Genesis of Naples breaking ground on new car dealershipEmails show beginnings, contradictions of South Seas resort amendment
Genesis of Naples breaking ground on new car dealership A genesis—or new beginning—is under way for Genesis of Naples. The local franchise plans to break ground this summer on a new and expanded luxury auto dealership in North Naples.
Emails show beginnings, contradictions of South Seas resort amendment South Seas resort ownership group’s engineer proposed a land-use amendment for Lee County’s government at least six months before the first public discussions and at least seven weeks before the county’s official timeline began, emails between the resort’s representatives and county show.
CAPE CORAL 13-year-old arrested for allegedly getting involved in hit-and-run with stolen car, fleeing from Cape Coral police A teen was arrested on multiple charges after allegedly getting involved in a hit-and-run with a stolen car and then fleeing from police.
NORTH FORT MYERS Caloosahatchee River Bridge to close overnight for construction The Caloosahatchee River Bridge from First Street to North Key Drive in North Fort Myers will close so crews can perform bridge work.
CAPE CORAL Accused Cape Coral double murderer, Wade Wilson, will be in court to try to get death penalty off the table Wade Wilson, the man who allegedly murdered two women, will be in court to try to persuade the court to get the death penalty off the table.
Jupiter DeSantis announces funding for developmentally disabled individuals Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke on education for children with developmental disabilities at the Els Center of Excellence in Jupiter.
CHARLOTTE COUNTY Bradenton man arrested after allegedly masturbating inside Charlotte County Walmart A man from Bradenton has been arrested after he was allegedly masturbating inside a Walmart in Charlotte County.
LEHIGH ACRES Lehigh Acres work trailer explosion injures 1 The Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue District responded to a work trailer explosion that injured one person.
CBS News Trump and DeSantis, once GOP rivals, meet in South Florida to talk about 2024 election Florida Governor Ron DeSantis met privately with former President Donald Trump for several hours on Sunday morning to talk, in part, about fundraising ahead of the 2024 general election, several sources familiar with the meeting tell CBS News.
WINK NEWS Florida Prepaid open enrollment deadline approaches All parents fear the expense of college for their children; however, the state offers a great option in the Florida Prepaid Plan.
The Weather Authority Few showers Monday afternoon in SWFL The Weather Authority is tracking a few rain showers on Monday afternoon into the early evening.
NORTH FORT MYERS 1 dead, 1 arrested after North Fort Myers shooting The Lee County Sheriff’s Office arrested one person following an evening shooting that killed a man in North Fort Myers.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA Bishop of the Diocese of Venice releases statement following sexual abuse allegations by SWFL priest The Bishop of the Diocese of Venice is speaking out after Charlotte County Reverend Leo Riley was arrested on five counts of sexual battery stemming from his past work as a priest in Iowa.
NEW YORK (AP) Biden officials indefinitely postpone ban on menthol cigarettes amid election-year pushback President Joe Biden’s administration is indefinitely delaying a long-awaited menthol cigarette ban, a decision that infuriated anti-smoking advocates but could avoid a political backlash from Black voters in November.
FORT MYERS Gone but not forgotten: Traveling Vietnam Memorial pays tribute to veterans A powerful symbol of honor and remembrance is standing proudly here in Southwest Florida. The Traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall is open to the public, a reminder of those we lost who served our country.
Genesis of Naples breaking ground on new car dealership A genesis—or new beginning—is under way for Genesis of Naples. The local franchise plans to break ground this summer on a new and expanded luxury auto dealership in North Naples.
Emails show beginnings, contradictions of South Seas resort amendment South Seas resort ownership group’s engineer proposed a land-use amendment for Lee County’s government at least six months before the first public discussions and at least seven weeks before the county’s official timeline began, emails between the resort’s representatives and county show.
CAPE CORAL 13-year-old arrested for allegedly getting involved in hit-and-run with stolen car, fleeing from Cape Coral police A teen was arrested on multiple charges after allegedly getting involved in a hit-and-run with a stolen car and then fleeing from police.
NORTH FORT MYERS Caloosahatchee River Bridge to close overnight for construction The Caloosahatchee River Bridge from First Street to North Key Drive in North Fort Myers will close so crews can perform bridge work.
CAPE CORAL Accused Cape Coral double murderer, Wade Wilson, will be in court to try to get death penalty off the table Wade Wilson, the man who allegedly murdered two women, will be in court to try to persuade the court to get the death penalty off the table.
Jupiter DeSantis announces funding for developmentally disabled individuals Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke on education for children with developmental disabilities at the Els Center of Excellence in Jupiter.
CHARLOTTE COUNTY Bradenton man arrested after allegedly masturbating inside Charlotte County Walmart A man from Bradenton has been arrested after he was allegedly masturbating inside a Walmart in Charlotte County.
LEHIGH ACRES Lehigh Acres work trailer explosion injures 1 The Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue District responded to a work trailer explosion that injured one person.
CBS News Trump and DeSantis, once GOP rivals, meet in South Florida to talk about 2024 election Florida Governor Ron DeSantis met privately with former President Donald Trump for several hours on Sunday morning to talk, in part, about fundraising ahead of the 2024 general election, several sources familiar with the meeting tell CBS News.
WINK NEWS Florida Prepaid open enrollment deadline approaches All parents fear the expense of college for their children; however, the state offers a great option in the Florida Prepaid Plan.
The Weather Authority Few showers Monday afternoon in SWFL The Weather Authority is tracking a few rain showers on Monday afternoon into the early evening.
NORTH FORT MYERS 1 dead, 1 arrested after North Fort Myers shooting The Lee County Sheriff’s Office arrested one person following an evening shooting that killed a man in North Fort Myers.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA Bishop of the Diocese of Venice releases statement following sexual abuse allegations by SWFL priest The Bishop of the Diocese of Venice is speaking out after Charlotte County Reverend Leo Riley was arrested on five counts of sexual battery stemming from his past work as a priest in Iowa.
NEW YORK (AP) Biden officials indefinitely postpone ban on menthol cigarettes amid election-year pushback President Joe Biden’s administration is indefinitely delaying a long-awaited menthol cigarette ban, a decision that infuriated anti-smoking advocates but could avoid a political backlash from Black voters in November.
FORT MYERS Gone but not forgotten: Traveling Vietnam Memorial pays tribute to veterans A powerful symbol of honor and remembrance is standing proudly here in Southwest Florida. The Traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall is open to the public, a reminder of those we lost who served our country.
FILE Residents evacuate after the passing of Hurricane Maria, in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, Friday, September 22, 2017. Because of the heavy rains brought by Maria, thousands of people were evacuated from Toa Baja after the municipal government opened the gates of the Rio La Plata Dam. (AP Photo/Carlos Giusti) SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) Puerto Rican officials could not communicate with more than half the towns in the U.S. territory as they rushed to evacuate tens of thousands of people downstream of a failing dam and the massive scale of the disaster wrought by Hurricane Maria started to become clear. Authorities launched an evacuation of the 70,000 people living downstream from the Guajataca Dam in northwest Puerto Rico, sending buses to move people away Friday and posting frantic warnings on Twitter that went unseen by many in the blacked-out coastal area. “This is an EXTREMELY DANGEROUS SITUATION,” the National Weather Service wrote. “All the areas around the Guajataca River must evacuate NOW. Your lives are in DANGER.” The 345-yard (316-meter) dam, which was built around 1928, holds back a man-made lake covering about 2 square miles (5 square kilometers). More than 15 inches (nearly 40 centimeters) of rain fell on the surrounding mountains after the Category 4 Maria left the island Wednesday afternoon, swelling the reservoir behind the nearly 90-year-old dam. An engineer inspecting the dam reported a “contained breach” that officials quickly realized was a crack that could be the first sign of total failure of the dam, U.S. National Weather Service meteorologist Anthony Reynes said. “There’s no clue as to how long or how this can evolve. That is why the authorities are moving so fast because they also have the challenges of all the debris. It is a really, really dire situation,” Reynes said. Government spokesman Carlos Bermudez said that officials could not reach 40 of the 78 municipalities on the island more than two days after the hurricane crossed the island, toppling power lines and cellphone towers and sending floodwaters cascading through city streets. Officials said 1,360 of the island’s 1,600 cellphone towers had been downed, and 85 percent of above-ground and underground phone and internet cables were knocked out. With roads blocked and phones dead, officials said, the situation may be worse than they know. “We haven’t seen the extent of the damage,” Gov. Ricardo Rossello told reporters in the capital. Rossello couldn’t say when power might be restored. Maj. Gen. Derek P. Rydholm, deputy to the chief of the Air Force Reserve, said at the Pentagon that it was impossible to say when communication and power would be restored. He said mobile communications systems are being flown in. But Rydholm acknowledged “it’s going to take a while” before people in Puerto Rico will be able to communicate with their families outside the island. Until Friday, he said, “there was no real understanding at all of the gravity of the situation.” The island’s electric grid was in sorry shape long before Maria struck. The territory’s $73 billion debt crisis has left agencies like the state power company broke. It abandoned most basic maintenance in recent years, leaving the island subject to regular blackouts. “Some transmission structures collapsed,” Rossello said, adding that there was no severe damage to electric plants. He said he was distributing 250 satellite phones from FEMA to mayors across the island to re-establish contact. The death toll from Maria stood at six, but was likely to rise. At least 27 lives in all have been lost around the Caribbean, including at least 15 on hard-hit Dominica. Haiti reported three deaths; Guadeloupe, two; and the Dominican Republic, one. Across Puerto Rico, more than 15,000 people are in shelters, including some 2,000 rescued from the north coastal town of Toa Baja. Some of the island’s 3.4 million people planned to head to the U.S. to temporarily escape the devastation. At least in the short term, though, the soggy misery will continue: Additional rain – up to 6 inches (15 centimeters) – is expected through Saturday. In San Juan, Neida Febus wandered around her neighborhood with bowls of cooked rice, ground meat and avocado, offering food to the hungry. The damage was so extensive, the 64-year-old retiree said, that she didn’t think the power would be turned back on until Christmas. “This storm crushed us from one end of the island to the other,” she said. Secretary of State Luis Marin said he expects gasoline supplies to be at 80 percent of capacity because the port in the southeastern town of Yabucoa that receives fuel shipments received minor damage. Hour-long lines formed at the few gas stations that reopened on Friday and anxious residents feared power could be out for weeks – or even months – and wondered how they would cope. “I’m from here. I believe we have to step up to the task. If everyone leaves, what are we going to do? With all the pros and the cons, I will stay here,” Israel Molina, 68, who lost roofing from his San Juan mini-market to the storm, said, and then paused. “I might have a different response tomorrow.”