Top 100 Stories

Headline Surfer® graphic / For unforeseen emergencies, the town of Ponce Inlet has turned to 'Code Red' to alert citizens and merchants as shown in this snapshot.

PONCE INLET -- The municipality in April instituted a rapid emergency notification service called "CodeRED," which distributes emergency messages via telephone to targeted areas or the entire town at a rate of 1,000 calls per minute, according to a press release on Ponce Inlet's website.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Happy New Year's greater Daytona Beach and all of the visitor's to Headline Surfer® throughout Central Florida, the rest of the Sunshine State, across the USA and around the world. We  love you!

Photo for Headline Surfer® /  John Francis Roach is spending the rest of his life behind bars for his sexual assault on a pre-teen boy.

DELAND --A 60-year-old Deland man was sentenced Aug. 16 to Life in prison without the possibility of parole for sexually battering an 11-year-old boy.

The sentence handed down on John Francis Roach was for a Volusia County jury finding him guilty of one count of sexual battery on a person Less than 12 Years of Age, a capital felony; and one count of lewd and lascivious molestation by a person 18 Years of age or older on a person less than 12 years of age, a life felony.

Photo for Headline Surfer® / Tony Ledbetter, second from left, is shown here in this Dec. 9 photo op. with Gov. Rick Scott, along with Ledbetter's daughter, Kimberly Patterson, Gov. Scott's wife, Ann and then-Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll at the governor's mansion in Tallahassee. 

ORLANDO -- Pledging to his GOP colleagues that he would be a "conservative voice" for the party, Tony Ledbetter, chairman of the Republican Executive Committee of Volusia County, was elected Congressional Dis. 6 chairman for the Republican Party of Florida at its annual meeting the first weekend of January at the Rosen Centre Hotel. 

Photo for Headline Surfer® / New Smyrna Beach PD recruit Shawn Adkins is shown here with his father, NSBPD Investigator David Adkins in this July still image.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Like father, like son: The New Smytrna Beach police Department saw the first-ever father and son duo of police officers with the July 9 hiring of recruit Shawn Adkins.

When deciding which police department he wanted to work for, Adkins, son of New Smyrna Beach PD Investigator David Adkins, said it was an easy decision: “My Dad has been really successful at this agency and I have always felt like it was part of my family.”

The 22-year-old Adkins added, "I know and love this community."