Volusia News Now

City Manager Pam Brangaccio tells angry citizens: 'You're in my house'

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Mayor Adam Barringer stood front and center before 500 strong Thursday night at the Brannon Center, promising their taxes would go down if they were willing to incorporate. But within a matter of minutes an angry citizen shot out that he actually checked that out earlier in the day and was told his taxes would actually go up.

Photo for Headline Surfer / Amy Sue Root as shown in 2008 before her accident.

EDGEWATER -- A yard-sale fundraiser is being held Friday, Saturday and Sunday to help provide care for Amy Sue Root, the little girl struck by a motor vehicle while riding her scooter.

The fundraiser is scheduled from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. all three days at 3207 Silver Palm Drive, rain or shine.

Amy Sue Root was just 8 years old when she was struck by a truck while riding her Razor scooter in her Edgewater neighborhood on Jan. 24, 2010.

By Ellen Darden

NEW SMRNA BEACH -- “If we are to survive as a democratic nation . . .” These words, taken directly from a letter to the Editor of the Daytona Beach News Journal published on May 7, 2013, was the proverbial straw that broke this camel’s back.

Mother Nature should be more cooperative on weekend

Photos / Facebook Fan Page / Balloon Fest /

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The opening night of the New Smyrna Beach   Balloon & Sky Fest has been grounded due to rainy weather. The message on the event's Facebook fan page said it all: "No magic by moonlight tonight. Night show has been cancelled."

ORMOND BEACH — The City Commission has given the green light to the building of two new Sunoco gas stations: A 12-pump gas and serve at 3 N. Yonge St., also known as US 1, and the other, a 16-pump facility on Granada Boulevard near I-95.

By Douglas Gibson

OAK HILL -- Anytime children are killed, and especially when their lives are taken by a deranged individual using a gun like what happened with the massacre in Connecticut, we feel outrage, we feel the pain and we want this to never happen again. But we know all too well it's going to be repeated again and again like we saw with Columbine and others.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Ford Motor Company and Mullinax Ford are offering New Smyrna Beach High School the opportunity to raise $8,000 with their annual test drive program on Saturday. Members of the community can earn money for NSBHS by simply test-driving a new Ford at the school from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For each person who takes a Ford for a spin during the "Ford Drive One 4UR School" event, Ford Motor Company will donate $20 to New Smyrna Beach High School for up to 300 drivers. Mullinax Ford will donate an additional $2,000 for an additional 100 drivers -- 400 Drivers equals $8,000. What a deal!

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Ray Catheline is leading a community fundraiser today for Cudas Unhooked, which helps homeless children and their families.

The third annual Cuts for Cudas will be held 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on South Orange Street, just off Canal street. This program means a lot to Catheline, his wife, Misty, and the many volunteers working with him by offering haircuits, a silent auction, lemonade and snacks for the cause.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Was Washington, D.C., holding its breath in December 2012, hoping the hype about the Mayan Calendar prediction was true and there would be thus no need to address the fiscal cliff and sequestration?

Alas, the world did not come to an end, and one more imagined disaster that grabbed the imagination of the gullible, as did global cooling and, now, it appears, global warming, did not happen.