NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Just three days after Volusia County Council seat 3 candidate Jim Hathaway complained that fellow candidate Justin Kennedy was getting a free pass regarding his personal finances, an anonymous e-mail was sent to media outlets with dirt on the Edgewater councilman.

Hathaway had complained that Headline Surfer had allowed Kennedy to take the New Smyrna Beach commissioner to task because Hathaway allowed Robert Lott to campaign for him during the Edgewater Expo.

"Why don't you report on his bankruptcy and his foreclosures," Hathaway implored the New Smyrna Beach-based Internet newspaper. Hathaway also pointed out that Kennedy's financial issues could be read by logging onto clerk.org, which is the website for lawsuits and other legal matters with the clerk of the circuit court for Volusia County. That was a week ago Friday.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Daytona Beach cops are currently investigating a suspicious incident where a meth lab may have been located in the 900 block of Atlantic Avenue on the beachside.

The incident began to unfold around 7 a.m. after emergency workers were summoned to 900 S Atlantic Avenue (near apartment 4) to investigate a "chemical smell."

"Officers arrived on scene and located what appeared to be an active meth lab," Daytona Beach police Detective John Creamer said.

OAK HILL -- A 5-acre brush fire was extinguished tonight after an alert motorist on Interstate 95 alerted authorities with a 9-1-1 call.

"The passerby who was southbound on I-95 near Maytown Road saw smoke and a glow," Volusia County Sheriff's Sgt. Ted Richard said of the 9:48 p.m. Sunday fire.

Firefighters from the county, Edgewater and the state Forestry Service responded and put the fire out. Traffic on I-95 was not impeded.

Here is what we're working on today for you:

"Daytona's PD's Internal Affairs: Segment 2 of our investigative report continues with yet another woman cop whose life was turned upside down by Jim Newcomb, shown at left, promoted less than two weeks ago to captain by Police Chief Mike Chitwood. Our first segment looked at the case of woman cop, Kelly Fishpaugh, who was taunted for more than a year by Newcomb with insinuations she was pregnant when she wasn't and pressuring her to arrange for him to get with her sister, who worked in a bar with a skimpy bikini as a beer tub gal. Today's segment tells the story of lesbian woman cop Sarah Martin, who lost her job after an extensive internal affairs investigation by Newcomb that led to her being fired. Two years later she was brought back

Capt. Jim Newcomb, shown here, is now the third ranking administrator in the Daytona Beach police force, despite a checkered past that includes verbal abuse.

DAYTONA BEACH -- For more than a year, Daytona Beach cop Kelly Fishpaugh endured taunting from then-Sgt. Jim Newcomb who continually asked her how her pregnancy was going despite the fact she wasn't pregnant. The taunting lasted more than a year.

Newcomb was also responsible for a lesbian cop being fired after she rejected overtures of another woman who made allegations that weren't substantiated. The cop, who had no disciplinary record until the bogus incident, finally got her job back two years later. Despite these and a host of other issues, Newcomb was promoted just a week ago Monday by Chief Mike Chitwood to the rank of captain and that has the police union up in arms.

Kyle Sikora played for Miami's Florida Christian

DELAND -- Kyle Sikora only averaged 1.5 points and 1.8 rebounds per game for Michigan's Oakland University, but Stetson University men's basketball coach Casey Alexander likes his size. Sikora is a 7-footer who weighs 240 pounds.

“We’re really excited that Kyle chose Stetson,” Alexander said. “His size and skill level is perfect for our offensive system and his presence in the paint will mean a lot for the future of this program.”

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- I am a child of the Great Depression. I was a mere 4 years old when it ended a couple years after after Germany's 1939 invasion of Poland. When I came into the world in 1935, six years had already passed since the New York stock market crash of 1929, that sent seismic shocks around the world for a decade. Rations were part of my youth in Cincinnati before my family moved to New Smyrna Beach where I started my high school years. Are we destined now to repeat history?

OAK HILL -- Now that its almost the end of the school year, people need to reflect on how well Burns Sci-Tech. Charter School has done. We have won awards for the best school, our teachers have gotten the Crystal Apple award for excellence, and we have almost 100 kids on the waiting list for next year.

Photo for Headline Surfer /

DELTONA -- Rich Gailey loves God, his family and his country. And like many of you struggling to make ends meet in this entrenched recession, he's grown tired and weary of paying taxes and seeing from his vantage point diminishing returns in the Southwest Volusia community he and his wife and children call home.

That's why Gailey's running for the district 5 seat on the Volusia County Council.