Volusia County | featured news

A flashy red Corvette is drawing attention to the boys in blue.Dennis Manire drives his replica of a 1963 Grand Sport Corvette to advertise for the American Police Hall of Fame & Museum at 6350 Horizon Drive in Titusville. A memorial at the museum lists 7,600 names of officers who have died in the line of duty since 1960.

Motorists in the Ormond Beach area can expect detours at railway crossings on Granada Boulevard (State Road 40) during reconstruction work, an official said.The detours on eastbound Granada Boulevard will be at North Nova Road and South U.S. 1, Florida Department of Transportation spokeswoman Jennifer Horton said. The detours on westbound Granada Boulevard will be at South Nova Road and North U.S. 1.The detours will be in place from 6 a.m. Saturday through Monday night, Horton said.Florida East Coast Railway will be replacing the current crossing surfaces, Horton said.

For New Smyrna Beach residents Frank and Ellen Darden, John Smoltz is much more than just a pitcher.Smoltz, who will be inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday, married the Darden's daughter, Kathryn, in 2009.Frank grew up in Titusville and met Ellen at the University of Florida. Both taught for a few years in the early '70s before moving away, then relocating to NSB in 2004.For John and Kathryn, it's their second marriage John has four kids and Kathryn has two from their first marriages.

FLAGLER BEACH — No sale. That’s the word from the owner of a 2.94-acre property that city officials were hoping to buy.The parcel adjoins the 34-acre Ocean Palm Golf Course property at the city’s south end. City officials hope to reopen the course, which closed in 2008, with a third party developing and operating it.But two of the three interested parties have said they need the parcel the city does not own to open a driving range, an important source of income.The county has appraised the parcel, owned by Caribbean Condominium LLC, at $75,000.

DETROIT - Fiat Chrysler has decided to recall about 1.4 million cars and trucks in the U.S. just days after two hackers revealed that they took control of a Jeep Cherokee SUV over the Internet.The company also disclosed in government documents that the hackers got into the Jeep through an electronic opening in the radio and said it would update software to close it.

DAYTONA BEACH SHORES - The United Way's Women's Initiative of Volusia will hold its 12th annual "Power of the Purse" luncheon on Aug. 7 at The Shores Resort & Spa.The event, which begins at 11 a.m.

FLAGLER BEACH - This city's iconic pier is not the longest or oldest in the Sunshine State, but Thursday night it was one of the busiest.Nearly 450 people packed the Flagler Beach landmark for the Flagler County Chamber of Commerce's "Peers at the Pier" event.“This is our second one,” Rebecca DeLorenzo, chamber president and CEO, said of the annual event.

ORMOND BEACH - A company that arranges for Brazilian students to live and study in the United States has opened an office in Ormond Beach as the headquarters for its U.S.

DAYTONA BEACH - With three smash-and-grab burglaries this month and the theft of an ATM in one of the heists, police Chief Mike Chitwood fears at least one of the suspects who embarked on a similar crime spree in 2011 has resurfaced.At least two similar capers have occurred in Flagler County as well, Flagler County sheriff's officials said Friday.Four years ago several businesses in the city were burglarized by a band of four thieves whose specialty included crashing stolen Dodge trucks through glass doors at various businesses and hauling off the ATMs, 

News accounts Thursday reported on the “demolition of the large and iconic” sign in front of Daytona International Speedway, and I know what you're thinking . . .Iconic? Aren't we lowering the bar on icons?Can something be iconic if it was, you know, erected during the Clinton Administration?The tri-oval design of the track? Iconic, you could say. Lake Lloyd? Borderline iconic - they filled in about a third of it several years ago to add RV spots, and you don't do that to icons, so maybe it's not iconic. The Turn 4 tunnels? Now, those are iconic.