WINK News Photos of the Week Feb. 2 – Feb. 8Colonial Boulevard continuous flow intersection opens Sunday in Fort Myers
WINK News Photos of the Week Feb. 2 – Feb. 8 This Week’s edition features live music, some familiar faces wearing red and a fabulous charity event
FORT MYERS Colonial Boulevard continuous flow intersection opens Sunday in Fort Myers Drivers along Interstate 75 near Colonial Boulevard can expect changes soon.
the weather authority Sun and clouds with a stray shower possible The Weather Authority says sun and clouds overhead will lead to another day with above-average temperatures.
FORT MYERS LCSO offering youth boxing program The Lee County Sheriff’s Office youth boxing program is your kid’s golden ticket to mastering the art of self-defense.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral man speaks on helping apprehend armed 13-year-old The man who helped apprehend an armed 13-year-old spoke on the incident.
NAPLES Naples Cars on Fifth event fuels $2M for local charity efforts For over two decades, car enthusiasts in Southwest Florida have gathered on Fifth Avenue in Naples.
MARCO ISLAND Caxambas Park boat ramp on Marco Island set to reopen Collier County announced the reopening of the Caxambas Park boat ramp on Marco Island.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral Animal Shelter to host Puppy Bowl 3 ahead of big game Ahead of the big game on Sunday, Cape Coral Animal Shelter will be featuring its very own Puppy Bowl III.
FORT MYERS From the ballpark to the beach: the Minnesota Twins are back for Spring Training 1700 miles later the Twins truck is here and the team from Minnesota is ready to spend the next six weeks here in Fort Myers.
the weather authority Warm stretch continues throughout this weekend The Weather Authority says if you are a fan of the warmer weather, you are going to love this weekend.
SANIBEL Sanibel’s red tide raises health alerts and wildlife concerns With great weather in the forecast, it’s shaping up to be a perfect beach weekend. However, visitors to the barrier islands should exercise caution.
NAPLES Naples Automotive Experience raises funds for St. Matthew’s House The Naples Automotive Experience brought excitement and philanthropy to the community, raising money for St. Matthew’s House.
MATLACHA Little Pine Island bridge work causes delays, FDOT promises progress Construction on the Little Pine Island Bridge has narrowed traffic to one lane, causing significant delays for drivers.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA Support women’s heart health on National Wear Red Day The first Friday in February marks National Wear Red Day!
WINK News Photos of the Week Feb. 2 – Feb. 8 This Week’s edition features live music, some familiar faces wearing red and a fabulous charity event
FORT MYERS Colonial Boulevard continuous flow intersection opens Sunday in Fort Myers Drivers along Interstate 75 near Colonial Boulevard can expect changes soon.
the weather authority Sun and clouds with a stray shower possible The Weather Authority says sun and clouds overhead will lead to another day with above-average temperatures.
FORT MYERS LCSO offering youth boxing program The Lee County Sheriff’s Office youth boxing program is your kid’s golden ticket to mastering the art of self-defense.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral man speaks on helping apprehend armed 13-year-old The man who helped apprehend an armed 13-year-old spoke on the incident.
NAPLES Naples Cars on Fifth event fuels $2M for local charity efforts For over two decades, car enthusiasts in Southwest Florida have gathered on Fifth Avenue in Naples.
MARCO ISLAND Caxambas Park boat ramp on Marco Island set to reopen Collier County announced the reopening of the Caxambas Park boat ramp on Marco Island.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral Animal Shelter to host Puppy Bowl 3 ahead of big game Ahead of the big game on Sunday, Cape Coral Animal Shelter will be featuring its very own Puppy Bowl III.
FORT MYERS From the ballpark to the beach: the Minnesota Twins are back for Spring Training 1700 miles later the Twins truck is here and the team from Minnesota is ready to spend the next six weeks here in Fort Myers.
the weather authority Warm stretch continues throughout this weekend The Weather Authority says if you are a fan of the warmer weather, you are going to love this weekend.
SANIBEL Sanibel’s red tide raises health alerts and wildlife concerns With great weather in the forecast, it’s shaping up to be a perfect beach weekend. However, visitors to the barrier islands should exercise caution.
NAPLES Naples Automotive Experience raises funds for St. Matthew’s House The Naples Automotive Experience brought excitement and philanthropy to the community, raising money for St. Matthew’s House.
MATLACHA Little Pine Island bridge work causes delays, FDOT promises progress Construction on the Little Pine Island Bridge has narrowed traffic to one lane, causing significant delays for drivers.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA Support women’s heart health on National Wear Red Day The first Friday in February marks National Wear Red Day!
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) – History’s first Latin American pope returned to Spanish-speaking South America for the first time on Sunday, bringing a message of solidarity with the region’s poor, who are expected to turn out in droves to welcome their native son home. “The pope of the poor” chose to visit Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay specifically because they are among the poorest and most marginal nations of a region that claims 40 percent of the world’s Catholics. He’s skipping his homeland of Argentina, at least partly to avoid papal entanglement in this year’s presidential election. Francis’ plane landed in Quito, Ecuador, where falling world prices for oil and minerals threaten to fray the social safety net woven by President Rafael Correa, who has been buffeted for nearly a month by the most serious anti-government street protests of his more than eight years in power. Thousands of people lined the motorcade route that will take him to the Vatican ambassador’s residence, where Francis will be staying. The pope was switching from a car to a bubble-windowed popemobile for the last five miles of the trip through a corridor of closely spaced uniformed police. Pilgrims came from far and wide. A small group of Colombians was already setting up tents at the former site of Quito’s airport, where the pope will say Mass on Tuesday. Francis is likely to raise environmental concerns with Correa and the leader of Bolivia – who have promoted mining and oil drilling in wilderness areas – given his recent encyclical on the need to protect nature and the poor who suffer most when it is exploited. In that document, Francis called for a new development model that rejects today’s profit-at-all cost mentality in favor of a Christian view of economic progress that respects human rights, safeguards the planet and involves all sectors of society, the poor and marginalized included. In a video message on the eve of his departure, Francis said he wanted to bring a message of hope and joy to all “especially the neediest, the elderly, the sick, those in prison and the poor and all those who are victims of this ‘throwaway culture.'” Francis’ stops include a violent Bolivian prison, a flood-prone Paraguayan shantytown and a meeting with grass-roots groups in Bolivia, the sort of people he ministered to in the slums of Buenos Aires as archbishop. Crowds are expected to be huge. While the countries themselves are tiny compared to regional powerhouses like Brazil and Argentina, they are fervently Catholic: 79 percent of the population is Catholic in Ecuador, 77 percent in Bolivia and a whopping 89 percent in Paraguay, according to the Pew Research Center. Waiting for the pope along his motorcade route, retired schoolteacher Cecilia Alvarez lamented that the visit was being used politically by the government and opposition in Ecuador. “Francis comes on another mission, in another sense. He comes to make peace,” she said. The Vatican says it expects more than 1 million people to turn out for Francis’ major public Masses in each country, and organizers have scheduled plenty of time for the pope to meander through the throngs expected to line his motorcade route. When St. John Paul II visited Ecuador in 1985, he called for a more just society and reminded indigenous groups of the role played by missionaries who had arrived on the continent centuries before. Francis will likely repeat those messages and pay particular attention to the role his Jesuit order played. John Paul’s visits were shadowed by the Polish pope’s concern about the rise of liberation theology, fearing that Marxists were using its “preferential option for the poor” to turn the Gospel into a call for armed revolution. Guzman Carriquiri, the No. 2 of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America and a top papal adviser, said a less turbulent situation awaits Francis, who has sought to revive a purer, less political version of liberation theology and recently approved beatification for one of its heroes, Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero. Francis also brokered a historic thaw between the United States and Cuba, countries he will visit in September. “Francis’ visit will be a huge boost to the priests of the Third World and theology of liberation,” said 80-year-old Xavier Albo, a fellow Jesuit. “He lives that theology through mercy, modesty and his obligation to the poor, the immigrants and the imprisoned.” Jesuits paid with their lives defending the downtrodden against dictatorships, as the pope knows well from his days as head of the Jesuits during the right-wing military dictatorship in Argentina. Opponents of dictatorships in neighboring Paraguay and Bolivia were also disappeared. One, who was tortured and killed in 1980, was Father Luis Espinal, a Bolivian close to Albo whose body was dumped by the side of the airport road that Francis will travel on his way into La Paz on Wednesday. Francis will stop the Popemobile there, get out and pray. ___ Nicole Winfield reported from Rome. Associated Press writers Gonzalo Solano and Maria Jose Sanchez in Quito contributed to this report. (Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)