Senior Airman surprises cousin on Aubrey Rogers softball senior nightPolice: 15-year-old injured after accidentally shot in the leg
NORTH NAPLES Senior Airman surprises cousin on Aubrey Rogers softball senior night Aubrey Rogers senior pitcher and infielder McKenzie Vargas surprised by her Air Force cousin for Senior Night.
BONITA SPRINGS Police: 15-year-old injured after accidentally shot in the leg Lee County deputies say the teen was accidentally shot in the leg.
PUNTA GORDA Exclusive: Brother and best friend of accused pedophile priest speak out Riley’s brother reached out to WINK on Friday, saying people aren’t getting the full story.
IMMOKALEE Caught on video: Huge gator crosses Immokalee neighborhood Fridays in Florida are for gators
FORT MYERS FGCU softball pitcher making a name for herself One season in FGCU, freshman pitcher Allison Sparkman is already ruffling feathers in the circle.
Surrendering-pets trend at Gulf Coast Humane Society concerns An large amount of pets are being surrendered by their owners. About half of the dogs at the Gulf Coast Humane Society are surrender dogs.
Students benefitting from millions in sales tax dollars So far, the voter-approved half-cent sales tax has brought in $507 million for the Lee County School District.
PORT CHARLOTTE ‘Shady’: One woman feels misled after federal student loan consolidation It takes some people decades to pay off their student loans. One woman’s last payment was in sight until she took a gamble she said she was told to take.
FORT MYERS Homeless encampments inch closer to neighborhoods Law enforcement has swept multiple encampments, cleaning the trails of mess and muck left behind, and some of these encampments are right in our backyards.
BIG CYPRESS PRESERVE What changes if Big Cypress National Preserve becomes a Wilderness Area? America’s first nationally designated preserve is in Southwest Florida’s backyard, and it is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Method to treat IBD being used for other health issues Trying to get treatments for the brain when fighting neurological diseases like epilepsy and ALS is a challenge.
FORT MYERS NTSB report reveals new details in helicopter crash after Hurricane Ian The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released its final report on a helicopter crash that occurred in Iona, Florida, shortly after Hurricane Ian.
NAPLES Memorial celebrates the life of John Passidomo Hundreds of friends and family gathered for a memorial at Baker Park in Naples.
‘Latinos in Action’ empowers all students to succeed WINK News talked with teachers who are a part of the program, helping kids reach their full potential.
Immokalee ‘The eyes always draw me in’; Immokalee portrait artist turns dark times into color One of Southwest Florida best portrait artist, Martha Maria Cantu, almost gave up art. Now she’s on the forefront of the city of Immokalee, to make her community filled with color.
NORTH NAPLES Senior Airman surprises cousin on Aubrey Rogers softball senior night Aubrey Rogers senior pitcher and infielder McKenzie Vargas surprised by her Air Force cousin for Senior Night.
BONITA SPRINGS Police: 15-year-old injured after accidentally shot in the leg Lee County deputies say the teen was accidentally shot in the leg.
PUNTA GORDA Exclusive: Brother and best friend of accused pedophile priest speak out Riley’s brother reached out to WINK on Friday, saying people aren’t getting the full story.
IMMOKALEE Caught on video: Huge gator crosses Immokalee neighborhood Fridays in Florida are for gators
FORT MYERS FGCU softball pitcher making a name for herself One season in FGCU, freshman pitcher Allison Sparkman is already ruffling feathers in the circle.
Surrendering-pets trend at Gulf Coast Humane Society concerns An large amount of pets are being surrendered by their owners. About half of the dogs at the Gulf Coast Humane Society are surrender dogs.
Students benefitting from millions in sales tax dollars So far, the voter-approved half-cent sales tax has brought in $507 million for the Lee County School District.
PORT CHARLOTTE ‘Shady’: One woman feels misled after federal student loan consolidation It takes some people decades to pay off their student loans. One woman’s last payment was in sight until she took a gamble she said she was told to take.
FORT MYERS Homeless encampments inch closer to neighborhoods Law enforcement has swept multiple encampments, cleaning the trails of mess and muck left behind, and some of these encampments are right in our backyards.
BIG CYPRESS PRESERVE What changes if Big Cypress National Preserve becomes a Wilderness Area? America’s first nationally designated preserve is in Southwest Florida’s backyard, and it is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Method to treat IBD being used for other health issues Trying to get treatments for the brain when fighting neurological diseases like epilepsy and ALS is a challenge.
FORT MYERS NTSB report reveals new details in helicopter crash after Hurricane Ian The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released its final report on a helicopter crash that occurred in Iona, Florida, shortly after Hurricane Ian.
NAPLES Memorial celebrates the life of John Passidomo Hundreds of friends and family gathered for a memorial at Baker Park in Naples.
‘Latinos in Action’ empowers all students to succeed WINK News talked with teachers who are a part of the program, helping kids reach their full potential.
Immokalee ‘The eyes always draw me in’; Immokalee portrait artist turns dark times into color One of Southwest Florida best portrait artist, Martha Maria Cantu, almost gave up art. Now she’s on the forefront of the city of Immokalee, to make her community filled with color.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., walks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Republican lawmakers, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, have a new proposal after the Supreme Court in June overturned Roe v. Wade: Prospective fathers should be on the hook for paying child support from the moment of conception. The new bill, introduced on July 13 in both the Senate and House, is called the Unborn Child Support Act, and would amend the Social Security Act “to give mothers the ability to receive child support payments while they are pregnant,” according to a statement from Senator Kevin Cramer, a Republican from North Dakota. The proposal comes as roughly two dozen states are restricting abortion access in the wake of the Supreme Court’s June decision striking down the 50-year-old precedent set through Roe v. Wade. Support programs for pregnant women and women with newborn children are lacking in many of the states that are restricting abortion. That includes the eight states that opted out of the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, which covers pregnancy through postpartum for low-income Americans. That’s sparked criticism from Democrats and people who support reproductive rights, who note that banning abortion would force many women to carry a child to term without the financial or health resources necessary to care for it. Women who are denied abortions are more likely to suffer from economic distress, including experiencing a higher rate of bankruptcy and eviction, according to a study that tracked 1,000 women who were denied abortion care. “Mothers should be able to access child support payments as soon as she is supporting a child,” Cramer said in the statement. He added, “Fathers have obligations, financial and otherwise, during pregnancy.” Although it’s unclear whether the bill has any chance of moving forward in Congress, arguments over the status of a fetus reveal the complex new legal landscape around reproductive rights. For instance, earlier this month a pregnant Texas woman who was pulled over for driving in a high-occupancy vehicle lane argued that her unborn baby should count as a second person, citing the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling. The woman, Brandy Bottone, told CBS News that she viewed the incident as involving “two people” and that she planned to fight the traffic ticket in court. “I don’t think they really care” Some reproductive rights advocates are sounding the alarm about the GOP’s child support proposal, noting that the effort could be a way to redefine a fetus as a person from the moment of conception. The idea of “personhood” has legal implications for the rights of a fetus versus those of the parent, and is a longstanding issue on both sides of the abortion debate. “I don’t think they really care about people getting support when they’re pregnant,” Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund co-founder Laurie Bertram Roberts told the Mississippi Free Press. “I think their real goal is to get personhood language into a bill.” The bill would work by amending the Social Security Act, which requires states to manage a public child support system that oversees issues such as determining paternity and collecting child support. Under the proposal, a court could award child support payments prior to birth and retroactively to the point of conception, as determined by a doctor, according to the statement. It also wouldn’t require women to ask for child support if they don’t want the prospective father’s involvement. Paternity tests would be up to the prospective mother, according to the statement. The bill is co-sponsored by a number of Republican lawmakers, including Rubio and Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.