Bay Street Yard set to open in late MayAetna agrees to settle lawsuit over fertility coverage for LGBTQ+ customers
DOWNTOWN FORT MYERS Bay Street Yard set to open in late May A new place to hang out in Downtown Fort Myers is opening this spring.
Aetna agrees to settle lawsuit over fertility coverage for LGBTQ+ customers Aetna has agreed to settle a lawsuit that accused the health insurer of discriminating against LGBTQ+ customers in need of fertility treatment.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA WINK Neighborhood Watch: Robbery, Pawn Shops, and Child Porn This week’s segment of Wink Neighborhood Watch features an armed robber, fraud at a pawn shop, and possession of child pornography.
Southwest Florida The Weather Authority: Sun, clouds, humidity, rain – it’s all in your weekend forecast Saturday afternoon will be hot and humid, with a mix of sun and clouds.
LEHIGH ACRES Chaotic lake getting fence and security Now, with all the negative attention it has gotten, some think putting up a fence is a great way to keep that bad activity out.
CAPE CORAL What we learned about Cape Coral’s water crisis after a ride along On Friday, WINK News got to ride along to see just what people are doing that could be wasting water.
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.
FORT MYERS 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.
DOWNTOWN FORT MYERS Bay Street Yard set to open in late May A new place to hang out in Downtown Fort Myers is opening this spring.
Aetna agrees to settle lawsuit over fertility coverage for LGBTQ+ customers Aetna has agreed to settle a lawsuit that accused the health insurer of discriminating against LGBTQ+ customers in need of fertility treatment.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA WINK Neighborhood Watch: Robbery, Pawn Shops, and Child Porn This week’s segment of Wink Neighborhood Watch features an armed robber, fraud at a pawn shop, and possession of child pornography.
Southwest Florida The Weather Authority: Sun, clouds, humidity, rain – it’s all in your weekend forecast Saturday afternoon will be hot and humid, with a mix of sun and clouds.
LEHIGH ACRES Chaotic lake getting fence and security Now, with all the negative attention it has gotten, some think putting up a fence is a great way to keep that bad activity out.
CAPE CORAL What we learned about Cape Coral’s water crisis after a ride along On Friday, WINK News got to ride along to see just what people are doing that could be wasting water.
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.
FORT MYERS 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.
WASHINGTON (AP) – The son of the Louisiana man shot dead by police wants President Barack Obama to help end world racism. The mother of a policeman pleads for ways to keep her son safe. A single mom who has sent her son away from a rough Baltimore neighborhood worries over how to keep him safe when he’s home on the weekends. America’s fraught debate about tensions between blacks and police spilled over Thursday into hang-wringing about societal problems beyond any one person’s capacity to fix – even the president. At a town hall meeting recorded to be broadcast in prime time, Obama cautiously offered suggestions, but no surefire solutions. The good news, Obama said, is at least people are finally talking about the problems. Calling for “open hearts,” he urged Americans not to cloister themselves in separate corners. “Because of the history of this country and the legacy of race, and all the complications that are involved with that, working through these issues so that things can continue to get better will take some time,” Obama said. More time than Obama has left in office, he readily conceded. As 32-year-old Philando Castile’s funeral was underway in St. Paul, Minnesota, Obama took a question remotely from Diamond Reynolds, Castile’s girlfriend, who livestreamed the aftermath of his shooting by police on Facebook. She said she’s scared for her daughter’s future and asked the president, “What do we do?” Choosing his words carefully, Obama said it’s key for officers to get to know the community they’re protecting. Also critical, he said, was to better train police to avoid “implicit biases.” “We all carry around with us some assumptions about other people,” Obama said. If people are honest with themselves, he added, “oftentimes there is a presumption that black men are dangerous.” He offered a rare reflection on how he felt racism had affected him personally, recalling how as a young boy in Hawaii, a female neighbor didn’t recognize him and refused to ride in the same elevator. “In that sense, what is true for me is true for a lot of African-American men,” he said. Another questioner, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, came with a different viewpoint. He implored Obama to more strongly condemn those who call for killing police, and to grant a national law enforcement group’s request that the White House be lit up with blue lights in solidarity. The White House has declined that request, and Obama insisted he’s condemned anti-police rhetoric plenty already. In a particularly tense moment at the end of the town hall, the daughter of a man who died in a police confrontation started screaming after being denied a chance to question the president. Erica Garner, daughter of Eric Garner, later met briefly with Obama in private, the White House said. The question-and-answer session at a Washington theater capped a dizzying week for the president as he sought to connect with the public in a series of hastily arranged appearances: a meeting with police, a summit with law enforcement leaders and Black Lives Matter activists, a trip to Dallas to honor five white officers killed in a revenge attack. In each instance, Obama has said he’s trying to shift the conversation away from talking points and entrenched accusations of blame, while acknowledging the U.S. is “not even close to being there yet.” Obama, who cut short a Europe trip after the Dallas killings, has found himself squarely in the middle of the crisis. A reluctant mediator between blacks and the police, he’s avoided explicitly taking sides. Even still, some law enforcement leaders have accused Obama of scapegoating police. Some of Obama’s critics have even suggested he’s partially to blame for attacks on police. Obama has long been wary of the expectation that, as the first black president, he’s uniquely qualified to play peacemaker. After George Zimmerman was acquitted of killing unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida, Obama called for national soul-searching but suggested he needn’t be the referee. Instead, he’s tried to encourage more places to adopt policing recommendations developed earlier by his administration. He’s called for assigning police officers to the communities where they live, improving training on how to avoid confrontation, expanding access to statistics about police interactions, and ensuring transparent investigations and due process after deadly incidents. Yet in a reflection of how the policing issue has unmasked broader inequalities, Obama has also insisted that the problem can’t be solved while African-Americans still struggle disproportionately with joblessness, drugs, poverty, and lack of access to education, health care and healthy food. “We expect police to solve a whole range of societal problems that we ourselves have neglected,” Obama said. He said prominent incidents sometimes “the catalyst for all the other stuff that may not even have to do with policing coming out.” Obama has been blunt about the limitations of presidential words or pat policy proposals. Acknowledging “deep divisions” about the right solutions, he predicted this week there would be more tensions “this month, next month, next year, for quite some time.” To that end, the National League of Cities and U.S. Conference of Mayors called for local officials to hold “100 community conversations race relations, justice, policing and equality.” And in Congress, lawmakers were forming a task force to examine police accountability and aggression toward police. “I think we need to listen and learn, instead of just starting to throw bombs at each other,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.