Local News Now

Courtesy mug/Volusia County Sheriff's Office. Renee Baker, 30, an Oak Hill dog breeder, has been arrested on animal health fraud charges.

 OAK HILL -- It started simply enough, with the theft of 13 animal tags from a veterinary clinic near DeLand. But after authorities spent about a month untangling the case, an Oak Hill dog breeder has been arrested on felony charges of animal health fraud.

The charges were filed after a joint investigation by the Volusia County Sheriff's Office and Volusia County Animal Control revealed that the accused was selling dogs with stolen tags and forged vaccination certificates, said Gary Davidson, spokesman for the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Congresswoman Suzanne Kosmas, D-New Smyrna Beach (FL-24), will hold a telephone town hall Wednesday night to discuss health insurance reform.

The tele-town hall, from 6:20 p.m. to 7:20 p.m., will allow constituents who are interested in health insurance reform issues to ask questions of Kosmas and learn more about current reform proposals in Congress.

Courtesy mug/Volusia Branch Jail. Patrick Holley, 41, of New Smyrna Beach, was arrested Friday on charges he embezzled $640,000 from guests at a Daytona Beach Shores hotel where he worked until he was fired in October.

DAYTONA BEACH SHORES -- A New Smyrna Beach resident was arrested Friday on two felony theft charges involving $640,000 stolen from the Days Inn Tropical Seas on South Atlantic Avenue while he was general manager there until his firing in October, police said.

When arrested at his family's Samsula residence Friday morning, Patrick Holley, 41, told investigators he had less than $100 to his name, Daytona Beach Shores police said later in the day, according to Daytona Beach Shores police.

Malinda Jane Bledsoe, 54, of Edgewater, a Volusia County native married with three children, died Thursday, Aug 13, 2009.

NSBNEWS.net video by Sera Frederick. Though a $9,000 purchase order has already gone through for an artificial Christmas tree for Riverside Drive with a unanimous vote in May by the Community Redevelopment Agency, the purchase was not made public until minutes of the CRA meeting were posted in July on the city's Web site. Robert Rees, a community watchdog, spoke in opposition to the purchase at Tuesday's City Commission meeting, asking a series of questions about the protocol for such purchases. He did not get any responses from the elected officials.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- For the second time in two weeks, a citizen has appeared before the City Commission to ask about the $9,000 purchase of an outdoor, artificial Christmas tree approved by the Community Redevelopment Agency in May.

OAK HILL -- A precautionary boil-water notice has been lifted was lifted for residents of the Indian Harbor and Lighthouse Cove subdivisions in Oak Hill.

NSBNEWS.net photos by Sera Frederick and Henry Frederick. Palmer Wilson (far right) is challenging incumbent Jack Grasty (inset) for the Zone 2 seat on the New Smyrna Beach City Commission.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Saying his top priority is to "reinvent our local government," Palmer Wilson announced today that he is running to unseat Jack Grasty as Zone 2 Commissioner in the City of New Smyrna Beach.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Congresswoman Suzanne Kosmas, the first-term Democrat from New Smyrna Beach, a staunch supporter of the Obama administration, is conducting a survey put out by her Washington staff on the issue of health-care reform.

Jimmie "Woodie" Woodfin, 75, of Edgewater, a Navy Veteran of the Korean Conflict and an avid fisherman, died Friday, Aug. 7, 2009.

Robert N. Culley, 55, of New Smyrna Beach, who worked at Outback Steakhouse, died Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009.