ALVA Woodpeckers build home in Alva woman’s house You may have heard of squatters, but this woman is dealing with squawkers. Who needs a rooster to wake up when you have woodpeckers?
FORT MYERS Man claims he was trapped in a high-rise for 5 days A 77-year-old man wants justice after he claims he spent days trapped on the 24th floor of a high-rise apartment building.
PUNTA GORDA Charlotte Correctional prisoner arrested for death of another inmate State Attorney Amira Fox convened a grand jury, which decided to move forward with a case against a Charlotte Correctional inmate.
SANIBEL Construction near Dairy Queen eagle nest on Sanibel raises concerns While many eagle nests may be a bit difficult to see, one nest has always been a favorite for Sanibel residents and tourists.
The environmental effects of artificial sweeteners Experts are studying how the foods we eat affect the environment, especially after we flush our waste down the toilet.
Victim reacts to man exposing himself to her Ring camera You get a notification on your phone from your ring camera app that someone is at the door, only to find out it is someone exposing themselves. It’s the last thing victim Maria Kivi wanted or expected to see last week.
LEE COUNTY The art of capturing your eye and drawing you in How do you capture young, hip, trendy, fun, movers and shakers, all in a pose? We take you behind the scenes of a Gulfshore Life cover shoot.
FORT MYERS The lives of two SJC Boxers changed in the ring Two SJC Boxers, Mario Nunez and Arbon Kurtishi, help each other in the ring as each of them had their lives changed because of boxing.
FORT MYERS Chlamydia cases rising sharply in Lee County If you think about a crowded space- something with more than 250 people- if it’s in Lee county, statistically one person has chlamydia.
SANIBEL Sanibel resort day passes hope to get more business on the island A pass will allow vacationers to hang out at a Sanibel beach club for a day in hopes of drumming up some business.
Voting equipment tested ahead of Lee County elections Voting equipment is being tested in Lee County. This is to ensure all ballots are printed and counted correctly for the upcoming election.
Collier County teen assaulted after leaving party The teen has been charged and the sheriff’s office said they’re aware that many believe felony charges are in order, but under Florida law, there are very specific criteria that must be met for felony charges to be filed.
WINK weather team watching tropical wave over Atlantic Ocean The Weather Authority is watching a tropical disturbance over the Central Atlantic Ocean.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral drug bust leads investigators to fake fentanyl, cash and guns Cape Coral man arrest on drug charges. Investigators said they found, guns, drugs, and more than $32,000 in Richard Riley’s home.
NAPLES Naples youth flag football team to compete in Ohio tournament This weekend, the Naples Lunatics Green will compete in the Superhero Sports tournament in Canton, Ohio.
ALVA Woodpeckers build home in Alva woman’s house You may have heard of squatters, but this woman is dealing with squawkers. Who needs a rooster to wake up when you have woodpeckers?
FORT MYERS Man claims he was trapped in a high-rise for 5 days A 77-year-old man wants justice after he claims he spent days trapped on the 24th floor of a high-rise apartment building.
PUNTA GORDA Charlotte Correctional prisoner arrested for death of another inmate State Attorney Amira Fox convened a grand jury, which decided to move forward with a case against a Charlotte Correctional inmate.
SANIBEL Construction near Dairy Queen eagle nest on Sanibel raises concerns While many eagle nests may be a bit difficult to see, one nest has always been a favorite for Sanibel residents and tourists.
The environmental effects of artificial sweeteners Experts are studying how the foods we eat affect the environment, especially after we flush our waste down the toilet.
Victim reacts to man exposing himself to her Ring camera You get a notification on your phone from your ring camera app that someone is at the door, only to find out it is someone exposing themselves. It’s the last thing victim Maria Kivi wanted or expected to see last week.
LEE COUNTY The art of capturing your eye and drawing you in How do you capture young, hip, trendy, fun, movers and shakers, all in a pose? We take you behind the scenes of a Gulfshore Life cover shoot.
FORT MYERS The lives of two SJC Boxers changed in the ring Two SJC Boxers, Mario Nunez and Arbon Kurtishi, help each other in the ring as each of them had their lives changed because of boxing.
FORT MYERS Chlamydia cases rising sharply in Lee County If you think about a crowded space- something with more than 250 people- if it’s in Lee county, statistically one person has chlamydia.
SANIBEL Sanibel resort day passes hope to get more business on the island A pass will allow vacationers to hang out at a Sanibel beach club for a day in hopes of drumming up some business.
Voting equipment tested ahead of Lee County elections Voting equipment is being tested in Lee County. This is to ensure all ballots are printed and counted correctly for the upcoming election.
Collier County teen assaulted after leaving party The teen has been charged and the sheriff’s office said they’re aware that many believe felony charges are in order, but under Florida law, there are very specific criteria that must be met for felony charges to be filed.
WINK weather team watching tropical wave over Atlantic Ocean The Weather Authority is watching a tropical disturbance over the Central Atlantic Ocean.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral drug bust leads investigators to fake fentanyl, cash and guns Cape Coral man arrest on drug charges. Investigators said they found, guns, drugs, and more than $32,000 in Richard Riley’s home.
NAPLES Naples youth flag football team to compete in Ohio tournament This weekend, the Naples Lunatics Green will compete in the Superhero Sports tournament in Canton, Ohio.
Buffalo, UNITED STATES: View of the holding cell 14 November 2006 of his newly painted Dallas County jail with the color scheme of pink with blue teddy bear accents in Buffalo, Missouri. The Dallas County Detention Center is being repainted a soft shade of pink in an effort to better manage sometimes volatile detainees. Sheriff Mike Rackley said he decided to update the look as part of extensive repairs necessary after inmates set a fire and vandalized the interior in an escape attempt 08 October 2006. AFP PHOTO/Jeff HAYNES (Photo credit should read JEFF HAYNES/AFP/Getty Images) Florida’s prison system reached a grim milestone this week, as state corrections officials reported that more than 100 inmates have died of complications related to COVID-19. As of Friday, 107 inmates and at least three corrections workers had died of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, according to a Florida Department of Corrections report. The prisoner death toll has more than doubled since Aug. 3, when corrections officials reported 53 COVID-19 inmate deaths. The highly contagious coronavirus spreading throughout Florida has resulted in major outbreaks at state correctional facilities. More than 1,000 inmates at two state prisons — Lowell Correctional Institution in Ocala and Columbia Correctional Institution in Lake City — have tested positive for COVID-19, according to state reports. Other institutions have reported hundreds of prisoner coronavirus cases, and the total number of inmates who have tested positive statewide exceeds 15,600. More than 12,000 prisoners have been cleared from what the Department of Corrections calls “medical isolation,” where they were placed after testing positive for the coronavirus or showing symptoms of COVID-19. At least 16 South Florida Reception Center inmates have died of COVID-19, the Florida Department of Health reported earlier this week. The Doral facility has 204 inmates and 147 prison workers who have tested positive for the virus, according to corrections officials. Statewide, 2,698 prison employees have tested positive, and corrections workers increasingly have become anxious as the number of cases among staff and prisoners continues to increase. “This ain’t easy for them. It’s stressing them out,” Jim Baiardi, who leads the state corrections chapter of the Florida Police Benevolent Association, told The News Service of Florida on Friday. Corrections officers “always care about the inmates’ health, because it affects them too,” he added. Baiardi predicted that the virus will have a dire impact on the already short-staffed state corrections agency when the pandemic subsides. “We’re going to see a lot of correctional officers that are going to have mental-health issues from this. We’re going to see the suicide rates go up. It’s almost like they’re working at a morgue now. I don’t think they were trained for that, either,” the union leader said. Baiardi blamed coronavirus outbreaks at some prisons on the relocation of inmates from one institution to another during the pandemic. “When they had the big breakout at Tomoka (Correctional Institution in Volusia County), for some ungodly reason, they transferred inmates out of there to Columbia. And guess what became a hot spot later? They need to stop moving inmates around,” he said. As of Friday, eight inmates at Columbia Correctional had died of COVID-19, and 1,338 prisoners and 87 staff members had tested positive. Corrections officials are requiring prison employees who have tested positive for COVID-19 to return to work as soon as they no longer have symptoms, which agency officials maintain complies with federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations. Under the federal guidelines, employees who have tested positive for COVID-19 are safe to return to work following a period of at least 10 days since symptoms first appeared, they have gone at least 24 hours experiencing no fever without fever-reducing medication and symptoms have improved. But Baiardi said correctional officers remain skeptical of the state agency’s approach. “The staff does not feel that they’re getting enough support from everyone across the department,” Baiardi said. “I know there’s not really a playbook on something like this, but the department has emergency plans that they review and people get big money to write it. … If I had to give a grade to whoever that person was who did it or was calling the shots on this, I give him a big fat F.” The virus hasn’t spared the state agency’s top officials. Department of Corrections Secretary Mark Inch and a top lieutenant both tested positive for COVID-19. Agency officials said on Aug. 1 that Inch began experiencing symptoms 24 hours after he returned from a statewide conference and a visit to the Lake City prison. “It just seems to the officers that they’re not convinced that the department has a hold on this,” Baiardi said. “We’re still getting a lot of complaints — the department routinely denies it — but we still get lots of complaints about safety equipment.” Some correctional officers have been sleeping in their garages or separated from their families since the coronavirus began to sweep the state in March, he said. The coronavirus also has hit federal prisons in Florida. According to the federal Bureau of Prisons website, six inmates at federal prisons in Florida have died of complications related to COVID-19. Three Miami-Dade County federal prisoners died, and three inmates who were housed at facilities in rural Sumter County also died, according to the website. The Bureau of Prisons announced this week that visitation at federal correctional facilities will resume next month. Visitors and inmates will have to wear face masks, will not be allowed to touch one another and will be separated by “plexiglass, or similar barriers, or social distancing,” the agency said in an announcement Wednesday. “The BOP (Bureau of Prisons) recognizes the importance for inmates to maintain relationships with friends and family,” the announcement said. But Gov. Ron DeSantis, who stopped visitation in the state prison system in March, isn’t revealing when Florida inmates will resume face-to-face interactions with friends and families. “The Florida Department of Corrections is in the planning process of resuming visitation as soon as it is practical and safe for visitors, inmates and staff,” Cody McCloud, a spokesman for DeSantis, said in an email on Wednesday.