Hurricane season preparations at Lee County construction sitesBones found on Sanibel concern beachgoers
FORT MYERS BEACH Hurricane season preparations at Lee County construction sites Many already know the drill when hurricane season is around the corner.
SANIBEL Bones found on Sanibel concern beachgoers A husband and wife found what appeared to be bones. What type and where they came from is being investigated.
FGCU FGCU president reflects on first year with graduating class Alico Arena was packed this weekend as Florida Gulf Coast University graduated 1,900 students in four ceremonies.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA Lee County teachers bargain for new raises Kevin Daly is the voice of the Lee County Teachers Union, and he says he knows firsthand the struggle teachers experience across the state.
FORT MYERS New Starbucks off Colonial expected to add to traffic headaches It’s a venti-sized traffic nightmare. That’s how Gina O’Donnell envisions the future of this plaza.
NAPLES Feeding families through Meals of Hope They’re a Naples-based non-profit organization whose mission is to alleviate hunger both locally and throughout the country.
Family dealing with two losses in quick succession A teenager will not get to celebrate turning 21 years old with friends, can’t put a smile on his family member’s faces and will never get to see his mother again.
JERUSALEM (AP) Israeli leaders have approved a military operation into the Gaza Strip city of Rafah Israeli leaders approved a military operation into the Gaza Strip city of Rafah, and Israeli forces were striking targets in the area, officials announced Monday, hours after Hamas announced it had accepted an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal.
FORT MYERS Middle school tech worker uses CPR skills to save pickleball player’s life It was the right place, at the right time, and that right place was near the pickleball court.
EVERGLADES Big Sugar’s lawsuit for control over Lake Okeechobee water A local non-profit is calling one lawsuit a battle for who controls the water in the State of Florida. Three major sugar companies filed a lawsuit in 2021 against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over the design and intended use of the Everglades Agriculture Area (EAA) Reservoir.
NAPLES Annual Holocaust Remembrance Day program returns to Jewish Federation of Greater Naples Sunday was a day to remember the six million men, women and children lost in the Holocaust.
COLLIER COUNTY 13th dead Florida panther of 2024 found Saturday; deaths now match 2023’s annual total Wildlife officials discovered the 13 dead endangered Florida panther of the year, matching 2023’s total reported mortalities less than halfway into the year.
NORTH PORT Entryway work temporarily closes North Port Library The North Port Library will be closed through Saturday while work is being done to the entryway. During the closure books and other borrowed items can be returned to nearby locations.
FORT MYERS More changes near Colonial Blvd. and Six Mile Cypress in Fort Myers An already jam-packed, headache-inducing area for traffic is expected to get worse on Monday.
National Hurricane Preparedness Week: Preseason preparations With less than a month until the official start of the 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has designated May 5th to May 11th National Hurricane Preparedness Week.
FORT MYERS BEACH Hurricane season preparations at Lee County construction sites Many already know the drill when hurricane season is around the corner.
SANIBEL Bones found on Sanibel concern beachgoers A husband and wife found what appeared to be bones. What type and where they came from is being investigated.
FGCU FGCU president reflects on first year with graduating class Alico Arena was packed this weekend as Florida Gulf Coast University graduated 1,900 students in four ceremonies.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA Lee County teachers bargain for new raises Kevin Daly is the voice of the Lee County Teachers Union, and he says he knows firsthand the struggle teachers experience across the state.
FORT MYERS New Starbucks off Colonial expected to add to traffic headaches It’s a venti-sized traffic nightmare. That’s how Gina O’Donnell envisions the future of this plaza.
NAPLES Feeding families through Meals of Hope They’re a Naples-based non-profit organization whose mission is to alleviate hunger both locally and throughout the country.
Family dealing with two losses in quick succession A teenager will not get to celebrate turning 21 years old with friends, can’t put a smile on his family member’s faces and will never get to see his mother again.
JERUSALEM (AP) Israeli leaders have approved a military operation into the Gaza Strip city of Rafah Israeli leaders approved a military operation into the Gaza Strip city of Rafah, and Israeli forces were striking targets in the area, officials announced Monday, hours after Hamas announced it had accepted an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal.
FORT MYERS Middle school tech worker uses CPR skills to save pickleball player’s life It was the right place, at the right time, and that right place was near the pickleball court.
EVERGLADES Big Sugar’s lawsuit for control over Lake Okeechobee water A local non-profit is calling one lawsuit a battle for who controls the water in the State of Florida. Three major sugar companies filed a lawsuit in 2021 against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over the design and intended use of the Everglades Agriculture Area (EAA) Reservoir.
NAPLES Annual Holocaust Remembrance Day program returns to Jewish Federation of Greater Naples Sunday was a day to remember the six million men, women and children lost in the Holocaust.
COLLIER COUNTY 13th dead Florida panther of 2024 found Saturday; deaths now match 2023’s annual total Wildlife officials discovered the 13 dead endangered Florida panther of the year, matching 2023’s total reported mortalities less than halfway into the year.
NORTH PORT Entryway work temporarily closes North Port Library The North Port Library will be closed through Saturday while work is being done to the entryway. During the closure books and other borrowed items can be returned to nearby locations.
FORT MYERS More changes near Colonial Blvd. and Six Mile Cypress in Fort Myers An already jam-packed, headache-inducing area for traffic is expected to get worse on Monday.
National Hurricane Preparedness Week: Preseason preparations With less than a month until the official start of the 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has designated May 5th to May 11th National Hurricane Preparedness Week.
Wikipedia- Public Domain/ MGN LEICESTER, England (AP) – A maligned monarch found under a parking lot was buried in pomp Thursday, as Britain embraced comeback King Richard III, a long-reviled ruler who is experiencing a remarkable posthumous renaissance. Royalty, religious leaders and actor Benedict Cumberbatch joined archaeologists, Richard’s distant relatives and curious Britons for a service in Leicester Cathedral that saw the king’s bones buried with dignity, 530 years after his violent death. “Richard’s posthumous reputation has been less than glorious,” Gordon Campbell, the University of Leicester’s public orator, noted with understatement about a man whose name was long a byword for villainy. But now, Campbell said, he has “the greatest following of all English monarchs” apart from Queen Elizabeth II. Twenty first-century Britain has enthusiastically embraced the story of the medieval king whose battle-scarred skeleton was found under a parking lot in Leicester in 2012. Thousands came to view his coffin ahead of Thursday’s service, which was televised live. In his sermon, Bishop of Leicester Tim Stevens said the discovery of the skeleton “has broken open not just a car park, but a nation’s story.” Stevens said Richard was found just 40 yards (meters) from where he was being reburied – but his journey from ignominy to honor was evidence that “reputation does not have the last word, for Richard or for any of us.” The service was the culmination of a wave of Richard-mania that has been building since archaeologists looking for Richard dug up a skeleton with a distinctively curved spine. Scientific sleuthing – including radiocarbon dating, bone analysis and DNA tests – confirmed the remains belonged to the long-lost king, who died at the Battle of Bosworth, near Leicester, in 1485. The victor, Henry Tudor, went on to reign as King Henry VII and founded the Tudor dynasty. Richard was buried, without a coffin, in a church that was later demolished. For centuries his image was defined by William Shakespeare’s “Richard III”: a hunchbacked, power-hungry tyrant who murdered his two young nephews because they were rivals for the crown. Some historians argue that Richard was a relatively enlightened monarch whose reign between 1483 and 1485 saw reforms including the introduction of the right to bail and the lifting of restrictions on books and printing presses. Many of those who this week came to Leicester, 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of London, were unabashed Richard fans, ecstatic that he is finally getting his due. “He suffered such indignities after death,” said May Doherty, who had flown from Northern Ireland to stand outside the cathedral. “This is brilliant to see. It’s how a king should be buried.” Doherty and a friend had come dressed in 15th-century garb – or as close as they could find on the Internet. “I might be Elizabethan,” a hundred years too modern, she said. “I’m not sure.” Michele Wild, from the central England city of Birmingham, lined up for two-and-a-half hours to view the coffin before it was buried. “It was one of those queues where you don’t mind queuing,” she said. “You feel like you’re part of a silent protest about the Tudor propaganda that has been maligning him for 500 years.” Richard’s fans and foes alike agreed that Thursday’s service was a historic occasion. Elizabeth has ruled for 63 years, and most Britons have never seen a king buried. The service – not a funeral, organizers stressed, since he probably had a simple one in 1485 – borrowed from 15th-century rites, with Latin and plainsong amid the more modern hymns. There was star power, too, as Cumberbatch – who plays Richard III in the BBC’s Shakespearean TV series “The Hollow Crown” – read a poem by Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. University of Leicester genealogists, leaving no Richard-related stone unturned, have identified Cumberbatch as the late king’s second cousin, 16 times removed. “Grant me the carving of my name,” Cumberbatch read, of a king who lay for centuries in a forgotten grave. That wish was granted. In a climax of simple dignity, the king’s oak coffin was lowered by a group of soldier pallbearers into a grave in the cathedral floor, surrounded by a black marble plinth carved with his name: “Richard III.” The coffin was made by Michael Ibsen, a 17th great-grandnephew of Richard whose DNA helped identify the parking-lot skeleton. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, leader of the Church of England, scattered dirt taken from the sites of Richard’s birth, childhood and death on the coffin, and spoke the words: “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.” Richard remains a contentious figure. The current queen – a distant relative, though not a descendant – did not attend the service. She sent her daughter-in-law Sophie, Countess of Wessex, to represent the royal family. Elizabeth wrote a note for the order of service, noting neutrally that the reburial “is an event of great national and international significance.” “Today we recognize a king who lived through turbulent times and whose Christian faith sustained him in life and death,” the queen wrote. Handa Bray, whose ancestor Sir Reginald Bray fought for Henry at Bosworth, was among a group of descendants from opposing sides of the 15th-century Wars of the Roses, brought together in a spirit of reconciliation. She said she was happy to be there, but was not ready to rewrite history just yet. “I think he fought very bravely in battle,” she said of Richard. “But I’m glad we won. “I’m here to pay my respects – but to carry on cheering for the Tudors.”