Students affected by COVID-19 able to graduate for the first timeDeadly crash on State Road 29 in Hendry County
FORT MYERS Students affected by COVID-19 able to graduate for the first time For many young people, COVID stripped away one of their greatest rites of passage: graduation.
Deadly crash on State Road 29 in Hendry County Authorities are at the scene of a deadly crash on State Road 29 in Hendry County on Friday afternoon.
Celebrating Free Comic Book Day in SWFL JP Sports store manager Jonathan Powell said this is a generational event that brings families together to reminisce on comics and other hobby-related knickknacks.
FORT MYERS Group rescues dogs before getting put down in Lee County Our animal shelters are packed with amazing puppies who have the sole desire to be loved.
FORT MYERS FGCU student beats all odds and is able to graduate Nearly four years ago, Marisa Manning had her heart set on going to Florida Gulf Coast University but never thought she’d find her passion for studying parasites.
Victim in MLK Blvd. shooting identified as social media influencer The victim of the Martin Luther King Boulevard shooting has been identified as a local social media influencer.
FORT MYERS Could a Ferris wheel in downtown Fort Myers work? Right now, there are talks to bring a Ferris wheel to downtown Fort Myers, but several things are still up in the air.
LITTLE HICKORY BAY Improving ‘Hell’s Gate’ safety, a notoriously dangerous waterway for boaters A push to make an area known as “Hell’s Gate” safer since it’s a dangerous stretch of water with several blind corners within Little Hickory Bay.
Fixing failed back surgeries More than a million and a half people in the U.S. undergo back surgery each year. However, classic back surgery has one of the highest failure rates of any surgery.
WINK NEWS Getting an inside look at the FEMA discount controversy Picking up the pieces after Hurricane Ian has been difficult for many and moving on can impact our wallets.
FGCU FGCU pitcher Dylan Wolff playing for hometown team after labrum injury FGCU pitcher Dylan Wolff is living the dream playing for the hometown team after he overcame a labrum injury.
LEHIGH ACRES Frustrated Lehigh parents want action after violent school fights go viral online Violence at a Lehigh Acres Middle school was captured and posted online.
Turtle Club beachfront restaurant relaunches in Naples After a series of private friends and family events this week, The Turtle Club will reopen May 5 and begin taking reservations again May 6.
Jimmie The Beef Guy opens in Fort Myers Jimmie “The Beef Guy” Hart opened the first Jimmie The Beef Guy in 2021 on the southeast corner of Bonita Beach Road and U.S. 41.
SARASOTA Distressed endangered sawfish euthanized nearly a month after rescue Wildlife officials euthanized a distressed smalltooth sawfish that was rescued from Cudjoe Bay in the Florida Keys where it was swimming in circles.
FORT MYERS Students affected by COVID-19 able to graduate for the first time For many young people, COVID stripped away one of their greatest rites of passage: graduation.
Deadly crash on State Road 29 in Hendry County Authorities are at the scene of a deadly crash on State Road 29 in Hendry County on Friday afternoon.
Celebrating Free Comic Book Day in SWFL JP Sports store manager Jonathan Powell said this is a generational event that brings families together to reminisce on comics and other hobby-related knickknacks.
FORT MYERS Group rescues dogs before getting put down in Lee County Our animal shelters are packed with amazing puppies who have the sole desire to be loved.
FORT MYERS FGCU student beats all odds and is able to graduate Nearly four years ago, Marisa Manning had her heart set on going to Florida Gulf Coast University but never thought she’d find her passion for studying parasites.
Victim in MLK Blvd. shooting identified as social media influencer The victim of the Martin Luther King Boulevard shooting has been identified as a local social media influencer.
FORT MYERS Could a Ferris wheel in downtown Fort Myers work? Right now, there are talks to bring a Ferris wheel to downtown Fort Myers, but several things are still up in the air.
LITTLE HICKORY BAY Improving ‘Hell’s Gate’ safety, a notoriously dangerous waterway for boaters A push to make an area known as “Hell’s Gate” safer since it’s a dangerous stretch of water with several blind corners within Little Hickory Bay.
Fixing failed back surgeries More than a million and a half people in the U.S. undergo back surgery each year. However, classic back surgery has one of the highest failure rates of any surgery.
WINK NEWS Getting an inside look at the FEMA discount controversy Picking up the pieces after Hurricane Ian has been difficult for many and moving on can impact our wallets.
FGCU FGCU pitcher Dylan Wolff playing for hometown team after labrum injury FGCU pitcher Dylan Wolff is living the dream playing for the hometown team after he overcame a labrum injury.
LEHIGH ACRES Frustrated Lehigh parents want action after violent school fights go viral online Violence at a Lehigh Acres Middle school was captured and posted online.
Turtle Club beachfront restaurant relaunches in Naples After a series of private friends and family events this week, The Turtle Club will reopen May 5 and begin taking reservations again May 6.
Jimmie The Beef Guy opens in Fort Myers Jimmie “The Beef Guy” Hart opened the first Jimmie The Beef Guy in 2021 on the southeast corner of Bonita Beach Road and U.S. 41.
SARASOTA Distressed endangered sawfish euthanized nearly a month after rescue Wildlife officials euthanized a distressed smalltooth sawfish that was rescued from Cudjoe Bay in the Florida Keys where it was swimming in circles.
PHOTO CREDIT: WINK NEWS HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – Tain Gregory lost a friend in the December 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary school. Jimmy Greene lost a daughter. The role the arts have played in helping both on their journeys through grief and toward healing is explored in a “Midsummer in Newtown,” a documentary debuting on Sunday at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. The film follows the staging of “A Rockin’ Midsummer Night’s Dream,” a musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s play, which was put on in Newtown by Broadway professionals during the summer of 2014 using children from the community. It focuses on two of the young local actors, Gregory and a girl named Sammy Vertucci, who find the play’s themes of love helping to restore order from chaos reflected in their own lives. A separate track follows Greene as he creates his album “Beautiful Life,” to honor his daughter Ana Grace, while his wife, Nelba Marquez-Greene, creates a foundation to help troubled children. “It’s about people finding ways to move forward,” said director Lloyd Kramer. The film is the second major documentary this year about the Newtown shooting, in which a gunman killed 20 schoolchildren, six educators, his mother and finally himself. The film “Newtown” premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. It also explores the effects of the events of that day on the community. Marquez-Greene said they choose to be part of “Midsummer in Newtown” because it allowed them to tell their story the way they wanted it told. That includes a moment when she stops being angry at her husband, a well-known jazz saxophonist, for not joining her as a political activist in Washington, D.C., pushing for new laws. “It was very powerful for me when I heard his music to realize that this was not only his way to fight, but his way to continue to be a dad,” she said. Filmmakers say they chose to debut the documentary at Tribeca because of the festival’s history. It was created in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks as a way for the arts to help heal the community in New York. Sophfronia Scott Gregory, Tain’s mother, said she hopes people see her son come out of his shell in the film and understand the healing power the play had on her family. For Tain, she said, being part of the production became a microcosm of his part in a community dealing with stress. He and others used the safe space of the theater community to overcome their fears, learn to trust and be vulnerable again. He cries when the production is over. His mother said that was a good thing, because it meant that he missed something he loved and began to understand feelings that went far beyond the play. “It’s always OK to love,” she said. “Don’t be afraid of the pain. The pain is going to go away at some point, but the love is going to stay.” Kramer said they were very careful in the film not to make it about closure, or good coming from evil or happy endings. Because, he said, the truth in Newtown is not that simplistic. Instead, he said the movie is about the journey – what Jimmy Greene describes as a search to reflect love and beauty “through all the trauma and the horror that we’ve been through.” “You can’t choose what happens to you in this life in a lot of ways, but you can choose how you respond to it,” Greene says near the movie’s end.