Rays begin Spring Training ahead of season away from homeEligible taxpayers in Florida file for free with IRS Direct File
PORT CHARLOTTE Rays begin Spring Training ahead of season away from home The Charlotte Sports Park is home to the Tampa Bay Rays for the next six weeks for, but after that they don’t actually get to go home.
Eligible taxpayers in Florida file for free with IRS Direct File The Internal Revenue Service reminds taxpayers in Florida they can file their taxes for free with the agency using IRS Direct File.
Tallahassee Gov. DeSantis to hold news conference at Florida Capitol Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is set to hold a news conference at the state capitol building.
Registration for Lee County Parks and Recreation Summer Camp to open Lee County Parks and Recreation Summer Camp has announced that registration will open to the public in two weeks.
Collier Sheriff speaks on high-tech tools stopping criminals before they act According to Collier County Sheriff Kevin Rambosk, Southwest Florida is seen as an easy target for criminals; however, law enforcement has begun to incorporate cutting-edge technology to prevent future crimes from happening.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral to host two German Culture Biergarten The German American Social Club of Cape Coral will host the first of two Biergarten in the Bavarian Garden to celebrate its German heritage.
Execution of Charlotte County killer James Ford set for tonight A convicted killer on death row since 1999 is scheduled to be executed tonight for the murder of a couple in Charlotte County.
NORTH PORT Citywide burn ban in effect for North Port The North Port Fire Rescue has enacted a citywide outdoor burn ban due to extreme drought conditions and an increased wildfire threat.
cape coral Minor hospitalized with gunshot wound; 2 people in custody The Cape Coral Police Department is actively investigating a scene located on Skyline Boulevard.
the weather authority Near-record heat with isolated rain this Thursday afternoon The Weather Authority is tracking near-record heat this Thursday, along with isolated rain throughout the afternoon.
Lee County School District sets town hall meeting Spring schedule The Lee County School District has released its Spring town hall schedule, during which parents and community members can voice their opinions regarding their children’s education.
SANIBEL Sanibel teen gearing up to reopen popular food truck The Sanibel Sprout, a beloved local spot, is gearing up for a hopeful reopening in mid-March after two years of rebuilding.
FORT MYERS Man arrested for prowling and enticing a child in Fort Myers A concerned citizen flagged down Florida Highway Patrol state troopers in Fort Myers to report an adult man was harassing his daughter, according to authorities.
PORT CHARLOTTE Port Charlotte Girl Scout earns Gold Award for pet care project A Port Charlotte teenager has earned the prestigious Gold Girl Scout Award.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers couple’s love grows stronger despite Alzheimer’s diagnosis Jeff and Bunny Edwards of Fort Myers celebrated their 41st anniversary, showcasing a love that has grown stronger over the years.
PORT CHARLOTTE Rays begin Spring Training ahead of season away from home The Charlotte Sports Park is home to the Tampa Bay Rays for the next six weeks for, but after that they don’t actually get to go home.
Eligible taxpayers in Florida file for free with IRS Direct File The Internal Revenue Service reminds taxpayers in Florida they can file their taxes for free with the agency using IRS Direct File.
Tallahassee Gov. DeSantis to hold news conference at Florida Capitol Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is set to hold a news conference at the state capitol building.
Registration for Lee County Parks and Recreation Summer Camp to open Lee County Parks and Recreation Summer Camp has announced that registration will open to the public in two weeks.
Collier Sheriff speaks on high-tech tools stopping criminals before they act According to Collier County Sheriff Kevin Rambosk, Southwest Florida is seen as an easy target for criminals; however, law enforcement has begun to incorporate cutting-edge technology to prevent future crimes from happening.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral to host two German Culture Biergarten The German American Social Club of Cape Coral will host the first of two Biergarten in the Bavarian Garden to celebrate its German heritage.
Execution of Charlotte County killer James Ford set for tonight A convicted killer on death row since 1999 is scheduled to be executed tonight for the murder of a couple in Charlotte County.
NORTH PORT Citywide burn ban in effect for North Port The North Port Fire Rescue has enacted a citywide outdoor burn ban due to extreme drought conditions and an increased wildfire threat.
cape coral Minor hospitalized with gunshot wound; 2 people in custody The Cape Coral Police Department is actively investigating a scene located on Skyline Boulevard.
the weather authority Near-record heat with isolated rain this Thursday afternoon The Weather Authority is tracking near-record heat this Thursday, along with isolated rain throughout the afternoon.
Lee County School District sets town hall meeting Spring schedule The Lee County School District has released its Spring town hall schedule, during which parents and community members can voice their opinions regarding their children’s education.
SANIBEL Sanibel teen gearing up to reopen popular food truck The Sanibel Sprout, a beloved local spot, is gearing up for a hopeful reopening in mid-March after two years of rebuilding.
FORT MYERS Man arrested for prowling and enticing a child in Fort Myers A concerned citizen flagged down Florida Highway Patrol state troopers in Fort Myers to report an adult man was harassing his daughter, according to authorities.
PORT CHARLOTTE Port Charlotte Girl Scout earns Gold Award for pet care project A Port Charlotte teenager has earned the prestigious Gold Girl Scout Award.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers couple’s love grows stronger despite Alzheimer’s diagnosis Jeff and Bunny Edwards of Fort Myers celebrated their 41st anniversary, showcasing a love that has grown stronger over the years.
NASA’s Mars bound “InSight” lander undergoes its final check outs and processing before encapsulation and mating to a ULA Atlas V rocket. The 6 month mission to Mars is the first inter-plantary launch from the west coast and the first Mars bound mission from California. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is leading the mission to Mars to collect, analyze and discover the red plants beginnings and to study its interior. (Matt Hartman for AP) A robotic geologist armed with a hammer and quake monitor rocketed toward Mars on Saturday, aiming to land on the red planet and explore its mysterious insides. In a twist, NASA launched the Mars InSight lander from California rather than Florida’s Cape Canaveral. It was the first interplanetary mission ever to depart from the West Coast, drawing pre-dawn crowds to fog-socked Vandenberg Air Force Base and rocket watchers down the California coast into Baja. “This is a big day. We’re going back to Mars!” NASA’s new boss, Jim Bridenstine, said following liftoff. “This is an extraordinary mission with a whole host of firsts.” The spacecraft will take more than six months to get to Mars and start its unprecedented geologic excavations, traveling 300 million miles (485 million kilometers) to get there. InSight will dig deeper into Mars than ever before – nearly 16 feet, or 5 meters – to take the planet’s temperature. It will also attempt to make the first measurements of marsquakes, using a high-tech seismometer placed directly on the Martian surface. “That’s the real payoff of this whole mission and that’s still lying ahead of us,” said the mission’s chief scientist, Bruce Banerdt of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Although fog prevented Banerdt from seeing the liftoff of the $1 billion U.S.-European mission, he heard the roar of the rocket and all the blaring car alarms it set off. “It was just an incredible moment,” Banerdt told The Associated Press by phone. Despite the challenges still ahead, “I think I can bask in a little bit of satisfaction and just feeling like we really accomplished something today.” Besides InSight, the United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket gave a lift to a pair of mini test satellites, or CubeSats, that are trailing InSight to Mars to serve as a potential communication link. Nicknamed WALL-E and EVE from the 2008 animated movie, the twin briefcase-size spacecraft popped off the rocket’s upper stage in hot pursuit of InSight, as elated launch controllers applauded and shook hands following the morning’s success. NASA hasn’t put a spacecraft down on Mars since the Curiosity rover in 2012. The U.S., in fact, is the only country to successfully land and operate a spacecraft at Mars. It’s tough, complicated stuff. Only about 40 percent of all missions to Mars from all countries – orbiters and landers alike – have proven successful over the decades. If all goes well, the three-legged InSight will descend by parachute and engine firings onto a flat equatorial region of Mars – believed to be free of big, potentially dangerous rocks – on Nov. 26. Once down, it will stay put, using a mechanical arm to place the science instruments on the surface. Banerdt said Mars is ideal for learning how the rocky planets of our solar system formed 4.5 billion years ago. Unlike our active Earth, Mars hasn’t been transformed by plate tectonics and other processes, he noted. InSight might also help explain why some planets – like ours – went on to develop life, while others did not. Over the course of two Earth years – or one Martian year – NASA expects InSight’s three main experiments to provide a true 3-D image of the interior of Mars. Scientists know Mars has an iron core and a crust, but beyond that, the inside is “basically, completely unknown,” said Banerdt. The lander is equipped with a seismometer for measuring marsquakes, a self-hammering probe for burrowing beneath the surface, and a radio system for tracking the spacecraft’s position and planet’s wobbly rotation, thereby revealing the size and composition of Mars’ core. “InSight, for seismologists, will really be a piece of history, a new page of history,” said the Paris Institute of Earth Physics’ Philippe Lognonne, lead scientist of the InSight seismometer. Problems with the French-supplied seismometer kept InSight from launching two years ago. California was always part of the plan. NASA normally launches from Cape Canaveral, but decided to switch to California for InSight to take advantage of a shorter flight backlog. This was the first U.S. interplanetary mission to launch from somewhere other than Cape Canaveral. The fog ruined the view for those gathered at Vandenberg along the central California coast. But it was a marvelous sight farther south. The rocket’s bright orange flame was visible for some time as it arced upward across the dark sky west of greater Los Angeles. Not even two weeks on the job, NASA’s new administrator, Bridenstine, observed the launch on monitors at space agency headquarters in Washington. “I can’t think of a better way to start my day!” Bridenstine tweeted. United Launch Alliance’s president, Tory Bruno, also took to Twitter to celebrate. “Next stop: Mars.” ___ Associated Press writer John Antczak in Pasadena, California, contributed to this report. ___ Online: NASA: https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/ This photo released by NASA shows a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas-V rocket with NASA’s InSight spacecraft onboard shortly after the mobile service tower was rolled back, Friday, May 4, 2018, at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Calif. The rocket is set to launch early Saturday. (Bill Ingalls via AP) In this photo released by NASA, the mobile service tower at SLC-3 is rolled back to reveal the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas-V rocket with NASA’s InSight spacecraft onboard, Friday, May 4, 2018, at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Calif. The rocket is set to launch early Saturday. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP) This photo released by NASA shows a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas-V rocket with NASA’s InSight spacecraft onboard shortly after the mobile service tower was rolled back, Friday, May 4, 2018, at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Calif. The rocket is set to launch early Saturday. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP) This photo released by NASA shows a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas-V rocket with NASA’s InSight spacecraft onboard shortly after the mobile service tower was rolled back, Friday, May 4, 2018, at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Calif. The rocket is set to launch early Saturday. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP) This photo released by NASA shows a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas-V rocket with NASA’s InSight spacecraft onboard shortly after the mobile service tower was rolled back, Friday, May 4, 2018, at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Calif. The rocket is set to launch early Saturday. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)) This image provided by NASA, InSight spacecraft launches onboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas-V rocket, Saturday, May 5, 2018, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is a Mars lander designed to study the “inner space” of Mars. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP) This image provided by NASA, InSight spacecraft launches onboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas-V rocket, Saturday, May 5, 2018, from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is a Mars lander designed to study the “inner space” of Mars. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)