Local News Now

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Do you like skeletons? Want to be an archaeologist? Or do you just like to dig in the dirt? Then you need to do a dig with Dr. Bones!

The New Smyrna Beach Regional Library, 1001 S. Dixie Freeway, is offering a unique educational opportunity from 10 a.m. - noon Saturday, May 2. Participants will uncover bones and assemble them to create a large animal skeleton.

The hands-on experience teaches children how bones fit together, stimulates reasoning and logic skills, and promotes interest in science, says Pat Kuehn, spokeswoman for Volusia County.

Lanshark surfing festival totally rad

Grade: A-plus

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Karen Clancy and dozens of other volunteers should be commended for their hard work in making the inaugural Landshark surfing festival such a success over the past five days.

Traffic heading east to the beach was well past the South Causeway Bridge on Saturday, a testament to the draw of the surfing contest that doled out $20,000 in cash prizes.

Albert Miller, 62, of Edgewater, a retired sprinkler fitter for Landmark Sprinklers, Lexington, Ky., died Thursday, April 2, 2009.

Leonard J. "Pep" keyes, 64, of Edgewater and former owner of Spencer Asphalt Paving, died Monday, March 30, 2009.

Catherine Anne Laycock, 76, of New Smyrna Beach, formerly of Port Orange and time keeper for the U.S. Rail Road industry, died Saturday, March 21, 2009.

Mary Kelly Dubuque, 94, of New Smyrna Beach, a retired accountant, died Thursday, April 2, 2009.

Stanley Potokar, 91, of New Smyrna Beach, a former real estate broker and owner of CBS Realty, Miami, died Thursday, April 2, 2009.

Elsa N. Simpson, 91, of New Smyrna Beach, a homemaker, died Monday, March 30, 2009.

April 2, 2009: Paul D. Sammons, Edgewater, and Louann M. Ellis, Oak Hill.

April 1, 2009: Mitchell A. Sanford, Oak Hill, and Brittney K. Minor, New Smyrna Beach.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A woman was robbed at gunpoint Tuesday morning after ordering her into her car in the parking lot at Walmart on State Road 44 and having an accomplice follow them to the 1900 block ofJungle Road where she was robbed of personal belongings, including her cell phone, New Smyrna Beach police said.

The robber and his accomplice then took off in the second car about 10:30 a.m., described as red and four-door, with a tag bearing 58239AM and an unknown state. That car headed west on S.R. 44 and the victim was not hurt, said police Sgt. Eugene Griffith.

Courtesy photo. Volusia Sheriff's deputies have a warrant for the arrest of this man, Robert Bittle, accused of robbing and beating a 16-year-old boy near New Smyrna Beach.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Volusia County Sheriff's investigators are seeking the public's help in locating a 20-year-old man charged with luring a teenager into the woods near New Smyrna Beach on Saturday and then beating and robbing the victim.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Volusia County spokeswoman Shelley Szafraniec asks: "Are you curious about Volusia County’s estuaries, oysters, mangroves,
and common problems associated with invasive plants?"

Then she encourages you to make plans to attend a Chicken Island restoration workshop from 10 a.m. - noon Saturday, April 4, at the Marine Discovery Center, 162 N. Causeway.

The workshop, formatted as a demonstration, will feature activities such as oyster-mat making, a tour of the greenhouse, and information on the roles of oysters and red mangroves in the estuary.

I saw a headline the other day that got me thinking. It said something to the effect that President Obama is going to make sure there are more higher paying jobs available in this country.

Do we need more higher paying jobs? Haven’t the higher-paying job people put us in this mess? If we think back to after World War II and the guys came home, suddenly we needed more houses, more infrastructure, more hospitals for the birthing of the Baby Boomers and on and on.

Attention parents: There is an opportunity of lifetime for your children to fish a youth tournament fashioned after a real fishing tournament on May 16. Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) Florida's Mid Coast Chapter, which encompasses Volusia, Flagler, St. John's and Seminole counties and south to Titusville in Brevard County will hold its inaugural Youth Inshore Classic Fishing Tournament on that date.

This will be a full scale adult style tournament, but is for anglers 17-years-old and younger. It is a "Catch, Photo, and Release" targeting only Redfish, Trout and Jack Crevalle.