ALVA Woodpeckers build home in Alva woman’s house You may have heard of squatters, but this woman is dealing with squawkers. Who needs a rooster to wake up when you have woodpeckers?
FORT MYERS Man claims he was trapped in a high-rise for 5 days A 77-year-old man wants justice after he claims he spent days trapped on the 24th floor of a high-rise apartment building.
PUNTA GORDA Charlotte Correctional prisoner arrested for death of another inmate State Attorney Amira Fox convened a grand jury, which decided to move forward with a case against a Charlotte Correctional inmate.
SANIBEL Construction near Dairy Queen eagle nest on Sanibel raises concerns While many eagle nests may be a bit difficult to see, one nest has always been a favorite for Sanibel residents and tourists.
The environmental effects of artificial sweeteners Experts are studying how the foods we eat affect the environment, especially after we flush our waste down the toilet.
Victim reacts to man exposing himself to her Ring camera You get a notification on your phone from your ring camera app that someone is at the door, only to find out it is someone exposing themselves. It’s the last thing victim Maria Kivi wanted or expected to see last week.
LEE COUNTY The art of capturing your eye and drawing you in How do you capture young, hip, trendy, fun, movers and shakers, all in a pose? We take you behind the scenes of a Gulfshore Life cover shoot.
FORT MYERS The lives of two SJC Boxers changed in the ring Two SJC Boxers, Mario Nunez and Arbon Kurtishi, help each other in the ring as each of them had their lives changed because of boxing.
FORT MYERS Chlamydia cases rising sharply in Lee County If you think about a crowded space- something with more than 250 people- if it’s in Lee county, statistically one person has chlamydia.
SANIBEL Sanibel resort day passes hope to get more business on the island A pass will allow vacationers to hang out at a Sanibel beach club for a day in hopes of drumming up some business.
Voting equipment tested ahead of Lee County elections Voting equipment is being tested in Lee County. This is to ensure all ballots are printed and counted correctly for the upcoming election.
Collier County teen assaulted after leaving party The teen has been charged and the sheriff’s office said they’re aware that many believe felony charges are in order, but under Florida law, there are very specific criteria that must be met for felony charges to be filed.
WINK weather team watching tropical wave over Atlantic Ocean The Weather Authority is watching a tropical disturbance over the Central Atlantic Ocean.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral drug bust leads investigators to fake fentanyl, cash and guns Cape Coral man arrest on drug charges. Investigators said they found, guns, drugs, and more than $32,000 in Richard Riley’s home.
NAPLES Naples youth flag football team to compete in Ohio tournament This weekend, the Naples Lunatics Green will compete in the Superhero Sports tournament in Canton, Ohio.
ALVA Woodpeckers build home in Alva woman’s house You may have heard of squatters, but this woman is dealing with squawkers. Who needs a rooster to wake up when you have woodpeckers?
FORT MYERS Man claims he was trapped in a high-rise for 5 days A 77-year-old man wants justice after he claims he spent days trapped on the 24th floor of a high-rise apartment building.
PUNTA GORDA Charlotte Correctional prisoner arrested for death of another inmate State Attorney Amira Fox convened a grand jury, which decided to move forward with a case against a Charlotte Correctional inmate.
SANIBEL Construction near Dairy Queen eagle nest on Sanibel raises concerns While many eagle nests may be a bit difficult to see, one nest has always been a favorite for Sanibel residents and tourists.
The environmental effects of artificial sweeteners Experts are studying how the foods we eat affect the environment, especially after we flush our waste down the toilet.
Victim reacts to man exposing himself to her Ring camera You get a notification on your phone from your ring camera app that someone is at the door, only to find out it is someone exposing themselves. It’s the last thing victim Maria Kivi wanted or expected to see last week.
LEE COUNTY The art of capturing your eye and drawing you in How do you capture young, hip, trendy, fun, movers and shakers, all in a pose? We take you behind the scenes of a Gulfshore Life cover shoot.
FORT MYERS The lives of two SJC Boxers changed in the ring Two SJC Boxers, Mario Nunez and Arbon Kurtishi, help each other in the ring as each of them had their lives changed because of boxing.
FORT MYERS Chlamydia cases rising sharply in Lee County If you think about a crowded space- something with more than 250 people- if it’s in Lee county, statistically one person has chlamydia.
SANIBEL Sanibel resort day passes hope to get more business on the island A pass will allow vacationers to hang out at a Sanibel beach club for a day in hopes of drumming up some business.
Voting equipment tested ahead of Lee County elections Voting equipment is being tested in Lee County. This is to ensure all ballots are printed and counted correctly for the upcoming election.
Collier County teen assaulted after leaving party The teen has been charged and the sheriff’s office said they’re aware that many believe felony charges are in order, but under Florida law, there are very specific criteria that must be met for felony charges to be filed.
WINK weather team watching tropical wave over Atlantic Ocean The Weather Authority is watching a tropical disturbance over the Central Atlantic Ocean.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral drug bust leads investigators to fake fentanyl, cash and guns Cape Coral man arrest on drug charges. Investigators said they found, guns, drugs, and more than $32,000 in Richard Riley’s home.
NAPLES Naples youth flag football team to compete in Ohio tournament This weekend, the Naples Lunatics Green will compete in the Superhero Sports tournament in Canton, Ohio.
MGN NEW YORK (AP) — Some big retailers face scrutiny for opening on Thanksgiving, but many small stores have no choice. Take jeweler Jerry Amerosi, who has three stores in New York’s Staten Island Mall. Amerosi says he’d rather not work on the holiday, and if his stores were on a downtown or neighborhood street, he wouldn’t. But his lease at the mall requires him to open. That’s the norm for most malls, whose landlords fine retailers up to $1,000 or more if they don’t open. So, Amerosi’s stores will be open 6 p.m. to midnight. Eight employees will be working, and if this Thanksgiving is like last year’s holiday, they’ll have their hands full. “It was crazy busy,” says Amerosi, who declined to give sales figures for his stores, which include Gerald Peters and Gerald Peters Gold Mine. Big national retailers and malls began opening on Thanksgiving several years ago. The idea was to cater to people who can’t wait until the day after Thanksgiving known as Black Friday, to start their holiday shopping. But that has led to criticism of retailers by some labor groups and shoppers for requiring workers to give up time with their families. As a result, some stores have come out publicly to proclaim that they’ll remain closed on Thanksgiving. TJX, which owns TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods, even rolled out ads this year that tout its decision to stay closed during the holidays, with a narrator saying “family time comes first.” Still, there’s been an expanding list in recent years of big chains and shopping centers that open at least part of the day. It can pay off: Shoppers spent an estimated $3.3 billion on Thanksgiving last year, according to ShopperTrak, a company that compiles retail industry statistics. The economics of opening on Thanksgiving can be a little different for the smaller guys. Flower and candy shops in some areas may decide to stay open for customers who need something at the last minute to take to Thanksgiving dinner. But experts say stores that sell gift items for the December holidays are likely to have few takers unless they’re in a mall. Most independent retailers are likely to close to spend time with their families, but also because shoppers won’t be prowling downtown areas and neighborhoods to see who might be open, says Bob Phibbs, CEO of The Retail Doctor, a consulting company based in Coxsackie, New York. Unless a retailer is a coffee house or food store, he says they’ll probably waste time and money by being open. “They’re not going to get much sympathy,” Phibbs says. “People are going to ask, ‘Are you nuts? Why didn’t you close?'” But some small stores in malls don’t have a choice. Refinery, a men’s leather goods and accessory store, will be open along at 10 a.m. with the other stores in the Coconut Point mall in Estero, Florida, on the Gulf Coast. Owner Andrew Kryliouk says he’d rather not work on Thanksgiving, but like other retailers in the mall, he’s required to open his store. Many of Kryliouk’s customers are people known as snowbirds, who spend the cold weather months in Florida and head back north in the spring. Many shop on Thanksgiving because they don’t have family nearby and so aren’t having big holiday dinners. “They might go to a restaurant, and then go to the mall to hang out,” says Kryliouk, who had $1,000 in sales last year, compared with $4,000 for a typical November day. At the Great Mall in Milpitas, California, Alder Riley expects to be busy on the holiday helping customers who need replacement parts for espresso makers, TV remotes and other household items — something always seems to break on Thanksgiving. Last year, when Riley’s business was located in Vermont, his main store in Burlington had $1,200 in revenue, four times the take on a typical day. Riley’s kiosk, Blu-Bin, uses machines known as 3-D printers to quickly make the parts out of plastic. He’ll have three people working from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. that day, earning twice their usual pay as they run eight printers. “We’re anticipating quite a crunch,” Riley says.