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!
Ongoing repairs following Naples plane crash A deadly plane crash that occurred one year ago in Naples, Florida continues to impact lives in Southwest Florida. The tragic event involved two pilots who lost their lives on Interstate 75.
Naples jet crash, one year later: new details on emergency response Sunday marks one year since a jet crashed after its pilots attempted an emergency landing on I-75 just outside of Naples. “Your mind goes back to everything that happened that day,” said Heather Mazurkiewicz, public information officer with the North Collier Fire Rescue. “I think about the fact that there weren’t more lives lost.” At […]
LCSO cutting down law enforcement response times The Lee County Sheriff’s Office is gearing up to implement “Prepared 9-1-1,” a new tool designed to enhance emergency response times.
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!
Ongoing repairs following Naples plane crash A deadly plane crash that occurred one year ago in Naples, Florida continues to impact lives in Southwest Florida. The tragic event involved two pilots who lost their lives on Interstate 75.
Naples jet crash, one year later: new details on emergency response Sunday marks one year since a jet crashed after its pilots attempted an emergency landing on I-75 just outside of Naples. “Your mind goes back to everything that happened that day,” said Heather Mazurkiewicz, public information officer with the North Collier Fire Rescue. “I think about the fact that there weren’t more lives lost.” At […]
LCSO cutting down law enforcement response times The Lee County Sheriff’s Office is gearing up to implement “Prepared 9-1-1,” a new tool designed to enhance emergency response times.
Pete Souza/ The White House PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Calling it an issue America can’t afford to ignore, President Barack Obama laid out an expansive vision Thursday for fixing the criminal justice system by focusing on communities, courtrooms and cellblocks. He announced a federal review of the use of solitary confinement and urged Congress to pass a sentencing reform bill by year’s end. In a speech to the NAACP’s annual convention, Obama also called for voting rights to be restored to felons who have served their sentences, and said employers should “ban the box” asking job candidates about their past convictions. He said long mandatory minimum sentences now in place should be reduced – or discarded entirely. “In far too many cases, the punishment simply doesn’t fit the crime,” Obama told a crowd of 3,300 in Philadelphia. Low-level drug dealers, for example, owe a debt to society, but not a life sentence or 20-year prison term, he said. With his speech to the prominent African-American advocacy group, Obama sought to put a spotlight on the need for new legislation as he mounted a weeklong push on criminal justice reform. A day earlier, Obama commuted the sentences of 46 nonviolent drug offenders – the most commutations a president has issued on a single day in at least four decades. Upon arriving Tuesday in Philadelphia, Obama met with a number of former prisoners to discuss their experience re-entering society, the White House said. And on Thursday, Obama planned to put a personal face on the nation’s mushrooming prison population with a visit El Reno Federal Correctional Institution outside of Oklahoma City – the first visit to a federal prison by a sitting U.S. president. The assertive moves reflected a president eager to wield his executive power during his waning years in office to reduce harsh sentences, cut costs and correct disparities he said have disproportionally burdened minorities. Earlier in his presidency, as he spent his political capital carefully on major domestic priorities, Obama spoke cautiously and only intermittently about the need for smarter sentencing and other justice changes. But as of late, public attention has been piqued by a serious of upsetting incidents across the country. In places like Baltimore, New York and Ferguson, Missouri, tensions between law enforcement and their communities have spilled out into the open, underscoring longstanding concerns among minority communities that they’re treated differently in the criminal justice system. Obama pointedly acknowledged that many people in the U.S. need to be in prison – “murderers, predators, rapists, gang leaders” – yet he said that in too many instances, law enforcement is treating young black and Latino men differently than their white peers. “This is not just anecdotal. This is not just barbershop talk,” he said. The White House said Obama wouldn’t hesitate to commute more sentences in the coming months if the circumstances were right. Yet Obama’s ability to address the problem unilaterally is limited, as the White House readily concedes. So Obama has set his sights on the kind of comprehensive fix that only Congress can provide. “The statistics cannot be ignored. We cannot close our eyes anymore,” Obama said. Working in Obama’s favor: tentative but optimistic signs of common ground between Republicans and Democrats. Republicans in particular have spoken with growing enthusiasm about the need for structural change. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has been working on legislation that could reduce some mandatory minimums. Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island are backing a bill that would steer lower-risk inmates into programs where they could earn earlier release by participating in recidivism-reduction programs. In another positive sign for the prospects of justice reform, a number of 2016 presidential candidates have taken an active interest in the issue. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has mounted a vocal push to restore voting rights to nonviolent felons who have served their terms and to make it easier for people with criminal records to get jobs. Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., planned to give a speech Thursday in the troubled city of Camden focusing on nonviolent drug offenders. But not all Republicans were receptive to Obama’s pitch. A group of 19 Republicans, led by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, wrote a letter Tuesday to Attorney General Loretta Lynch accusing Obama of blatantly usurping congressional authority and using his pardon power for political purposes. Since Congress enacted mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes, the federal prison population has multiplied, from just 24,000 in the 1980s to more than 214,000, according to Families Against Mandatory Minimums. In 2010, Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act, cutting penalties for crack cocaine offenses. And last year, the independent Sentencing Commission reduced guideline ranges for drug crimes and applied those retroactively.