CAPE CORAL Concern over water shortage in Cape Coral Concern is flowing through Cape Coral as neighbors are seeing their canal levels low and their wells run dry.
FORT MYERS FSW softball swinging for success in the postseason Now their focus shifts to states which means the newbies are looking to the experienced sophomores for advice.
BONITA SPRINGS Young SWFL tennis player competing with professionals You may not know her name now, but you might want remember it because 16-year-old Cookie Jarvis-Tredgett is already competing with professionals.
NORTH NAPLES ‘It’s all about connection,’ Statement Peace makes jewelry with sustainability in mind The brand Statement Peace, once started inside founder Jessica Lee’s home, is now in 2,700 stores across the country
Pine Manor 2 arrested for firing gun at birthday party in Pine Manor A party ended with two people behind bars.
FORT MYERS Shooting investigation on busy Fort Myers street Police are conducting a shooting investigation that involves a traffic crash near Michigan Avenue and Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard.
FGCU New FGCU athletic director Colin Hargis ready to build on department’s success New FGCU athletic director Colin Hargis talks about the department’s future amid the age of NIL and the transfer portal.
FORT MYERS More middle-aged women being treated for acne You probably thought you broke up with it after high school, but acne is rearing it’s ugly blackheads in adult women.
Lee County student ran up and hit teacher in head, report shows The report says a 13-year-old student ran up and smacked a teacher in the head because multiple classmates offered him money to do so.
NAPLES Collier Planning Commission continues discussion for apartments near Fiddler’s Creek The developer of Fiddler’s Creek wants to build hundreds of luxury apartments on a slice of a 600 acre-plus property known as section 29.
CAPE CORAL Fatigue sets in for third day of FEMA hearings Flying several hours to come to a FEMA code compliance hearing in Cape Coral is the reality for John Gasparini from Maryland.
Prescription drug shortages lead to higher prices There are currently more than 250 medications on the nation’s drug shortage list, according to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. The organization says 2023 marked the worst year for shortages in about a decade.
Mental health resources to help children Here are some resources to help you navigate the mental health system when it comes to help for children. Park Royal Park Royal does not have in-patient options for youth; however, the facility’s launched a new intensive outpatient program for 14 to 17-year-olds. It typically last several weeks or months, and offers three to five […]
NAPLES Video: FWC releases bobcat after rehab stint at Naples Zoo Wildlife officials released a bobcat back into the wild after recovering from a broken leg at Naples Zoo for eight weeks.
Single-member vs. at-large voting debate intensifies in Lee County Three members of Southwest Florida’s state Legislature delegation hosted a public forum May 1 at Lehigh Acres Municipal Services Improvement District, established by the state in 2015.
CAPE CORAL Concern over water shortage in Cape Coral Concern is flowing through Cape Coral as neighbors are seeing their canal levels low and their wells run dry.
FORT MYERS FSW softball swinging for success in the postseason Now their focus shifts to states which means the newbies are looking to the experienced sophomores for advice.
BONITA SPRINGS Young SWFL tennis player competing with professionals You may not know her name now, but you might want remember it because 16-year-old Cookie Jarvis-Tredgett is already competing with professionals.
NORTH NAPLES ‘It’s all about connection,’ Statement Peace makes jewelry with sustainability in mind The brand Statement Peace, once started inside founder Jessica Lee’s home, is now in 2,700 stores across the country
Pine Manor 2 arrested for firing gun at birthday party in Pine Manor A party ended with two people behind bars.
FORT MYERS Shooting investigation on busy Fort Myers street Police are conducting a shooting investigation that involves a traffic crash near Michigan Avenue and Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard.
FGCU New FGCU athletic director Colin Hargis ready to build on department’s success New FGCU athletic director Colin Hargis talks about the department’s future amid the age of NIL and the transfer portal.
FORT MYERS More middle-aged women being treated for acne You probably thought you broke up with it after high school, but acne is rearing it’s ugly blackheads in adult women.
Lee County student ran up and hit teacher in head, report shows The report says a 13-year-old student ran up and smacked a teacher in the head because multiple classmates offered him money to do so.
NAPLES Collier Planning Commission continues discussion for apartments near Fiddler’s Creek The developer of Fiddler’s Creek wants to build hundreds of luxury apartments on a slice of a 600 acre-plus property known as section 29.
CAPE CORAL Fatigue sets in for third day of FEMA hearings Flying several hours to come to a FEMA code compliance hearing in Cape Coral is the reality for John Gasparini from Maryland.
Prescription drug shortages lead to higher prices There are currently more than 250 medications on the nation’s drug shortage list, according to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. The organization says 2023 marked the worst year for shortages in about a decade.
Mental health resources to help children Here are some resources to help you navigate the mental health system when it comes to help for children. Park Royal Park Royal does not have in-patient options for youth; however, the facility’s launched a new intensive outpatient program for 14 to 17-year-olds. It typically last several weeks or months, and offers three to five […]
NAPLES Video: FWC releases bobcat after rehab stint at Naples Zoo Wildlife officials released a bobcat back into the wild after recovering from a broken leg at Naples Zoo for eight weeks.
Single-member vs. at-large voting debate intensifies in Lee County Three members of Southwest Florida’s state Legislature delegation hosted a public forum May 1 at Lehigh Acres Municipal Services Improvement District, established by the state in 2015.
Military whale. (Credit: CBS News) Norwegian fishermen and scientists say a white whale wearing a strange harness that harassed boats in the Arctic recently may have been trained by Russia’s military. Russia has previously acknowledged training sea mammals for special operations in the frigid Arctic, where the country has a major military base not far from the territory of key NATO member Norway. According to Britain’s The Guardian newspaper, Norwegian state broadcaster NRK reported the unusual behavior of the animal last week and showed video of the beluga whale swimming alongside a fishing vessel and repeatedly nudging it. “We were going to put out nets when we saw a whale swimming between the boats,” NRK quoted fisherman Joar Hesten as saying. “It came over to us, and as it approached, we saw that it had some sort of harness on it.” No science project? The harness was removed from the animal by a team from the Norwegian Director of Fisheries. Jørgen Ree Wiig, from the agency, sent CBS News images and video of the whale and the harness, which has a logo on it reading, “Equipment of St. Petersburg.” The canvas straps appeared slightly worn and there was visible rust on the metal screws holding the apparatus together. There was nothing about the harness to identify it has having any links, specifically, to Russia’s military, and the clip with the logo on it was written in English. But Norwegian scientists suspect a link to the Russian navy, nonetheless. “If this whale comes from Russia – and there is great reason to believe it – then it is not Russian scientists, but rather the navy that has done this,” Martin Biuw of the Institute of Marine Research in Norway told NRK. “We know that in Russia they have had domestic whales in captivity and also that some of these have apparently been released,” Audun Rikardsen, a professor of marine biology at the Arctic University of Norway, told NRK according to The Guardian. “Then they often seek out boats.” But Rikardsen said he’d spoken to Russian scientists and they denied any knowledge of the harnessed whale: “They tell me that most likely is the Russian navy in Murmansk.” Whales as weapons Russia’s military has a history of trying to weaponize whales and other sea mammals. The Cold War-era Soviet Union had a program to train seals, dolphins and other animals to help detect underwater weapons and alert their military trainers. That program ran until the 1990s officially, but it is unclear whether it has ever been shut down or just changed. In 2017, Russia’s TV Zvezda, which is owned by the defense ministry in Moscow, aired a report on a Russian navy program to train beluga whales, seals and dolphins for similar purposes. The Guardian said those recent efforts were carried out by a private research institute on behalf of the navy to see if beluga whales could, “guard entrances to naval bases” in the arctic and “assist deepwater divers and if necessary kill any strangers who enter their territory,” according to the Russian TV report. The newspaper says public Russian government records show the defense ministry spent about $25,000 purchasing five bottle-nosed dolphins in 2016 from a sea life center in Moscow. Just last year a group of Russian scientists was presented an award by the Russian Academy of Sciences for their work on “the use of marine mammals for official purposes.” A note congratulating the scientists on the Academy’s website notes that the use of combat seals might again become relevant for Russia given the increase in “the terrorist threat.” On Monday, Russia’s state-run Interfax news agency quoted a scientist who appeared to confirm that the country’s military was working with beluga whales. Interfax said Dmitry Glazov, of the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution in Moscow, worked with the same kind of animals. Glazov noted that belugas had been deployed by the security services around the Sochi Olympics. “There is an institute in St. Petersburg that cooperates with the military in studying animals for applied purposes, and its (specialists) work in the Cossack Bay on the Black Sea and in Murmansk,” he said, speculating that one of the animals based at the institute simply “ran away.” Russia and NATO in the Arctic Over the past three years, President Vladimir Putin has reopened three former Soviet military bases along its vast Arctic coastline as Russia and NATO accuse each other of increasingly bellicose actions along their shared border in the far northern reaches of Europe. As CBS News chief national security correspondent David Martin reported for “60 Minutes” on Sunday, Russia has been conducting simulated attacks near Norwegian territory with nuclear-capable warplanes. That, Norwegian joint force commander Lt. Gen. Rune Jakobsen told Martin, is “not something you should do to your neighbor.” In response to Russia’s mounting belligerence in the region — and in the wake of Putin’s unilateral annexation the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine — NATO held its largest war games to date in Norway last fall. As Martin reported, Norway shares a 120-mile border with Russia, and its long Arctic coastline includes the closest points on European soil to the base of Russia’s northern fleet, with its naval bases, airfields and nuclear weapons storage sites. The fleet, based on the remote Kola Peninsula, represent Russia’s single greatest concentration of military power, especially submarines. Martin was given rare access to the Norwegian military planes and ships tasked with monitoring Russia’s actions in the Arctic, including their navy’s newest surveillance vessel which has been equipped with the latest U.S. technology to detect submarines. If what the Norwegian fishermen found is evidence of a current program by Russia’s military, the Norwegians and their NATO partners might need to start looking for much smaller weapons of war, too — weapons with flippers.