Stars shine in 36th annual Rotary South All-Star Football ClassicPurring and persevering: Neighborhood cat survives bullet wound
FORT MYERS Stars shine in 36th annual Rotary South All-Star Football Classic Blue beats Gold 27-7 in the 36th annual Rotary South Football Classic, which brings the top senior high school football players in Lee County.
CAPE CORAL Purring and persevering: Neighborhood cat survives bullet wound Purring and persevering through the pain, a neighborhood cat named Tommy survived being shot in the leg.
FORT MYERS BEACH Fort Myers Beach lights up with resilience and Christmas spirit The poinsettia tree in Times Square is now shining bright; the community joined together Monday evening for the second annual tree lighting ceremony.
Miracle Moment: Two kids celebrating being cancer-free It’s time for a miracle moment. Two kids are celebrating being cancer-free this holiday season.
FORT MYERS Street name dedicated to Fort Myers Civil Rights Activist Reverend Isadore Edwards may be gone but his legacy will be forever tied to the city of Fort Myers.
ESTERO Several motorcycles stolen near Florida Gulf Coast University There is a trend of motorcycles being taken from parking lots. In Estero, two men unlocked a bike and then loaded it in the back of a van.
FORT MYERS Suntex provides update on Fort Myers Yacht Basin makeover The City of Fort Myers has promised that the Yacht Basin downtown will get a makeover, and the company running the show gave an update at the city council meeting.
BOKEELIA Popular Bokeelia restaurant demolished following damage from Milton There was hope for Capt’n Con’s Fish House in Bokeelia after the damage from Hurricane Helene in September.
NAPLES Grace Place raises more than $1.8 million at gala An organization dedicated to helping children and families just raised a whole lot of money.
NAPLES Naples parking problems frustrating residents Naples has a parking problem, but city leaders are stuck between a rock and a hard place trying to find a solution. The city’s rapid growth makes it harder every day to find a place for everyone to park.
NORTH FORT MYERS LCSO deputies use Taser to de-escalate armed standoff in North Fort Myers Lee County Sheriff’s Office deputies de-escalated a dangerous situation by using a Taser to save lives.
Trump’s comments bring hope for Dreamers President-elect Donald Trump said he wants to work out a plan for Dreamers to stay in America.
World War II veteran celebrates 100th birthday A World War II veteran just turned 100 years old and celebrated with his community.
PUNTA GORDA Crews make last sweep for hurricane debris in Punta Gorda Clean-up from Hurricane Milton debris is wrapping up two months after the storm in Punta Gorda.
Charlotte Co. commissioners to review new townhome development, district Charlotte County commissioners will consider Dec. 10 the approval of homebuilder Lennar Home’s preliminary plat plan that proposes several hundred new townhomes in the South County area.
FORT MYERS Stars shine in 36th annual Rotary South All-Star Football Classic Blue beats Gold 27-7 in the 36th annual Rotary South Football Classic, which brings the top senior high school football players in Lee County.
CAPE CORAL Purring and persevering: Neighborhood cat survives bullet wound Purring and persevering through the pain, a neighborhood cat named Tommy survived being shot in the leg.
FORT MYERS BEACH Fort Myers Beach lights up with resilience and Christmas spirit The poinsettia tree in Times Square is now shining bright; the community joined together Monday evening for the second annual tree lighting ceremony.
Miracle Moment: Two kids celebrating being cancer-free It’s time for a miracle moment. Two kids are celebrating being cancer-free this holiday season.
FORT MYERS Street name dedicated to Fort Myers Civil Rights Activist Reverend Isadore Edwards may be gone but his legacy will be forever tied to the city of Fort Myers.
ESTERO Several motorcycles stolen near Florida Gulf Coast University There is a trend of motorcycles being taken from parking lots. In Estero, two men unlocked a bike and then loaded it in the back of a van.
FORT MYERS Suntex provides update on Fort Myers Yacht Basin makeover The City of Fort Myers has promised that the Yacht Basin downtown will get a makeover, and the company running the show gave an update at the city council meeting.
BOKEELIA Popular Bokeelia restaurant demolished following damage from Milton There was hope for Capt’n Con’s Fish House in Bokeelia after the damage from Hurricane Helene in September.
NAPLES Grace Place raises more than $1.8 million at gala An organization dedicated to helping children and families just raised a whole lot of money.
NAPLES Naples parking problems frustrating residents Naples has a parking problem, but city leaders are stuck between a rock and a hard place trying to find a solution. The city’s rapid growth makes it harder every day to find a place for everyone to park.
NORTH FORT MYERS LCSO deputies use Taser to de-escalate armed standoff in North Fort Myers Lee County Sheriff’s Office deputies de-escalated a dangerous situation by using a Taser to save lives.
Trump’s comments bring hope for Dreamers President-elect Donald Trump said he wants to work out a plan for Dreamers to stay in America.
World War II veteran celebrates 100th birthday A World War II veteran just turned 100 years old and celebrated with his community.
PUNTA GORDA Crews make last sweep for hurricane debris in Punta Gorda Clean-up from Hurricane Milton debris is wrapping up two months after the storm in Punta Gorda.
Charlotte Co. commissioners to review new townhome development, district Charlotte County commissioners will consider Dec. 10 the approval of homebuilder Lennar Home’s preliminary plat plan that proposes several hundred new townhomes in the South County area.
Credit: WINK News. When the Centers for Disease Control extended eviction protections for renters one more time last month, to July 31, it said in no uncertain terms the extension would be the last. But a surge of COVID-19 cases around the country is causing housing advocates to raise the alarm, worried that a surge of evictions could fuel yet another wave of COVID-19, especially as the hyper-infectious Delta variant spreads across the country. They have reason to worry. A recent analysis shows that millions of the nation’s distressed renters are living in COVID-19 hot spots where the Delta variant is surging fastest. Citing this research, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York has called for the Biden administration to extend the moratorium, saying, “We must protect the vulnerable and do everything in our power to prevent a mass eviction crisis.” New data also suggests the vast majority of the 6 million households with rental debt are in counties with high transmission rates of the delta variant. We must protect the vulnerable and do everything in our power to prevent a mass eviction crisis. — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@RepAOC) July 23, 2021 National Low Income Housing Coalition President Diane Yentel also referenced the research in testimony during a House subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, saying, “The Biden administration or Congress must extend the federal eviction moratorium.” “The newly surging Delta variant, low vaccination rates in communities with high eviction filings, and the slow distributing of [rental assistance] make the necessity of an extension abundantly clear,” Yentel said. The analysis from Paul Williams, a housing policy researcher and a fellow at the Jain Family Institute, found that 78% of households behind on their rent as of early July live in COVID hot spots — or about 4.7 million households of the 6.5 million behind on rent. Considering the typical U.S. household has 2.5 members, that translates into more than 11 million people at risk of eviction in counties with rising numbers of COVID-19 cases. Williams noted that his estimate probably undershoots the true number of renters at risk, since the underlying data, from the National Equity Atlas, excludes six states — including states like Arkansas and Mississippi, where the coronavirus is raging. “Putting people out on the street is probably not going to have good effects on community transmission rates [of coronavirus],” Williams told CBS MoneyWatch. Indeed, new research published this week adds to the evidence that keeping renters housed is an effective public health measure. Academics from the University of California, Johns Hopkins University and Wake Forest University compared states that allowed evictions to proceed in the summer of 2020 with those states that implemented eviction bans. They found that allowing evictions contributed to an additional 433,000 cases of COVID-19 and an additional 10,700 deaths. What’s more, evictions are unequal, with ZIP codes that have lower vaccination rates seeing higher rates of eviction filings, according to a recent analysis from the Eviction Lab at Princeton University. Both eviction rates and vaccination rates are correlated with income, with high-income people more likely to be vaccinated and more likely to have stable housing. And it’s not just coronavirus: Eviction is a driver of poor health, with years of research linking eviction rates to higher instances of heart disease, HIV and depression. “[F]rom a public health perspective, stopping an eviction crisis is of paramount importance,” Emily Benfer, a professor of law at Wake Forest and one of the paper’s authors, told CBS MoneyWatch in an email. “There is ample evidence that the 1) Delta variant is highly contagious and spreading at alarming rates, 2) eviction increases transmission of respiratory disease (i.e., COVID-19), 3) lifting eviction moratoriums is associated with increased COVID-19 infection and death, [and] 4) vaccination rates are low in high-risk areas,” she said. “All of this evidence indicates that an eviction crisis would only propel the U.S. deeper into the throes of the pandemic and its catastrophic consequences.” While many of those renters facing eviction could qualify for federal rent assistance, that money’s been slow in coming. Only about 12% of the $46 billion Congress appropriated for rent aid as part of its pandemic-relief efforts has been distributed as of the end of last month. Reasons range from overly complex application requirements to understaffing at government agencies and housing nonprofits to landlords simply unwilling to wait any longer for their money. “States and cities, renters, families need more time,” Yentel said. Williams agrees. “It would be shameful if there were a bunch of people who applied for this money, didn’t get it because the program was too slow and then ended up getting evicted,” he said, adding of the fast-spreading Delta variant: “The circumstances of public health have very much changed since June.”