Local News Now

Alcohol-fueled street party on Flagler Avenue funded with CRA taxpayer dollars

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The husband who survived a rollover crash early Monday on the South Causeway Bridge that resulted in the violent death of his wife, told the Daytona Beach News-Journal they had been partying on Flagler Avenue's "Cinco de Mayo," an alcohol-fueled festival sponsored by the Flagler Merchants Hospitality Group and funded in part by CRA-taxpayer dollars.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla -- A woman was killed and a man critically injured after they were ejected from their pick-up truck in a rollover early this morning on the South Causeway Bridge, New Smyrna Beach police said.

Headline Surfer snapshot graphic / This locator map shows the location, 444 Seabreeze Bourlevard, of a deliberate hit-and-run fatality at 3:13 a.m. Sunday.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Cops are continuing their search this early Monday morning for the driver of a small red convertible car who they say deliberately struck and killed a man over the weekend in the rear parking lot of 444 Seavreeze Boulevard.

Police were vague in a brief press release with few details as to what happened. But this is as best what Headline Surfer could surmise from the release: A small red convertible car and a black Range Rover were at the light at Seabreeze and Oleander early Sunday heading westbound when words were exchanged between the driver of the red car and two pedestrians. The driver of the red car got out and a fight broke out.

Headline Surfer file photo / New Smyrna Beach native Jim Humphrey, shown at far left, enjoys pancakes and good conversation with Rick Newell at the 2009 fundraiser for the New Smyrna Beach Museum of History.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The Pancakes in the Park scheduled for 7 to 11 a.m. Saturday has been re-scheduled until the following Saturday because of the rainy weather. So please mark your calendars for 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday May 11, at the Old Fort Park.

The cost is $6 and includes pancakes, sausage, coffee, and orange juice under the oaks. A Bluegrass group will provide entertainment.

This 10-acre  vacant beachfront property at 801 S. Atlantic is on the fast track for a $100 million Hard Rock hotel and cafe expected to open just in time for the 2016 running of the Daytona 500.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Like a gourmet meal, a Hard Rock hotel/cafe complex is going to be sandwiched between the World's Most Famous Beach and the super speedway with the high banks where they run the Great American Race.

Headline Surfer videos produced by Serafina Frederick / Then-County Chair Frank Bruno gives his 'State of the County' address in 2012 at the Ocean Center. Jason Davis gives his first Thursday. 

DAYTONA BEACH -- It might be a tall order to expect Jsason Davis to deliver his first state of the county address Thursday with the glitz and the glamour that were the calling cards of his predecessor, Frank Bruno.

Marketing guru took over in wake of scandal

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Tim Hamby, the executive director of the Southeast Volusia Advertising, hired last year in the wake of the Nicole Carni scandal, officially tendered his resignation this morning in favor of a new marketing job much closer to his Ponte Vedra home that will pay him in excess of six figures in salary and benefits.

"It was an opportunity I couldn't pass up," said the 49-year-old Hamby, in a telephone interview with Headline Surfer while he was en route to the New Smyrna Beach Visitor's Center where the ad authority is based. "There were a lot of factors to consider, including my wife and my daughters and moving and the salary and benefits were something the ad authority would not have been able to match."

Headline Surfer photos by Henry Frederick / New Smyrna Beach Mayor Adam Barringer is shown far left on the dais at City Hall with then-Commissioner Jim Hathaway last year. The mayor is in hot water with the Florida Commission on Ethics for holding a private retirement dinner for Hathaway at his wine-bar restaurant paid with a city credit card last November. The complaint was brought by citizen watchdog Bob Tolley shown in the inset.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- New Smyrna Beach Mayor Adam Barringer will be the center of attention when he is called to the podium to accept the "Blaine O'Neal Award of Excellence" at the Volusia League of Cities banquet on May 30.

VCSO: Suspect driver and vehicle located this morning, but no charges yet

DELTONA -- An apparent drug deal in Deltona went horribly wrong late Sunday afternoon, resulting in the death of an 18-year-old man who was dragged down the street by a fleeing motorist, an official with the Volusia County Sheriff's Office said.

The victim was identified as Tristan De Joy, who witnesses reported walking late Sunday afternoon to the end of Sonnet Court, the same Deltona road where he lives. Next, a pickup truck was spotted driving to the end of the street, where De Joy was.