Local News Now

Headline Surfer photo / Lynne Plaskett's storied political life, including her tale of being cured of cancer by aliens, earns her the 500th spot on Headline Surfer's countdown of the 'Top 500 Newsmakers of Central Florida' (greater Daytona Beach-Orlando) as part of the 24/7 internet newspaper's 5th anniversary celebration.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Lynne Plaskett opted to retire rather than seek another term on the New Smyrna Beach City Commission, but her final motion and vote has certainly sparked controversy. Then again, controversy is nothing new to this politician who, in the mid-1990s claimed she was cured of lymphoma by an alien spaceship the size of a dinner plate that levitated and scanned her body.

Photo for Headline Surfer / Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, shown here, still gets three times the pay raise of the rank-and-file employess at City Hall with his amended raise.

ORLANDO -- The intense media scrutiny and public outcry over the 21 percent salary increases for himself and his elected colleagues on the City Council was too much for even Mayor Buddy Dyer to endure.

And so one week after voting himself and the others the mega raises, Dyer did an about face Monday and counter-offered a more palatable 6 percent increase.

Instead of seeing his $160,892 salary go to $195,500, it would climb to $170,545.

Still, the 6 percent hike is three times what other municipals workers are slated to receive in the new fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

Sticking to his guns philosophically, the mayor said the initial raise request was justified based on the marketplace, but acquiesced, saying in part: "Upon reflection, while the economy is still recovering, I think the percentage of the increase probably sends the wrong message to the public." 

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Get with the program, people. Recycle. Reuse. Refresh. Stop filling up our landfills. That's the message of a video made by a little boy in New Smyrna Beach. His name is Nicholas Catheline. He is 6 years old and stars in a Facebook video on the importance of recycling.

Parent company buys more papers including Daily Commercial in Leesburg

Headline Surfer photo / A dozen staffers have left the Daytona Beach News-Journal since the beginning of the year under the editorship of Pat Rice, as shown here, but that hasn't stopped parent company, Halifax Media Group, from acquiring more newspapers including the Daily Commercial in Leesburg.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Apparently Daytona Beach News-Journal staffers leave faster than the newspaper's editor pays his speeding tickets. Six have left in the past several weeks.

It actually took News-Journal Editor Pat Rice 101 days to pay a speeding fine issued by Ormond Beach cops.

Perp's computer downloads showed 100,000 images & videos

Photo for Headline Surfer / At left is the jail mug for Alexander Lee, who the long arm of the law caught up with after he downloaded images of child porn using a 'peer-to-peer' sharing program. Now he'll he sharing space in a federal jail cell.

ORLANDO -- Senior U.S. District Judge John Antoon has sentenced a 31-year-old Kissimmee man to five years in federal prison for receipt of child pornography, that included more than 100,000 still images and videos. Lee also was ordered to register as a sex offender and to serve a 10-year term of supervision, upon his release from prison.

The sentencing hearing Thursday was a follow-up to Alexander Lee's June 26, 2012, guilty plea before Antoon. According to the evidence presented at the sentencing hearing, Lee used a "peer-to-peer program" to download child pornography.

ORLANDO -- As part of its 5th anniversary and recent move from New Smyrna Beach to Lake Mary, Headline Surfer is going to do what some naysayers would dismiss as unrealistic -- maybe even ridiculous, which is all the more reason why the 24/7 internet newspaper with one shoe-leather journalist is going to do it: Headline Surfer is going to count down the Top 500 Newsmakers in Central Florida until No. 1 is crowned, literally.

DELAND, Fla. -- The Tallahassee lawyer representing the legal interests of Trayvon Martin's parents in the George Zimmerman murder case that resulted in the Sanford gunman's acquittal, is now representing relatives of a black neighborhood barber they feel was deliberately run over and killed by a white DeLand cop who has since been fired.

Photos for Headline Surfer / Conservative Republican Jim Oddie of Wilbur-by-the-Sea, poses with Wisconsin Congressman and Romney VP Paul Ryan.

THE VILLAGES -- Volusia County conservative Republican stalwart Jim Oddie let Paul Ryan know during his campaign stop in The Villages in August 2012 that Floridians support the R & R ticket.

That's Romney and Ryan, of course.

The Wilbur-by-the-Sea resident not only interacted with Ryan Saturday, but with Mitt Romney himself, along with Gov. Scott, on Monday in St. Augustine.

Oddie's interaction with the GOP big wigs comes in at No. 484 in Headline Surfer's Top 500 countdown of the biggest stories in Volusia County as part of Headline Surfer's 5th anniversary.