Turtle Club beachfront restaurant relaunches in Naples After a series of private friends and family events this week, The Turtle Club will reopen May 5 and begin taking reservations again May 6.
Jimmie The Beef Guy opens in Fort Myers Jimmie “The Beef Guy” Hart opened the first Jimmie The Beef Guy in 2021 on the southeast corner of Bonita Beach Road and U.S. 41.
SARASOTA Distressed endangered sawfish euthanized nearly a month after rescue Wildlife officials euthanized a distressed smalltooth sawfish that was rescued from Cudjoe Bay in the Florida Keys where it was swimming in circles.
FORT MYERS Help identify driver of SUV related to Fort Myers shooting Police hope someone can help identify the driver of an SUV involved in the shooting on Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard and Michigan Avenue.
FORT MYERS Jake’s story: What needs to change to protect other young people? November 8, 2021, Jake Pfeiffer took his own life. His mom shared Jake’s story with WINK News in the hopes of saving another life.
FORT MYERS Man accused of fatal shooting of truck driver appears in court A man facing second-degree murder charges following an altercation with a pickup truck driver made an appearance in court.
NAPLES SUV crashes into Naples restaurant’s window; no injuries A popular Naples restaurant is cleaning up after an SUV partially crashed into it, but luckily, nobody was hurt.
PUNTA GORDA 20th annual Hibiscus Festival begins in Punta Gorda The 20th annual Hibiscus Festival at Gilchrist Park in Punta Gorda begins Friday morning and runs all weekend.
WINK NEWS Lehigh Acres senior caretaker accused of stealing over $70K of patients’ jewelry A senior caretaker has been arrested for allegedly stealing over $70,000 of her patients’ jewelry and pawning it.
Tim Aten Knows: Next phase of Restaurant Row Naples under way Construction of the final phase of Restaurant Row Naples was stalled for months because of financial issues but the three-building project was recently revived.
NAPLES Alamo Drafthouse Cinema’s first Florida theater opens in Naples The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema has now opened at the company’s first-ever Florida location at Mercato in Naples.
FORT MYERS Friday’s Furry Friends: Rhett, Tag For this week’s Friday’s Furry Friends, WINK visits the Gulf Coast Humane Society to showcase two adorable animals ready to be adopted.
WINK NEWS Recall issued for ground beef sold with possible E. coli at Walmart The Food Safety and Inspection Service has issued a recall for several ground beef products distributed from Pennsylvania to Walmart’s nationwide.
The Weather Authority Hotter and more humid this Friday afternoon The Weather Authority is tracking a mild Friday morning with dry afternoon conditions and isolated storms appearing in the evening.
PUNTA GORDA ‘Party’s Over’: Dirt biking ends at Barefoot Lake The Lee County Sheriff’s Office has made it clear, the party at Barefoot Lake is over.
Turtle Club beachfront restaurant relaunches in Naples After a series of private friends and family events this week, The Turtle Club will reopen May 5 and begin taking reservations again May 6.
Jimmie The Beef Guy opens in Fort Myers Jimmie “The Beef Guy” Hart opened the first Jimmie The Beef Guy in 2021 on the southeast corner of Bonita Beach Road and U.S. 41.
SARASOTA Distressed endangered sawfish euthanized nearly a month after rescue Wildlife officials euthanized a distressed smalltooth sawfish that was rescued from Cudjoe Bay in the Florida Keys where it was swimming in circles.
FORT MYERS Help identify driver of SUV related to Fort Myers shooting Police hope someone can help identify the driver of an SUV involved in the shooting on Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard and Michigan Avenue.
FORT MYERS Jake’s story: What needs to change to protect other young people? November 8, 2021, Jake Pfeiffer took his own life. His mom shared Jake’s story with WINK News in the hopes of saving another life.
FORT MYERS Man accused of fatal shooting of truck driver appears in court A man facing second-degree murder charges following an altercation with a pickup truck driver made an appearance in court.
NAPLES SUV crashes into Naples restaurant’s window; no injuries A popular Naples restaurant is cleaning up after an SUV partially crashed into it, but luckily, nobody was hurt.
PUNTA GORDA 20th annual Hibiscus Festival begins in Punta Gorda The 20th annual Hibiscus Festival at Gilchrist Park in Punta Gorda begins Friday morning and runs all weekend.
WINK NEWS Lehigh Acres senior caretaker accused of stealing over $70K of patients’ jewelry A senior caretaker has been arrested for allegedly stealing over $70,000 of her patients’ jewelry and pawning it.
Tim Aten Knows: Next phase of Restaurant Row Naples under way Construction of the final phase of Restaurant Row Naples was stalled for months because of financial issues but the three-building project was recently revived.
NAPLES Alamo Drafthouse Cinema’s first Florida theater opens in Naples The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema has now opened at the company’s first-ever Florida location at Mercato in Naples.
FORT MYERS Friday’s Furry Friends: Rhett, Tag For this week’s Friday’s Furry Friends, WINK visits the Gulf Coast Humane Society to showcase two adorable animals ready to be adopted.
WINK NEWS Recall issued for ground beef sold with possible E. coli at Walmart The Food Safety and Inspection Service has issued a recall for several ground beef products distributed from Pennsylvania to Walmart’s nationwide.
The Weather Authority Hotter and more humid this Friday afternoon The Weather Authority is tracking a mild Friday morning with dry afternoon conditions and isolated storms appearing in the evening.
PUNTA GORDA ‘Party’s Over’: Dirt biking ends at Barefoot Lake The Lee County Sheriff’s Office has made it clear, the party at Barefoot Lake is over.
Credit: Pixabay Diana Bortle said she has been anxious ever since finding out her mother Shirley tested positive for COVID-19. Shirley Cliff is one of 52 positive cases associated with Manorcare Nursing and Rehabilitation in Naples. The facility has more cases than any other in Collier County and the second-highest number of cases in Southwest Florida. Sixteen of the nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Southwest Florida that have had at least one case of COVID-19 have something else in common: a deficiency for infection control found in the past year. WINK News reviewed nursing home data from the centers for Medicaid studies and found sixteen places given the same deficiency tag: “Provide and implement an infection prevention and control program.” A facility in Fort Myers that received this deficiency in July, is now reporting 76 cases of COVID-19 according to the Department of Health. A Charlotte county nursing home cited in March 2019, has 49 COVID-19 Cases. At the Manorcare facility where Bortle’s mother Shirley is staying in Naples, five residents who contracted the virus died. A review of Manorcare’s January inspection report from the Agency on Healthcare Administration stated that the facility was not minimizing the risk of waterborne pathogens. It also reported that Manorcare staff was not transporting linens in a way to prevent the spread of infection and employees were not using personal protective equipment when handling contaminated waste. Government records indicate Manorcare corrected problems by February. A Manorcare spokesperson said by email: “this center does not have any infection control issues.” In fact, the government data shows that all 16 facilities that WINK News located with this deficiency reported correcting their problems. Bortle questioned whether or not that actually happened at Manorcare. “They might have had a plan, but did they implement it? It doesn’t look like they implemented it from all of the COVID cases that they’ve had,” she said. Dallas based medical malpractice attorney Kay Van Wey said nursing homes having a problem with the coronavirus most likely already had a problem with infection control. “The question I would have in (Cliff’s) case, is how was she exposed? Was she exposed because it just couldn’t be helped or was she exposed because the nursing home didn’t follow proper infection control procedures,” said Van Wey. The first case at the Naples Manorcare facility was April 10. But according to the Department of Health, the facility waited three days to have other residents at the facility tested. Bortle said her mother was not tested until late April and it took even longer to test 100 percent of the residents, according to information relayed to her from Manorcare. “We have been symptom monitoring and checking since March. Any patients with symptoms, we would test,” wrote Julie Beckert, a spokesperson for Manorcare. “Now tests are much more readily available, and the department of health did select our Naples center to have full house testing. The Department of Health used the national guard to do the testing. We 100 percent support full house testing wherever we can get the supplies to do it. It helps us understand what is happening in the center and react quicker,” she said.