Local News Now

NSBNEWS.net video by Sera Frederick.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- Thursday's second annual Shrimp and Seafood Festival on Flagler Avenue drew several thousand people and that made Southeast Volusia Chamber of Commerce President Robert Lott a happy man.

NSBNEWS.net photo (far left) by Henry Frederick. Courtesy photo (at left). Mayoral candidate Marilee Walters (far left) and City Commissioner candidate Judy Reiker take notes during Wednesday night's City Commission meeting regarding the Angler's Yacht Club lease.

Courtesy photos. Volunteers pick up the beached wreckage of a 46-foot trimaran that broke loose from its mooring in Ponce Inlet overnight, struck the South Jetty and literally shattered into thousands of pieces, before washing ashore along a half-mile stretch of the New Smyrna Beach coastline, just noth of the Beachway ramp.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- It took the better part of the day to clean up a half-mile stretch of coastline from the Beachway approach and north of thousands of wooden pieces from a 46-foot-long boat that broke apart overnight while moored in Ponce Inlet.

The 1965 trimaran with a wooden hull came undone from the mooring and apparently drifted, apparently crashing into the boulders of the South Jetty and breaking up.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- Former school board member and child advocate Debra Denys of New Smyrna Beach is taking on another challenge: She's the first candidate out of the chute to announce she's running for next year's election for the Southeast Volusia District 3 seat on the County Council.

Courtesy photo. Deborah Denys has announced she's seeking the Southeast Volusia seat on the County Council in next year's election held by Jack Hayman, who is being term-limited out.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Former school board member and child advocate Deborah Denys of New Smyrna Beach is taking on another challenge: She's the first candidate out of the chute to announce she's running for next year's election for the Southeast Volusia District 3 seat on the County Council.

NSBNEWS.net video by Sera Frederick. Bouchelle Island Bill Koleszar, who has led a grassroots campaign against New Smyrna Beach's decade's-old lease with the Angler's Club for exclusive use of prime riverfront property on the North Causeway, reiterated his position earlier this month in advance of tonight's big meeting.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- It could be standing-room-only for tonight's presentation by the outside attorney for the city who has already advised that the city's longstanding and controversial lease with the Angler's Club for prime riverfront property on the North Causeway is invalid.

Courtesy mug/Volusia County Sheriff's Office. Renee Baker, 30, an Oak Hill dog breeder, has been arrested on animal health fraud charges.

 OAK HILL -- It started simply enough, with the theft of 13 animal tags from a veterinary clinic near DeLand. But after authorities spent about a month untangling the case, an Oak Hill dog breeder has been arrested on felony charges of animal health fraud.

The charges were filed after a joint investigation by the Volusia County Sheriff's Office and Volusia County Animal Control revealed that the accused was selling dogs with stolen tags and forged vaccination certificates, said Gary Davidson, spokesman for the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Congresswoman Suzanne Kosmas, D-New Smyrna Beach (FL-24), will hold a telephone town hall Wednesday night to discuss health insurance reform.

The tele-town hall, from 6:20 p.m. to 7:20 p.m., will allow constituents who are interested in health insurance reform issues to ask questions of Kosmas and learn more about current reform proposals in Congress.

Courtesy mug/Volusia Branch Jail. Patrick Holley, 41, of New Smyrna Beach, was arrested Friday on charges he embezzled $640,000 from guests at a Daytona Beach Shores hotel where he worked until he was fired in October.

DAYTONA BEACH SHORES -- A New Smyrna Beach resident was arrested Friday on two felony theft charges involving $640,000 stolen from the Days Inn Tropical Seas on South Atlantic Avenue while he was general manager there until his firing in October, police said.

When arrested at his family's Samsula residence Friday morning, Patrick Holley, 41, told investigators he had less than $100 to his name, Daytona Beach Shores police said later in the day, according to Daytona Beach Shores police.