Keith_Landry's Blog

I have serious concerns about our coastline in Brevard County after Fay.  Officials say the storm swept away four feet of sand off the beach.  The dip in the level of sand is astonishing.  It could really keep some folks from spending a day at the beach and spending their money in Brevard County.

What should Brevard County do about beach erosion and how does it get folks to keep visiting the beaches despite erosion?  Blog your thoughts here.

You may have heard that a Florida court ruled this past week that Amendment Five is too vague.  It's a ballot question for voters to consider in the November election.  Some call it the "tax swap' amendment, but a judge said it was too vague.

I voted this week on a Sanford ballot question that proposed a change to the city charter.  The question did not even say what you are voting on- no reference at all to the actual issues at stake.  It just referred to section numbers of the Sanford charter.  The voter has no clue what they are voting on or even what the topic is.  It was stunning to me.

What do you think about vague language on ballot questions?  Do politicians purposely write the questions vaguely to confuse you?  Blog it here.

Orlando police have assigned a detective to work the Jennifer Kesse missing persons case full time.  She vanished more than two and one half years ago.  More than 950 tips have come in since then, and they've all been entered into a database. 

Now a detective will go back over those tips, looking for clues that may have been missed. He will also follow up on new tips from a network TV special that recently aired on the Kesse case.

I think it's commendable that the police are willing to go back to the basics and revisit everything in this case.  What are your thoughts?  Blog them here.

Florida has had a long running debate over what we should teach our young people at school, when it comes to sex.  Some say we should only teach abstinence to young people.  Others say we should teach safe sex and the use of contraception.

The ACLU will move this week to push the Volusia County School District to teach safe sex and contraception instead of abstinence.  What do you think?  Blog it here.

Oil prices have fallen almost sixteen dollars a barrel over the last week.  This was the largest weekly drop ever for the price of a barrel of oil.  What about gas prices?  They've dipped a few pennies a gallon.

What about that?  Crude oil tumbles but gas prices come down just a little bit.  Analysts say it's because the gas you're getting now was bought a week or two ago when the prices were high, and since stations paid more for it, they'll sell it for more.  Analysts also admit the stations tend to keep the prices high before finally lowering them.

What do you think about that?  Blog it here.

Today I covered flooding in downtown Deland at New York and Florida.  It floods regularly during the heaviest rains.  Almost four feet of standing water Monday night and almost two feet of standing water at the intersection Tuesday evening.  Several cars stalled out in the water each night.

Why do people drive into standing water or flood waters?  Blog it here.

Kem McNair has been taking photos of surfers for ten years along New Smyrna Beach. The local photographer and artist uses a camera which snaps six photos per second. He says he was surprised on July 3rd when he snapped three amazing photos in one second, which are quickly gaining popularity around the world.

McNair claims he was taking photos of a surfer near Ponce Inlet, when he captured a shark jumping out of the water and twisting. Locals call them spinner sharks. Surfers and fishermen say theyve seen the sharks jumping out of the water, some of them spinning, for years, but no one knows why they do it.

McNair says there were twenty witnesses, a buddy and some surfers, who also saw the shark jump and saw his photos right after he took them.

McNair knows that some bloggers are casting doubts on the photos after seeing them online. They say the photos are doctored or he used PhotoShop.

We interviewed Bill Habich, a marine biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission. He's an expert on sharks. Habich says years ago he saw a shark jump out of the water while he was fishing near Sebastian Inlet.

Habich says thresher sharks, spinner sharks and black tips sharks all live off the coast of Florida and all jump. Habich says black tips are the most likely to jump and spin. He tells us he's ninety percent sure that the shark in McNair's photo is a black tip shark. He says black tip sharks are stockier than spinner sharks, and black tips tend to come closer to shore than spinners do.

What do you think about the Kem McNairs photos? Join our blog on this story and share your thoughts.

Visit www.KemMcNair.com for more information.

A fourteen year old boy gets shot overnight in Daytona Beach.  He was in a car around midnight, when there was an argument with people in another car.  The people in the second car alledgedly fired four shots and he was hit twice.

What are your thoughts on people resorting to violence so quickly when there's a disagreement?  What are your thoughts on a fourteen year old being out at midnight?

Blog it all here.

I am working on a story in Daytona Beach about four teens spotted in a subdivision early in the morning on July 4th.  They were casing the neighborhood, checking house and car doors to see if any were unlocked.

One homeowner captured them on tape on his home security system.  You see four young men, possibly teen lurking in the dark.  The young suspects realized they were caught on tape and ripped out the security camera, but they were already recorded on tape.

What do you know about home security systems?  Do you recommend certain types?  Do you have stories of crooks caught on home security or buiness security cameras?  Blog your thoughts here.