Top 100 Stories

Daytona State College hires Amy Locklear as VP of academic Affairs

Photo for Headline Surfer / Amy Locklear, hired by Daytona State College, brings instructional and administrative experience to the post of VP of academic affairs.
 
By HENRY FREDERICK
Headline Surfer
 
DAYTONA BEACH -- Hired earlier this month as vice president of academic affairs foillowing a national search, Daytona State College brings a wealth of knowlege to the position at Daytona State College, considering she's experienced as both a professor and an administrator.

Indelible image of Challenger explosion remains for then-rookie school cop 28 years later & now retired

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Dorothy Lytle Kirby was a rookie cop when Chalenger shuttle exploded / Headline Surfer®YouTube video uploads / Headline Surfer® / Left: raw video with focus on students of teacher 
Christa McAuliffe and her parents watching in horror as the space shuttle Challenger explodes. Center: Gut-wrenching remembrance of that fateful afternoon. Right: Re-creation explainer on 73 seconds to disaster.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Dorothy Lytle Kirby certainly remembers where she was on this particular day 28 years ago today to be exact, the day millions in Central Florida and countless more glued to television sets to witness the horror that was the space shuttle Challenger.

Florida Supreme Court approves medical marijuana ballot wording; Deltona petition organizer pleased with ruling

Party Lines Political Banner / Headline Surfer®Volusia County petition drive organizer & Democrat Ellen Juliano to Attorney General Pam Bondi: 'Put that in your pipe and smoke it'

Medical marijuana goes to Florida voters / Headline Surfer®TALLAHASSEE -- Florida's top court today signed off on the wording of a medical marijuana ballot question that asks Sunshine State voters voters to join nearly two dozen across the country in legalizing the drug for medicinal purposes.

Democrat Ellen Juliano of Deltona, medical marijuana supporter, was pleased with ballot ruling / Headline Surfer® The news was met with excitement by Deltona Democratic Party insider Ellen Juliano, herself a cancer survivor, and a key local organizer in the petition drive to get the medical marijuana ballot initiative drive, who had a personal message for the state attorney general: "Put that in pipe ands smoke it, Pam Bondi!"

Batista wins WWE Royal Rumble

DAYTONA BEACH -- He's the 300-pound chiseled mass of muscle and tattoos in the WWE whose known in the squared-circle as Batista. And he proved his might in Sunday night's Royal Rumble pay-per-virew as the last man standing among 30 combatants hoping for a shot at the world championship title match at Wrestlemania XXX.

Folk music duo Jeni & Billy return to Oak Hill Feb. 8; Deltona on Feb. 9

Jeni & Billy folk duo to perform in Oak Hill and Deltona Feb. 8, 9 / Headline Surfer®

Headline Surfer® graphic / Jeni & Billy, the folk singing duo, are shown in this YouTube video upload from a performance in Oak Hill on Jan. 20.

OAK HILL, Fla. -- Folk musicians Jeni & Billy will bring the high lonesome harmonies of the Appalachian Mountains in a return visit to Volusia County's smallest incorporated city 13 months from their last stop here.

They will perform at noon Saturday, Feb. 8, at VIA Hall, 126 E. Halifax Ave., Oak Hill, at noon Saturday, Feb. 8. They will perform 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 9,  at the Deltona Library.

Daytona Beach cops: Body found floating in Halifax River that of homeless man

Body of man found floating in Halifax River / Headline Surfer®Headline Surfer® graphic / The body of a man said to be known by police as homeless was found floating near the shore at Bethune Point Park Sunday afternoon as shown in this locator map.

DAYTONA BEACH -- A body found floating in the Halifax River on Sunday is that of a homeless man in his late 50s or early 60s, Daytona Beach cops said.

The body was discovered 3:13 p.m. at Bethune Point Park near the shoreline by a member of the Halifax Sailing Association, police said.

"Officers responded to the above location in regards to a body in the water," Daytona Beach police spokesman Jimmy Flynt said in a press release, adding the victim showed no signs of trauma and was believed to be in his latex 50s or early 60s.

71. Daytona Beach drug dealer gets 10 years in prison as 'habitual felony offender'

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Top 100 Stories of 2013 Daytona Beach-Orlando Metro Area / Headline Surfer®

Stanley Rhoses Gainey got 10 years in the slammer for drugs / HeadlineSurfer®Photo for Headline Surfer® / Stanley Rhodes Gainey, convicted drug dealer, is shown here in his Florida Department of Corrections profile.

DAYTONA BEACH -- It wasn't his drug dealing that put him in the slammer for the next decade as much as the piling up of the rap sheet.

So goes the story of Stanley Rhodes Gainey, sentenced Nov. 1 by Circuit Judge R. Michael Hutcheson to 10 years in prison as a "habitual felony offender.

VCSO: 4-year-old boy drowns in family pool in Deltona

Sheriff's spokesman: Mother told deputies she fell asleep and when she woke up her worst fear was realized

Drowning locator of boy, 4, in Deltona / Headline Surfer®Headline Surfer® graphic / A 4-year-old boy drowned in the family's backyard pool Sunday afternoon on South Fairbairn Drive in Deltona as shown in this locator map.

DELTONA, Fla. -- A mother's worst fear was realized when she awoke from a nap and found her 4-year-old boy face down in the bottom of the family pool late this afternoon, a Volusia County Sheriff's spokesman said.

Deputies were dispatched to a home on South Fairbairn Drive after receiving a 9-1-1 call at 4:19 p.m. "The boy’s mother told the Sheriff’s Office that she fell asleep, and when she awoke and started looking for her son, she found him at the bottom of the pool," agency spokesman Gary Davidson told Headline Surfer®.

Sheriff's investigators did not release the name of the mother or the child.

Construction under way for MLK phase 3 construction near Kissimmee Gateway Airport

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KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- The Martin Luther King Phase 3 construction project utility work on Dyer Boulevard between Commerce Boulevard and the Kissimmee Gateway Airport entrance began Friday Friday and will continue until the project is completed.