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 NSBNEWS.net video by Sera King. New Smyrna Beach resident Bill Koleszar gave city commissioners an ultimatum: Either cut the budget by $1 million or face voter wrath. The commissioners did as he asked.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A retired police chief armed with 40 years of budgeting experience and backed by more than 200 supporters told the New Smyrna Beach City Commission at a Set. 24 public hearing that an 11.2 percent mill-rate increase was not going to fly and that there would be hell to pay come election time or even sooner through voter recalls for any of them who didn't heed his warnings. He got his way with $1 million subsequently cut "

NSBNEWS.net photo by Sera King. Because of Volusia County School District budget cuts, several elementary schools were closed for this school year, including Samsula Elementary, which reopened as a charter school renamed Samsula Academy.

DELAND -- Nowhere has the downturn in the economy had a stronger effect locally in 2008, than the Volusia County Schools with $45 million-plus in state budget cuts that forced the district to lay off more than 200 teachers, close several schools and legal sparring between the schools superintendent and the president of the teacher's union.

I'll bet some of you were thinking when you saw the passengers being pulled from the wrecked U.S. Airways jet in the Hudson River that you would probably never fly again. I have a different viewpoint.

The day before the Hudson incident, I was talking to a friend who told me that she always flies Delta, but no flights were available so she recently came from Connecticut to Charlotte, N.C., where she would change planes for the final leg to Orlando via U.S.Airways.

ORMOND BEACH -- The Volusia County Sheriff's Office is investigating a Sunday morning armed robbery of a convenience store near Ormond Beach during which the suspect came into the store brandishing a knife and demanding money. But he was startled when the clerk lunged at him with a knife of his own and the suspect fled empty handed.

The store clerk was not injured, but it's not known if the suspect was cut by the clerk, said Brandon Haught, Sheriff's spokesman.

 Courtesy photo. Volusia County Judge Dawn Fields ruled in December that former City Commissioner and mayoral candidate Mike Shallow had a right of privacy when he was behind a closed bathroom stall in the Volusia Mall and because of that right, the accusation of lewd behavior was not found credible, and therefore, the case against him dismissed.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Former Daytona Beach City Commissioner Mike Shallow, who made two unsuccessful runs for mayor, was acquitted Dec. 16. of lewd and lascivious behavior amid accusations he was masturbating in a bathroom stall at Sears in the Volusia Mall.

DAYTONA BEACH -- A victim of a Saturday convenience store robbery near Daytona Beach got a good look at the suspects' getaway vehicle, to include the licenseplate, giving Volusia County Sheriff's deputies a valuable lead they needed to track down the suspects, Sheriff's spokesman Brandon Haught said.

Courtesy photos. Mark Williams, news director at WNDB radio 1150 in Daytona Beach, has provided regular updates on the Caylee Anthony homicide in Orange County from the onset on the Nancy Grace show on CNN Headline News.

DAYTONA BEACH -- We've heard his voice for years as news director/reporter on WNDB radio 1150 am, but since early summer he's been a regular fixture on CNN Headline News' Nancy Grace reporting on the Caylee Anthony homicide.

Courtesy photo. Craig Leron Flynt, the son of a Daytona Beach police officer, shot and killed the mother of his four children in August, pumping the final bullet into her head with a .357 Magnum as police arrived. He was later sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree murder.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Craig Leron Flynt, 37 and the son of a Daytona Beach police officer, stood above his fallen ex-girlfriend and mother of his four young children pumped a second bullet into her head across the street from her Maley Street residence just after midnight on Aug. 4.

Courtesy photo. Kyle Busch bests Carl Edwards to take the 2008 Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

DAYTONA BEACH -- After finishing second twice two previous times, Kyle Busch finally won the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway, eking out Carl Edwards to victory under a checkered-caution ending in the July 5 race flag under the lights.

DEBARY -- A contractor wanted for fraud and grand theft in Volusia County was found and arrested this morning in Galveston, Texas, Volusia County Sheriff's spokesman Brandon Haught reported.

Eric Todd Young, 35, faces multiple charges for writing bad checks and doing incomplete, shoddy work for DeBary flood victims who sought help following Tropical Storm Fay last fall.