Local News Now

Dec. 22, 2009: Joshua A. Gove and Amy D. Simpson, Edgewater; James E. Force and Debra M. Polenchar, New Smyrna Beach.

Courtesy photo. A car crashed into the front of the Wal-mart in the NSB Regional Shopping Center on State Road 44 early Tuesday, smacking a concrete section a short distance from the entranceway.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A motorist lost control and struck a support column before grazing the concrete wall of the Walmart in the NSB Regional Shopping Center on State Road 44, just after 11 this morning on a busy Christmas shopping day, fire department officials said.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH — A 79-year-old woman overcome by smoke from flames inside her home in the Century Woods subdivision early this morning was being treated at Bert Fish Medical Center where her condition was said to be much improved, a fire department official said later in the day.

Courtesy photo/Jail mug. Lawrence Singletary, 40, of New Smyrna Beach, is charged with armed carjacking and battery of an elderly person in Port Orange.

PORT ORANGE -- A 40-year-old New Smyrna Beach man remained incarcerated Sunday night at the Volusia County Branch Jail for an armed carjacking in Port Orange three days earlier involving an elderly victim who managed to escape his alleged attacker, police there said.

NSBNEWS.net photos by Henry Frederick.

Kaye Walker, chairwoman of the New Smyrna Beach Charity Ball (on the right) celebrates with friends at the recent fundraiser at the Brannon Center.

Joseph W. Grimes, 80, of Edgewater, an Air Force veteran of the Korean Conflict and a building contractor and owner of Joe Grimes Contracting, New Smyrna Beach, died Saturday, Dec. 19, 2009.

Robert Matthew Seymour, 90, of Edgewater, an Air Force veteran of World War II and a retired office manager for Putman & Hawley Building Materials in Potsdam, N.Y., died Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2009.

William Ilersich, 92, of Strongsville, Ohio, a part-time Edgewater resident, died Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2009.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- In the category of if anyone cares any more, the lights were out overnight Saturday on the artificial Christmas tree on the easternmost end of Canal Street.

There have been previous incidents of the tree lights not fully operating as intended since the nearly $9,000 tree paid for by the New Smyrna Beach Community Redevelopment Agency was officially lit Nov. 27. The following week, it was partially out during a rainstorm and on Dec. 13, a police officer wiggled the wires to get several outed lights to come back on.

Global warming is the biggest hoax of the century.

Al Gore and others insist that the world is in serious trouble the ice is melting and the oceans are going to overflow and engulf the land mass.

Gore has found a way to make millions of dollars. If he truly believes in global warming, why is he still flying his private jet,living in his large mansion and using the amount of energy for it that could run a city like Edgewater.

My husband and I returned to New Smyrna Beach after a week's vacation in Merida, Mexico. Driving back from Orlando, we thought we had come home to fires and were driving through smoke. But we got on the radio and learned it was fog. The closer to New Smyrna Beach, the thicker the fog became.

Then I got caught up on the New Smyrna Beach city government news.

Talk about "fog." The interim city manager, Pam Brangaccio, tried to pull a "fast one" with her bloated contract request, yet Commissioner James Hathaway did not "buy" it. Neither did Mayor Adam Barringer.

Rose Marie Gallagher, 79, of Edgewater, a homemaker and member of the Dolphin Club and American Legion Post #285 Auxiliary, both in Edgewater, who enjoyed fishing, clamming and shrimping in the river, died Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009.

Isaiah Earl Booth, 1 day, of New Smyrna Beach, son of LaSonya Booth, died Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2009.

Karen Petroni, 58, of Edgewater, a bookkeeper, died Saturday, Dec. 12, 2009.