Local News Now

John J. Foley, 79, of New Smyrna Beach, a former self-employed plumber, died Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2009.

Carolyn M. Radle, 84, of New Smyrna Beach, a former clerk for the state of Pennsylvania, died Monday, Dec. 14, 2009.

Albert Michael Scara Jr., 57, of New Smyrna Beach, a former port captain for Seacor Corp., died Monday, Dec. 14, 2009.

Ronald L. Thompson, 62, of New Smyrna Beach, a former underground pipe layer for the New Smyrna Beach Utilities Commission, died Monday, Dec. 14, 2009.

OAK HILL -- The recent rainfall has prompted Volusia County officials to lift the outdoor burn ban for the cities of Oak Hill, Lake Helen and Pierson, as well as areas in unincorporated Volusia County, fire officials announced.

Jennie L. Franklin, 75, of New Smyrna Beach, a retired licensed practical nurse for Ocean View Nursing Home died Saturday, Dec. 12, 2009.

Genevieve C. LaCamera, 92, of Titusville and a former New Smyrna Beach resident from 1968, until last year and a member of the Edgewater Union Church and a foster grandmother since 1992, died Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2009.

Dec. 15, 2009: Mathra S. Ratra and Mi Li, Edgewater.

NSBNEWS.net photos by Sera Frederick.

Oak Hill Acting Interim Police Chief Diane Young stands proudly in front of her squad car at the police station prior to Saturday's Christmas parade. Then she radios the officers on duty to see that her officers are in place to deal with traffic issues associated with the parade. For two days straight prior to Saturday's parade, Young was inundated by the Central Florida media about her admission on her job application six years ago as a rookie cop that she had used cocaine 100 times two decades ago.

OAK HILL --

For two days straight, TV news camera crews and a couple of metro newspaper reporters followed Acting Interim Police Chief Diane Young after an Orlando media outlet received a tip last Thursday that she had admitted on her job application six years ago as a rookie cop that she used cocaine 100 times more than 20 years ago.

The U.S. Post Office and I are parting ways as much as possible (sometimes one must mail things, but I’ll use UPS or E-cards as much as possible). They drive me nuts! They keep upping their postage while their services stink and shrink daily. They blame their problems on everyone but themselves and I’m sick of it.

They had competition for online postal services so they made themselves a website, too, but you can only send via the most expensive ways from there otherwise you have to schlep your packages to their brick and mortar store to mail it at a more reasonable price.

I would modestly propose that the days of American security have had it. No longer can we depend on George Bush and Company for the only hope their administration promised: to secure our country, our lives and our fortunes. The Obama regime will have to struggle with that accumulated Republican mess, one so prodigious that the Good Lord Himself might declare, "The hell with it!"

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- No wonder Brandon Mechtel is New Smyrna Beach's "police officer of the year." He fixed the lights on the partially darkened Christmas tree on Canal Street Sunday night.

NSBNEWS.net video by Sera Frederick. We hope you enjoy our video presentation of this afternoon's Oak Hill Christmas Parade.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Several hundred residents either sat on lawn chairs, the lawns themselves or in parked automobiles for the annual Oak Hill Parade that passed through the heart of the quaint city near the post office.