Daytona Beach

Headline Surfer® videos and photos / Rockin' in the New Year's Eve party Daytona Beach-style is shown from Main Street as 2012 gave way to the current year. The alcohol-fueled CRA-sponsored party on Main Street returns tonight with 20,000 strong expected to usher in 2014 with the usual array of trashiness, drunkenness and naughtiness.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Paul Politis, one of Daytona Beach's more prominent and longstanding small business owners with his Gator Beach and Sports across from the Ocean Walk Shoppes on A1A knows all too well that tonight's New Year's Eve block party on Main Street appeals to the lowest common denominator -- thousands of revelers drinking until they puke with little kids in tow and some even getting behind the wheel drunk -- the ultimate honk-tonk family outing.

Maximum of 4,500 tickets printed

DAYTONA BEACH -- Your odds of being struck by lightning in a given year is one in 750,000. The odds of winning Powerball are one in 175,223,510. So the odds are definitely more in your favor in if you purchase a $50 ticket for a drawing in mid-March for a custom-built 2013 Harley Davidson Street Glide valued at $35,000, in the Daytona Chamber of Commerce's drawing of the "Official Bike Week Motorcycle." Oh, and as for the odds of winning the flashy Harley, it's one in 4,500.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Though neither is from Daytona Beach, that didn't stop Mayor Derrick Henry from capitalizing on the PR that comes with welcoming new-found celebrities Alex and Sierra of the X-Factor reality show with keys to the city during a performance Thursday night at the bandshell on the "world's most famous beach."

Duplication of investigations by State Attorney, FBI

Headline Surfer® / The appointment of Jon Kaney as investigator of Waverly bus bench probe for the County Council is something term-limited Council member Pat Northey is looking forward to in hopes of weakening at-large incumbent Joyce Cusack, whose seat she covets in the 20134 elections.

DAYTONA BEACH -- The ugliness of Volusia County politics continues to fester in the Frank T. Bruno chambers in DeLand with today's expected coronation of attorney Jonathan Kaney Jr. as the hired gun to investigate the Waverly bus bench advertising scandal, something already well under way with ongoing investigations by the State Attorney's Office and the FBI. 

Ronald J. Bynum: May 7, 1959 - Dec. 2, 2013

Headline Surfer photo / Ron Bynum, an activist and watchdog of local and county government, died Monday, Dec. 2, 2013, at the age of 54. Among his pursuits was legally challenging funding for the News-Journal Center, a project that became a debacle that resulted in the newspaper being sold in  federal-court supervised sale and more than half its 800 employees losing their jobs. 

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DAYTONA BEACH -- While the country was mourning another movie star, Volusia County lost a true local hero, Ron Bynum of Daytona Beach.

Photo for Headline Surfer® / Erik Estrada is shown in this snapshot a new family-friendly movie 'Finding Faith.'

DAYTONA BEACH -- Ponch from CHiPS is coming to the Greater Friendship Baptist Church, but he's leaving his motorcycle and uniform home as he tackles a new role in the family-friendly film "Finding Faith" which will be shown Dec. 9, after which, he''ll make an appearance.

Estrada, the hunky Latino, who's acting is well chronicled from the popular TV series, also is the national celebrity spokesman for the Safe Surfin' Foundation the creators of the film Finding Faith, a full-length narrative motion picture that tells the true story of how a family found 'Faith' in their battle to find and rescue their 14-year old daughter 'Faith' who accidentally falls victim to an online predator.

Photo for Headline Surfer® / Scott Mandis, 33, has not returned to an assisted living facility and is in need of medicine and may be somewhere in the Daytona area. 

DAYTONA BEACH -- The Volusia County Sheriff's Office is seeking the public's help in locating a man with a diminished mental capacity who has been missing for a week and requires medication.

Scott Mandis, 33, was arrested Nov. 18 in DeLand on a trespassing charge and was released from the Volusia County Branch Jail in Daytona Beach the next day, but has been missing since.

Photos for Headline Surfer® / Large and small planes use Daytona Beach Internatuonal Airport, which has seen passenger service increase by 1 percent in thr past year.

During October, 50,930 incoming and outgoing passengers traveled through the county-operated airport. This compares with 46,704 passengers in October 2012.

And for for the past 12 months, 602,146 travelers have flown in and out of the airport, a 1 percent increase compared to the year.

Under umbrella of appeals in Daytona Beach

Photo for Headline Surfer® / Judge Donald E. Scaglione, shown here at left, was elevated Friday from Hernando County judge to a judgeship in the 5th judicial circuit that covers Citrus, Hernando, Lake, Marion, and Sumter counties, with main administrative offices in Tavares. The 5th circuit is part of the 5th District Court of Appeal, which sits in Daytona Beach. 

TALLAHASSEE, FL – Gov. Rick Scott today announced his appointment of Hernando County Judge Donald E. Scaglione to the 5th Judicial Circuit Court.

Scaglione, 54 of Brooksville, has been a Hernando County Judge since 2005. He fills a vacancy created by the retirement Circuit Judge Sandra Edwards-Stephens.