury found James Fidel Sotolongo and Stephanie Musselwhite guilty on multiple counts of conspiring to defraud four lending institutions close to $13 million in seven upscale home mortgages in greater Daytona Beach, but Ramara Garrett, the former realtor, was acquitted outright in highly emotional verdicts earlier Monday on the second day of deliberations.

DAYTONA BEACH -- A site listed in the search engines as http://www.flnewsfeed.com is blatantly stealing the intellectual property of HeadlineSurfer.com, the Central Florida-based 24/7 internet newspaper, and passing it off as its own.

Headline Surfer® has sent "Florida News Feed" several tweets over the weekend and again this morning demanding that it cease and desist from lifting our copyright-protected stories, blogs and images. We have also contacted Google Legal and are awaiting a response.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Now more than ever, conservative Deltona City Commissioner Webster Barnaby sees new leadership as the key to a better Volusia County, which is why he's running for the non-partisan at-large County Council seat against the incumbent and two other politicians, all of whom are long in the tooth.

Photo for Headline Surfer® /

DAYTONA BEACH -- Gary Davidson, the chief spokesman for the Volusia County Sheriff's Office has confirmed that Sheriff Ben Johnson suffered a "minor heart attack" eight days ago and that he has since made a full recovery and returned to work the following Monday.

It was on April 18, a Saturday afternoon, that Johnson, first elected as sheriff in 2000, went to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach after experiencing chest pains, agency spokesman Gary Davidson confirmed overnight.

"During examination at the hospital, it was determined that the sheriff had suffered a mild heart attack," Davidson told Headline Surfer®. "He was admitted to the hospital overnight and was discharged (a week ago) Sunday afternoon and is doing quite well."

Daytona Beach-area's James Sotolongo, Ramara Garett & Stephanie Musselwhite maintain their innocence

Headline Surfer photo / James Sotolongo stands amid the defense team outside the US District Courthouse in Orlando where a jury began deliberating Friday as to his guilt or innocence in a mortgage fraud conspiracy trial. Sotolongo, his live-in girlfriend, Ramara Garrett, mother of their 1-year-old baby; and a third defendant,  Stephanie Musselwhite, have all pleaded innocent to charges. The jury will continue its deliberations on Monday.

 ORLANDO -- What is most amazing in the case against James Fidel Sotolongo, Ramara Garrett and Stephanie Musselwhite is that it has has gotten this far.

Tanya Wilson given nod for Orange County bench by Gov. Rick Scott

Photo for Headline Surfer® / U.S. prosecutor Tanya Wilson is moving from the US District Court in Orlando to the Orange County courthouse downtown where she will leave her post as a federal government prosecutor to a county judgeship.

ORLANDO -- Gov. Rick Scott has appointed Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanya Davis Wilson to an Orange County judgeship.

Wilson, 45, is the lead prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney's Office in the trial against James Sotolongo, Ramara Garrett and Stephanie Musselwhite, all accused of conspiring to defraud four banks of nearly $13 million in mortgages involving seven upscale residences in the Daytona Beach area. The case went to the jury today.

Outside attorney: Government's case relies on 'finks and vermin'

Inset photo by Headline Surfer® / Will the jurors in the Volusia County mortgage fraud case believe government witnesses Sidney Coton and Christopher Mencis, who have already pleaded guilty and subsequently testified in exchange for lighter sentences or will they believe defendant James Sotolongo, shown at left in the display photo with his attorney, who didn't take the stand in his own defense? The jurors begin deliberating on Friday morning.

ORLANDO -- Federal prosecutor Tanya Wilson apologized to the jury of 12 on Thursday in closing arguments for the cast of unsavory characters she had to rely on to make her case of mortgage fraud against the three individuals from the Daytona Beach-area on trial in the courtroom.