Officers searching for alleged Racetrac arsonistWhat we know about man accused of flushing ex-girlfriend’s fish down the toilet
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FORT MYERS Officers searching for alleged Racetrac arsonist The Fort Myers Police Department has confirmed an early morning fire at a gas station was arson.
CAPE CORAL What we know about man accused of flushing ex-girlfriend’s fish down the toilet Bret Dahl is accused of breaking into his ex-girlfriend’s house, assaulting her, breaking things and flushing her fish named Bean down the toilet.
FORT MYERS Pushing for changes at Lee County Domestic Animal Services The Lee County Domestic Animal Services is responding to a letter listing concerns and allegations at the shelter.
Miracle Moment: Kinsley Vitiello Three-year-old Kinsley Vitiello loves to play dolls and dance her heart out with her big sister Aubrey.
CAPE CORAL Low canals and dried-up wells: Why does Cape Coral keep building? In a city with more canals than Venice, Waterfront living isn’t hard to find.
BONITA SPRINGS Students turn old treasure into gems for Mother’s Day An array of fine gems and jewels all for a mother’s heart. With Mother’s Day quickly approaching, one Bonita Springs marketing company is helping students think outside the box.
FORT MYERS BEACH Woman sees potentially suspicious charge on her account after parking at Fort Myers Beach Jennifer parked in the parking lot across from Lynn Hall Memorial Park, paid with a QR code and went to visit friends for lunch.
NORTH FORT MYERS North Fort Myers DL balancing spring practice and shot put regionals North Fort Myers defensive lineman James Johnson is balancing spring football practice and going for a regional title in the shot put.
IMMOKALEE Training day for Folds of Honor donors and special guests On Wednesday, high-ranking veterans of the navy seals and other special operations conducted six different training scenarios.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA Non-profit makes teddy bears for families of fallen officers Having a loved one in law enforcement means there is always a fear that they may not come home.
CAPE CORAL People fighting to lower the cost of playing pickleball in Cape Coral The price of playing on these courts is putting people in a pickle. The Lake Kennedy Racquet Center has yet to open, but there are a lot of concerns.
NORTH FORT MYERS Parents say their children are still waiting for winnings after Lee County takes over SWFL AG Expo Children in the 4-H program who raise animals say they’re still waiting to receive the money they won in early March.
Southwest Florida Most Wanted Wednesday: Southwest Florida’s most wanted suspects for May 8, 2024 Here are some of Southwest Florida’s most wanted suspects for May 8, 2024.
San Carlos Park Man at center of WINK News investigation now charged with drugging, molesting child After a years long WINK investigation, Dwayne Staron was arrested and convicted of grand theft. Now he and his wife, Theresa Staron, are both behind bars.
FORT MYERS Police: Man caught at Clemente Park with AR pistol, ski mask and black latex gloves A 19-year-old man has been arrested after officers found an AR pistol, all-black clothing, a ski mask and black latex gloves in his backpack.
(AP Photo/Richard Drew, File) The U.S. government and 48 states and districts sued Facebook Wednesday, accusing it of abusing its market power in social networking to crush smaller competitors and seeking remedies that could include a forced spinoff of the social network’s Instagram and WhatsApp messaging services. The landmark antitrust lawsuits, announced by the Federal Trade Commission and New York Attorney General Letitia James, mark the second major government offensive this year against seemingly untouchable tech behemoths. The Justice Department sued Google in October for abusing its dominance in online search and advertising – the government’s most significant attempt to buttress competition since its historic case against Microsoft two decades ago. Amazon and Apple also have been under investigation in Congress and by federal authorities for alleged anticompetitive conduct. James noted at a press conference that “it’s really critically important that we block this predatory acquisition of companies and that we restore confidence to the market.” The FTC said Facebook has engaged in a “systematic strategy” to eliminate its competition, including by purchasing smaller up-and-coming rivals like Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014. James echoed that in her press conference, saying Facebook “used its monopoly power to crush smaller rivals and snuff out competition, all at the expense of everyday users.” The FTC fined Facebook $5 billion in 2019 for privacy violations and instituted new oversight and restrictions on its business. The fine was the largest the agency has ever levied on a tech company, although it had no visible impact on Facebook’s business. Facebook called the government actions “revisionist history” that punishes successful businesses and noted that the FTC cleared the Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions years ago. “The government now wants a do-over, sending a chilling warning to American business that no sale is ever final,” Facebook general counsel Jennifer Newstead said in a statement that echoed the company’s response to a recent congressional antitrust probe. Facebook is the world’s biggest social network with 2.7 billion users and a company with a market value of nearly $800 billion whose CEO Mark Zuckerberg is the world’s fifth-richest individual and the most public face of Big Tech swagger. James alleged Facebook had a practice of opening its site to third-party app developers, then abruptly cutting off developers that it saw as a threat. The lawsuit – which includes 46 states, Guam and the District of Columbia – accuses Facebook of anti-competitive conduct and using its market dominance to harvest consumer data and reap a fortune in advertising revenues. North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, who was on the executive committee of attorneys general conducting the investigation, said the litigation has the potential to alter the communications landscape the way the breakup of AT&T’s local phone service monopoly in the early 1980s did. “Our hope is to restructure the social networking marketplace in the United States, and right now there’s one player,” Stein told reporters. James said the coalition worked collaboratively with the FTC but noted the attorneys general conducted their investigation separately. Antitrust expert Rebecca Allensworth, a law professor at Vanderbilt University, said it is “hard to win any antitrust lawsuit and this one is not any different.” But as far as antitrust cases go, she added, the government has a strong one. The Justice Department’s suit against Google, announced just two weeks before Election Day, brought accusations of political motivation from some quarters. It was filed by a cabinet agency headed by an attorney general seen as a close ally of President Donald Trump, who has often publicly criticized Google. The FTC, by contrast, is an independent regulatory agency whose five commissioners currently include three Republicans and two Democrats. President-elect Joe Biden has said the breakup of Big Tech giants should be seriously considered. He has singled out Facebook’s Zuckerberg for scorn, calling him “a real problem.” Instagram and WhatsApp are among some 70 companies that Facebook has acquired over the past 15 years. But they are the ones most frequently held up by Facebook critics as properties that should be split off. Facebook paid $1 billion for Instagram, bolstering the social network’s business a month before its stock went public. At the time, the photo-sharing app had about 30 million users and wasn’t producing any revenue. A few years later, Facebook acquired WhatsApp, an encrypted messaging service, for $19 billion. Zuckerberg vowed both companies would be run independently, but over the years the services have become increasingly integrated. Users are now able to link accounts and share content across the platforms. Instagram now has more than 1 billion users worldwide. Such integration could make it more difficult to break off the companies. NetChoice, a Washington trade association that includes Facebook as a member, quickly panned the lawsuits. The case for antitrust enforcement against Facebook “has never been weaker,” NetChoice vice president Carl Szabo said in a statement, pointing to newer social services such as TikTok and Snapchat as rivals that could “overtake” older platforms. “These lawsuits mark an important turning point in the battle to rein in Big Tech monopolies and to reinvigorate antitrust enforcement,” said Alex Harman, competition policy advocate for Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group.