Local News Now

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A nasty storm raced through Volusia County during the evening commute, but there were no major outages or traffic accidents reported in greater New Smyrna Beach, police said.

"We got pretty lucky," said acting Sgt Mike Mathyas of the storm that passed through with a heavy downpour and several huge lighting strikes that slowed traffic, especially on Dixie Freeway.

The north and south stretches of the main north-south artery made for dicey driving, Mathyas said, as well as Saxon on the beachside, but after the 20-minute downpour, the water receded pretty quickly.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A 9-foot, 400-pound dolphin landed in a boat and literally on top of an Ohio couple earlier today in the Intracoastal waterway near the North Causeway, before they were able to push it back into the water.

OAK HILL, Fla.  -- Police are looking for a 19-year-old Edgewater man wanted in connection with the armed robbery of a pizza delivery person in Oak Hill.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Like people, pumpkins come in all shapes and sizes.

Some are big. Some are small. Some are round. Others are not so round. But they all bring joy to those who receive them as presents from loved ones and friends.

These are not just from any old pumpkin match. They're from God's pumpkin patch.

The First United Methodist Church of New Smyrna Beach is selling hundreds of them at its makeshift pumpkin patch in front of the Home Depot on State Road 44.

A big Atta Girl goes out to Volusia School Superintendent Margaret Smith for her voluntarily taking a 2 percent pay cut to help balance the board’s budget.

She said she wouldn’t ask the others to take a pay cut if she didn’t take one, too.

School board chairwoman Judy Conte is quoted as saying that her doing this “is sending the wrong message.“

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- More than a hundred people agreed a world-class hotel for this tourist-oriented seaside community would boost the local economy by millions, but there was sharp division whether quaint Flagler Avenue with its charming boutiques would be ruined by a towering structure with as many as 150 rooms.

Mayor Sally Mackay was able to gain a majority vote on the City Commission for approval of a hospitality land-use development that could be built as an "overlay" in a commercial district such as U.S. 1, State Road 44, East or West Canal or the causeway corridors. And yes, even historic Flagler Avenue.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH --

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The surfer who holds the distinction of being the 23rd record shark-bite victim, even though he only received a slight cut and jumped right back into the waves after being bit on his heel just before noon Sunday, has been identified as 44-year-old David Logan of Jupiter, the Volusia County Beach Patrol confirmed.

Even though it was ''the weakest'' shark bite he'd ever seen, Beach Patrol Capt. spokesman Scott Petersohn said nevertheless it still counts, breaking the record 22 bite victims recorded in 2001, then dubbed "the year of the shark."

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Howrah! Howrah! Ron Sachs came marching home and got a hero's welcome today after 10 months in harm's way in Afghanistan with the 101st Airborne. Sachs was met at Daytona Beach International Airport just after 1:30 p.m. by his wife, Melinda, their two children and dozens of family members and friends, along with a police motors escort back to his home on the beachside. Sachs, 40, is a New Smyrna Beach cop.