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.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Jason Kershanick was just 9 when he saw a huge alligator leap out of a lake and kill his 4-year-old playmate in their Florida neighborhood. Now a 37-year-old paramedic firefighter, he remembers the gruesome attack “like it was yesterday.” It hits him hard every time a gator kills someone else. After an alligator snatched a 2-year-old boy at a Walt Disney World resort this week, Kershanick’s wife asked if he wanted to talk. “I really don’t want to relive it,” he told her. He was just steps away when a bull gator more than 10 feet long surged toward Erin Lynn Glover as she splashed through ankle-deep water in Englewood, Florida. It was June 1988, and kids at the time didn’t worry much about gators, even though the town stood at the edge of the Everglades. As a child, he described his friend’s last moments to an Associated Press reporter. Game officers killed the beast hours later, her body still in its jaws. He suspects few of the tourists at Disney World realize the mortal danger that can lurk wherever there’s freshwater in Florida. “We never thought about alligators either. When I was younger, we went to those lakes all the time,” Kershanick recalled. But “just because you don’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t there.” Fatal attacks are rare, despite a gator population that surpasses 1 million in the nation’s third-most populous state. The death of Nebraska toddler Lane Graves on Tuesday increases the tally to 24 since 1973, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Alligators usually avoid humans unless someone feeds them. After Erin’s death, “I remember people said they were pretty sure that they had seen that alligator before and that people were feeding it. Whenever that happens, that’s what brings them closer to shore. If that’s happening, that’s the real danger,” Kershanick said. There has been no suggestion that Disney tourists were feeding the gator that killed the boy, and authorities said Disney’s wildlife managers do a good job of removing dangerous animals from its theme parks. Then again, there’s no practical way to prevent gators from slipping back in. “Nobody should be feeding them, and I hope that that wasn’t the case. But people – especially in Orlando – a good percentage of them aren’t from Florida. And people could have been feeding them anywhere, even outside the parks,” Kershanick said. Gators, he said, can “move everywhere in water, even through pipes. If it’s a lake in Florida, an alligator can get in there, absolutely.” Kershanick feels for the Graves family. Erin’s relatives were forever changed by the horror. Even now, they declined to talk about it. Kershanick said he received a lot of counseling as a child. “They asked me about nightmares, but mostly it was keeping me busy that helped,” he said. He joined the Navy after high school and then became a firefighter and a paramedic. The alligator attack still affects him as he responds to people suffering their own horrors. “Every day in my work, I see extreme tragedy,” said Kershanick, who now lives in Jensen Beach, on Florida’s east coast. “It’s easy for me to relate when I see someone in pain, because I’ve been through that and had to recover. Maybe that’s what helps me in this job.” Three months after Erin’s death, Florida launched an annual hunt to help control the population of the once-threatened species. Kershanick grew up shooting ducks and quail with his father but didn’t hunt gators until his 20s, when some firefighter friends got a permit. “They asked me to come, and to tell you the truth, I was extremely hesitant,” he recalled. Then they got their first gator – another big one, more than 10 feet long. He felt some relief, seeing its body up close. “I almost looked at it as, ‘gotcha,'” he said. “It kind of felt like, here’s one dead to return the favor.”