Local News Now

DAYTONA BEACH -- All-Pro NFL linebacker Ray Lewis will wave the green flag as honorary starter of today's Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway. Last year's starter was WWE superstar John Cena.

A motorist was twice shot on the Dunlawton Bridge as shown in this locator map by someone in a Fordd F-150 pick-up truck just before midnight Saturday.

PORT ORANGE -- A 46-year-old motorist was in critical condition this morning with gunshot wounds suffered just before midnight by an unknown person in another vehicle who pulled up next to his on the Dunlawton Bridge and fired several shots, Port Orange police said.

The victim, Kanwaljit Singh of Port Orange, was shot twice -- in the upper thigh and left side of his lower stomach. Singh had his 13-year-old son with him in the front passenger seat, but he was not injured. Police have no motive for the shooting.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- "Holy (expletive)! Oh my God," a fan yells as a fellow fan is struck by a tire in the grandstands at Daytona International Speedway on the final lap of the Nationwide Race on Saturday.

The proposed future of Daytona International Speedway is unveiled at a Friday morning press conference, 48 hours before the Daytona 500.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Daytona International Speedway President Joie Chitwood this morning conducted the first in-depth, virtual “walk through” of what the World Center of Racing would look like as part of a proposed $250 million massive redevelopment project.

By Horace Anderson

DAYTONA BEACH -- It’s Black History Month, the time when we African-Americans recall our many important contributions to the development of the United States and remember the history of our progress from slaves to free people, to a state of equality so nearly complete that we just re-elected a black president.

We rejoice in the support we enjoy from the Democratic Party and most of us think that things were always this way. But that isn’t true.

Everyone knows that the man who led the Civil War to free the slaves and who issued the Emancipation Proclamation was Abraham Lincoln - a Republican.

Danica holds on to preserve pole for Daytona 500; Jeff Gordon on front row, too

DAYTONA BEACH -- Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch won their respective Budweiser Duels Thursday afternoon at Daytona International Speedway and will roll off the starting grid from the second row for the Daytona 500.

They fall in line behind pole sitter Danica Patrick and Jeff Gordon in the Great American Race on Sunday.

Headline Surfer photo by Henry Frederick / The 100 block of the North Causeway in New Smyrna Beach is proposed for a 202-unit development that includes workforce housing, something nearby neighbors in the upscale Venezia neighborhood want no part of.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- It's known as NIMBY or "not in my backyard."

That was the message of some 250 New Smyrna Beach residents in September to a development on the North Causeway that includes workforce units or affordable housing for families making between $20,000 to $40,000 annually. 

Residents attending a special meeting at the Brannon Center called for by the project's developers want no part of the 239-unit apartment complex Causeway Landings.

Headline Surfer photos by Henry Frederick / Hotelier Wayne Heller drew a crowd of supporters in April in his quest to bring the Delta Queen to New Smyrna Beach, but city officials were less than enthusiastic.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Wayne Heller, owner of the Riverview Hotel pleaded with city officials to allow him to relocate the historic Delta Queen here from Chattanooga, Tenn. "as soon as possible."

"She's a real amazing vessel," Heller said of the 88-room converted water hotel during the citizens' comment portion of tonight's City Commission meeting. "We urge you to ask your staff to put together a short-term lease as soon as possible."