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The Sunday Conversation -- No raises for Longwood cops for 5-plus years

The Sunday Conversation / Headline Surfer

Teamsters business agent Bob Walker talks with Longwood cops about their lack of raises exceeding 5 years / Headline Surfer®
COMING TODAY: Headline Surfer video / The 24/7 internet newspaper is on location in Longwood, a suburb of Orlando here in Central Florida, where the police department's cops have gone without raises for half a decade.  At left is Teamsters' Bob Walker,  his assistant Gary Conroy, Jr.,  & a Longwood officer.

LONGWOOD, Fla. -- The 42 cops of the Longwood police force have gone without a pay raise for five-plus years and the head of the local Teamsters Union says that's not acceptable. Headline Surfer® goes on location in Longwood for its online newsmaker show, "The Sunday Conversation." 

 

Fall Weather means it's hunting season for this Oak Hill gal

Outdoor fish & game $31.9 billion revenue generator for Sunshine State

Linda Hyatt of Oak Hill, FL shows off her prized deer catch / Headline Surfer®Linda Hyatt, a former Oak Hill vice mayor and city commissioner is an avid hunter shown here with a wild board she snared / Headline Surfer®Photos for Headline Surfer® / Linda Hyatt shows off her prize catch just a few weeks ago in the local woods. The hog shown in the inset is from a previous year's hunt.

OAK HILL -- Fall is my favorite time of the year because it's huntin' season. It's also an important revenue stream for our state, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission.

Big story in Daytona paper online: Woman charged with stealing landlord's canoe a week ago

Newspaper Section

Five more staffers canned by Halifax Media 

Daytona Beach pitches week-old canoe theft as its lead story / Headline surfer®Daytona Beach News-Journal Editor Pat Rice / Headline Surfer®News-Journal misspelled headline / Headline Surfer®At far left is a snapshot of the lead story offfered online early Saturday by the Daytona Beach News-Journal. It's got to be tough these days for the editor, Pat Rice, shown in the inset, having to come up with strong centerpiece stories with scores of reporters on the business desk to bang out the pro-chamber and ad authority PR fluff and no full-timers for Port Orange or Edgewater. That's what happens when you have to cut positions like the five this month and having a sixth employee quit. You end up with a headline like the gem next to Rice: 'Cincinnati may get Daytona tourism dollar.'

DAYTONA BEACH -- As if the Daytona Beach tourism glad-handing story on attracting visitors from Ohio in the News-Journal isn't enough, the newspaper has reached even greater heights this morning with a week-old story on an alleged canoe theft as its lead story

Seminole County Sheriff's helicopter takes to night sky in Lake Mary for report of back-yard prowler

City
Newspaper Section

Search in vicinity of HE Thomas Jr. Parkway near Sanford border comes up empty

Search for prowler in Lake Mary, FL / Headline Surfer®

Headline Surfer® video / Seminole County Sheriff's helicopter takes to the sky 2 a.m. Saturday to assist Lake Mary police in search of a reported backyard prowler.

LAKE MARY -- The unmistakeable sound of a commercial airliner making its descent over Lake Mary to land at the nearby Sanford Airport is one thing, but the thunderous twirling of the blades of the Seminole County Sheriff's helicopter at 2 in the morning at a low altitude reaches new heights on the noise meter.

VCSO: Decomposing body found in DeBary that of 48-year-old woman last seen alive Nov. 8

City

Debra Annette Smith was planning to walk to Sanford

Locator map where decomposing body of woman found in DeBary, FL / Headline Surfer®Headline Surfer® graphic / Debra Annette Smith's badly decomposing body was found in an open field off of South Leisure World Drive near Barwick Road, as shown in this locator map. The ME's Office won't have details on the 48-year-old DeBary woman's cause of death until toxicology reports come back in a few weeks.

DEBARY -- A decomposed body found Wednesday in an open field in DeBary Wednesday morning has been identified as that of 48-year-old Debra Annette Smith, last seen alive Nov. 8, when she left her home after getting into a minor verbal dispute with her partner, a Volusia County Sheriff's official said.

Gov. Scott appoints Hernando County Judge Donald Scaglione of Brooksville to 5th Judicial Circuit Court

Under umbrella of appeals in Daytona Beach

Judge Donald Scaglione / Headline Surfer®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.

Lake Mary cops: Shellie Zimmerman's iPad too damaged to charge estranged gun-toting hubby, George

Newspaper Section

State Attorney's Office not willing to prosecute for domestic violence as a result

George Zimmerman cuffed in Lake Mary in September after confrontation with wife / Headline Surfer®Shellie & George Zimmerman during the murder trial in Sanford, FL / Headline Surfer®iPad like the one Shellie Zimmerman said George smashed / Headline Surfer®Photos for Headline Surfer® / Another chapter in George Zimmerman's life concludes with no charges filed in domestic violence case alleged by his estranged wife, Shellie, shown here in court with him during his murder trial. Later, he's shown cuffed after his wife claimed he displayed a gun (which she later recanted), punched her dad in the nose and shattered her iPad, like the one shown here. 

LAKE MARY -- George Zimmerman won't be arrested on domestic violence charges in connection with a Sept. 9 argument with his estranged wife, Shellie, and her father, David Dean at a home on Sprucewood Court they were living in, during which he she claimed he shattered her iPad, Lake Mary cops announced today.

VCSO: Off-duty Sheriff's dispatcher arrested for pointing gun at TV news reporter in New Smyrna Beach area

WESH Orlando's Claire Metz had loaded semi-automatic pointed at her head

Shauna Justice, sheriff's dispatcher arrested for pointing gun at reporter / Headline Surfer®Dispatcher with loaded gun / Headline Surfer®Claire Metz reports on gun being pointed at her head by off-duty dispatcher / Headline Surfer®Photos for Headline Surfer® / 
Shauna Justice, a Volusia County Sheriff's dispatcher, bonded out of jail after her arrest Tuesday on charges of pointing a gun at WESH-TV reporter Claire Metz who showed up at her New Smyrna Beach area home to try and get an interview with her. The dispatcher is shown in the middle image with the gun in her right hand and at far left in her jail mug.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- An off-duty public safety tele-communicator with the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office was arrested Tuesday after she pointed a gun at WESH-TV Orlando reporter Clare Metz who had gone to her house to try to interview her for a story involving a medical call where a patient died in September after an ambulance crew was directed to the wrong location.