NEW SMYRNA -- It is very satisfying to go against the grain with the truth on one’s side. You find yourself humming the “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” You don’t want to slip into smugness, but it’s tempting.
I received my absentee ballot today and it is in both English and Spanish. It raises my hackles to see that on my so-called American ballot. As all of you who read my blog know, I am against anything, but English being used in this country for road signs, voting ballots or anything else including in Walmart on the signs there. You want to live in and be American, then learn the language.
ORMOND BEACH -- Senators Kelly Ayotte of New Hampsire, Mike Johanns of Nebraska, Rob Portman of Ohio and Johnny Isakson of Georgia were among the 34 brave souls in the U.S. Senate to give the “Law of the Seas Treaty” the deep six.
“Proponents of the Law of the Sea treaty aspire to admirable goals, including codifying the U.S. Navy’s navigational rights and defining American economic interests in valuable offshore resources. But the treaty’s terms reach well beyond those good intentions,” Ayotte and Portman wrote in a Monday letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
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A mailing by Volusia County Council candidate Deb Denys that dismisses her two opponents as Obama clones, sets the stage for what's expected to be a lively series of debates Saturday in New Smyrna Beach, eight in all, sponsored by Headline Surfer.NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- There's no love lost between the candidates for the Volusia County Council dist. 3 race and that may be just the warm-up for Saturday's big debates at the Brannon Center.
Headline Surfer, the New Smyrna Beach-based 24/7 Internet newspaper, has eight debates set to go from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with citizen participation a key component in holding the candidates accountable to the voters.
State Rep. Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange, and Volusia County Chair Frank Bruno, D-Ponce Inlet, are term-limited in their current seats and so they're vying for the dist. 8 state senate seat in the November elections.PORT ORANGE -- Their State Senate showdown isn't until November, but Republican Dorothy Hukill is chomping at the bit against her Democratic opponent, Frank Bruno: "We just won the West Volusia Regional Chamber straw ballot with over 65% of the vote! Thank you for all your support - onward to November!"
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Kathy Woods Burrows, shown in the inset photo, was Nicole Carni's assistant when they worked at the NSB Visitor's Center.NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Fired Southeast Volusia Advertising Authority Director Nicole Carni and her trusted assistant, Kathy Woods Burrows, were best friends, sisters even. At least that's what people were led to believe.
NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- I was working in my home office when my 18-year-old son bust in with "Dad, a guy with a bomb killed a bunch of people in a movie theater in Colorado when they were watching the Dark Night!"
I responded, "Henry, knock it off. I'm busy. Knock it off with all the video game violence on the Internet with your friends."
By the way he looked at me, I realized he wasn't joking -- definitely not when he pleaded, "Put on CNN. It's on there right now."
I hit the button and punched in the remote. Suddenly we both stopped talking. Then I said, "Oh my God."
NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- There is a great disconnect between government and its citizens at all levels, but the gap appears to be widening here in Volusia County where elected politicians and their well-paid administrators and attorneys try to sell the public their version of being fiscally conservative, while cozying up to the power elite in the business community.
NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The 250 people who attended our string of debates Saturday at the Brannon Center had the benefit of hearing what the candidates for eight elective offices had to say on pressing issues leading up to the Aug. 14 primary.
And even more important, they had the chance to ask questions directly of the candidate -- and not being filtered by media believing only it can properly ask questions.
The CVS pharmacy on Howland Boulevard in Deltona was the target early Sunday of a cross-dressing robber with a green wig, black lipstick and a handbag.
DELTONA -- A cross-dressing thief claiming to have a bomb failed early this morning morning in an attempt to rob a Deltona drug store of its prescription pills after the pharmacist refused to give him what he craved.
The would-be-robber ran from the CVS pharmacy, 2187 Howland Blvd., empty-handed just before 6 a.m. and managed to get away just prior to the arrival of responding Volusia County Sheriff's deputies.
"Witnesses said the suspect -- they weren't sure if it was a man or a woman -- claimed that their children were being held hostage," Sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson said. "The suspect also claimed to have a bomb and threatened to blow up the store if the prescription drugs weren't handed over."
