Fort Myers teen finds dead body in bed of his truckFGCU softball falls to No. 4 Florida in NCAA Tournament
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 four 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.
Firefighter recovering from heat exhaustion after battling flames in Collier County It happened at Progress Rail, a transit corporation on Mercantile Avenue just before 5am on Friday.
FORT MYERS How do SWFL graduation rates compare to the state average? How do graduation rates for Charlotte, Lee and Collier Counties stack up against the state? WINK News crunched the numbers.
FORT MYERS Community divisive over ‘justified’ officer-involved shooting of Christopher Jordan A detective who killed an unarmed black man in a controversial shooting will be back at work on Monday.
CAPE CORAL Family submits civil complaint against Cape Coral Police Department The family of a 13-year-old boy who was struck and killed while riding his scooter has officially filed a civil complaint.
FORT MYERS Community reacts to ‘justified’ officer-involved shooting of Christopher Jordan Leaders with the NAACP are saying there is a divide between the black community and Fort Myers police.
NAPLES Inside look at $21 million Naples Players Theater, set to open at the end of May On Friday, as the theater’s 70th season approached, leaders and organizers invited WINK News for a ‘hard-hat-tour’ to showcase the new additions and construction updates.
FORT MYERS Detective who fired fatal shot at Christopher Jordan returns to work Monday Fort Myers police have confirmed to WINK News the detective who shot and killed a man inside his home will return to work Monday morning.
FORT MYERS Bishop Verot onto first state semifinals in nearly a decade A trip to the FHSAA State Semifinals has been a long time coming for the Bishop Verot Vikings who have not been since 2016.
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 four 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.
Firefighter recovering from heat exhaustion after battling flames in Collier County It happened at Progress Rail, a transit corporation on Mercantile Avenue just before 5am on Friday.
FORT MYERS How do SWFL graduation rates compare to the state average? How do graduation rates for Charlotte, Lee and Collier Counties stack up against the state? WINK News crunched the numbers.
FORT MYERS Community divisive over ‘justified’ officer-involved shooting of Christopher Jordan A detective who killed an unarmed black man in a controversial shooting will be back at work on Monday.
CAPE CORAL Family submits civil complaint against Cape Coral Police Department The family of a 13-year-old boy who was struck and killed while riding his scooter has officially filed a civil complaint.
FORT MYERS Community reacts to ‘justified’ officer-involved shooting of Christopher Jordan Leaders with the NAACP are saying there is a divide between the black community and Fort Myers police.
NAPLES Inside look at $21 million Naples Players Theater, set to open at the end of May On Friday, as the theater’s 70th season approached, leaders and organizers invited WINK News for a ‘hard-hat-tour’ to showcase the new additions and construction updates.
FORT MYERS Detective who fired fatal shot at Christopher Jordan returns to work Monday Fort Myers police have confirmed to WINK News the detective who shot and killed a man inside his home will return to work Monday morning.
FORT MYERS Bishop Verot onto first state semifinals in nearly a decade A trip to the FHSAA State Semifinals has been a long time coming for the Bishop Verot Vikings who have not been since 2016.
MGN LOS ANGELES (AP) – Charlie Sheen’s recent revelation that he’s HIV-positive served as a reminder that his home state of California remains among a large group of states with HIV-specific criminal laws that activists consider outdated and that the U.S. Justice Department says should be revised. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, 33 states have HIV criminal laws, generally making it a crime to expose others to HIV or fail to disclose HIV-positive status. Sheen, who says his sexual partners knew of his diagnosis, has not been charged, and there’s no indication he would face prosecution under California’s laws. The earliest of the laws – in Florida, Tennessee and Washington state – date back to 1986 when fears about AIDS were intense. Most of the measures were enacted over the next several years, before antiretroviral therapies sharply reduced the risk of transmission and transformed HIV – the virus that causes AIDS – into what is now considered a manageable chronic medical condition. The laws vary from state to state. According to the CDC, 24 states require people who know they have HIV to disclose their status to sexual partners and 25 states criminalize one or more behaviors now known to pose a low or negligible risk for HIV transmission – such as oral sex, spitting and biting. In recent years, there’s been a growing push by advocacy groups, health experts and others for states to modify or eliminate those laws. Critics have formed task forces in several states – including Colorado, Ohio, Georgia and Tennessee – to lobby for changes and draft new legislation. In California, a coalition of 14 groups has drafted a bill that would reform several criminal laws, though they are still seeking a lawmaker to lead the effort to enact it. The overarching theme would be to remove HIV-specific language in several laws to bring them in line with the current understanding of the virus, said Craig Pulsipher of AIDS Project Los Angeles. The proposed changes would address five laws on the books in California. One, in place since 1939, makes it a misdemeanor to willfully expose someone to a contagious, infectious or communicable disease. Another, enacted in 1998, makes it a felony punishable by up to eight years in prison to intentionally try to transmit HIV through consensual unprotected sex. California also has laws that target HIV-positive prostitutes and people with HIV who donate blood, organs, tissue, semen or breast milk. Another law adds three years to a prison sentence for exposing a victim to HIV through a sex crime. None of the laws currently requires HIV transmission for a conviction. In general, the proposed reforms would remove HIV from the language so the laws could apply to all serious communicable diseases. The changes would also require transmission of a disease. “What this does is eliminate these laws that single out HIV from other diseases,” Pulsipher said. “We want to make sure we have statutes that take into account things that may come down the line later that aren’t on our radar currently.” The misdemeanor law would be revamped to require that someone intentionally transmit a disease, Pulsipher said. Requiring proof of intent has made prosecution under the felony law a rarity in California, said Ayako Miyashita, a UCLA law professor. “Intent makes it harder to bring a case,” she said. “It’s a step above negligence.” The most recent prosecution in California was in a case in which a man falsely claimed to be HIV-negative and urged his boyfriend at the time to have unprotected sex, according to San Diego city prosecutors. The other man later was diagnosed HIV-positive. Thomas Guerra pleaded no-contest to a misdemeanor health code violation and was sentenced to six months in jail, the maximum. The judge called the term a “travesty” and said she wished she could give him more prison time. On the national level, Rep. Barbara Lee, a California Democrat, has been trying for several years to build support for a bill in Congress that seeks to modernize federal and state laws that can discriminate against people with HIV. “These laws serve only to breed fear, distrust and misunderstanding,” Lee said. With similar goals in mind, the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division issued a “best practices guide” in July 2014 encouraging states to reconsider laws that no longer reflect contemporary medical understanding of HIV transmission and thus perpetuate unwarranted stigma affecting HIV-positive people. Both the Justice Department and the CDC say such stigma can dissuade some people from learning their HIV status, disclosing their status to others, and accessing medical care. The Justice Department recommended that states eliminate HIV-specific criminal penalties except in two distinct circumstances applying only to people who know they are HIV positive. These instances would be sexual assault where there is risk of transmission, or when an HIV-positive individual clearly intended to transmit the virus. “While HIV-specific state criminal laws may be viewed as initially well-intentioned and necessary law enforcement tools, the vast majority do not reflect the current state of the science of HIV,” said the Justice Department. Thus far, there’s been little legislative response to the Justice Department initiative, though two states took action earlier. Illinois revised its HIV law in 2012, stipulating that prosecutors would have to prove that an individual specifically intended to transmit HIV to another person. The revised law also says there can be no criminal charges if the HIV-positive person wore a condom during sexual activity. Iowa modified its law in May 2014, lessening the penalties for people who unknowingly expose someone to HIV with no intention of infecting them. Previously, a person who exposed a partner to HIV without their consent could face up to 25 years in prison. The change came as attorneys for an Iowa man, Nick Rhoades, were successfully challenging a 25-year sentence imposed on him despite evidence that he had used a condom and had no intent to expose his partner to HIV. Scott Schoettes, an HIV-positive attorney who is HIV Project Director for the LGBT-rights group Lambda Legal, wishes the pace of change was faster but remains optimistic. “The legislative process is sometimes slow,” he said. “But we are on the road to reform in a number of places.” ___ Online: Justice Dept. guidelines: https://www.aids.gov/federal-resources/national-hiv-aids-strategy/doj-hiv-criminal-law-best-practices-guide.pdf