City, Naples Beach Club to preserve green space in perpetuityThe 52nd annual Fort Myers Boat Show begins
City, Naples Beach Club to preserve green space in perpetuity More than 104 acres of recreation and open space at the former Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club’s golf course will be forever preserved.
FORT MYERS The 52nd annual Fort Myers Boat Show begins An annual Fort Myers tradition has returned as the region’s premier display of boats and boating products, which will be on full display for enthusiasts to enjoy.
the weather authority Tracking Tropical Depression 19, expected to become Tropical Storm Sara The Weather Authority is tracking Tropical Depression 19, which is forecast to strengthen into Tropical Storm Sara in the Caribbean later this Thursday afternoon.
the weather authority Gorgeous Thursday afternoon with highs in the mid 80s The Weather Authority is tracking pleasant afternoon conditions with temperatures in the mid-80s this Thursday.
SANIBEL Failed air quality tests push back reopening date for The Sanibel School The tentative reopening of The Sanibel School has been pushed back once again after being closed since Hurricane Milton.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers Police respond to rollover crash; driver flees scene The Fort Myers Police Department responded to a crash involving one vehicle on Colonial Gardens Circle and Colonial Boulevard.
FORT MYERS West End residents frustrated by security failures, lack of response A nearly $64 million luxury apartment complex that close to 500 people call home, but somehow, security seems to fall through the cracks.
NAPLES Collier County nearly doubles tourism budget On Tuesday, Collier County Commissioners approved a nearly $12 million budget for a tourism marketing campaign.
Florida policyholders urged to contact OIR if policies are canceled or nonrenewed If your insurance has been canceled or is not being renewed due to this year’s storms, the state of Florida wants you to reach out to the Office of Insurance Regulation.
BAREFOOT BEACH Woman thinks QR code got hacked A Fort Myers woman says a fraudulent QR code at Barefoot Beach caused her credit card to be hacked. She’s on a mission to warn others.
CAPE CORAL Sticker shock: Cape Coral residents hit with unexpected property tax hikes This is the time of year when people start paying their property taxes, but what happens when you get your bill and it’s more than you expected?
SANIBEL Sanibel workshop teaches residents benefits of elevating homes and businesses With each hurricane that brings damage to our area, many people rush to be more resilient. On Sanibel, more than 300 people have RSVP’d to learn about raising their homes and businesses.
SANIBEL Sanibel Causeway construction causing confusion and costing local business Repairing the Sanibel Causeway after recent storms has caused more than just traffic back-ups.
DOWNTOWN FORT MYERS Speakeasy in downtown Fort Myers honors local historic figures Everything inside the Escondido Lounge whispers an authentic speakeasy, from the dim red lights to the fancy vintage glasses.
ESTERO Caught on camera: Man steals money from tip jar in Estero A business manager feels violated after a man took money from a tip jar on Tuesday.
City, Naples Beach Club to preserve green space in perpetuity More than 104 acres of recreation and open space at the former Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club’s golf course will be forever preserved.
FORT MYERS The 52nd annual Fort Myers Boat Show begins An annual Fort Myers tradition has returned as the region’s premier display of boats and boating products, which will be on full display for enthusiasts to enjoy.
the weather authority Tracking Tropical Depression 19, expected to become Tropical Storm Sara The Weather Authority is tracking Tropical Depression 19, which is forecast to strengthen into Tropical Storm Sara in the Caribbean later this Thursday afternoon.
the weather authority Gorgeous Thursday afternoon with highs in the mid 80s The Weather Authority is tracking pleasant afternoon conditions with temperatures in the mid-80s this Thursday.
SANIBEL Failed air quality tests push back reopening date for The Sanibel School The tentative reopening of The Sanibel School has been pushed back once again after being closed since Hurricane Milton.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers Police respond to rollover crash; driver flees scene The Fort Myers Police Department responded to a crash involving one vehicle on Colonial Gardens Circle and Colonial Boulevard.
FORT MYERS West End residents frustrated by security failures, lack of response A nearly $64 million luxury apartment complex that close to 500 people call home, but somehow, security seems to fall through the cracks.
NAPLES Collier County nearly doubles tourism budget On Tuesday, Collier County Commissioners approved a nearly $12 million budget for a tourism marketing campaign.
Florida policyholders urged to contact OIR if policies are canceled or nonrenewed If your insurance has been canceled or is not being renewed due to this year’s storms, the state of Florida wants you to reach out to the Office of Insurance Regulation.
BAREFOOT BEACH Woman thinks QR code got hacked A Fort Myers woman says a fraudulent QR code at Barefoot Beach caused her credit card to be hacked. She’s on a mission to warn others.
CAPE CORAL Sticker shock: Cape Coral residents hit with unexpected property tax hikes This is the time of year when people start paying their property taxes, but what happens when you get your bill and it’s more than you expected?
SANIBEL Sanibel workshop teaches residents benefits of elevating homes and businesses With each hurricane that brings damage to our area, many people rush to be more resilient. On Sanibel, more than 300 people have RSVP’d to learn about raising their homes and businesses.
SANIBEL Sanibel Causeway construction causing confusion and costing local business Repairing the Sanibel Causeway after recent storms has caused more than just traffic back-ups.
DOWNTOWN FORT MYERS Speakeasy in downtown Fort Myers honors local historic figures Everything inside the Escondido Lounge whispers an authentic speakeasy, from the dim red lights to the fancy vintage glasses.
ESTERO Caught on camera: Man steals money from tip jar in Estero A business manager feels violated after a man took money from a tip jar on Tuesday.
NEW YORK (AP) – As TV watchers increasingly look online for their fix, cable companies are bulking up. In the latest round, Charter Communications is buying Time Warner Cable for $55.33 billion. And executives say they’re confident regulators will allow the creation of another U.S. TV and Internet giant. The deal comes a month after Comcast, the country’s largest cable provider and owner of NBCUniversal, walked away from a $45.2 billion bid for Time Warner Cable, the No. 2 cable company, after intense pressure from regulators. The government worried that the company would be able to undermine increasingly popular online video competitors like Netflix because the bigger Comcast would have more than half the country’s high-speed Internet customers. There has been a wave in consolidation in the cable industry as providers are starting to lose TV subscribers, costs for TV, sports and movies rise and pressure from online video services such as Netflix and Hulu increases. The traditional cable ecosystem is breaking up – for example, you can subscribe to HBO online without having to pay for cable, or pay for a smaller group of channels that you watch via a Sony PlayStation. Getting bigger is one way to deal with those changes. It gives cable providers more lucrative Internet subscribers and more leverage against entertainment companies providing the channels. Whether government regulators will approve the Charter deal after quashing Comcast’s bid for Time Warner Cable remains to be seen. Charter also announced Tuesday that it is buying Bright House Networks, a smaller cable provider, for $10.4 billion. In a statement Tuesday, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler said that the FCC weighs every merger on its own to see if it will be in the public interest, and that “an absence of harm is not sufficient.” He said the FCC “will look to see how American consumers would benefit” from the deal. Charter notes that it will have less than 30 percent of the customers in the U.S. that the FCC defines as broadband: Those downloading at 25 megabit-per-second and faster. Comcast plus Time Warner Cable would have had more than half of those subscribers. “We’re a very different company from Comcast and this is a very different transaction,” said Charter CEO Tom Rutledge on a conference call Tuesday. “We’re confident it’s going to get done,” said Time Warner Cable CEO Rob Marcus. Charter, combined with Time Warner Cable and Bright House, will have nearly 24 million customers, compared with Comcast’s 27.2 million. It will also lag AT&T, whose pending deal with DirecTV would give it 26.4 million U.S. TV customers and 16.1 million fixed Internet customers as well as tens of millions of wireless customers. “One has to be sober about genuine risks that this deal could still be rejected,” said MoffettNathanson’s Craig Moffett in a research note Tuesday, given the number of Internet and TV subscribers involved. But it doesn’t raise the same immediate concerns as the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger, said John Bergmayer of Public Knowledge, a public interest group that had opposed the Comcast deal. “The scale is totally different. It’s not the No. 1 buying the No. 2,” he said. Another sign of confidence from the companies: The deal comes with a $2 billion breakup fee if it doesn’t go through. If regulators don’t approve it, Charter would pay Time Warner Cable; if Time Warner Cable kills the deal and goes with another buyer, it’ll pay. John Malone’s Liberty Broadcast Corp., which owns more than a quarter of Charter’s stock, is backing the acquisition. Liberty Broadband is expected to own about 20 percent of the new Charter. Charter Communications Inc., based in Stamford, Connecticut, will provide $100 in cash and shares of a new public parent company equal to 0.5409 shares of Charter for each outstanding Time Warner Cable Inc. share. The transaction values each Time Warner Cable share at about $195.71. The companies on Tuesday valued New York-based Time Warner Cable at a total of $78.7 billion, including debt. They expect to complete the deal by the end of the year. Time Warner Cable had chosen the Comcast deal and rejected a $38 billion hostile offer from Charter in early 2014.