Fort Myers police crackdown on traffic violations on Colonial Blvd.RSW terminal expansion project gets new completion date, budget
FORT MYERS Fort Myers police crackdown on traffic violations on Colonial Blvd. The roads on Colonial Boulevard are notorious for traffic congestion and crashes, but there might be hope on the horizon.
FORT MYERS RSW terminal expansion project gets new completion date, budget The Lee County Port Authority board met Monday to discuss the future of the RSW Terminal Expansion Project, which has encountered significant delays.
NAPLES Naples church partners with deputies for active shooter training drill An active shooter situation is a terrifying prospect, but preparation is key.
FORT MYERS BEACH Fort Myers Beach road reopens, improving access for drivers Estero Boulevard from Crescent Street to Matanzas Pass has officially been reopened for motorists in Fort Myers Beach.
FORT MYERS BEACH New Fort Myers Beach roundabout aims to end traffic woes for locals The long-awaited roundabout at the bottom of the Matanzas Pass Bridge on Fort Myers Beach is now open.
Potential loss of funding for food banks Food banks play a crucial role in ensuring that hardworking individuals don’t go hungry. However, WINK News has learned that this task might become more challenging.
ESTERO FGCU women’s head basketball coach steps down After only one year leading the Eagles, FGCU head women’s basketball coach Chelsea Lyles is stepping down.
FORT MYERS FSW women’s basketball returning to NJCAA Tournament for first time in five years The FSW Buccaneers women’s basketball team is playing in the NJCAA Tournament for the first time since 2020.
Surgeons using virtual reality technology New technology from virtual reality video games and popular apps like GPS is making its way into operating rooms, transforming the way surgeries are performed.
ESTERO FGCU to hold advocacy workshop for families of children with disabilities Families of children with disabilities, this is for you.
Port Authority approves extra $346.7M to finish terminal expansion project at RSW Not everyone gets a second chance, but the Lee County Board of Port Commissioners granted it to the original companies contracted to build the Terminal Expansion Phase One project at Southwest Florida International Airport. The project is now more than four years behind schedule and hundreds of millions of dollars over budget.
FORT MYERS K-9 assists Fort Myers police in drug bust A Fort Myers Police Department K-9 helped police find a drug-filled car.
CLEWISTON Suspect wanted for attempting to break into truck in Clewiston The Clewiston Police Department is searching for a suspect captured on surveillance video attempting to break into a truck.
Charlotte Co. home inventory expected to decrease during summer February’s inventory for single-family homes and condos in Charlotte County soared to heights not seen in years, but some sellers are expected to pull their homes off the market after Easter, an area Realtor said.
FORT MYERS Lockdown lifted at HealthPark and Golisano Children’s hospitals The Lee County Sheriff’s Office responded to an incident near HealthPark and Golisano Children’s Hospital, which caused a multi-hour lockdown of the hospitals late Sunday.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers police crackdown on traffic violations on Colonial Blvd. The roads on Colonial Boulevard are notorious for traffic congestion and crashes, but there might be hope on the horizon.
FORT MYERS RSW terminal expansion project gets new completion date, budget The Lee County Port Authority board met Monday to discuss the future of the RSW Terminal Expansion Project, which has encountered significant delays.
NAPLES Naples church partners with deputies for active shooter training drill An active shooter situation is a terrifying prospect, but preparation is key.
FORT MYERS BEACH Fort Myers Beach road reopens, improving access for drivers Estero Boulevard from Crescent Street to Matanzas Pass has officially been reopened for motorists in Fort Myers Beach.
FORT MYERS BEACH New Fort Myers Beach roundabout aims to end traffic woes for locals The long-awaited roundabout at the bottom of the Matanzas Pass Bridge on Fort Myers Beach is now open.
Potential loss of funding for food banks Food banks play a crucial role in ensuring that hardworking individuals don’t go hungry. However, WINK News has learned that this task might become more challenging.
ESTERO FGCU women’s head basketball coach steps down After only one year leading the Eagles, FGCU head women’s basketball coach Chelsea Lyles is stepping down.
FORT MYERS FSW women’s basketball returning to NJCAA Tournament for first time in five years The FSW Buccaneers women’s basketball team is playing in the NJCAA Tournament for the first time since 2020.
Surgeons using virtual reality technology New technology from virtual reality video games and popular apps like GPS is making its way into operating rooms, transforming the way surgeries are performed.
ESTERO FGCU to hold advocacy workshop for families of children with disabilities Families of children with disabilities, this is for you.
Port Authority approves extra $346.7M to finish terminal expansion project at RSW Not everyone gets a second chance, but the Lee County Board of Port Commissioners granted it to the original companies contracted to build the Terminal Expansion Phase One project at Southwest Florida International Airport. The project is now more than four years behind schedule and hundreds of millions of dollars over budget.
FORT MYERS K-9 assists Fort Myers police in drug bust A Fort Myers Police Department K-9 helped police find a drug-filled car.
CLEWISTON Suspect wanted for attempting to break into truck in Clewiston The Clewiston Police Department is searching for a suspect captured on surveillance video attempting to break into a truck.
Charlotte Co. home inventory expected to decrease during summer February’s inventory for single-family homes and condos in Charlotte County soared to heights not seen in years, but some sellers are expected to pull their homes off the market after Easter, an area Realtor said.
FORT MYERS Lockdown lifted at HealthPark and Golisano Children’s hospitals The Lee County Sheriff’s Office responded to an incident near HealthPark and Golisano Children’s Hospital, which caused a multi-hour lockdown of the hospitals late Sunday.
A new COVID-19 breakthrough is showing promise – and would be an easy pill to swallow. More than a year into the pandemic, doctors and patients still have few treatment options. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. “You have cells in a dish that are infected with a virus. And then you have lots and lots and lots and lots of dishes. And all of them are exposed to different drugs. And you just look to see which drugs can stop the virus from replicating and which ones don’t. And usually, that ends up you could start with hundreds of 1000s of drugs, and you end up with like, 10,” said Dr. Timothy Sheahan with the Department of Epidemiology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. But Sheahan’s team found what they were looking for: a drug that stopped coronaviruses from replicating. “It basically had antiviral activity against all coronaviruses that we tested it against.” It’s called molnupiravir, and it’s earned another new title: the COVID pill. A study by drugmakers Merck and Ridgeback Bio found that after taking the pill two times a day for five days, tests didn’t find any infectious virus in participants. “They basically showed that people who are on the antiviral drug, infectious virus disappeared faster from their nose than people who are not on it. So it’s like direct evidence that your antiviral drug is having an antiviral effect – it’s doing its job; it’s making the virus go away,” said Sheahan. Liz Chandler, pharmacy and clinical specialist for infectious diseases at Lee Health, is encouraged by the findings. “Especially that this new agent is potentially an oral option.” Chandler says taking the COVID treatment by mouth is a new and needed option. “The number of COVID therapeutics that we actually have available currently and are using is really a small handful,” she said. “It’s something that patients could potentially take at home, as opposed to having to go to an infusion center or going to the hospital for.” Still, it’s too early to pull out the prescription pad. “It still needs to undergo larger clinical trials to really determine its place in therapy. Right now, we have some preliminary data about reducing the viral load, for example. But that doesn’t always correlate with how the patients actually do. Does it actually improve their symptoms? Does it actually help prevent progression to hospitalization or even death? Those are a lot of questions that I still have in my mind, and we just don’t have that information yet. So it’s very early on,” said Chandler. “I think we’re gonna learn a lot more in the next few months about whether or not this is not only effective, but it’s also safe for people to take,” said Sheahan. Merck hopes to have interim results by the end of March. The COVID pill is expected to be effective against all coronaviruses, including the different variants. “We take a drug, and we test it against every coronavirus that we know about. And if it works against all those, it’s likely that it will work against those that might emerge in the future,” said Sheahan. “In the next year or so, we’re going to see probably multiple oral antiviral drugs come out. And so I think we might have not just one option but multiple options.”