Daytona Beach, Volusia County | featured news

TALLAHASSEE - The Florida Legislature will hold a nearly two-week special session in August to draw up new congressional districts.House Speaker Steve Crisafulli and Senate President Andy Gardiner announced Monday that the special session will last from Aug. 10 until Aug. 21.The state Supreme Court earlier this month threw out the state's existing districts.

HEY, WILLIE!Your recent comment, suggesting you looked forward to being “boogity-free,” was sarcastic, juvenile and vacuous. Darrell Waltrip possesses the credentials, knowledge and experience to provide a reason and insight into everything happening on the track. Several hours of listening to Mr. Waltrip is so much easier to take than the brief few minutes necessary to read your printed word.TOM IN INDIANAHEY, TOM!Sarcastic and juvenile: Guilty as charged. But vacuous? That one stings.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -Read-Pattillo Elementary School received the Family and Community Involvement award from Florida Commissioner of Education Pam Stewart and Florida Parent Teacher Association President Mindy Haas last week during the Florida PTA convention in Tampa. The award recognizes family and community involvement programs from across the state that focus on welcoming families into the local school system, communicating effectively, supporting students and promoting collaboration, according to a press release from the Florida Department of Education.

Tip of the WeekUtilities switched, moving truck reserved, new domicile secured, boxes packed - as you work through your moving checklist, are you forgetting something? Have you taken steps to make the move as easy as possible for the only family member who has no say about your relocation: the family pet? While pets add an element to any move, it doesn't have to be a stressful one, for you or your pet.

A DeBary tattoo artist contracted to do a job at an apartment in DeLand was robbed by his client and his cohorts, police said.Marc Phillips, 28, ran from the apartment at 727 W. New York Ave. about 12:50 a.m. Sunday and showed up at a resident's front door covered in shaving cream, DeLand police said.Police did not immediately know why Phillips was covered in shaving cream, said Sgt.

I got an IOU for my birthday that made me pretty happy. It came in the form of a printout of the cover of the new Harper Lee book, “Go Set a Watchman.’’Lee’s previous book, “To Kill A Mockingbird,’’ is my all time favorite so I’m looking forward to the new one, set after the time of the original work and told in the voice of Atticus Finch’s daughter, Scout.The gift was from a BFF.

PALM COAST - The revamped Flagler County Sheriff's Office Operations Center will be completed by the end of August and county officials said construction crews should also reach the midway point next month in their mission to build a new county jail.Flagler County engineer Faith Alkhatib, who is overseeing both multimillion-dollar projects, estimated that the new operations center is three-quarters of the way done, while the jail is at least 30 percent completed.

Football remains the unrivaled king of Florida's varsity sports in the fall.But as school starts next month, five other sports — bowling, cross country, golf, swimming/diving and volleyball — kick off their respective seasons.Last season, two volleyball teams made school history in their runs to the Final Four and a handful of other athletes advanced all the way to states.Here are five things to watch from the five, non-football fall sports.Taylor's title hopesThe Wildcats played for a championship for the first time last season, losing the Class 1A title game to Sneads.Led by All-

Volusia County has got talent as well as a rare kind of harmony.Of the "10 Best Tenors of All Time," as selected by The Harmonizer magazine of the Barbershop Harmony Society, two of them just so happen to live within a short drive of each other in West Volusia.Eddy Ryan, 75, of DeBary, and Kent Martin, 72, of Lake Helen, made the elite list, the selection of which the magazine acknowledged as "an impossible task" that involved "several rounds of voting" and "passionate discussion" by "an illustrious, all-star voting panel" of members from the s

DAYTONA BEACH - Mori Hosseini, CEO of Intervest Construction Inc., also known as ICI Homes, has transferred ownership of his company's headquarters building to a new business entity that he also owns.The building at 2379 Beville Road in Daytona Beach was recently sold to Intervest Construction Industries LLC for more than $3.3 million, according to Volusia County property records.