Saint James City man sentenced to 5 years for possessing child sexual abuse materialSword-wielding Cape Coral man accused of threatening person with Molotov Cocktail
SAINT JAMES CITY Saint James City man sentenced to 5 years for possessing child sexual abuse material A St. James City man has been sentenced to five years for possessing images and videos depicting the sexual abuse of children.
CAPE CORAL Sword-wielding Cape Coral man accused of threatening person with Molotov Cocktail The Cape Coral Police Department arrested a man who allegedly threatened another person with a sword and Molotov Cocktail.
PORT CHARLOTTE Tampa Bay Rays announces spring training season in Port Charlotte The Tampa Bay Rays have announced spring training ticket information for the 2025 spring season in Port Charlotte.
Fort Myers Job Fair set to begin; on-site interviews and offers possible The Fort Myes Job Fair is set to begin, with over 100 openings available from various employers.
the weather authority Tracking rain and storms for your Wednesday afternoon The Weather Authority is tracking a strong cold front along with rain and storms throughout your Wednesday afternoon.
Man arrested following intense vehicle pursuit; accused of shooting into pregnant girlfriend’s home The Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office arrested a man accused of shooting into his pregnant girlfriend’s home and leading law enforcement through a multi-county pursuit.
Vehicle pursuit in Charlotte County ends in crash A pursuit between the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office and a vehicle on Interstate 75 ended in a crash.
Red tide looms off Southwest Florida coastline Beware of the beach! Red tide is making its way towards Southwest Florida once again.
FORT MYERS BEACH $1.2 million approved for repairs for FMB and Sanibel schools This hurricane season left an expensive mess at Fort Myers Beach Elementary and the Sanibel school, but who’s paying the $1.2 million price tag?
FORT MYERS Teen carjacks woman after escaping mental health facility A teenager accused of carjacking a woman in a church parking lot on Friday had just escaped from a facility where he was being held under the Baker Act, according to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.
Teachers union raises issues with Lee County School District after arbitration Being a teacher is just like any other profession. Teachers need to take days off, get sick, and sometimes cover for co-workers.
LABELLE LaBelle Animal Shelter hoping to raise money to avoid property being sold The owner of Animal Rescue Inc. in LaBelle is doing everything she can to prevent the shelter from disappearing in a matter of months.
County settlement allows Links of Naples golf course to redevelop into homes Collier County residents are vocalizing their concerns over the commissioner’s decision to develop housing on the Naples Golf Course.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers mayor weighs in on possible city hall relocation With Lee Memorial Hospital scheduled to close in 2027, discussions over what will replace the building are in full swing and whether Fort Myers City Hall is the right choice.
Toys for Tots: A 77-Year tradition of service and holiday cheer Toys for Tots aims to bring gifts to children and their families who may not be able to afford them for the holidays.
SAINT JAMES CITY Saint James City man sentenced to 5 years for possessing child sexual abuse material A St. James City man has been sentenced to five years for possessing images and videos depicting the sexual abuse of children.
CAPE CORAL Sword-wielding Cape Coral man accused of threatening person with Molotov Cocktail The Cape Coral Police Department arrested a man who allegedly threatened another person with a sword and Molotov Cocktail.
PORT CHARLOTTE Tampa Bay Rays announces spring training season in Port Charlotte The Tampa Bay Rays have announced spring training ticket information for the 2025 spring season in Port Charlotte.
Fort Myers Job Fair set to begin; on-site interviews and offers possible The Fort Myes Job Fair is set to begin, with over 100 openings available from various employers.
the weather authority Tracking rain and storms for your Wednesday afternoon The Weather Authority is tracking a strong cold front along with rain and storms throughout your Wednesday afternoon.
Man arrested following intense vehicle pursuit; accused of shooting into pregnant girlfriend’s home The Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office arrested a man accused of shooting into his pregnant girlfriend’s home and leading law enforcement through a multi-county pursuit.
Vehicle pursuit in Charlotte County ends in crash A pursuit between the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office and a vehicle on Interstate 75 ended in a crash.
Red tide looms off Southwest Florida coastline Beware of the beach! Red tide is making its way towards Southwest Florida once again.
FORT MYERS BEACH $1.2 million approved for repairs for FMB and Sanibel schools This hurricane season left an expensive mess at Fort Myers Beach Elementary and the Sanibel school, but who’s paying the $1.2 million price tag?
FORT MYERS Teen carjacks woman after escaping mental health facility A teenager accused of carjacking a woman in a church parking lot on Friday had just escaped from a facility where he was being held under the Baker Act, according to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.
Teachers union raises issues with Lee County School District after arbitration Being a teacher is just like any other profession. Teachers need to take days off, get sick, and sometimes cover for co-workers.
LABELLE LaBelle Animal Shelter hoping to raise money to avoid property being sold The owner of Animal Rescue Inc. in LaBelle is doing everything she can to prevent the shelter from disappearing in a matter of months.
County settlement allows Links of Naples golf course to redevelop into homes Collier County residents are vocalizing their concerns over the commissioner’s decision to develop housing on the Naples Golf Course.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers mayor weighs in on possible city hall relocation With Lee Memorial Hospital scheduled to close in 2027, discussions over what will replace the building are in full swing and whether Fort Myers City Hall is the right choice.
Toys for Tots: A 77-Year tradition of service and holiday cheer Toys for Tots aims to bring gifts to children and their families who may not be able to afford them for the holidays.
NEW YORK (AP) – Corrections, mental health and law enforcement experts called Mayor Bill de Blasio’s $130 million plan to steer mentally ill and drug-addicted suspects to treatment instead of incarceration an encouraging first step toward repairing New York City’s broken jail system. But they cautioned that the ambitious plan de Blasio announced Tuesday, aimed largely at “frequent flier” suspects who repeatedly end up jailed on minor offenses because there is nowhere else for them to go, will face enormous challenges. “There’s a lot of moving parts there,” said Michael Thompson, director of the Council of State Governments Justice Center, a criminal justice nonprofit. “There’s a reason why this is difficult: You’re trying to do things at multiple points and you’re talking about a huge volume of people.” De Blasio’s proposed reforms are based on the recommendations of a task force he appointed following a series of reports by The Associated Press detailing problems at the city’s massive Rikers Island jail complex, including the deaths of two inmates suffering from serious mental illness. The changes include 36-hour training courses for police officers on how to identify and interact with people who have behavioral health issues, the creation of two drop-off treatment centers for low-level offenders and giving judges more leeway to order supervised release and treatment instead of jail. But those proposals generated concerns from some who wondered how the changes – many of them pilot programs that will be regularly tracked over the next year – will function in practice. “It’s definitely a positive step forward,” said Patrick Markee, director of Coalition for the Homeless Advocacy. “But the most important issue remains permanent affordable housing with support services and the real problem is we have a huge shortage of that kind of housing.” For Kenneth Dudek, president of Fountain House, a community center for 1,200 mentally ill people in midtown Manhattan, the decision to train 5,500 officers immediately with a 36-hour course and the entire 35,000 force later seemed, while encouraging, a bit daunting. “The 36-hour training piece is great but not nearly enough,” he said, noting that other police programs might be more effective, like one in Memphis, Tennessee, where specially trained units are called to all incidents involving the mentally ill. Norman Seabrook, president of the correction officers’ union, echoed that point, calling more training for guards an important tool but only if it was “credible training.” And Patrick Lynch, president of the rank-and-file police officers’ union, said that while he’s supportive of more training, his preference would be for the city to do a better job of keeping the mentally ill off of the streets altogether. De Blasio – who has dubbed the jails “de facto mental health facilities” – told reporters on Tuesday that while some jail reforms already implemented are beginning to show signs of progress, long-term changes will require more time to take root. “This is going to be a long process by definition, because it was not years, it was decades in the making, that’s how broken our correction system was,” he said. While the overall jail population has dropped in recent years, the ratio of those with a mental health diagnosis has soared to 40 percent of the roughly 11,000 daily inmates, up from 24 percent in 2007. A third of them suffer from serious mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and officials say the mentally ill are both more likely to be victims and perpetrators of jail violence. That’s compounded by the fact that 85 percent of all inmates have a substance abuse disorder. Jerome Murdough, a seriously mentally ill inmate who an official told the AP earlier this year “baked to death” in a cell that was 101 degrees after he was unable to make $2,500 bail on a misdemeanor trespassing charge, would likely have qualified for diversion had the program been in place in February, experts said. “It means a lot to me,” said his mother, Alma Murdough, “knowing that Jerome’s death was not in vain.”