Sibling rivalry brewing between SWFL Super Bowl championsFort Myers mother warns others after falling victim to ticket fraud
FORT MYERS Sibling rivalry brewing between SWFL Super Bowl champions Philadelphia may be known as the city of brotherly love, but here in southwest Florida, there’s a brotherly rivalry brewing between two of our own.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers mother warns others after falling victim to ticket fraud A mother’s intended surprise turned into a disappointment when she paid for Savannah Bananas tickets but never received them. The tickets were meant to be a special gift for her son.
Legal expert weighs in on 17-year-old found not guilty of murder of mom Collin Griffith, a 17-year-old, has been found not guilty in the death of his mother, Catherine Griffith, who was fatally stabbed in the neck.
FORT MYERS $150k worth of equipment stolen from Lee Health Fort Myers police arrested a hospital employee accused of stealing more than 150 thousand dollars worth of medical equipment from Lee Health.
NAPLES Award-winning stylist to host event during Naples Automotive Experience On Friday, an Emmy Award-winning Hollywood stylist will host Forever Fabulous, a charity event with the St. Matthew’s House.
FORT MYERS Colonial and I-75 diverging diamond to be completed by spring The diverging diamond at Colonial Boulevard and Interstate 75 in Fort Myers is diverting drivers.
NAPLES 20th Annual Spring Home & Garden show coming to Naples The 20th semi-annual Spring Home & Garden show is coming to Naples.
NAPLES Collier Publix worker spreads joy with kindness cards In Collier County, one person stands out for his daily acts of kindness, bringing smiles to those around him.
FGCU FGCU softball pitcher ranked among the best in the country FGCU softball pitcher Allison Sparkman enters her sophomore season ranked as one of the top pitchers in the country.
Congress steps in as Port Charlotte widow searches for husband’s ashes A Port Charlotte woman continues to fight to find her husband’s ashes, lost in the mail. Members of Congress are now backing her efforts.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers mom recounts dramatic chase to find kidnapped daughter A mother’s worst nightmare unfolded when her 2-year-old daughter was taken from her in Fort Myers on Monday.
ESTERO Copperleaf Community fights hunger through fundraising The Copperleaf Country Club community in Estero is making a significant impact in the fight against hunger.
NAPLES Collier County students explore trade careers at job fair Hundreds of Collier County students explored potential future careers at the Build My Future Job Fair.
NORTH NAPLES New orthopedic hospital nears completion in Collier County A new orthopedic hospital is nearing completion in Collier County, Florida, with an estimated cost of $140 million.
Real estate deals that shaped the SWFL landscape in 2024 The rise of online retail and continued regional population growth played a large role in a series of yin/yang real estate transactions that defined Southwest Florida’s top deals of 2024.
FORT MYERS Sibling rivalry brewing between SWFL Super Bowl champions Philadelphia may be known as the city of brotherly love, but here in southwest Florida, there’s a brotherly rivalry brewing between two of our own.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers mother warns others after falling victim to ticket fraud A mother’s intended surprise turned into a disappointment when she paid for Savannah Bananas tickets but never received them. The tickets were meant to be a special gift for her son.
Legal expert weighs in on 17-year-old found not guilty of murder of mom Collin Griffith, a 17-year-old, has been found not guilty in the death of his mother, Catherine Griffith, who was fatally stabbed in the neck.
FORT MYERS $150k worth of equipment stolen from Lee Health Fort Myers police arrested a hospital employee accused of stealing more than 150 thousand dollars worth of medical equipment from Lee Health.
NAPLES Award-winning stylist to host event during Naples Automotive Experience On Friday, an Emmy Award-winning Hollywood stylist will host Forever Fabulous, a charity event with the St. Matthew’s House.
FORT MYERS Colonial and I-75 diverging diamond to be completed by spring The diverging diamond at Colonial Boulevard and Interstate 75 in Fort Myers is diverting drivers.
NAPLES 20th Annual Spring Home & Garden show coming to Naples The 20th semi-annual Spring Home & Garden show is coming to Naples.
NAPLES Collier Publix worker spreads joy with kindness cards In Collier County, one person stands out for his daily acts of kindness, bringing smiles to those around him.
FGCU FGCU softball pitcher ranked among the best in the country FGCU softball pitcher Allison Sparkman enters her sophomore season ranked as one of the top pitchers in the country.
Congress steps in as Port Charlotte widow searches for husband’s ashes A Port Charlotte woman continues to fight to find her husband’s ashes, lost in the mail. Members of Congress are now backing her efforts.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers mom recounts dramatic chase to find kidnapped daughter A mother’s worst nightmare unfolded when her 2-year-old daughter was taken from her in Fort Myers on Monday.
ESTERO Copperleaf Community fights hunger through fundraising The Copperleaf Country Club community in Estero is making a significant impact in the fight against hunger.
NAPLES Collier County students explore trade careers at job fair Hundreds of Collier County students explored potential future careers at the Build My Future Job Fair.
NORTH NAPLES New orthopedic hospital nears completion in Collier County A new orthopedic hospital is nearing completion in Collier County, Florida, with an estimated cost of $140 million.
Real estate deals that shaped the SWFL landscape in 2024 The rise of online retail and continued regional population growth played a large role in a series of yin/yang real estate transactions that defined Southwest Florida’s top deals of 2024.
Court, gavel. Credit: MGN (CNN) A federal judge in Maryland Thursday morning temporarily blocked the 90-day ban on immigration for citizens of six countries in President Donald Trump’s executive order, dealing another blow to the President’s revised travel ban. Wednesday afternoon, a federal judge in Hawaii issued a temporary restraining order nationwide over the ban, hours before it was set to go into effect. In a 43-page ruling, US District Court Judge Derrick Watson, who presides in Hawaii, concluded in no uncertain terms that the new executive order failed to pass legal muster at this stage and the state had established “a strong likelihood of success” on their claims of religious discrimination. Trump decried Watson’s ruling during a rally Wednesday night in Nashville, introducing his statement as “the bad, the sad news.” “The order he blocked was a watered-down version of the first one,” Trump said, as the crowd booed the news. “This is, in the opinion of many, an unprecedented judicial overreach,” he added, before pledging to take the issue to the Supreme Court if necessary. The practical effect of the ruling — which applies nationwide — is that travelers from six Muslim-majority countries and refugees will be able to travel to the US. Unlike the previous executive order, the new one removed Iraq from the list of banned countries, exempted those with green cards and visas and removed a provision that arguably prioritizes certain religious minorities. The new ban was announced earlier this month and was set to take effect Thursday. It would have banned people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen from entering the US for 90 days and all refugees for 120 days. “The illogic of the Government’s contentions is palpable. The notion that one can demonstrate animus toward any group of people only by targeting all of them at once is fundamentally flawed,” Watson wrote. “Equally flawed is the notion that the Executive Order cannot be found to have targeted Islam because it applies to all individuals in the six referenced countries,” Watson added. “It is undisputed, using the primary source upon which the Government itself relies, that these six countries have overwhelmingly Muslim populations that range from 90.7% to 99.8%.” “It would therefore be no paradigmatic leap to conclude that targeting these countries likewise targets Islam,” Watson added. “Certainly, it would be inappropriate to conclude, as the Government does, that it does not.” “When considered alongside the constitutional injuries and harms … and the questionable evidence supporting the Government’s national security motivations, the balance of equities and public interests justify granting the Plaintiffs’ (request to block the new order),” Watson wrote. The Justice Department said it will defend the new travel ban. “The Department of Justice strongly disagrees with the federal district court’s ruling, which is flawed both in reasoning and in scope. The President’s Executive Order falls squarely within his lawful authority in seeking to protect our Nation’s security, and the Department will continue to defend this Executive Order in the courts,” DOJ said in a statement Wednesday night. Judge points to cable news comments After Trump initially blasted a federal judge in Seattle on Twitter for blocking the original travel ban, and several other federal courts halted its implementation last month, the White House went back to the drawing board for over a month and rewrote the ban — hoping this one would survive legal scrutiny. Yet certain statements made by Trump’s senior advisers have come back to bite the administration in court. In the ruling, Watson brought up specific statements made by the President and Stephen Miller, one of his top policy advisers and a reported architect of the original order, in cable news interviews. Trump made plain his opposition to Islam in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper last year, asserting: “I think Islam hates us.” Cooper asked then-candidate Trump in the interview to clarify if he meant Islam as a whole or just “radical Islam,” to which Trump replied, “It’s very hard to separate. Because you don’t know who’s who.” The judge cited this interview as an example of the “religious animus” behind the executive order and quoted Trump telling Cooper: “We can’t allow people coming into this country who have this hatred of the United States.” Likewise, the decision cited an interview Miller had on Fox News following the legal struggles of the first executive order last month, which the legal opponents of the ban have emphasized repeatedly. In a February interview, Miller downplayed any major differences the new executive order would have from the first and said it would be “responsive to the judicial ruling” holding it up and have “mostly minor technical differences.” “Fundamentally, you’re still going to have the same basic policy outcome for the country,” Miller added. “These plainly-worded statements, made in the months leading up to and contemporaneous with the signing of the Executive Order, and, in many cases, made by the Executive himself, betray the Executive Order’s stated secular purpose,” Watson wrote. “Any reasonable, objective observer would conclude, as does the court for purposes of the instant Motion for TRO, that the stated secular purpose of the Executive Order is, at the very least, ‘secondary to a religious objective’ of temporarily suspending the entry of Muslims,” he added. Changes not enough, judge says While Watson signaled that this temporary freeze of the travel ban may not last forever, he nevertheless concluded that the changes made between the first and second versions of the travel ban weren’t enough. “Here, it is not the case that the Administration’s past conduct must forever taint any effort by it to address the security concerns of the nation,” he wrote. “Based upon the current record available, however, the Court cannot find the actions taken during the interval between revoked Executive Order No. 13,769 and the new Executive Order to be ‘genuine changes in constitutionally significant conditions.'” Immigration advocates applauded the ruling immediately. “The Constitution has once again put the brakes on President Trump’s disgraceful and discriminatory ban. We are pleased but not surprised by this latest development and will continue working to ensure the Muslim ban never takes effect,” said ACLU attorney Omar Jadwat, who argued for the case for the challengers in Maryland federal court earlier on Wednesday. The Justice Department has yet to indicate its next legal steps. A federal judge in Washington state is also in the process of evaluating challenges to the new travel ban, but may defer ruling in light of the nationwide ruling in Hawaii. This story has been updated to reflect new developments.