Volusia County | featured news

PALM COAST — The case against Flagler County Sheriff Jim Manfre, accused of using an agency credit card and vehicle for personal business and other violations, is scheduled to go before the Florida Commission on Ethics in Tallahassee on Friday.Manfre faces no criminal penalty; the allegations are civil in nature.The hearing is being held in spite of previous efforts by Manfre and his attorney to reach a resolution in the case.

BUNNELL — Two more state ethics complaints have been filed against Flagler County government officials.Flagler County Attorney Al Hadeed told county commissioners this week that he and Commissioner Nate McLaughlin are named in the latest round of complaints. Hadeed said the complaint against McLaughlin was filed with the Florida Commission on Ethics, while the complaint against him was lodged with the Florida Bar.The complaints represent the second wave filed against Hadeed and a county commissioner in recent weeks.

SURF, PIERS: It happens every July and puts a hindrance on surf fishing. The phenomenon is known as upwelling. It is a process by which warm, less-dense surface water is drawn away from along our shore by currents and replaced by cold, denser water brought up from the subsurface. Water temperatures have dived from the low 80-degree mark to the 60s on some days. “It’s put a real damper on the surf fishing,” said Tom Farnham at Your Rod & Reel in Daytona Beach Shores.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - The Chattanooga gunman who killed five U.S. troops acted alone without help from anyone else, and investigators are treating him as a "homegrown violent extremist," the FBI said Wednesday.
However, it is too early to determine whether Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez was "radicalized" before the attacks at two military sites, said Ed Reinhold, the FBI's special agent in charge in Knoxville.
For the first time, officials provided a rough timeline of what happened at the second facility the 24-year-old attacked.

DAYTONA BEACH - Investigators are looking for a 24-year-old man they say beat his girlfriend about the face to the point where she could not open her eyes to fill out a statement against him.Charles Bailey punched 27-year-old Angelica Hooper repeatedly while she lay in bed Wednesday morning, police said. He also threatened Hooper with a gun and tried to strangle her, according to a Daytona Beach police incident report.Hooper was in bed about 2 a.m. when Bailey began accusing her of cheating on him, police said.

The weatherman may still be peppering his talk with summertime warnings of the heat index and thunderstorms. But the sight of helmets and shoulder pads hint at the promise of autumn.The first NFL preseason camps opened this week and within the next week will be in full swelter. The daily dispatches will come from Flowery Branch, White Sulphur Springs, Napa, Latrobe and other outposts. And more than any year in memory, our area is well represented in a variety of those training camps — represented by proven stars, projected stars and, of course, rookies hoping for a shot.

DAYTONA BEACH - Consolidated-Tomoka Land Co.

PORT ORANGE - Street-corner sign holders who stand on city sidewalks have a trial period regulate themselves instead of official rules to follow.In two votes Tuesday that followed a debate about people paid to hold advertising signs, the City Council agreed to give businesses time to regulate themselves. The trial period will end Nov. 18. A city evaluation will follow.Resident Newton White - spokesman of a committee tasked by the council in May to come up with proposed suggestions for regulating the sign holders - presented council members with guidelines.

COUNTY JAIL DOCKETDaren Day, 26, Flagler Beach, grand theft auto; Fred Demesmin, 21, Palm Coast, carrying concealed weapon, resisting arrest without violence, criminal mischief, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon; Melody English, 41, Holly Hill, possession of a controlled substance without a prescription, possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia; Daniel Garcia, 34, Palm Coast, child abuse, petit theft, tampering with a witness, felony criminal mischief-burglary, grand theft auto, battery domestic violence, battery; Tiffany Goss, 26, Daytona Beach, violation of proba

Guitar virtuoso Richard Smith will take the stage Saturday night at the Lohman Auditorium at the Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience in Marineland as part of the Gamble Rogers Festival Concert Series.Smith, originally from England and now living in Nashville, was the 2001 National Finger Style Guitar champion and winner of many more similar awards, according to Paul Linser, president of the Gamble Rogers Folk Festival."We are extremely fortunate to get him on a tour swing through Florida," said Linser.