FORT MYERS Black bear spotted in downtown Fort Myers A Florida black bear had been spotted in downtown Fort Myers early Monday morning. FWC is responding to relocate the bear.
LEHIGH ACRES 2 ATVs ticketed at Barefoot Lake after owner bars public Two ATVs were issued tickets at Barefoot Lake and towed away over the weekend after the property owner decided to bar the public.
CAPE CORAL Car with bullet holes towed away from Cape Coral home after police search car, home A Mercedes with at least one bullet hole has been towed from a Cape Coral home.
WINK NEWS Hot and dry Monday afternoon before isolated storms pop up this evening On Monday morning, the weather is starting mild and humid with temperatures in the upper 60s and lower 70s.
FORT MYERS Caught on Camera: Firefighters respond to dumpster fire at FGCU San Carlos Park Fire District responded to a dumpster fire Sunday afternoon.
FORT MYERS FGCU students affected by Covid celebrate first commencement ceremony Graduation is a right of passage from school to the real world, but for these students, reality hit them in 2020.
PUNTA GORDA Motorcycle crash leaves 1 dead One person has died after a motorcycle crash in Charlotte County.
LEE COUNTY Lee Deputies work to track down transient sex offenders who fail to register WINK News Anchor Corey Lazar goes on patrol with Lee County Deputies in search of transient sex offenders who don’t register.
National Hurricane Preparedness Week: Know your risk Hurricane season starts on June 1st, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has designated the week of May 5 through May 11 as National Hurricane Preparedness Week. Each day, Meteorologist Lauren Kreidler will be highlighting ways to stay prepared ahead of this year’s hurricane season.
Southwest Florida The Weather Authority: Stay alert – chance of showers and storms on Sunday Hot, humid, and more rain for parts of Southwest Florida on Sunday.
CAPE CORAL What we learned about Cape Coral’s water crisis after a ride along On Friday, WINK News got to ride along to see just what people are doing that could be wasting water.
The Weather Authority: A wet Saturday evening as storms move through Southwest Florida A rainy Saturday evening across much of southwest Florida.
FORT MYERS Lee Health Touch-A-Truck event educates families on Trauma Awareness On Saturday morning, sirens were ringing to celebrate Lee Health Trauma Center’s 30 years of service and to provide the public with trauma education and prevention methods.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA (CBS) CDC says bird flu viruses “pose pandemic potential,” cites major knowledge gaps Bird flu continues to appear to pose a “low risk to the general public” for now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. But the agency’s scientists ran into roadblocks investigating a human case of this “pandemic potential” virus this year, they said in a new report.
DOWNTOWN FORT MYERS Bay Street Yard set to open in late May A new place to hang out in Downtown Fort Myers is opening this spring.
FORT MYERS Black bear spotted in downtown Fort Myers A Florida black bear had been spotted in downtown Fort Myers early Monday morning. FWC is responding to relocate the bear.
LEHIGH ACRES 2 ATVs ticketed at Barefoot Lake after owner bars public Two ATVs were issued tickets at Barefoot Lake and towed away over the weekend after the property owner decided to bar the public.
CAPE CORAL Car with bullet holes towed away from Cape Coral home after police search car, home A Mercedes with at least one bullet hole has been towed from a Cape Coral home.
WINK NEWS Hot and dry Monday afternoon before isolated storms pop up this evening On Monday morning, the weather is starting mild and humid with temperatures in the upper 60s and lower 70s.
FORT MYERS Caught on Camera: Firefighters respond to dumpster fire at FGCU San Carlos Park Fire District responded to a dumpster fire Sunday afternoon.
FORT MYERS FGCU students affected by Covid celebrate first commencement ceremony Graduation is a right of passage from school to the real world, but for these students, reality hit them in 2020.
PUNTA GORDA Motorcycle crash leaves 1 dead One person has died after a motorcycle crash in Charlotte County.
LEE COUNTY Lee Deputies work to track down transient sex offenders who fail to register WINK News Anchor Corey Lazar goes on patrol with Lee County Deputies in search of transient sex offenders who don’t register.
National Hurricane Preparedness Week: Know your risk Hurricane season starts on June 1st, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has designated the week of May 5 through May 11 as National Hurricane Preparedness Week. Each day, Meteorologist Lauren Kreidler will be highlighting ways to stay prepared ahead of this year’s hurricane season.
Southwest Florida The Weather Authority: Stay alert – chance of showers and storms on Sunday Hot, humid, and more rain for parts of Southwest Florida on Sunday.
CAPE CORAL What we learned about Cape Coral’s water crisis after a ride along On Friday, WINK News got to ride along to see just what people are doing that could be wasting water.
The Weather Authority: A wet Saturday evening as storms move through Southwest Florida A rainy Saturday evening across much of southwest Florida.
FORT MYERS Lee Health Touch-A-Truck event educates families on Trauma Awareness On Saturday morning, sirens were ringing to celebrate Lee Health Trauma Center’s 30 years of service and to provide the public with trauma education and prevention methods.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA (CBS) CDC says bird flu viruses “pose pandemic potential,” cites major knowledge gaps Bird flu continues to appear to pose a “low risk to the general public” for now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. But the agency’s scientists ran into roadblocks investigating a human case of this “pandemic potential” virus this year, they said in a new report.
DOWNTOWN FORT MYERS Bay Street Yard set to open in late May A new place to hang out in Downtown Fort Myers is opening this spring.
MGN WASHINGTON (AP) – In a rare bipartisan effort, the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday approved legislation that would make sweeping changes to U.S. sentencing laws, reducing prison time for some nonviolent drug offenders. The bill, backed by voice vote, comes less than a month after the Senate’s judiciary panel approved similar legislation. The aim of the bipartisan bills, the products of years of negotiations, is to reduce overcrowding in the nation’s prisons, save taxpayer dollars and give some nonviolent offenders a second chance while keeping the most dangerous criminals in prison. Like the Senate bill, the House legislation would allow judges discretion to give lesser sentences than federal mandatory minimums, reducing mandatory life sentences for three-time, nonviolent drug offenders to 25 years. It would also reduce mandatory sentences for two-time offenders. The legislation would apply those sentencing reductions retroactively, except for offenders who have prior serious violent felony convictions that resulted in a prison sentence of greater than 13 months. The House bill is not as broad as the Senate bill, which would also create programs to help prisoners re-enter society and lay out new guidelines for juvenile and elderly prisoners, among other measures. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Robert Goodlatte, R-Va., said his panel will deal with those issues in separate bills. Goodlatte said the legislation would make “common-sense changes.” The bill has the support of some of the most conservative and some of the most liberal members of the committee, including Republican Rep. Raul Labrador of Idaho and Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas. Michigan Rep. John Conyers, the top Democrat on the panel, said “the bill reflects the recognition that criminal law is a blunt instrument – and it is difficult to achieve just results in every case.” After the markup, Goodlatte said it was possible the sentencing bill could move to the House floor before the end of the year. He said it still hasn’t been decided, though, whether the committee will wait to pass all of its criminal justice bills before any floor action. President Barack Obama has said he is supportive of the congressional effort to change the U.S. justice system. He said last month that the country is “in a unique moment” in which people are asking hard questions about the system and trying to make it more effective and fair. Disparate voices – from Obama and the American Civil Liberties Union to the conservative Koch Industries – have agreed the current system is broken. Since 1980, the federal prison population has exploded, in part because of mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders. In 1980, the federal prison population was less than 25,000. Today, it is more than 200,000. The panel also approved several other bills that deal with criminal justice reform, including legislation that would attempt to ensure that people convicted of federal crimes were knowingly breaking the law. Another bill approved by the panel would strike sections of the U.S. code that lawmakers said are arbitrary, should not be subject to criminal penalties or are rarely prosecuted. That includes statutes like those making it a federal crime to knowingly and for profit use the U.S. Forest Service mascot “Woodsy Owl,” or the slogan “Give a Hoot, Don’t Pollute.” Goodlatte called such federal crimes “outdated, ill-drafted, or, frankly, ridiculous.”