Top 100 Stories

Gigi Bennington and Gene Emter had no opposition in qualifying for their seats Friday on the Edgewater City Council.

EDGEWATER -- Incumbents Gigi Bennington and Councilman Gene Emter have been returned to their respective seats on the Edgewater City Council because no one else challenged them in the 2012 elections.

With qualifying ended noon Friday, Bennington, of district 2, and Emter, of district 4, were awarded four-year terms.

Bennington was first elected in 2007, and Gene Emter in a special election earlier this year to fill the seat held by Ted Cooper who died suddenly of a heart attack in November.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Three people have qualified for the zone 4 commission seat held by two-term incumbent Lynne Plaskett who isn't running again. They are Steve Casserly, Kirk Jones and Ed Bidault Jr. Mayor

Adam Barringer automatically reclaimed his seat because he had no opposition for mayor. Jason McGuirk gets Jim Hathaway's commission seat because there were no other candidates either.

Hathaway is running for County Council against New Smyrna Beach resident and former elected school board member Deb Denys and Edgewater Councilman Justin Kennedy.

GOP State Rep. Dorothy Hukill didn't' wait long to go on the offensive against Volusia County Chairman Frank Bruno, a Democrat, in the race for the state senate now that qualifying for the 2012 elections is over.

PORT ORANGE -- It's on!

Just an hour and 1 minute after today's noon deadline to qualify to run in the 2012 elections, Republican State Rep. Dorothy Hukill threw the first stone in her heated race for the state senate against Democrat Frank Bruno, Volusia County chairman.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Congratulations to the graduating class of New Smyrna Beach High School. Seeing that the number of graduates totaled 392 reminded me of my own graduation in 1964. At that time the old high school on the North Causeway in New Smyrna Beach was brand new and our class consisted of 66 pupils. Our ceremony was at the school itself and we with our family and friends all fit without a problem.

Anthony Michael Shaw, 35, known to local police as shown in this March booking mug, was found dead over the weekend in a homeless camp in a wooded area of Daytona Beach. His name was released to the media on Monday. How or why he died has not been released.

DAYTONA BEACH -- The body of a homeless man found in a makeshift camp in the woods of Brentwood rive over the weekend has been identified as that of 35-year-old Anthony Michael Shaw. How the man was killed or when has not ye been released by police.