FGCU softball senior balances EMT training and Regional playHomes For Our Troops grants veteran new home
PUNTA GORDA The Weather Authority helps you prepare for the hurricane season at the 2024 Charlotte County Hurricane Expo With hurricane season less than two weeks away, it’s important to start preparing.
GAINESVILLE FGCU softball senior balances EMT training and Regional play Ahead of NCAA Regional play, FGCU senior outfielder Riley Oakes started EMT training as she works toward being a trauma surgeon.
PUNTA GORDA Homes For Our Troops grants veteran new home Through all the cheers and a community-wide escort, it’s a ‘welcome to your forever home for army sergeant veteran Brandon Rethmel and his family.
ALVA Three dead in triple drowning near the Franklin Lock in Olga The Lee County Sheriff’s Office is responding to a scene of a water rescue where three people were recovered.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA Beat the Heat: Stay safe during extreme weather The Weather Authority has issued a heat advisory for portions of South, Southeast, and Southwest Florida from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday.
FORT MYERS Leaders discuss possibility of shutting down Caloosahatchee Bridge Should residents endure two years of partial lane closures, or fully shut the Caloosahatchee bridge down for 10 weeks?
GAINESVILLE FGCU softball parents cherish NCAA Tournament experience The parents of the FGCU softball team are relishing seeing their daughters play in the NCAA Tournament.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA The Weather Authority: Hot, hot, hot Heat advisory in place for Saturday until 8 p.m.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers teen finds dead body in bed of his truck A 16-year-old in Fort Myers drove to school, drove home, drove to the barbershop and back home again. Then, he noticed a swarm of flies in the back of his truck.
Scottie Scheffler facing felony charges; local attorney reacts The attorney we spoke with told us that, at a minimum, we’d spend the night in jail before having our first appearance and getting bail.
GAINESVILLE FGCU softball falls to No. 4 Florida in NCAA Tournament The FGCU softball team couldn’t keep up with the No. 4 Florida Gators as the Eagles drop their first Regional game 6-0 to the Gators.
Summer Safety: Swim safety tips to know before the summer The pool is warming up to be the hot spot for kids and families this summer. It’s now also the number one leading cause of drowning deaths for children ages 1-4 in the state.
FORT MYERS BEACH ‘The Whale’ restaurant to break ground on new building The Whale is a place that has shown great strength and determination.
COLLIER COUNTY Endangered Florida panther deaths surpass 2023 total in 5 months It’s taken wildlife officials just over five and a half months to report finding more dead endangered Florida panthers than in all of 2023.
FORT MYERS FMPD honors 7 officers and 2 K-9s who died in the line of duty dating back to 1930 Nine lives were given, and all nine will remain remembered. A lifetime of gratitude for the fallen officers.
PUNTA GORDA The Weather Authority helps you prepare for the hurricane season at the 2024 Charlotte County Hurricane Expo With hurricane season less than two weeks away, it’s important to start preparing.
GAINESVILLE FGCU softball senior balances EMT training and Regional play Ahead of NCAA Regional play, FGCU senior outfielder Riley Oakes started EMT training as she works toward being a trauma surgeon.
PUNTA GORDA Homes For Our Troops grants veteran new home Through all the cheers and a community-wide escort, it’s a ‘welcome to your forever home for army sergeant veteran Brandon Rethmel and his family.
ALVA Three dead in triple drowning near the Franklin Lock in Olga The Lee County Sheriff’s Office is responding to a scene of a water rescue where three people were recovered.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA Beat the Heat: Stay safe during extreme weather The Weather Authority has issued a heat advisory for portions of South, Southeast, and Southwest Florida from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday.
FORT MYERS Leaders discuss possibility of shutting down Caloosahatchee Bridge Should residents endure two years of partial lane closures, or fully shut the Caloosahatchee bridge down for 10 weeks?
GAINESVILLE FGCU softball parents cherish NCAA Tournament experience The parents of the FGCU softball team are relishing seeing their daughters play in the NCAA Tournament.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA The Weather Authority: Hot, hot, hot Heat advisory in place for Saturday until 8 p.m.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers teen finds dead body in bed of his truck A 16-year-old in Fort Myers drove to school, drove home, drove to the barbershop and back home again. Then, he noticed a swarm of flies in the back of his truck.
Scottie Scheffler facing felony charges; local attorney reacts The attorney we spoke with told us that, at a minimum, we’d spend the night in jail before having our first appearance and getting bail.
GAINESVILLE FGCU softball falls to No. 4 Florida in NCAA Tournament The FGCU softball team couldn’t keep up with the No. 4 Florida Gators as the Eagles drop their first Regional game 6-0 to the Gators.
Summer Safety: Swim safety tips to know before the summer The pool is warming up to be the hot spot for kids and families this summer. It’s now also the number one leading cause of drowning deaths for children ages 1-4 in the state.
FORT MYERS BEACH ‘The Whale’ restaurant to break ground on new building The Whale is a place that has shown great strength and determination.
COLLIER COUNTY Endangered Florida panther deaths surpass 2023 total in 5 months It’s taken wildlife officials just over five and a half months to report finding more dead endangered Florida panthers than in all of 2023.
FORT MYERS FMPD honors 7 officers and 2 K-9s who died in the line of duty dating back to 1930 Nine lives were given, and all nine will remain remembered. A lifetime of gratitude for the fallen officers.
ATLANTA (AP) — To Azaratu Zakaria, Jimmy Carter’s battle against the Guinea worm is represented by a scar. Zakaria was the last person to be declared disease-free in Ghana after more than 20 years of work spearheaded the former president’s humanitarian organization, The Carter Center. Zakaria, who is in her 40s, said she and her family have prayed every day since Carter announced this month that cancer has spread to his brain and forced him to scale back his work. “There is no one in my household who does not have the Guinea worm scar and for this reason, every time we think of the work he came to do to free us all from the disease,” Zakaria said through a translator. “He has done a lot of good work and for that, we shall always remember him.” From its founding, Carter insisted that the humanitarian organization focus on work that others had not or would not tackle, including the Guinea-worm eradication project, which cut the number of cases of the disease from 3.5 million in 1986 to 126 in 2014. A former president often eager to travel and see the problem first-hand lent immediate credibility. The center is now known worldwide for its work on a number of tropical diseases and as a credible backstop to dictators through election monitoring. In Nepal, for instance, Carter monitored an election after pro-democracy protests forced King Gyanendra to give up his authoritarian rule in 2006. The Carter Center’s staff also opened regional offices and assisted for years with efforts to write a constitution, despite one failed effort and several postponed elections. “He was the American leader who always held Nepal close to his heart,” government minister Narayan Prakash Saud said. “Both Nepali people and the government will always remember the contributions he made for Nepal. He was the bridge to connect people from Nepal with United States.” When the opposition Maoist party leaders saw they would lose the 2013 election, Carter quietly convinced them to accept it. He took a different tactic during the center’s first election monitoring trip, to Panama in 1989. Carter discovered that the falsified results would give General Manuel Noriega’s candidate the victory. He climbed on a stage and shouted in Spanish: “Are you honest officials or thieves?” according to his 2007 book “Beyond the White House.” Experts in the field say Carter’s work put the integrity of elections under a microscope and established election monitoring as a serious and professional industry. “President Carter’s contributions to peace and democracy in the world have been incalculable,” said Eric Bjornlund, president of Democracy International, an organization that promotes democracy globally. Carter’s health has been watched closely since May, when he returned early from his 39th election monitoring trip and the center’s 100th. During a follow-up exam, doctors discovered a mass on his liver that was removed in August and determined to be melanoma. In the meantime, the 90-year-old Carter kept working. In mid-June, he announced receipt of $10 million donation to fight another disease that few are targeting. River blindness disease can lead to loss of sight, along with a rash or skin discoloration, when biting black flies transmit larvae. Carter offered a glimpse of how intimately he is involved in these projects, easily reciting statistics to reporters and expressing frustration over medication getting stuck in African or Latin American ports. “I’ve had to go through sometimes three different presidents and get them to call their customs officials to let the medicine go through,” Carter said, prompting smiles from staffers in the room. Officials at The Carter Center say they will move forward smoothly thanks to years of preparation. The center’s cash budget is more than $100 million, with 180 staffers and hundreds of experts, Carter wrote in his latest book. The Carter Center’s endowment stands at $600 million, and last March trustees voted his grandson, Jason Carter, to become board chairman in November. “I have no intention of trying to fill his shoes,” said Jason Carter, a former Georgia state senator. “This is his legacy that he has built and I have no intention of trying to be Jimmy Carter to this foundation.” ___ Kokutse reported from Accra, Ghana. Associated Press writers Binaj Gurubacharya in Kathmandu, Nepal and Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal contributed to this report.