Local News Now

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Whether you’re trying to navigate the Internet or still looking for the computer’s on/off switch, the New Smyrna Beach Regional Library has beginner computer classes that can help you find your way, says Pat Kuehn, Volusia County spokeswoman.

Discover everything you always wanted to know about e-mail at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 4. Participants will learn how to get a free e-mail address, compose e-mails, and add pictures and documents to their e-mails.

Photos by Sandi Carroll. Josh Garrick, left, and Qurentia Throm, right, have been chosen as jurors for the 33rd annual IMAGES: A Festival of the Arts, which will be held Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 in downtown New Smyrna Beach.

Fraudulent Lottery and Sweepstakes Winning Notifications

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- During the past year, the New Smyrna Beach Police Department has received numerous complaints from our citizens who have received e-mails and postal letters claiming
winnings have been reserved for those receiving notification they won a lottery or sweepstakes, said police Detective Tony Ford.

"The Crime Prevention Office would like to caution those who receive such notifications, before you follow the instructions outlined in the notification, do

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The New Smyrna Beach Regional Library and RadioShack will host a free seminar to help local residents prepare for the digital television (DTV)
transition from 10:30 - 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 24, said Pat Kuehn, Volusia County spokeswoman.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Walter Henry Glenn, founder of the North Bridge Yacht Club in New Smyrna Beach, which now boasts 567 members, died unexpectedly at his New Smyrna Beach home Sunday, Jan. 11, 2009. He was 72 years old.

Born in Concord, N.C., Glenn came to this area in 1992 from Tampa. He was a 1955 graduate of Greenville (South Carolina) High School, and a 1959 graduate of the University of Georgia, where he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity and pitcher for the varsity baseball team, holding the record for the school's second lowest earned run average.

Vela Marie Ryle, 54, of New Smyrna Beach, a former project manager in the information-technology industry, died Sunday, Jan. 18, 2009.

Thomas John O'Hara, 88, Nof ew Smyrna Beach, former owner/operator of a commercial moving business, died Sunday, Jan. 18, 2009.

Ruth I. Fairbanks, 89, of Edgewater, a former clerical secretary for the Volusia County Department of Elections, died Saturday, Jan. 17, 2009.

Courtesy photo. A stretch of U.S. was closed for an hour this afternnon so firefighters could put out a brush fire just north of the police station.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A brush fire this afternoon consumed 1.5 acres on the east side of U.S. 1 just north of the New Smyrna Beach Police Department and forced a stretch of the roadway closed while firefighters battled the blaze.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- A $350,000 boat was destroyed by fire late Sunday at 100 Lincoln Avenue, the New Smyrna Beach Fire Department reported.

Firefighters were dispatched at 8:23 p.m. and arrived within four minutes. The large craft was suspended on a boatlift upon fire departments arrival with the fire visible in the rear area of the fiberglass boat, owned by Steve Dougherty.

OAK HILL -- A 34-year-old Oak Hill man was arrested Monday night after a woman came forward over the weekend with allegations she was raped and sexually molested 16 years ago by the accused when she was 9 years old.

Oak Hill police Chief Guy Grasso said the victim came forward after all this time, telling Sgt. Robert Walker that the unwanted sexual activity by the then 18- to 20-year-old attacker between 1993 and 1994, was now causing problems in her marriage.

"She was very brave," Grasso said this afternoon. "A lot of this stuff goes on and a lot of it is unreported."

I'll bet some of you were thinking when you saw the passengers being pulled from the wrecked U.S. Airways jet in the Hudson River that you would probably never fly again. I have a different viewpoint.

The day before the Hudson incident, I was talking to a friend who told me that she always flies Delta, but no flights were available so she recently came from Connecticut to Charlotte, N.C., where she would change planes for the final leg to Orlando via U.S.Airways.