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NSBNews.Net provides Volusia County with 24 / 7 Internet newspaper coverage for a 21st-century world. This website can also be accessed through VolusiaNews.Net

DAYTONA BEACH SHORES -- The Senior Center is offering a trip to the Plant City Strawberry Fest. It will be held on March 3, a Thursday, from 8:30 am to 6:30 pm.

The cost is $31 and includes round trip transportation, admission and driver gratuity. Lunch is on your own at the festival. The trip is open to all ages. For more information, please call 386-763-5398.

Check out festival details at http://www.flstrawberryfestival.com/

NSBNews.Net provides Volusia County with 24 / 7 Internet newspaper coverage for a 21st-century world. This website can also be accessed through VolusiaNews.Net

Courtesy photo / Free Friday night movie in Dickinson Park.

movie night Friday ORANGE CITY -- Here's a Valentine’s Day free movie event. The City of Orange City will feature the movie “Valentine’s Day” at Dickinson Park 6:30 tonight.

There will be free popcorn and chocolates provided to all movie-goers. Bring blankets and chairs and enjoy this PG 13 movie. For more information, please call 386-775-5410.

NSBNews.Net provides Volusia County with 24 / 7 Internet newspaper coverage for a 21st-century world. This website can also be accessed through VolusiaNews.Net

Courtesy photo / Saturday night's Bud Shootout goes Hollywood with Actress Amber Heard serving as grand marshal.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Hollywood actress Amber Heard will serve as the grand marshal for the 33rd annual Budweiser Shootout on Saturday night -- the star-studded non-points NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event that kicks off the stock car portion of Speedweeks 2011 at Daytona International Speedway.

NSBNews.Net provides Volusia County with 24 / 7 Internet newspaper coverage for a 21st-century world. This website can also be accessed through VolusiaNews.Net

Photo and story submitted by contributing writer Dale Smith / City Finance Director Althea Philord informs city commissioners on half-million-plus deficit and a three-year run of revenue shortfalls with the tax rate unchanged unless further cuts in spending are made.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH – City commissioners are staring at a $541,000 deficit for Fiscal Year 2011-2012 and are reviewing budget projections to whittle away at that figure.

NSBNews.Net provides Volusia County with 24 / 7 Internet newspaper coverage for a 21st-century world. This website can also be accessed through VolusiaNews.Net

Photos and story submitted by contributing writer Dale Smith / Dr. Arlen Stauffer was chosen Tuesday night as New Smyrna Beach's nominee for countywide citizen of the year award. City Commissioner Jim Hathaway, shown in the smaller photo, ran the meeting in place of the mayor who was at a conference.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH - Dr. Arlen Stauffer, a physician and chairman of the NSB Balloon Fest, was chosen at tonight's City Commission meeting as New Smyrna Beach's nominee the Volusia Leaque of Cities' citizen of the year award.

NSBNews.Net provides Volusia County with 24 / 7 Internet newspaper coverage for a 21st-century world. This website can also be accessed through VolusiaNews.Net

Courtesy photo by Dorothy Kirby / This photo as taken from inside motorist Dorothy Kirby's car of an overturned trailer on I-95 in New Smyrna Beach on Monday morning.

NEW SMYRNA -- A trailer towed by a pick-up truck overturned early Monday on Interstate 95, briefly blocking the southbound lanes and causing traffic to snarl for more than two miles, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

I try not to be a difficult person and sometimes I succeed. A lot of times I don’t. Getting older does have one advantage: You can speak your mind more often without worrying what the consequences are going to be. Maybe angering your boss, your wife’s family, that kind of thing. There have been dealings in Volusia County in the business and arts communities over the years that I have just shut my mouth about and kept my opinions to myself because as a businessman, I did not want to piss anyone off.

NSBNews.Net provides Volusia County with 24 / 7 Internet newspaper coverage for a 21st-century world. This website can also be accessed through VolusiaNews.Net

Photo and story submitted by Dale Smith / Shawn Lane, president of Cudas Unhooked, right, receives a symbolic check for $3,000 from members of the Bouchelle Island Social Committee, from left, Sue Willard, Barbara Dees and Vicky Lillyforth.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Residents of Bouchelle Island have adopted Cudas Unhooked, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping at-risk students at New Smyrna Beach High School.

NSBNews.Net provides Volusia County with 24 / 7 Internet newspaper coverage for a 21st-century world. This website can also be accessed through VolusiaNews.Net

SOUTH DAYTONA -- The South Daytona Police Department has been awarded re-accredited status by the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation -- the third such time since 2002.

The South Daytona Police Department was initially accredited on February 6, 2002. Its first re-accredidation was in 2005, with this being the third one. Many of the 276 standards that were reviewed by the team of assessors were critical to life, health and safety issues.

Undergoing the voluntary state accreditation process provides an agency with a “quality assurance review” and encourages intense self-scrutiny, resulting in more efficient and effective daily operations.

NSBNews.Net provides Volusia County with 24 / 7 Internet newspaper coverage for a 21st-century world. This website can also be accessed through VolusiaNews.Net

Courtesy photo / The late Les Richter, a NASCAR executive, was among six football players and an NFL films pioneer named Saturday to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

  DAYTONA BEACH -- Football fans gearing up for today's Super Bowl between the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers likely have heard of newly inducted Pro Football hall of famers Deion "Prime Time" Sanders, Marshall Fault and Shannon Sharpe. Diehard football fans likely have heard of Chicago Bears defensive end Richard Dent.