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They can't stop us from reporting the truth -- the news

In advance of Friday night's "Light Up Flagler" we received a phone call from one of our advertisers about a key person in the hospitality association there we might be writing about in a way that's less than flattering. That advertiser asked us -- pleaded with us -- not to write it and was told that we had misrepresented a video regarding illegal drinking in front of the bars on Flagler.

We made it clear to the advertiser that though we appreciate the financial support they have given us, neither they nor anyone else was going to dictate what we write about, period. As for the bar situation, our published video speaks for itself.

NSBNews.net has spent the better part of the past two years looking into the funding provided by New Smyrna Beach's Community Redevelopment Agency and what we have found is troubling, to say the least.

CRA Chairman Jim Kosmas pays back grant

Newspaper Section
Volusia News Now
Local News Now

Asks why same CRA attorney advised it was legal then; not legal now

It was legal then and illegal now. NSBNews.net file photo by Sera Frederick / CRA Chairman Jim Kosmas is shown here holding a golden shovel for the Sept. 29 groundbreaking at the Hampton Inn on Flagler Avenue. Construction on the beachside hotel has been grounded since that day without explanation. Standing behind him in sunglasses to the far left is fellow CRA board member Chad Schilsky. Both were approved for grants for their businesses, which turned out to be illegal.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- CRA Chairman Jim Kosmas told NSBNews.net over the weekend that he repaid his Community Redevelopment Agency the $1,925 grant for improvements to his law office that was unanimously approved by his board with him abstaining from the vote.

"I paid the city on Friday," Kosmas told NSBNews.net. "What I Don't understand is why the attorney said it was OK then and now it is not."

NSB cops: Two boys, 14 and 15, charged with armed robbery of a gas station with a loaded 9 mm handgun
City
Central Florida
New Smyrna Beach
Henry Frederick Mon, 12/05/2011 - 12:16
Newspaper Section
Local News Now
Crime

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- Two boys, ages 14 and 15, armed with a loaded 9 mm semi-automatic handgun, robbed the Right Stop gas station just before midnight Sunday night but were caught after running from the premises by cops.

Defunct Observer newspaper pulls subscriber solicitation from its website after being called out by NSBNews.net

Newspaper Section
Volusia News Now
Media Watch
Local News Now

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The Observer removed its "subscription" offer on its website Tuesday, one day after NSBNews.net pointed out that solicitations for paid subscribers was posted even though the Observer weekly newspaper has not published for a month and its owners told the Daytona Beach News-Journal they had come to the end of the line.

The Observer's former editor, Robert Burns, now identifies himself on his personal Facebook page as employed with Hometown News. though the Fort Pierce-based weekly with a Southeast Volusia edition doesn't identify him as such.

Edgewater City Councilman Ted Cooper: In life as in death true to his word

Newspaper Section
Edgewater
Volusia News Now
Local News Now
NSBNews.net photo by Henry Frederick / A photo of Edgewater Councilman Ted Cooper is displayed on the dais in front of the chair he occupied in the council chambers, along with his name plate and flowers following his memorial service Tuesday.

EDGEWATER -- Myron Hammond returned to his creaky chair at his Edgewater Towing garage, jumping on the phone and choking back tears as he checked on parts for a customer.

Minutes earlier, he had returned from a memorial service for Councilman Ted Cooper, the silver-haired gentleman, whose life was cut short at 61 from a massive heart attack six days earlier. 

Pearl Harbor legacy endures 70 years later

State Rep. Dorothy HukillBy DOROTHY L. HUKILL
State Representative
Exclusive to NSBNews.net

TALLAHASSEE -- Seven decades ago today, our nation was brutally and unexpectedly attacked in a surprise military strike that claimed over 2,400 American lives. This cruel blow temporarily damaged our military capacity, but it did not damage our American fighting spirit.

Our nation recovered and led the charge to rid the modern world of the greatest threat it has ever known. On this day, we pause to remember those who were lost that morning, and those who whose lives were changed by grievous injury.

Pearl Harbor: Day of infamy by the radio

Nestled in the dead of winter in our Cinncinnati, Ohio, the lives of my family and millions across the nation would be changed forever with the crackling sound of a news flash on the radio reporting Pearl Harbor had been attacked. I was a mere 7 years old. 

The first I knew of it that mid-day Sunday on Dec. 7, 1941, was my father and older brother running to the giant wooden radio the size of two stacked bread boxes shouting: "The Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor!"

Ad Authority board member Ed Pankonin: Norwood's Holiday Food & Wine Festival 'first class operation'

Newspaper Section
Volusia News Now
Dining
Local News Now

NSBNews.net video by Sera Frederick / The video showcases an interview with cookbook author Ed Pankonin.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Ed Pankonin, author of "Simple & Fresh" and a board member with the Southeast Volusia Advertising Authority, manned a booth at the 16th annual Norwood's Holiday Food & Wine Festival. Pankonin was pleased with last weekend's turnout, about 300 on the opening Friday and 1,200 on Saturday, according to estimates provided by Norwood's owner Don Simmons. See what Pankonin has to say about the festival and tourism in general by clicking on our exclusive video above.