Local News Now

Courtesy graphic / Rain could be the biggest weapon deployed by firefighters today in quelling the local wild fires, including the biggest -- the Maytown Road Fire that straddles Oak Hill and Osteen with 2,397 acres burned since June 13. That fire is 90 percent contained. Click on the attachment below to see the spate of wild fires across the Sunshine State.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The Volusia County Council has extended the declaration of local emergency for seven days.

NSBNews.net file photo / Dr. Tom Omby, shown in this photo earlier this year in a Daytona Beach courtroom with then-Bert Fish Medical Center CEO Bob Williams, is among several members of the hospital district's board replaced by Gov. Rick Scott. Omby was chairman. 

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A metamorphosis of the Southeast Volusia Hospital District governing board is on the fast track with Gov. Scott on Wednesday announcing the immediate appointments of Joseph Benedict, Patrick E. Corbett, and Harold "Derwin" Smothers as members whose terms run through March 15, 2015.

DELTONA -- The obvious question as to how a 1-year-old Deltona boy ended up in the bottom of a family pool with such a tragic ending has been answered: "The mother was in the kitchen preparing dinner and lost sight of the child briefly," Volusia Country Sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson told NSBNews.net.

The Sheriff's Office is continuing its investigation into the drowning of the baby, identified as Chase Wilson.

Davidson said he did not have the mother's name or those of other immediate family members readily available and that the circumstances surrounding the drowning were explained to him by one of the investigators.

The baby is the youngest of what are now six small-child pool drowning fatalities in Volusia County this year.

The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office was dispatched to 754 Leeward Drive after receiving a 911 call at 5:18 p.m. reporting that the baby had been found at the bottom of the pool. The victim wasn't breathing when he was removed from the pool. The mother and father and a grandparent were at the house at the time of the incident, Davidson said.

DELTONA -- A 1-year-old boy drowned in a backyard swimming pool late this afternoon in Deltona. He is the youngest of six pre-school-age children to die in pool drownings this year in Volusia County.

The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office was dispatched to 754 Leeward Drive after receiving a 911 call at 5:18 p.m. reporting that the baby had been found at the bottom of the pool, agency spokesman Gary Davidson said.

The baby, Chase Wilson, wasn’t breathing when he was removed from the pool. The child’s mother and father and a grandparent were at the house at the time of the incident, Davidson said.

"A Sheriff’s Office telecommunicator coached a frantic family member over the phone on CPR procedures while help was quickly sent to the house," Davidson said.

Computers! They sit on your desk or lap and quietly drive you completely insane! If any of you have noticed my absence recently you can chalk it up to computer defiance.

The height of kittens season is just around the corner for those of us that live in Volusia County and that means pregnant cats are everywhere. Male cats are out and about traveling longer distances to impregnate as many females as they can.

Exxon profits this spring were $11 billion in three months. With gas prices at record numbers and the average family cost to fill a minivan at $70, why are the Republicans still fighting to keep the subsidies for oil companies?

DAYTONA BEACH -- The first drowning of 2011 occurred Thursday when a 52-year-old man wading in shallow waters stumbled and drowned in what was a calm surf, the Volusia County Beach Patrol said.

Beach Patrol officials were unclear what may have caused Mark Howe to drown in the 5:20 p.m. incident near the Zelda Boulevard Beach ramp with no major rip currents reported. Alcohol or a medical condition may have been factors, Beach Patrol spokeswoman Tammy Marris said. The drowning victim had lived nearby.

Courtesy graphic / The National Weather Service in Melbourne shows temps today will continue in the low 90s with no rain relief in sight until Thursday.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Today is the first day of summer with no rain in sight until Thursday at the earliest with the threat of continuing wild fires the new reality.

NSBNews.net file photo / With municipal budget season around the corner, New Smyrna Beach City Attorney Frank Gummey's annual pay is being called into question.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Realtor Bill Roe has caused a stir with his questioning of the $188,000 salary paid to City Attorney Frank Gummey. Roe, principal owner of Ocean Properties in New Smyrna Beach and a blogger for NSBNews.net, contacted WFTV, which portrayed him as a "tax watchdog" in a story and video package posted Tuesday on its website.