Florida, Daytona Beach | featured news

INDIANAPOLIS — A new rules package for Indianapolis Motor Speedway provided visibility issues for drivers. More troubling for NASCAR, though, is that after nearly five hours of practice Friday, there was little indication the changes will produce better racing.
NASCAR, in its effort to improve the on-track product, is using four track-specific aerodynamic packages to see what could be a better fit for the heavy stock cars.

DELAND -- Four consecutive tournaments to open the season and 10 home matches, including eight matches televised live on ESPN3, highlight the 2015 Stetson University volleyball schedule, which was released Friday.
The Hatters will open the season the weekend of Aug. 28-29 at the FAU Invitational in Boca Raton. Stetson will then travel to Starkville, Mississippi, to participate in the Mississippi State Maroon Classic on Sept. 4-5.
The squad returns home the following weekend to host the Stetson Invitational. The Hatters will host both FIU and Mercer on Sept.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Embry-Riddle men's basketball will start its transition to NCAA II with a bang, taking a two-week trip to Australia at the beginning of August. The NCAA allows teams to take an international trip once every four years, an opportunity the Eagles will be taking advantage of, playing seven games Down Under.
"This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that we get to enjoy with our basketball family," ERAU head coach Steve Ridder said.

This is an installment of “Live, Life, Local,” an occasional series highlighting unique things to do and places to go in Volusia and Flagler counties.Valerie Stanley eagerly picked up her cell phone and hoped for good news. It was after 9 p.m. and the call from a park scout on the beach would confirm whether a sea turtle had arrived at Canaveral National Seashore to lay her eggs.Stanley’s voice perked up at the news that a giant loggerhead had crawled onto shore.

ORMOND BEACH — Shyvonkia Tomlinson and her 7-year-old daughter, Olivia, splashed in the newly expanded Volusia Flagler YMCA pool this week, relieved to have an oasis to escape the blazing summer heat.“We waited all summer for this. I love the (new) amenities,” Tomlinson said.After being closed since February, the Olympic-sized swimming pool at the Ormond Beach branch reopened July 17. The reopening of the pool marks the completion of the first phase of a $5 million planned renovation of the facility on Sterthaus Drive.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH - On Sunday, a group of surfing enthusiasts will celebrate the one-year anniversary of the opening of a temporary museum here displaying the sport's rich regional history. At the same time, board members from the New Smyrna Beach Museum of East Coast Surfing are still "regrouping" after their efforts to open a more permanent location took a hit when $175,000 set aside for the project was among Gov. Rick Scott 's roughly $461 million in line-item vetoes last month in the state budget.

Staffers at The Daytona Beach News-Journal earned six awards in the annual Florida Society of News Editors' journalism contest.Scott Kent, opinion page editor, won first place for editorials for a collection of work about Halifax Health paying $85 million to settle a lawsuit claiming it improperly billed Medicare, about former Daytona Beach City Commissioner Carl Lentz receiving a trespass warning at an adult entertainment establishment, and about backyard gun ranges.Kent also won third place for a collection of columns.Enterprise reporter Skyler Swisher took home a second-place award in

COUNTY JAIL DOCKET (The following people were booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail on felony charges yet to be proven in court.): Sanmeshia L. Johnson, 27, DeLand, child abuse, domestic battery by strangulation; Luther Lee Luke Jr., 46, Daytona Beach Shores, failure to appear; Shawn R. Johnson, 25, Daytona Beach, burglary of a dwelling; Patrick J. Robinson, 48, Metter, Georgia, battery on a law enforcement officer; Redonda Scott, 27, Port Orange, burglary with assault or battery; Jessica Grace Johnson, 31, Bunnell, court violation (4); Lenzi M.

A 2-year-old was taken to a hospital after being pulled from a pond in Ormond Beach, according to police radio chatter.Emergency crews received the call shortly after 6:30 p.m. Friday about a toddler in cardiac arrest after having been pulled from a pond in The Falls subdivision, according to the chatter.Police arrived at the home on Rainbow Falls Drive where the child was being given CPR, according to the chatter.The Falls is a senior community located off Clyde Morris Boulevard.No additional information was immediately available. Check back for updates. 

The Flagler County Sheriff's Office is asking for the public's help in finding an 86-year-old Palm Coast man who suffers from dementia, an official said.Daniel W.