ALVA Woodpeckers build home in Alva woman’s house You may have heard of squatters, but this woman is dealing with squawkers. Who needs a rooster to wake up when you have woodpeckers?
FORT MYERS Man claims he was trapped in a high-rise for 5 days A 77-year-old man wants justice after he claims he spent days trapped on the 24th floor of a high-rise apartment building.
PUNTA GORDA Charlotte Correctional prisoner arrested for death of another inmate State Attorney Amira Fox convened a grand jury, which decided to move forward with a case against a Charlotte Correctional inmate.
SANIBEL Construction near Dairy Queen eagle nest on Sanibel raises concerns While many eagle nests may be a bit difficult to see, one nest has always been a favorite for Sanibel residents and tourists.
The environmental effects of artificial sweeteners Experts are studying how the foods we eat affect the environment, especially after we flush our waste down the toilet.
Victim reacts to man exposing himself to her Ring camera You get a notification on your phone from your ring camera app that someone is at the door, only to find out it is someone exposing themselves. It’s the last thing victim Maria Kivi wanted or expected to see last week.
LEE COUNTY The art of capturing your eye and drawing you in How do you capture young, hip, trendy, fun, movers and shakers, all in a pose? We take you behind the scenes of a Gulfshore Life cover shoot.
FORT MYERS The lives of two SJC Boxers changed in the ring Two SJC Boxers, Mario Nunez and Arbon Kurtishi, help each other in the ring as each of them had their lives changed because of boxing.
FORT MYERS Chlamydia cases rising sharply in Lee County If you think about a crowded space- something with more than 250 people- if it’s in Lee county, statistically one person has chlamydia.
SANIBEL Sanibel resort day passes hope to get more business on the island A pass will allow vacationers to hang out at a Sanibel beach club for a day in hopes of drumming up some business.
Voting equipment tested ahead of Lee County elections Voting equipment is being tested in Lee County. This is to ensure all ballots are printed and counted correctly for the upcoming election.
Collier County teen assaulted after leaving party The teen has been charged and the sheriff’s office said they’re aware that many believe felony charges are in order, but under Florida law, there are very specific criteria that must be met for felony charges to be filed.
WINK weather team watching tropical wave over Atlantic Ocean The Weather Authority is watching a tropical disturbance over the Central Atlantic Ocean.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral drug bust leads investigators to fake fentanyl, cash and guns Cape Coral man arrest on drug charges. Investigators said they found, guns, drugs, and more than $32,000 in Richard Riley’s home.
NAPLES Naples youth flag football team to compete in Ohio tournament This weekend, the Naples Lunatics Green will compete in the Superhero Sports tournament in Canton, Ohio.
ALVA Woodpeckers build home in Alva woman’s house You may have heard of squatters, but this woman is dealing with squawkers. Who needs a rooster to wake up when you have woodpeckers?
FORT MYERS Man claims he was trapped in a high-rise for 5 days A 77-year-old man wants justice after he claims he spent days trapped on the 24th floor of a high-rise apartment building.
PUNTA GORDA Charlotte Correctional prisoner arrested for death of another inmate State Attorney Amira Fox convened a grand jury, which decided to move forward with a case against a Charlotte Correctional inmate.
SANIBEL Construction near Dairy Queen eagle nest on Sanibel raises concerns While many eagle nests may be a bit difficult to see, one nest has always been a favorite for Sanibel residents and tourists.
The environmental effects of artificial sweeteners Experts are studying how the foods we eat affect the environment, especially after we flush our waste down the toilet.
Victim reacts to man exposing himself to her Ring camera You get a notification on your phone from your ring camera app that someone is at the door, only to find out it is someone exposing themselves. It’s the last thing victim Maria Kivi wanted or expected to see last week.
LEE COUNTY The art of capturing your eye and drawing you in How do you capture young, hip, trendy, fun, movers and shakers, all in a pose? We take you behind the scenes of a Gulfshore Life cover shoot.
FORT MYERS The lives of two SJC Boxers changed in the ring Two SJC Boxers, Mario Nunez and Arbon Kurtishi, help each other in the ring as each of them had their lives changed because of boxing.
FORT MYERS Chlamydia cases rising sharply in Lee County If you think about a crowded space- something with more than 250 people- if it’s in Lee county, statistically one person has chlamydia.
SANIBEL Sanibel resort day passes hope to get more business on the island A pass will allow vacationers to hang out at a Sanibel beach club for a day in hopes of drumming up some business.
Voting equipment tested ahead of Lee County elections Voting equipment is being tested in Lee County. This is to ensure all ballots are printed and counted correctly for the upcoming election.
Collier County teen assaulted after leaving party The teen has been charged and the sheriff’s office said they’re aware that many believe felony charges are in order, but under Florida law, there are very specific criteria that must be met for felony charges to be filed.
WINK weather team watching tropical wave over Atlantic Ocean The Weather Authority is watching a tropical disturbance over the Central Atlantic Ocean.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral drug bust leads investigators to fake fentanyl, cash and guns Cape Coral man arrest on drug charges. Investigators said they found, guns, drugs, and more than $32,000 in Richard Riley’s home.
NAPLES Naples youth flag football team to compete in Ohio tournament This weekend, the Naples Lunatics Green will compete in the Superhero Sports tournament in Canton, Ohio.
MGN Online JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Thousands of bodies of mental patients remain buried on the grounds of the University of Mississippi Medical Center, and officials are stymied about what to do. They asked the attorney general’s office for permission to cremate the more than 2,000 bodies found east of the dental school. The office’s opinion was no. They asked the attorney general’s office for permission to move the bodies, most believed to be from a cemetery outside what was known as the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum. The office said in an opinion that the bodies could be moved – but only on campus. The problem? There is no room for that many. “It’s fair to say that it’s impracticable to relocate all of them on the campus as it’s currently configured,” said Tom Fortner, a UMMC spokesman. In its opinion, the attorney general’s office cited state law, which gives UMMC permission to rebury bodies in the potter’s field on campus. Another state law declared that all archaeological sites are “Mississippi landmarks,” which are not to be altered without permission from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History Board of Trustees. In 2013, while constructing a road on the 164-acre campus, UMMC officials discovered 66 graves. Mississippi State University and the state Department of Archives and History played roles in recovering the bodies. When the hospital began work last year on a parking garage, underground radar revealed 1,000 bodies were buried there. North of there, radar revealed more bodies – this time more than 1,000. As a result, UMMC officials had to move not only the parking garage, but also the $11 million American Cancer Society Gertrude C. Ford Hope Lodge, now being built at the former site of Schimmel’s Restaurant. Officials are hoping to construct the new Children’s Safe Center farther east of the dental school, where Fortner said there would be “minimal contact with existing gravesites.” Finding these graves “on a prime part of the core campus has already impacted our plans,” he said, “so we expect that to continue to be something we have to work around until we can find an acceptable alternative.” UMMC officials are now working with experts on a plan “to evaluate the archaeological and historical importance of the gravesites and anything else that might be on the property,” Fortner said. “To some extent that will influence what our options are, but we also want to document and preserve whatever might be there for its own inherent value.” Dr. Luke Lampton, chairman of the state Board of Health, who has researched and written about the asylum’s history, said old maps of the area showed cemeteries “everywhere. They went for miles.” One way to preserve the history and dignity of these patients would be to rebury them at the cemetery at the State Hospital in Whitfield and build a memorial to honor them, he said. To simply keep them beneath the ground does a disservice to these patients, he said. “Where they are now, they’re forgotten. It would be a way of recognizing their humanity.” In 1855, the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum opened after schoolteacher-turned-mental health reformer Dorothea Dix rallied support for construction of the $175,000 asylum – a far cry from the attics and jails where the mentally ill were often being chained. Of the 1,376 patients admitted between 1855 and 1877, more than one in five died. MSU students and professors are now studying the reasons for those deaths. In addition to those from the asylum, graves on the UMMC campus could include those buried in a church cemetery and possibly Civil War soldiers, Lampton said. James Owen Stubbs fought in Mississippi’s 33rd Infantry and was captured and sent to a prison in Alton, Illinois. Shortly after being released home to Panola County, the 33-year-old man returned to war. He was wounded, apparently in the Battle of Champion Hill on May 16, 1863. His great-granddaughter, Mary Burton, believes he was taken to the asylum since it “had the best known surgeon.” He lived almost a month before dying. She suspects his grave is there and has made her family’s DNA available. After the Civil War ended, the mental facility expanded to house 300 patients, and the area became known as “Asylum Hill,” a neighborhood that included houses, a school and a church for former slaves, Cade Chapel Missionary Baptist Church. The area eventually saw construction of a fertilizer factory, a Baptist orphanage and a sanatorium for those suffering from tuberculosis. In 1935, Mississippi moved the asylum to its present location at Whitfield. Burton said she hopes officials will put up a sign to remember those buried at the asylum. “Any of those people that went through that needs to be remembered as somebody who lived and died,” she said. Fortner said UMMC has begun discussions about creating a memorial to recognize that “the individuals who are buried there are properly remembered. We don’t know what form that might take, but I feel sure this is something we will do.” Jackson-area consultant Pam Johnson, who has called for a memorial, welcomed the news. She envisions a meditation garden there. “It’s difficult to think that some 2,000 people have been buried there with little or no evidence of their existence to those of us who have scurried around them all this time,” she said. Whatever UMMC decides to do about the graves, Fortner said, “we will afford the remains of these individuals the utmost dignity and respect.”