Black bear spotted in downtown Fort MyersCar with bullet holes towed away from Cape Coral home after police search car, home
FORT MYERS Black bear spotted in downtown Fort Myers A Florida black bear had been spotted in downtown Fort Myers early Monday morning. FWC is responding to relocate the bear.
CAPE CORAL Car with bullet holes towed away from Cape Coral home after police search car, home A Mercedes with at least one bullet hole has been towed from a Cape Coral home.
WINK NEWS Hot and dry Monday afternoon before isolated storms pop up this evening On Monday morning, the weather is starting mild and humid with temperatures in the upper 60s and lower 70s.
FORT MYERS Caught on Camera: Firefighters respond to dumpster fire at FGCU San Carlos Park Fire District responded to a dumpster fire Sunday afternoon.
FORT MYERS FGCU students affected by Covid celebrate first commencement ceremony Graduation is a right of passage from school to the real world, but for these students, reality hit them in 2020.
PUNTA GORDA Motorcycle crash leaves 1 dead One person has died after a motorcycle crash in Charlotte County.
LEE COUNTY Lee Deputies work to track down transient sex offenders who fail to register WINK News Anchor Corey Lazar goes on patrol with Lee County Deputies in search of transient sex offenders who don’t register.
National Hurricane Preparedness Week: Know your risk Hurricane season starts on June 1st, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has designated the week of May 5 through May 11 as National Hurricane Preparedness Week. Each day, Meteorologist Lauren Kreidler will be highlighting ways to stay prepared ahead of this year’s hurricane season.
Southwest Florida The Weather Authority: Stay alert – chance of showers and storms on Sunday Hot, humid, and more rain for parts of Southwest Florida on Sunday.
CAPE CORAL What we learned about Cape Coral’s water crisis after a ride along On Friday, WINK News got to ride along to see just what people are doing that could be wasting water.
The Weather Authority: A wet Saturday evening as storms move through Southwest Florida A rainy Saturday evening across much of southwest Florida.
FORT MYERS Lee Health Touch-A-Truck event educates families on Trauma Awareness On Saturday morning, sirens were ringing to celebrate Lee Health Trauma Center’s 30 years of service and to provide the public with trauma education and prevention methods.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA (CBS) CDC says bird flu viruses “pose pandemic potential,” cites major knowledge gaps Bird flu continues to appear to pose a “low risk to the general public” for now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. But the agency’s scientists ran into roadblocks investigating a human case of this “pandemic potential” virus this year, they said in a new report.
DOWNTOWN FORT MYERS Bay Street Yard set to open in late May A new place to hang out in Downtown Fort Myers is opening this spring.
Aetna agrees to settle lawsuit over fertility coverage for LGBTQ+ customers Aetna has agreed to settle a lawsuit that accused the health insurer of discriminating against LGBTQ+ customers in need of fertility treatment.
FORT MYERS Black bear spotted in downtown Fort Myers A Florida black bear had been spotted in downtown Fort Myers early Monday morning. FWC is responding to relocate the bear.
CAPE CORAL Car with bullet holes towed away from Cape Coral home after police search car, home A Mercedes with at least one bullet hole has been towed from a Cape Coral home.
WINK NEWS Hot and dry Monday afternoon before isolated storms pop up this evening On Monday morning, the weather is starting mild and humid with temperatures in the upper 60s and lower 70s.
FORT MYERS Caught on Camera: Firefighters respond to dumpster fire at FGCU San Carlos Park Fire District responded to a dumpster fire Sunday afternoon.
FORT MYERS FGCU students affected by Covid celebrate first commencement ceremony Graduation is a right of passage from school to the real world, but for these students, reality hit them in 2020.
PUNTA GORDA Motorcycle crash leaves 1 dead One person has died after a motorcycle crash in Charlotte County.
LEE COUNTY Lee Deputies work to track down transient sex offenders who fail to register WINK News Anchor Corey Lazar goes on patrol with Lee County Deputies in search of transient sex offenders who don’t register.
National Hurricane Preparedness Week: Know your risk Hurricane season starts on June 1st, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has designated the week of May 5 through May 11 as National Hurricane Preparedness Week. Each day, Meteorologist Lauren Kreidler will be highlighting ways to stay prepared ahead of this year’s hurricane season.
Southwest Florida The Weather Authority: Stay alert – chance of showers and storms on Sunday Hot, humid, and more rain for parts of Southwest Florida on Sunday.
CAPE CORAL What we learned about Cape Coral’s water crisis after a ride along On Friday, WINK News got to ride along to see just what people are doing that could be wasting water.
The Weather Authority: A wet Saturday evening as storms move through Southwest Florida A rainy Saturday evening across much of southwest Florida.
FORT MYERS Lee Health Touch-A-Truck event educates families on Trauma Awareness On Saturday morning, sirens were ringing to celebrate Lee Health Trauma Center’s 30 years of service and to provide the public with trauma education and prevention methods.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA (CBS) CDC says bird flu viruses “pose pandemic potential,” cites major knowledge gaps Bird flu continues to appear to pose a “low risk to the general public” for now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. But the agency’s scientists ran into roadblocks investigating a human case of this “pandemic potential” virus this year, they said in a new report.
DOWNTOWN FORT MYERS Bay Street Yard set to open in late May A new place to hang out in Downtown Fort Myers is opening this spring.
Aetna agrees to settle lawsuit over fertility coverage for LGBTQ+ customers Aetna has agreed to settle a lawsuit that accused the health insurer of discriminating against LGBTQ+ customers in need of fertility treatment.
FILE – In this Sept. 2, 2020, file photo, a help wanted sign hangs on the door of a Target store in Uniontown, Pa. The government issues the jobs report Friday, Sept. 4, for August at a time of continuing layoffs and high unemployment. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File) The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell last week to 860,000, a historically high figure that reflects economic damage from the coronavirus outbreak. Before the pandemic hit the economy, the number signing up for jobless aid had never exceeded 700,000 in a week, even during the depths of the 2007-2009 Great Recession. Now they’ve topped 700,000 for 26 straight weeks. The Labor Department said Thursday that U.S. jobless claims fell by 33,000 from the previous week and that 12.6 million are collecting traditional unemployment benefits, compared with just 1.7 million a year ago. The pandemic has delivered a colossal shock to the economy. Until the pandemic upended the operations of American companies, from factories to family dinners, weekly jobless aid applications had never exceeded 700,000 in the U.S. The overall economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, collapsed at an annual rate of 31.7% from April through June, by far the worst three months on record, as millions of jobs disappeared. The economy and job market have recovered somewhat from the initial shock. Employers added 10.6 million jobs from May through August, but that’s still less than half the jobs lost in March and April. The recovery remains fragile, imperiled by continuing COVID-19 infections as schools begin to reopen, and the failure to deliver another economic rescue package in Washington. And companies continue to lay off workers as they absorb sales lost to the pandemic. Raytheon Technologies Corp. this week said it plans to slash more than 15,000 jobs this year at its corporate offices, at jet engine-maker Pratt & Whitney and at its aviation and military equipment manufacturer Collins Aerospace. An extra $600 in weekly unemployment benefits ran out July 31, squeezing households that had depended on the beefed-up payments. President Donald Trump issued an executive order Aug. 8 providing a scaled-back version of the expanded jobless aid. Most states signed up for federal grants that let them increase weekly benefits by $300 or $400. That program is expiring. “Layoffs remain widespread and a historically high number of individuals are still receiving some type of jobless benefits,” Nancy Vanden Houten, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, wrote in a resarch report. “Failure on the part of policymakers to enact another fiscal relief package poses significant downside risks to the economy and labor market as the recovery appears to be losing momentum.” Charissa Ward, 37, was furloughed in April from her job as a server at a restaurant in Disney’s Hollywood Studios resort near Orlando. Since then, she’s been helping at her partner’s online retail business, applying for jobs and waiting to see what Disney will do. “We have no idea when we’re going to get called back,” she said. The extra $600 in weekly jobless benefits didn’t replace all her lost income but helped. The reduced $300 she received briefly from Trump’s program made life “a little less stressful.” But Ward said Congress needs to agree to another financial rescue and do “what’s best for working people.” Last week, nearly 659,000 people applied for jobless aid under a new program that extends eligibility for the first time to self-employed and gig workers, down from 868,000 the previous week. The figure for those seeking Pandemic Employment Assistance isn’t adjusted for seasonal trends, so it’s reported separately. Altogether, the Labor Department said that 29.8 million people are receiving some form of unemployment benefits, though the figure may be inflated by double-counting by states. Analysts also worry about evidence that the number of people collecting special pandemic aid has been swollen by cases of fraud in California. A summertime resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the South and West forced many businesses to close again in July — though the data firm Womply finds that closings have mostly stabilized over the last few weeks. Womply did find a sharp increase in spending at bars in southern and western states, including South Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama, as college students returned to campus. But small businesses, particularly in restaurants and retail, continue to close their doors and lay off workers, according to consumer review site Yelp. The number of small companies that have temporarily or permanently shut down has increased since mid-July, Yelp said Wednesday, to more than 160,000, reversing a steady decline from the spring. And permanent closures are still rising, Yelp said, with nearly 100,000 businesses closed for good as of the end of August. Particularly hard-hit have been restaurants and bars, including dessert shops, burger joints and sandwich shops. Restaurants that are more likely to deliver, such as pizza restaurants, have fared better. Unemployment claims “remain high even as economic activity is resuming more fully,” Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote Thursday. “The risk going forward continues to come from virus outbreaks and intermittent interruptions to activity. Overall, the labor market is less weak compared to April but remains at risk of permanent damage from repeated closures.”