TALLAHASSEE (CBS) Governor DeSantis signs AI and vape bills Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed 28 bills, including a measure requiring disclaimers on certain political ads created using artificial intelligence and a bill about regulation of vape products.
ESTERO Gold Star Golf Tournament honors fallen veteran Behind each putt and swing of a golf club at the Gold Star Golf Tournament is someone who knew John Wirka Junior.
NEW YORK (AP) How TikTok grew from a fun app for teens into a potential national security threat If it feels like TikTok has been around forever, that’s probably because it has, at least if you’re measuring via internet time. What’s now in question is whether it will be around much longer and, if so, in what form?
FORT MYERS Man wanted for armed robbery at Fort Myers convenience store Crime Stoppers is asking the public for help identifying an armed robber who held up a convenience store Saturday morning.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA WINK Neighborhood Watch: Rifles, inappropriate texts and Donut shop debacle This week’s segment of WINK Neighborhood Watch features a scary mall trip, an inappropriate coach, and a Dunkin Donuts assault.
The Weather Authority: Sunny Saturday with a nice breeze; fire danger increases Warm temperatures for your Saturday with a nice breeze into the afternoon.
NORTH NAPLES Senior Airman surprises cousin on Aubrey Rogers softball senior night Aubrey Rogers senior pitcher and infielder McKenzie Vargas was surprised by her Air Force cousin for Senior Night.
BONITA SPRINGS Police: 15-year-old injured after accidentally shot in the leg Lee County deputies say the teen was accidentally shot in the leg.
PUNTA GORDA Exclusive: Brother and best friend of accused pedophile priest speak out Riley’s brother reached out to WINK on Friday, saying people aren’t getting the full story.
IMMOKALEE Caught on video: Huge gator crosses Immokalee neighborhood Fridays in Florida are for gators
FORT MYERS FGCU softball pitcher making a name for herself One season in FGCU, freshman pitcher Allison Sparkman is already ruffling feathers in the circle.
Surrendering-pets trend at Gulf Coast Humane Society raises concerns An large amount of pets are being surrendered by their owners. About half of the dogs at the Gulf Coast Humane Society are surrender dogs.
Students benefitting from millions in sales tax dollars So far, the voter-approved half-cent sales tax has brought in $507 million for the Lee County School District.
PORT CHARLOTTE ‘Shady’: One woman feels misled after federal student loan consolidation It takes some people decades to pay off their student loans. One woman’s last payment was in sight until she took a gamble she said she was told to take.
FORT MYERS Homeless encampments inch closer to neighborhoods Law enforcement has swept multiple encampments, cleaning the trails of mess and muck left behind, and some of these encampments are right in our backyards.
TALLAHASSEE (CBS) Governor DeSantis signs AI and vape bills Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed 28 bills, including a measure requiring disclaimers on certain political ads created using artificial intelligence and a bill about regulation of vape products.
ESTERO Gold Star Golf Tournament honors fallen veteran Behind each putt and swing of a golf club at the Gold Star Golf Tournament is someone who knew John Wirka Junior.
NEW YORK (AP) How TikTok grew from a fun app for teens into a potential national security threat If it feels like TikTok has been around forever, that’s probably because it has, at least if you’re measuring via internet time. What’s now in question is whether it will be around much longer and, if so, in what form?
FORT MYERS Man wanted for armed robbery at Fort Myers convenience store Crime Stoppers is asking the public for help identifying an armed robber who held up a convenience store Saturday morning.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA WINK Neighborhood Watch: Rifles, inappropriate texts and Donut shop debacle This week’s segment of WINK Neighborhood Watch features a scary mall trip, an inappropriate coach, and a Dunkin Donuts assault.
The Weather Authority: Sunny Saturday with a nice breeze; fire danger increases Warm temperatures for your Saturday with a nice breeze into the afternoon.
NORTH NAPLES Senior Airman surprises cousin on Aubrey Rogers softball senior night Aubrey Rogers senior pitcher and infielder McKenzie Vargas was surprised by her Air Force cousin for Senior Night.
BONITA SPRINGS Police: 15-year-old injured after accidentally shot in the leg Lee County deputies say the teen was accidentally shot in the leg.
PUNTA GORDA Exclusive: Brother and best friend of accused pedophile priest speak out Riley’s brother reached out to WINK on Friday, saying people aren’t getting the full story.
IMMOKALEE Caught on video: Huge gator crosses Immokalee neighborhood Fridays in Florida are for gators
FORT MYERS FGCU softball pitcher making a name for herself One season in FGCU, freshman pitcher Allison Sparkman is already ruffling feathers in the circle.
Surrendering-pets trend at Gulf Coast Humane Society raises concerns An large amount of pets are being surrendered by their owners. About half of the dogs at the Gulf Coast Humane Society are surrender dogs.
Students benefitting from millions in sales tax dollars So far, the voter-approved half-cent sales tax has brought in $507 million for the Lee County School District.
PORT CHARLOTTE ‘Shady’: One woman feels misled after federal student loan consolidation It takes some people decades to pay off their student loans. One woman’s last payment was in sight until she took a gamble she said she was told to take.
FORT MYERS Homeless encampments inch closer to neighborhoods Law enforcement has swept multiple encampments, cleaning the trails of mess and muck left behind, and some of these encampments are right in our backyards.
This March 26, 2018 photo provided by Ashley Atwater shows her mother, Sally Atwater, outside her home in the Georgetown area of Washington, a few days after leaving the hospital. Atwater’s doctor spent two months on calls, messages and dozens of pages of forms to get her an experimental drug he thinks can fight the lung cancer that has spread to her brain and spine. (Courtesy Ashley Atwater via AP) Sally Atwater’s doctor spent two months on calls, messages and paperwork to get her an experimental drug he thinks can fight the lung cancer that has spread to her brain and spine. Nancy Goodman begged eight companies to let her young son try experimental medicines for a brain tumor that ultimately killed him, and “only three of the companies even gave me a reason why they declined,” she said. Thousands of gravely ill cancer patients each year seek “compassionate use” access to treatments that are not yet on the market but have shown some promise in early testing and aren’t available to them through a study. Now the government wants to make this easier and give more heft to the requests. On Monday at a cancer conference in Chicago, the Food and Drug Administration announced a project to have the agency become the middleman. Instead of making doctors plead their case first to companies and then to the FDA if the company agrees to provide the drug, the FDA will become the initial step and will assign a staffer to quickly do the paperwork. That way, when a company gets a request, it knows the FDA already considers it appropriate. “We are here to help. We are not here to make a drug company give a specific drug to a patient. We don’t have that authority,” said Dr. Richard Pazdur, the FDA official leading the effort. But the agency gets little information now on how many requests are turned down and why. The current system also is cumbersome and sometimes unfair, he said. Patients in rural or inner city areas or at community hospitals that lack staff to work on special requests may be disadvantaged. Social media campaigns can add to the inequity. “We do not want to have the situation where somebody who screams loudest gets the drug” and other worthy candidates don’t, Pazdur said. The project only involves drugs for cancer, not other diseases. It has nothing to do with the federal Right to Try law passed last year, which many have called “right to ask” because it only allows patients to request a drug from a company under certain circumstances and does not mandate that it be provided. The new FDA project is “absolutely going to change things” and push more companies to say yes, Goodman said. She founded an advocacy group, Kids v Cancer, after her son Jacob Froman died in 2009 at age 10. The FDA has not been the problem, she said. It keeps a website with links to companies’ policies and contact information for patients, and has quickly approved the vast majority of these requests whenever a company has granted access. That’s what happened when Dr. Chul Kim, a lung specialist at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, made his first attempt to get compassionate use for a patient, in this case to help Atwater, whose cancer was spreading despite usual treatments. “I felt there was an urgent need to switch therapy,” and early results suggested the experimental drug could get into the brain, which many therapies can’t do, and fight the cancer there, Kim said. He started the process in early February and ultimately got Atwater the drug in late March. “I have other patients and I needed to carve out time for this,” and was fortunate to have staff that had been working with the company on a study who could help, Kim said. Once the company agreed, it took the FDA only a day to do the same. “It requires quite a bit of work,” usually at least 24 hours over several weeks, said Dr. Ajai Chari at Mount Sinai’s Tisch Cancer Institute in New York where dozens of patients have gotten compassionate use access over the last decade. “A lot of people have to drop what they’re doing to get all that done.” Chari just did it for Michael Walsh, a 58-year-old musician from New York City, who has had myeloma since 2011. “He’s exhausted all approved FDA therapies,” including 13 types of chemotherapy, Chari said. Within a few weeks of starting on the experimental drug, Walsh had a dramatic reduction in his cancer. “I’m working, doing things,” Walsh said. “It is giving me some space to have the cancer be under control.” Atwater, the 68-year-old Washington woman treated at Georgetown, is hoping for the same from her experimental drug. She said she asked her sister who had breast cancer how she might be able to tell if the treatment was working. “She said, ‘You’re still here, aren’t you?’” Atwater said. “I think it’s worth the risk. At least I hope it is.”