Top 100 Stories

County Chair: No verbal attacks will be allowed re cars off Daytona beach, but colleague previously ripped reporter

Making the Gade political report card / Headline Surfer®
County Council's Deb Denys used her seat on the dais to rip a reporter behind his back / Headline Surfer®Internet newspsper publisher & award-winning Florida journalist Henry Frederick / Headline Surfer®Headline Surfer® photos /
Grade: F: County Councilwoman Deb Denys openly slammed the internet newspaper publisher, Henry Frederick, behind his back from her seat on the dais while she and colleague Joshua Wagner debated the merits of an ad authority appointment Frederick had repeatedly demonstrated was illegal. Denys even called him a 'bully,' an obvious cheap shot.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- County Chair Jason Davis said he will lay the smackdown on any member of the public who goes above and beyond in being antagonistic or personal with him or his elected colleagues and senior administrators Thursday during what is expected lively debate regarding three controversial anti-beach driving proposals.

Looting, setting fires not part of just cause in Baltimore demonstrations

EDGEWATER, Fla. -- Things may have finally settled down in Baltimore, but looking back at the situation, can anyone explain to me what justifies rioting, looting, setting fires to other people’s livelihood or throwing rocks at police? I believe in protest but that is not what this was.

An Ode to Holy in an Unholy World

SANFORD, Fla. -- A thought on how we as individuals and as a people can get the most out of life that really matters in the long run:

How do we as individuals make distinctions between fiction and reality? After all, it is so easy to lose ourselves in a world where almost nothing is sacred; Where life itself often seems to hold little meaning. For as long as man has existed, his actions have demonstrated his true fragility.

Sunny along beaches in Daytona & in New Smyrna, but rip current warnings issued

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Daytona Beach cam / Headline Surfer®New Smyrna Beach beach cam / Headline Surfer®Photos for Headline Surfer® /
At far left is a snapshot of the Daytona Beach beach cam at the Dunlawton Avenue Approach in Daytona Beach Shores and near right is the New Smyrna Beach beach cam at the Flagler Avenue beach ramp approach. It's easy to see the NSB locale is busier with beach goers on this Saturday afternoon.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- It's a beautiful picture-perfect Saturday along the World's Most Famous Beach In Daytona and in New Smyrna Beach with sunny skies.

But looks can be deceiving, especially in the surf.

County Council's Deb Denys cancels NSB community meeting she called for on traffic issues & strategies

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A public meeting to address New Smyrna Beach traffic issues and strategies called for by Volusia County Councilwoman Deb Denys scheduled for this morning was cancelled by Denys.

The meeting was important because Denys had said on the county dais last month that she was going to vote to take cars off the beach behind two proposed hotels on the beachside in Daytona Beach, which would likely cause more beach-goers to frequent the beach in New Smyrna instead and increase the already congested traffic.

Denys promised during the 2014 election campaign that she would not vote to take cars off the beach, but that is exactly what she intends to do at the May 7 meeting of the County Council.

County Chair: Rocket plant going to Brevard instead of Oak Hill despite vote tonight on land-use change at ex-city dump

Big question: Is Project Panther still in play or are citizens being played by their own government representatives and Daytona insiders?

Blue Origin not coming to Oak Hill / Headline Surfer®OAK HILL, Fla. -- Volusia County Chair Jason Davis said despite a second and final vote tonight by the Oak Hill City Commission on a land-use change from mixed use to manufacturing for a rocket-rebuilding plant shrouded in secrecy for weeks, tonight's expected final approval is all for naught.

That's because the project dubbed codename "Panther" that has been touted for location at the city' former dump, is headed to Brevard County's Cape Canaveral, home of NASA..

"That project is long gone," Davis reiterated to Headline Surfer this afternoon. "That ship sailed long ago to Brevard at NASA. t's a done deal." 

58. DeLand mayoral candidate Pat Johnson: Daytona Beach News-Journal portrayed him as slick used car salesman

Top 100 Local Stories of 2014 in Central Florida / Headline Surfer®
Pat Johnson, 2014 candidate for mayor of DeLand, FL / Headline Surfer®Photo for Headline Surfer® /
Pat Johnson is shown in a photo from a cruise he took several years ago. It was published repeatedly by the Daytona Beach News-Jounal in stories critical of Johnson during his failed campaign for mayor of DeLand in 2014.

DELAND, Fla. -- The way Pat Johnson saw it, the Daytona Beach News-Journal's incessant use of a black and white photo of him in casual dress was indicative of the negative image the print newspaper was creating to protect the interests of the entrenched incumbent, Bob Apgar, in the weeks leading up to the Aug. 26 primary.

59. VCSO: Ormond Beach woman tells neighbor fatal shooting of husband Easter morning inside home accidental

Top 100 Local Stories of 2014 in Central Florida / Headline Surfer®
Homicide locator in Ormond Beach, FL / Headline Surfer®Headline Surfer® graphic /
The early Easter morning shooting death of Sanford Olson at his residence at 7 Seabreeze Drive in Ormond by-the-Sea as shown in this locator map, apparently was first thought to be accidental at the hands of his wife, but that's not what happened.

ORMOND BEACH -- The Volusia County Sheriff's Office's Major Case Unit has said definitively that the early Easter Sunday morning shooing death of a 55-year-old man in Ormond-by-the-Sea was by his own hand and not accidentally by his wife as she told a neighbor.

The clarification into the death at 7 Seabreeze Drive after receiving a call at 2:52 a.m. about a shooting that had happened. When they arrived on scene, deputies discovered he had been shot to death.

60. NSB cops: Man killed, several injured when elderly woman backs car into medical building

Top 100 Local Stories of 2014 in Central Florida / Headline Surfer®
Car inside building in NSB / Headline Surfer®Janet Spurgeon, 78, transported to Bert Fish MC after crashing car into med. bldg. / Headline Surfer® Photos for Headline Surfer® / Janet Spurgeon is transported to Bert Fish Medical Center with minor injuries after backing her car into the medical building at 600 Palmetto Ave. A patient inside was killed and two others injured.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- Police remain baffled as to why a 78-year-old woman backed her Chevy Malibu 40 feet into a medical buildingthe afternoon of Feb. 5, killing one man and injuring two others.

"It's bizarre," then-police spokesman Sgt. Eugene Griffith told Headline Surfer®. "We're still trying to determine exactly what happened. Apparently, she hit the gas pedal instead of the brake, but it remains under investigation as to why."

61. Daytona Beach Shores cops: St. Augustine man killed in fiery car crash caused by excessive speed

Top 100 Local Stories of 2014 in Central Florida / Headline Surfer®
Michael Viola of St. Augustine killed in speeding wreck in Daytona Beach Shores, FL / Headline Surfer®Photo for Headline Surfer® /
Michael Viola, 48, of St. Augustine, was killed in a fiery crash after going airborne. Excessive speed was cited as the reason for the deadly crash.

DAYTONA BEACH SHORES, Fla. -- Traffic homicide investigators to this day aren't sure why a St. Augustine motorist was driving at speeds of up to 110 mph on April 25, when he crashed his Toyota hatchback leading to a fiery explosion and his death.

The driver crossed into the northbound lanes, struck a curb and became airborne -- then collided with a light pole 13 feet above ground. This led to a fiery explosion with the driver inside.