Local News Now

Besides $8,050 in missing or stolen cash, more than 900 other items unaccounted for include guns, ammo, drugs, electronics, jewelry & automobiles

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- While City Manager Pam Brangaccio was fully aware that more than 900 items were missing from the police department's evidence room well before an after-hours press release last month, Headline Surfer has learned she entered into a secret agreement back in October with then-Police Chief Ron Pagano that had him retire at year's end, only to continue to pocket more than $67,000 he didn't even earn.

ORLANDO -- The Orlando Magic will open the 2013 preseason at Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville on Oct. 9 against New Orleans.

The Tip-off is 7 p.m. for the Wednesday game.  This marks the third time that the Orlando Magic have played a preseason game in Jacksonville, with their last trip coming in 2008.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Does the high price of movies have you down? Watch some of the year’s most popular films at the New Smyrna Beach Regional Library. It won’t cost you a dime.

Headline Surfer graphics / The crash of a van into a neighbor's home early Wednesday was the freshest news in the Google News Directories for Orlando as shown in the snapshot graphics at left and below.

ORLANDO -- Headline Surfer demonstrated once again why it truly is the 24/7 internet newspaper, picking up a bizarre motor vehicle crash early this morning under cover while the much bigger media outlets were asleep.

The brief story, headlined, "Florida Highway Patrol: Orlando man falls asleep at wheel of new Dodge Caravan; crashes into neighbor's garage," was filed just after 5 a.m. and picked by by the Google News Directories within 5 minutes where it was trending online as the freshest offering.

Photo for Headline Surfer / Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University President John Johnson, shown at front-center, announces partnership with Diamond Aircraft Industries that will allow for the manugfacturer to have a presence in Daytona Beach. Behind Johnson is Gov. Rick Scott.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Today at the 50th Annual International Paris Air Show, Gov. Rick Scott and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University officials announced that its president, John Johnson, and Diamond Aircraft Industries' CEO and owner Christian Dries, signed a partnership agreement that will establish the global manufacturer's presence at the Daytona Beach campus.

Headline Surfer videos  / Mike Catchings of Lake Mary was the lone biker in the empty lot at Pub 44 as opening night of Biketoberfest 2011 came to a sad conclusion. The local Cheapthrills Band plays a Chris Isaak '80s classic, "Wicked Game," to a handful of bikers earlier in the evening at the bar.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Biketoberfest 2011 was quieter than a lawn mower on the first night of the four-day weekend at what was soon to be an extinct Pub 44. Just after midnight there were three Harleys in the parking lot and one bicycle.

2010's Biketoberfest recession was 2011's depression, at least through the first 24 hours at what for the last couple of decades or so has been the ground zero in Southeast Volusia for bikers, babes and booze.

Headline Surfer graphic / A topless woman interrupting traffic at the intersection of South Orange and West Euclid avenues, as shown here at left in this snapshot locator map, was taken into custody in the bizarre incident back in April 2008.

DeLAND -- Motorists in the vicinity of a well-travelled certainly got an eyeful on a mid-April morning five years ago, when traffic flow was interrupted by a woman walking around topless, DeLand cops said.

Police received a number of calls about the 30-year-old woman's state of undress at the intersection South Orange and West Euclid avenues during the mid-morning hours of April 18, 2008. 

Police received a number of calls about the 30-year-old woman's state of undress at the intersection South Orange and West Euclid avenues during the mid-morning hours of April 18, 2008. 

Photos for Headline Surfer /

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Father's Day is bittersweet for Mark Severance, a New Smyrna Beach police officer and retired Marine.

"Father's Day (June 15,1986) our son, 'Kyle David Severance,' was born at the Naval Hospital, Marine Corps Air Station, Cherry Point, NC," the elder Severance wrote on his Facebook page.