NAPLES Increasing amount of homeless seniors in SWFL Saint Matthew House told Wink News that 20% of the people they shelter are over 60 years old.
NAPLES Man suspected of threatening pickelballers with machete A man has been arrested after authorities say he chased a group of pickleball players off a Naples court. “I don’t know. It just seemed like he snapped,” said William Nehrkorn, father of one of the pickleball players. 53-year-old Pelican Marsh maintenance worker Joseph Devalle ran toward Nehrkorn’s son and friends, not with a paddle […]
NAPLES Turtle Club in Naples reopens Following a 19-month closure because of Hurricane Ian, the Turtle Club has reopened.
FORT MYERS BEACH Hurricane season preparations at Lee County construction sites Many already know the drill when hurricane season is around the corner.
SANIBEL Bones found on Sanibel concern beachgoers A husband and wife found what appeared to be bones. What type and where they came from is being investigated.
FGCU FGCU president reflects on first year with graduating class Alico Arena was packed this weekend as Florida Gulf Coast University graduated 1,900 students in four ceremonies.
Reverse shoulder replacement offers new approach to pain management Shoulder replacement is the third most common replacement in the US, following hip and knee replacement.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA Lee County teachers bargain for new raises Kevin Daly is the voice of the Lee County Teachers Union, and he says he knows firsthand the struggle teachers experience across the state.
FORT MYERS New Starbucks off Colonial expected to add to traffic headaches It’s a venti-sized traffic nightmare. That’s how Gina O’Donnell envisions the future of this plaza.
NAPLES Feeding families through Meals of Hope They’re a Naples-based non-profit organization whose mission is to alleviate hunger both locally and throughout the country.
Family dealing with two losses in quick succession A teenager will not get to celebrate turning 21 years old with friends, can’t put a smile on his family member’s faces and will never get to see his mother again.
JERUSALEM (AP) Israeli leaders have approved a military operation into the Gaza Strip city of Rafah Israeli leaders approved a military operation into the Gaza Strip city of Rafah, and Israeli forces were striking targets in the area, officials announced Monday, hours after Hamas announced it had accepted an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal.
FORT MYERS Middle school tech worker uses CPR skills to save pickleball player’s life It was the right place, at the right time, and that right place was near the pickleball court.
EVERGLADES Big Sugar’s lawsuit for control over Lake Okeechobee water A local non-profit is calling one lawsuit a battle for who controls the water in the State of Florida. Three major sugar companies filed a lawsuit in 2021 against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over the design and intended use of the Everglades Agriculture Area (EAA) Reservoir.
NAPLES Annual Holocaust Remembrance Day program returns to Jewish Federation of Greater Naples Sunday was a day to remember the six million men, women and children lost in the Holocaust.
NAPLES Increasing amount of homeless seniors in SWFL Saint Matthew House told Wink News that 20% of the people they shelter are over 60 years old.
NAPLES Man suspected of threatening pickelballers with machete A man has been arrested after authorities say he chased a group of pickleball players off a Naples court. “I don’t know. It just seemed like he snapped,” said William Nehrkorn, father of one of the pickleball players. 53-year-old Pelican Marsh maintenance worker Joseph Devalle ran toward Nehrkorn’s son and friends, not with a paddle […]
NAPLES Turtle Club in Naples reopens Following a 19-month closure because of Hurricane Ian, the Turtle Club has reopened.
FORT MYERS BEACH Hurricane season preparations at Lee County construction sites Many already know the drill when hurricane season is around the corner.
SANIBEL Bones found on Sanibel concern beachgoers A husband and wife found what appeared to be bones. What type and where they came from is being investigated.
FGCU FGCU president reflects on first year with graduating class Alico Arena was packed this weekend as Florida Gulf Coast University graduated 1,900 students in four ceremonies.
Reverse shoulder replacement offers new approach to pain management Shoulder replacement is the third most common replacement in the US, following hip and knee replacement.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA Lee County teachers bargain for new raises Kevin Daly is the voice of the Lee County Teachers Union, and he says he knows firsthand the struggle teachers experience across the state.
FORT MYERS New Starbucks off Colonial expected to add to traffic headaches It’s a venti-sized traffic nightmare. That’s how Gina O’Donnell envisions the future of this plaza.
NAPLES Feeding families through Meals of Hope They’re a Naples-based non-profit organization whose mission is to alleviate hunger both locally and throughout the country.
Family dealing with two losses in quick succession A teenager will not get to celebrate turning 21 years old with friends, can’t put a smile on his family member’s faces and will never get to see his mother again.
JERUSALEM (AP) Israeli leaders have approved a military operation into the Gaza Strip city of Rafah Israeli leaders approved a military operation into the Gaza Strip city of Rafah, and Israeli forces were striking targets in the area, officials announced Monday, hours after Hamas announced it had accepted an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal.
FORT MYERS Middle school tech worker uses CPR skills to save pickleball player’s life It was the right place, at the right time, and that right place was near the pickleball court.
EVERGLADES Big Sugar’s lawsuit for control over Lake Okeechobee water A local non-profit is calling one lawsuit a battle for who controls the water in the State of Florida. Three major sugar companies filed a lawsuit in 2021 against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over the design and intended use of the Everglades Agriculture Area (EAA) Reservoir.
NAPLES Annual Holocaust Remembrance Day program returns to Jewish Federation of Greater Naples Sunday was a day to remember the six million men, women and children lost in the Holocaust.
(FlyingToaster / Wikipedia / CC BY-SA 3.0) HIROSHIMA, Japan (AP) – Every gesture. Every word uttered or avoided. Every person Barack Obama speaks with, listens to and stands beside in Hiroshima. All of it will help determine the success of a trip with huge potential political and diplomatic pitfalls, both in America and Asia. The leader of the United States is already one of the world’s most watched people. But that daily scrutiny will be magnified exponentially when Obama makes the first presidential journey to the place where the first atomic bomb attack killed tens of thousands 71 years ago. Obama’s mere presence among the nightmare images of death and destruction that linger in Hiroshima will be what most casual observers will remember. But there are many other people with deep political and personal interests in Northeast Asia’s long-running history battles who will be eager to parse Obama’s every move. Bomb victims will be looking for compassion. Many in neighboring countries and the United States will want clear condemnation of Imperial Japan’s colonial and wartime atrocities – and not a whiff of anything that could be seen as an apology for what they see as justified bombs. And nonproliferation experts will want proof that Obama is working to “earn” the Nobel Peace Prize he received for advocating a world without nuclear weapons. Here is a look at how Obama’s gestures might shape his historic, politically fraught visit to Hiroshima: ___ TO BOW OR NOT TO BOW Obama knows from past experience that every gesture counts when he’s on the world stage. He took a hit early in his presidency when his deep bow before Japanese Emperor Akihito was criticized by U.S. conservatives who saw him as groveling. But high-stakes political risks can also bring acclaim. West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, for instance, fell to his knees in 1970 in the former Warsaw Ghetto, in one of recent history’s most famous examples of political remorse. He received a Nobel Prize the next year. Hiroshima will see something much more subtle, but what Obama does will still carry great weight. Very little is known ahead of time about his trip, but the U.S. president will reportedly lay flowers at Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park, visit the park museum and make a short statement to about 100 people, an effort at what some call “reconciliation diplomacy.” “The key thing is to restore dignity,” said Jeff Kingston, a history professor at Temple University Japan. “He realizes this is the unfinished business of reconciliation, that there is a long road from foe to friend.” ___ THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER The visit, if handled deftly, could reverberate in the United State and in Japan and its neighbors. But how it is read will depend in large part on the reader. Differing views, in different countries, exist among historians, politicians and the public about the atomic bombs, specifically, and the war in general. That makes shaping a message very tricky. Japan may see Obama’s visit as proof that even memories of war and nuclear attack cannot hurt one of the strongest trade, security and cultural partnerships in the world. South Korea, a strong U.S. ally that has always been wary of Japan, its former colonial overlord, may be worried that Obama’s actions at Hiroshima will overshadow its complaints that Tokyo has failed to fully address Japan’s colonial and wartime violence. China, a major U.S. and Japanese rival, may look at the pictures of Obama and Abe standing side-by-side at Hiroshima and see an aggressive challenge to its push for regional authority. But Obama’s actions could also show Beijing that “by using the past for political purposes you can never build this kind of positive, forward-looking relationship,” according to Stephen Nagy, an international relations professor at International Christian University in Tokyo. ___ A WORLD WITHOUT NUKES Obama may also look to use the trip to address a piece of unfinished business. Ever since the accolades that followed his anti-nuclear speech in April 2009, Obama has been criticized for doing little to back up his soaring rhetoric. “He hopes to find inspiration to realize that agenda of disarmament, nonproliferation and then a nuclear-free world,” Kingston said of the president’s trip to Hiroshima. Getting rid of nukes won’t happen fast, but his mere presence in Hiroshima, where the nuclear age began, could send a powerful message. “Where better to start than Hiroshima, which will remind people of what is at stake?” Kingston said. ___ JUST LISTEN Perhaps the most powerful gesture Obama has available is also the simplest: To just listen to the bomb victims’ memories of suffering and activism. “Even if he does not say the word ‘sorry,’ the sincerity with which Obama listens to the stories of the victims will be a touchstone of the meaning of his visit,” Tessa Morris-Suzuki, a Japanese history professor at The Australian National University, wrote recently. It is unclear if Obama will listen to victims’ testimonies, Japan’s Kyodo News agency reported, although he may briefly speak with some of them. “If President Obama meets with survivors, listens to their words, looks into their eyes and acknowledges their long-term suffering, that sends a powerful message. It represents a gesture of reconciliation – possibly the only such gesture – that has meaning 70 years later,” said Franziska Seraphim, a Japan expert and history professor at Boston College.