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6. LeBron and Miami Heat win NBA championship; Orlando's Dwight Howard traded to LA Lakers

ORLANDO -- The Magic's Dwight Howard was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, coach Stan Vandy Gundy was fired and the team was bounced from the first round of the playoffs. For the Miami Heat, Florida's other NBA team, however, saw LeBron James lead his team to the promised land with an NBA championship.

John's Appliance Mayan Calendar feature popular with online users

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Snapshot John's Appliance Mayan calamity story / Headline SurferHeadline Surfer experienced a major spike in users, no doubt fueled by the trending story on John's Appliances pegged to the Mayan calendar calamity tale. 

DAYTONA BEACH -- Headline Surfer's mid-afternoon Friday story on John's Appliance and Bedding's blow-out sale announcement pegged to the Mayan calendar calamity was a big hit locally and around the world well into the start of the weekend.

New Smyrna Beach cops: TK's convenience store on US 1 robbed by thugs who jumped clerk and fled with cash box

TK's Right Stop in New Smyrna Beach robbedA still photo taken from a surveillance camera provided to media by New Smyrna Beach police shows robbers confronting the young clerk early Wednesday inside TK's Right Stop, 218 N. Dixie Freeway.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The cops are looking for five people who robbed a clerk at T.K.'s Right Stop early this morning and fled with an undisclosed amount of cash.

Here is a synopsis of the 3 a.m. strong arm robbery at TK's, 218 N. Dixie Freeway, also known as US1, as described by New Smyrna Beach Police Sgt. Christopher Roos: A dark-colored car with five people in it pulled up to the store. Three of them walked inside and accosted the 20-year-old clerk, Charles Michaux, with two of the assailants them jumping on him and holding him down while the third grabbed a cash box before they all three bolted out the door and hopped into the car, which sped off.

Newtown massacre: Gun-free zones and other such measures ineffective in stopping mass murders

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- On Friday, Dec. 14, a terrible tragedy occurred. Twenty very young and innocent children were gunned down by a mad man in their Newtown, Conn., school classrooms. The lunatic also killed his mother, school staff and, when law enforcement showed up, himself. The unspeakable horror of the event, at school where parents should be able to assume that their young ones are safe and with the principal and other school staff losing their lives trying to shield the children from the murderer, has every parent, grandparent and any person with natural empathy in our nation deep in grief.