Caught on Camera: Firefighters respond to dumpster fire at FGCUFGCU students affected by Covid celebrate first commencement ceremony
FORT MYERS Caught on Camera: Firefighters respond to dumpster fire at FGCU San Carlos Park Fire District responded to a dumpster fire Sunday afternoon.
FORT MYERS FGCU students affected by Covid celebrate first commencement ceremony Graduation is a right of passage from school to the real world, but for these students, reality hit them in 2020.
PUNTA GORDA Motorcycle crash leaves 1 dead One person has died after a motorcycle crash in Charlotte County.
LEE COUNTY Lee Deputies work to track down transient sex offenders who fail to register WINK News Anchor Corey Lazar goes on patrol with Lee County Deputies in search of transient sex offenders who don’t register.
National Hurricane Preparedness Week: Know your risk Hurricane season starts on June 1st, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has designated the week of May 5 through May 11 as National Hurricane Preparedness Week. Each day, Meteorologist Lauren Kreidler will be highlighting ways to stay prepared ahead of this year’s hurricane season.
Southwest Florida The Weather Authority: Stay alert – chance of showers and storms on Sunday Hot, humid, and more rain for parts of Southwest Florida on Sunday.
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.
The Weather Authority: A wet Saturday evening as storms move through Southwest Florida A rainy Saturday evening across much of southwest Florida.
FORT MYERS Lee Health Touch-A-Truck event educates families on Trauma Awareness On Saturday morning, sirens were ringing to celebrate Lee Health Trauma Center’s 30 years of service and to provide the public with trauma education and prevention methods.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA (CBS) CDC says bird flu viruses “pose pandemic potential,” cites major knowledge gaps Bird flu continues to appear to pose a “low risk to the general public” for now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. But the agency’s scientists ran into roadblocks investigating a human case of this “pandemic potential” virus this year, they said in a new report.
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.
FORT MYERS Caught on Camera: Firefighters respond to dumpster fire at FGCU San Carlos Park Fire District responded to a dumpster fire Sunday afternoon.
FORT MYERS FGCU students affected by Covid celebrate first commencement ceremony Graduation is a right of passage from school to the real world, but for these students, reality hit them in 2020.
PUNTA GORDA Motorcycle crash leaves 1 dead One person has died after a motorcycle crash in Charlotte County.
LEE COUNTY Lee Deputies work to track down transient sex offenders who fail to register WINK News Anchor Corey Lazar goes on patrol with Lee County Deputies in search of transient sex offenders who don’t register.
National Hurricane Preparedness Week: Know your risk Hurricane season starts on June 1st, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has designated the week of May 5 through May 11 as National Hurricane Preparedness Week. Each day, Meteorologist Lauren Kreidler will be highlighting ways to stay prepared ahead of this year’s hurricane season.
Southwest Florida The Weather Authority: Stay alert – chance of showers and storms on Sunday Hot, humid, and more rain for parts of Southwest Florida on Sunday.
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.
The Weather Authority: A wet Saturday evening as storms move through Southwest Florida A rainy Saturday evening across much of southwest Florida.
FORT MYERS Lee Health Touch-A-Truck event educates families on Trauma Awareness On Saturday morning, sirens were ringing to celebrate Lee Health Trauma Center’s 30 years of service and to provide the public with trauma education and prevention methods.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA (CBS) CDC says bird flu viruses “pose pandemic potential,” cites major knowledge gaps Bird flu continues to appear to pose a “low risk to the general public” for now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. But the agency’s scientists ran into roadblocks investigating a human case of this “pandemic potential” virus this year, they said in a new report.
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.
This combination photo shows director Roman Polanski at the photo call for the film, “Based On A True Story,” at the 70th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, on May 27, 2017, left, and Polanski at a Santa Monica, Calif., courthouse on Aug. 8, 1977. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board of Governors has voted to expel Polanski and Bill Cosby from its membership. The film academy said Thursday, May 3, 2018, that its board of governors met and voted on their status in accordance with their Standards of Conduct. (AP Photo/Files) Until Thursday, Roman Polanski had been a film academy member for over 40 years since pleading guilty to unlawful sex with a minor in 1977. In his 40 years as a fugitive the “Chinatown” and “Rosemary’s Baby” filmmaker had been nominated for three additional Oscars, one for “Tess” and two for “The Pianist.” He won an Academy Award for directing “The Pianist” in 2003 to thunderous applause. He continued attracting A-list talent for his films, A-list support for his freedom and had become a contradictory and uncomfortable symbol of an industry that seemed to pick and choose where to bestow its moral outrage. It’s an incongruity that became untenable when the film academy expelled Harvey Weinstein from its ranks in October, made statements about standards of decency among its members and adopted a revised code of conduct, which would allow the organization to suspend or expel members who violate that code or “compromise the integrity” of the academy. And almost seven months after Weinstein got the boot, the film industry’s most prestigious organization, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, closed the door on the 84-year-old Polanski too, announcing that it had revoked his nearly 50-year membership, along with Bill Cosby’s. Polanski’s attorney, Harlan Braun, said the director was “blindsided” by the decision. Fifteen years ago, the audience at the 2003 Oscars gave an absent Polanski a hearty standing ovation upon his win, Weinstein, Martin Scorsese and Meryl Streep among them. Nine years ago, when Polanski was arrested in Zurich and U.S. authorities attempted to extradite him, over 100 celebrities signed a petition for his release, including Woody Allen, Weinstein, Scorsese, Steven Soderberg, Darren Aronofsky, Natalie Portman David Lynch, Penelope Cruz and Tilda Swinton. There were outliers, of course. Filmmaker Kevin Smith famously tweeted, “Look, I dig ‘Rosemary’s Baby,’ but rape’s rape. Do the crime, do the time.” And author Kate Harding made waves with a Salon column questioning the outpouring of support from celebrities and various members of the media to exonerate him. “Roman Polanski may be a great director, an old man, a husband, a father, a friend to many powerful people, and even the target of some questionable legal shenanigans. He may very well be no threat to society at this point. He may even be a good person on balance, whatever that means,” Harding wrote. “But none of that changes the basic, undisputed fact: Roman Polanski raped a child. And rushing past that point to focus on the reasons why we should forgive him, pity him, respect him, admire him, support him, whatever, is absolutely twisted.” In 2010, he made a film, “The Ghost Writer,” with Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan, and in 2011, “Carnage” with Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly, and more recently a few French productions, both of which screened at the Cannes Film Festival — one as recently as last year. With the rise of #MeToo and Time’s Up and the rush of many to distance themselves from accused men, from Weinstein to Allen, Polanski has remained somewhat of an outlier that the entertainment industry had seemingly not yet tried to reconcile publicly. Portman recently told BuzzFeed that she regretted signing the petition for Polanski. “We lived in a different world, and that doesn’t excuse anything. But you can have your eyes opened and completely change the way you want to live,” Portman said. “My eyes were not open.” But few others have weighed in. Winslet in December told the New York Times that she had an “extraordinary experience” working with both Allen and Polanski. And Thursday, celebrity twitter was quiet too. Why the film academy is just now, 41 years after Polanski’s guilty plea, seven months after Weinstein and five months after the code of conduct was implemented, addressing Polanski, is a question that has yet to be answered. That it came as a joint expulsion with Cosby, who was convicted last week of sexual assault in Pennsylvania, is perhaps telling, but also continues to raise questions about other members who have faced misconduct allegations in the past, like Mel Gibson, or in recent months like Kevin Spacey, Brett Ratner, John Lasseter and Paul Haggis. Braun accused the academy of violating its own rules to expel Polanski. He said he had heard rumblings an expulsion was being considered, but expected to be able to present arguments to the board before any decision was made. The attorney said he and Polanski’s agent will ask the academy to reconsider its decision, and give the director a hearing and his “due process.” The academy’s rules grant its board the ability to suspend or expel any member “for cause,” provided at least two-thirds of the 55-member board of governors approves the disciplinary action. Polanski has been back in his Polish homeland this week promoting his latest film, “Based on a True Story,” at a film festival in Krakow. But on Friday morning organizers said the director had left already and would not be available to comment. The organization that puts on the Oscars continues to wade into wholly unprecedented territory in this new moment in society. Before Weinstein, only one other member had been expelled for loaning out DVD screeners of films in contention for the Oscars. With Thursday’s announcement, however, the organization made a bold indication as to what the future might hold. Even a man who is widely considered one of the greatest living directors, a five-time Oscars nominee, one-time winner and one whose past so many in the organization turned a blind-eye to for so many years, is now no longer a protected class.