Israeli leaders have approved a military operation into the Gaza Strip city of RafahBig Sugar’s lawsuit for control over Lake Okeechobee water
JERUSALEM (AP) Israeli leaders have approved a military operation into the Gaza Strip city of Rafah Israeli leaders approved a military operation into the Gaza Strip city of Rafah, and Israeli forces were striking targets in the area, officials announced Monday, hours after Hamas announced it had accepted an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal.
EVERGLADES Big Sugar’s lawsuit for control over Lake Okeechobee water There’s a battle for who controls the water in the State of Florida. Three major sugar companies have filed a lawsuit saying they are owed a specific amount of public water for irrigation from Lake Okeechobee.
NAPLES Annual Holocaust Remembrance Day program returns to Jewish Federation of Greater Naples Sunday was a day to remember the six million men, women and children lost in the Holocaust.
COLLIER COUNTY 13th dead Florida panther of 2024 found Saturday; deaths now match 2023’s annual total Wildlife officials discovered the 13 dead endangered Florida panther of the year, matching 2023’s total reported mortalities less than halfway into the year.
NORTH PORT Entryway work temporarily closes North Port Library The North Port Library will be closed through Saturday while work is being done to the entryway. During the closure books and other borrowed items can be returned to nearby locations.
FORT MYERS More changes near Colonial Blvd. and Six Mile Cypress in Fort Myers An already jam-packed, headache-inducing area for traffic is expected to get worse on Monday.
National Hurricane Preparedness Week: Preseason preparations With less than a month until the official start of the 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has designated May 5th to May 11th National Hurricane Preparedness Week.
CAPE CORAL Temporary closures planned for Cape Coral athletic fields Three athletic fields in Cape Coral will temporarily close in May and another in June.
FORT MYERS Influencer shooting victim ‘Hood Fishing’ is stable and recovering A local internet star injured during a shooting in broad daylight on Fort Myers Street is still recovering from what happened.
NAPLES $8K reward offered for information on 2 brothers wanted in fatal stabbing More money is up for grabs if you’re able to help police find two brothers who allegedly stabbed two men in Collier County.
NEW YORK Trump fined $1K for gag order violation in hush money case as judge warns of possible jail time The judge presiding over Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial has fined him $1,000 for violating his gag order and has sternly warned the former president that additional violation could result in jail time.
Exclusive: More than 100 American Flamingos counted in Florida Audubon Florida has revealed the numbers of flamingos in the state to WINK News, in advance of an official statement scheduled for later Monday.
CAPE CORAL Man arrested after police respond to shooting outside Cape Coral home A man has been taken into custody after a reported shooting in a Cape Coral neighborhood where a car was found with at least one bullet hole.
Charlotte County home sellers had 2nd highest profit margin in Q1 While nationwide profit margins for home sales decreased 55%, in Charlotte County the profit margin for sellers rose to 103.1% for the first three months of the year.
FORT MYERS Second teen accused in murder of Kayla Rincon-Miller to face charges as an adult A second teen will face adult charges in murder of Kayla Rincon-Miller.
JERUSALEM (AP) Israeli leaders have approved a military operation into the Gaza Strip city of Rafah Israeli leaders approved a military operation into the Gaza Strip city of Rafah, and Israeli forces were striking targets in the area, officials announced Monday, hours after Hamas announced it had accepted an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal.
EVERGLADES Big Sugar’s lawsuit for control over Lake Okeechobee water There’s a battle for who controls the water in the State of Florida. Three major sugar companies have filed a lawsuit saying they are owed a specific amount of public water for irrigation from Lake Okeechobee.
NAPLES Annual Holocaust Remembrance Day program returns to Jewish Federation of Greater Naples Sunday was a day to remember the six million men, women and children lost in the Holocaust.
COLLIER COUNTY 13th dead Florida panther of 2024 found Saturday; deaths now match 2023’s annual total Wildlife officials discovered the 13 dead endangered Florida panther of the year, matching 2023’s total reported mortalities less than halfway into the year.
NORTH PORT Entryway work temporarily closes North Port Library The North Port Library will be closed through Saturday while work is being done to the entryway. During the closure books and other borrowed items can be returned to nearby locations.
FORT MYERS More changes near Colonial Blvd. and Six Mile Cypress in Fort Myers An already jam-packed, headache-inducing area for traffic is expected to get worse on Monday.
National Hurricane Preparedness Week: Preseason preparations With less than a month until the official start of the 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has designated May 5th to May 11th National Hurricane Preparedness Week.
CAPE CORAL Temporary closures planned for Cape Coral athletic fields Three athletic fields in Cape Coral will temporarily close in May and another in June.
FORT MYERS Influencer shooting victim ‘Hood Fishing’ is stable and recovering A local internet star injured during a shooting in broad daylight on Fort Myers Street is still recovering from what happened.
NAPLES $8K reward offered for information on 2 brothers wanted in fatal stabbing More money is up for grabs if you’re able to help police find two brothers who allegedly stabbed two men in Collier County.
NEW YORK Trump fined $1K for gag order violation in hush money case as judge warns of possible jail time The judge presiding over Donald Trump’s New York hush money trial has fined him $1,000 for violating his gag order and has sternly warned the former president that additional violation could result in jail time.
Exclusive: More than 100 American Flamingos counted in Florida Audubon Florida has revealed the numbers of flamingos in the state to WINK News, in advance of an official statement scheduled for later Monday.
CAPE CORAL Man arrested after police respond to shooting outside Cape Coral home A man has been taken into custody after a reported shooting in a Cape Coral neighborhood where a car was found with at least one bullet hole.
Charlotte County home sellers had 2nd highest profit margin in Q1 While nationwide profit margins for home sales decreased 55%, in Charlotte County the profit margin for sellers rose to 103.1% for the first three months of the year.
FORT MYERS Second teen accused in murder of Kayla Rincon-Miller to face charges as an adult A second teen will face adult charges in murder of Kayla Rincon-Miller.
5 problems with a $22 trillion national debt. (CBS News photo) America broke another record this week — when the nation’s debt crossed the $22 trillion mark. At about 80 percent of the country’s GDP, it’s the highest level of debt since World War II, making the U.S. an outlier among its peers. The only countries with a higher debt load than the U.S. are Portugal, Italy, Greece and Japan. The first three have become synonymous with profligate spending and economic woes post-Great Recession, while Japan’s “lost decade” of economic stagnation is a mainstay of economic textbooks. “Our long-term prognosis is significantly worse than most of the European countries,” said William Gale, co-director of the Tax Policy Center and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. If the world’s largest economy accumulates its most significant debt ever, does it matter? Economists are divided. Many say because of the dollar’s role in the global finance system, the U.S. can essentially borrow as much as it wants at very low rates. But others say today’s debt could threaten the economy during future downturns — and the current expansion is the perfect time to get it under control. Here are the many ways that the national debt could become problematic, according to that view. It messes with spending priorities The U.S. pays interest on its debt, and those payments increase as the debt grows — even if interest rates themselves stay steady. In the next few years, interest rate payments are projected to rise rapidly, reaching levels they haven’t seen since the early 1990s. The U.S. will be spending more on interest than on agriculture, veterans’ programs or Medicaid, according to the Congressional Budget Office. High debt during good times is asking for the worst Consider a married couple that earns two six-figure salaries and routinely carries a credit card balance of $90,000. Households like this routinely face the ire of financial planners because they have no cushion for bad economic times. If one lost a job, for instance, the couple would be forced to borrow money at higher rates, sell their valuables or curtail their spending in entirely unpleasant ways, assuming they don’t have wealthy family members to ask for money. Like this profligate household, the U.S. is limiting its own options for the next economic downturn, in the eyes of many economists. With a large portion of the federal budget earmarked for interest payments, that leaves less room for other spending. No bang for those bucks Interest payments may not be debilitating, economists say — but the U.S. won’t get anything for that money. Whereas spending on infrastructure, for example, puts money into circulation that moves among businesses and fuels hiring and trade (or just puts money into some contractor’s pocket), spending on interest does no such thing. It’s simply covering the costs of decisions that were made a long time ago. “The rise in the debt will impose burdens on future generations,” said Gale. “The millennials are catching on to that, and objecting.” Not everyone agrees with that analysis. The only reason interest payments appear high is because U.S. social spending is stingy compared to that of many developed countries, said Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “You can’t make it big just by comparing it to things that are small,” he said. It competes with private spending The more money the government borrows, the more pressure it puts on private borrowing, economic theory goes. “Borrowing more increases the demand for loans, so the government is competing against business and students and everyone in the market for loans,” said Gale. “If the government wants to borrow more, that jacks up interest rates on everyone else and crowds out what other people might do.” We can’t grow our way out of it Since debt is most commonly measured relative to GDP, some pundits point out another way to make the debt smaller: get the economy to grow faster. That was the theory behind the 2017 tax cuts, which boosted economic growth but fell far short of paying for themselves. And as those cuts show, such an outcome is harder to plan for — because the U.S. economy depends just as much on global growth as on domestic policy. The good news is, if we can grow our way out of the debt, we would be able to do that even while reducing it in other ways, said Gale. “We don’t need to kill the government or starve it, We don’t need to get rid of Social Security,” he added. “There’s a range of options on the tax or spending side that are conventional.”