FEMA’s impact on homeowners on Fort Myers ShoresFlorida leaders rally as Marco Rubio’s Secretary of State role looks likely
FORT MYERS SHORES FEMA’s impact on homeowners on Fort Myers Shores A teacher in Fort Myers Shores worries she could lose it all because of FEMA.
Florida leaders rally as Marco Rubio’s Secretary of State role looks likely From representing Florida in the U.S. Senate to representing America on the world stage.
FORT MYERS Security concerns continue at Downtown Fort Myers apartment complex Apartments trashed and a lack of security to stop it. People who live at West End City Walk in downtown Fort Myers say this has been their reality in recent weeks.
Veterans Day 5K shuts down Midpoint Bridge The Midpoint Bridge is closed as we honor our veterans one step at a time, with the Veterans Day 5K, hosted by the Fort Myers YMCA.
PORT CHARLOTTE Port Charlotte JROTC honor veterans at pinning ceremony On Monday, veterans at Truewood by Merrill were honored by Port Charlotte High School’s JROTC cadets.
FORT MYERS Field of flags ceremony honors veterans This Veterans Day, the community at Pelican Preserve is coming together for the sixth year in a row to honor our veterans with a field of flags and a special ceremony.
FEMA faces scrutiny after message sent to skip homees with Trump signs FEMA is facing accusations of bias as a message sent by an employee emerged telling them to skip Trump supporter homes following a hurricane.
Amendments 2 and 5 passed. What’s the impact? Of the six state amendments on this year’s ballot in Florida, only two made it out alive. Amendments two and five crossed the required 60% threshold.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral CBD Shop hit by vandals twice in 1 week Surveillance cameras captured someone breaking in through the glass door at the Superior Hemp Dispensary in downtown Cape Coral on Saturday.
NORTH FORT MYERS Lee County veteran and wife conned out of savings A veteran and his wife have been conned out of their retirement savings.
CAPE CORAL Cape neighbors frustrated by clean up wait A Cape Coral yard used to be green and brimming with life, but hurricane debris sitting there for so long left the spot lifeless.
GAINESVILLE Todd Golden coaching Gators despite sexual harassment investigation Florida Gators men’s basketball head coach Todd Golden still with the team despite sexual harassment and stalking investigation.
Miracle Moment: Ring that bell When two girls battled and won against leukemia, their families and care team planned some big celebrations.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral woman arrested for aggravated battery with a car A Cape Coral woman has been arrested for aggravated battery after she ran her car into a truck multiple times.
BONITA SPRINGS Bonita Springs honors veterans with heartfelt ceremony This Veterans Day, Southwest Florida is thanking all the men and women who served our country and protected the many freedoms we enjoy today.
FORT MYERS SHORES FEMA’s impact on homeowners on Fort Myers Shores A teacher in Fort Myers Shores worries she could lose it all because of FEMA.
Florida leaders rally as Marco Rubio’s Secretary of State role looks likely From representing Florida in the U.S. Senate to representing America on the world stage.
FORT MYERS Security concerns continue at Downtown Fort Myers apartment complex Apartments trashed and a lack of security to stop it. People who live at West End City Walk in downtown Fort Myers say this has been their reality in recent weeks.
Veterans Day 5K shuts down Midpoint Bridge The Midpoint Bridge is closed as we honor our veterans one step at a time, with the Veterans Day 5K, hosted by the Fort Myers YMCA.
PORT CHARLOTTE Port Charlotte JROTC honor veterans at pinning ceremony On Monday, veterans at Truewood by Merrill were honored by Port Charlotte High School’s JROTC cadets.
FORT MYERS Field of flags ceremony honors veterans This Veterans Day, the community at Pelican Preserve is coming together for the sixth year in a row to honor our veterans with a field of flags and a special ceremony.
FEMA faces scrutiny after message sent to skip homees with Trump signs FEMA is facing accusations of bias as a message sent by an employee emerged telling them to skip Trump supporter homes following a hurricane.
Amendments 2 and 5 passed. What’s the impact? Of the six state amendments on this year’s ballot in Florida, only two made it out alive. Amendments two and five crossed the required 60% threshold.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral CBD Shop hit by vandals twice in 1 week Surveillance cameras captured someone breaking in through the glass door at the Superior Hemp Dispensary in downtown Cape Coral on Saturday.
NORTH FORT MYERS Lee County veteran and wife conned out of savings A veteran and his wife have been conned out of their retirement savings.
CAPE CORAL Cape neighbors frustrated by clean up wait A Cape Coral yard used to be green and brimming with life, but hurricane debris sitting there for so long left the spot lifeless.
GAINESVILLE Todd Golden coaching Gators despite sexual harassment investigation Florida Gators men’s basketball head coach Todd Golden still with the team despite sexual harassment and stalking investigation.
Miracle Moment: Ring that bell When two girls battled and won against leukemia, their families and care team planned some big celebrations.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral woman arrested for aggravated battery with a car A Cape Coral woman has been arrested for aggravated battery after she ran her car into a truck multiple times.
BONITA SPRINGS Bonita Springs honors veterans with heartfelt ceremony This Veterans Day, Southwest Florida is thanking all the men and women who served our country and protected the many freedoms we enjoy today.
San Antonio police officers investigate the scene, Sunday, July 23, 2017, where eight people were found dead in a tractor-trailer loaded with at least 30 others outside a Walmart store in stifling summer heat in what police are calling a horrific human trafficking case, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) SAN DIEGO (AP) When Thomas Homan, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was awakened Sunday morning with news that migrants were found dead inside a sweltering tractor-trailer outside a San Antonio Walmart, his mind flashed back to 2003, when he stood at the back of a truck about 120 miles (200 kilometers) southeast of San Antonio that carried 19 dead migrants. “It is sad that 14 years later people are still being smuggled in tractor-trailers,” he said. “There still isn’t water, there still isn’t ventilation. These criminal organizations, they’re all about making money.” The striking similarities of the Texas tragedies demonstrate how smugglers have found a durable business model carrying large groups – often in big rigs – through an elaborate network of foot guides, safe house operators and drivers. A criminal complaint about Sunday’s discovery that 10 were dead and dozens injured in the truck opens a window on their degree of sophistication and organizational muscle: passengers had color-coded tape to split into smaller groups; and six black SUVs awaited them at one transit point to bring them to their destinations. Big rigs emerged as a popular smuggling method in the early 1990s amid a surge in U.S. border enforcement in San Diego and El Paso, Texas, which were then the busiest corridors for illegal crossings. Before that, people paid small fees to mom-and-pop operators to get them across a largely unguarded border. As crossing became exponentially more difficult after the 2001 terror strikes in the U.S., migrants were led through more dangerous terrain and paid thousands of dollars more. Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, a political scientist who teaches at University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley, said migrants she interviewed last year in South Texas paid $2,000 to $3,000 more to ride in the crammed tractor-trailers, considering them more effective, faster and safer than walking through the desert to a pickup point far from the border. Hundreds of border crossers perish each year in the desert, getting lost and dehydrated in extreme heat. The growing use of trucks coincided with increased trade with Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement, allowing smugglers to more easily blend in with cargo, particularly on Interstate 35 from Laredo, Texas, to San Antonio, Correa-Cabrera said. Walking in the open desert more easily exposes them to U.S. Border Patrol agents. Women, some carrying children, think they are less likely to be raped on a truck than in the open desert because there are more witnesses, Correia-Cabrera said. Riding in a big rig, she said, is “the VIP treatment.” For smugglers, the advantage of tractor-trailers boils down to scale. “It’s like any other business: the more they move, the more profit they make,” Homan said. “Rather than taking four in a car, the profit margin on tractor-trailers is a lot more.” Truck drivers are low-level cogs in a big machine, recruited in the U.S. at casinos and other places where smuggling organizations look for people who are down on their luck, desperate for quick cash and disinclined to ask questions. James Matthew Bradley Jr., who made an initial court appearance Monday in San Antonio on smuggling charges, told authorities he was delivering what he thought was a sold vehicle from Schiller, Iowa, to Brownsville, Texas, and that he didn’t know what was inside, according to the complaint. He said he was given no deadline or address to deliver the truck. Other guides take migrants across Mexico by bus. Others join them on a raft across the Rio Grande or through the desert to a hideout or to a nearby house where they may wait days or weeks. Eventually smuggling organizations get them to major cities like Phoenix, Houston or San Antonio. “I have to imagine that their winning percentage is really, really high,” said Adam Isacson of the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights advocacy group. “Whatever reputation they lose from episodes like this, their profit margins are still high enough to make it work. Otherwise people wouldn’t pay.”