Election Day crowds expected despite record early votingVoters in Downtown Fort Myers ready for 2024 Election
Election Day crowds expected despite record early voting Election Day is nearly upon us. At 7 p.m. on Tuesday, the polls will be closed, and our team will bring you the results.
DOWNTOWN FORT MYERS Voters in Downtown Fort Myers ready for 2024 Election A lot can change in four years. During the 2020 election, many voters masked up as they cast their ballots, and the pandemic was at the top of many voters’ minds.
PUNTA GORDA Punta Gorda residents frustrated by hurricane debris delays Many people in parts of southwest Florida feel like they’ve dealt with more than their fair share of storm damage lately.
Miracle Moment: A rosy outlook following surprise diagnosis It’s time for Miracle Moment. Today, we meet a toddler diagnosed with a disease without known prevention or cure.
Poll workers ready for Election Day rush in Collier County Poll workers gear up for a busy Tuesday in Collier County; some have been there for a while, and this year marks their first time working at a polling place for others.
CAPE CORAL Voters decide: Will Cape Coral City Council members stay or go? Stipends, Jaycee Park and new developments have been topics of concern in the City of Cape Coral for months now.
MATLACHA Lee County residents still dealing with damage from hurricanes Hurricane recovery has been an ongoing project here in Southwest Florida since Hurricane Ian.
FGCU Former FGCU golfer Frankie Capan III makes PGA Tour After playing two seasons on the Korn Ferry Tour, former FGCU golfer Frankie Capan III is moving up to the PGA Tour.
Parents cast their votes for Lee County school superintendent With just hours now until the election, WINK News wants to highlight a few local races that haven’t gotten as much attention. One of them is the election of Lee County’s next superintendent of schools.
NORTH FORT MYERS Former Dollar General employee accused of stealing $7,000 in returns A woman has been arrested after defrauding a Dollar General in North Fort Myers.
FORT MYERS BEACH The Tropics and Red Tide; what happens if or when they interact? The Tropics are active despite the fact that there’s less than a month left in hurricane season. But how will a system interact with red tide?
CAPE CORAL Police investigate gunfire at Cape Coral rental home The bullet holes left behind by shots heard in a normally quiet Cape Coral neighborhood scared one woman into buying security cameras for her home.
CAPE CORAL Bimini Basin residents face housing challenges Time is running out for the families who live in one Cape Coral community to find places to call home.
Harris and Trump make a furious final push before Election Day A presidential campaign that has careened through a felony trial, an incumbent president being pushed off the ticket and multiple assassination attempts comes down to a final sprint across a handful of states on Election Day eve.
Using AI to detect pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death in the United States. That’s due in part to the limited testing available for early detection.
Election Day crowds expected despite record early voting Election Day is nearly upon us. At 7 p.m. on Tuesday, the polls will be closed, and our team will bring you the results.
DOWNTOWN FORT MYERS Voters in Downtown Fort Myers ready for 2024 Election A lot can change in four years. During the 2020 election, many voters masked up as they cast their ballots, and the pandemic was at the top of many voters’ minds.
PUNTA GORDA Punta Gorda residents frustrated by hurricane debris delays Many people in parts of southwest Florida feel like they’ve dealt with more than their fair share of storm damage lately.
Miracle Moment: A rosy outlook following surprise diagnosis It’s time for Miracle Moment. Today, we meet a toddler diagnosed with a disease without known prevention or cure.
Poll workers ready for Election Day rush in Collier County Poll workers gear up for a busy Tuesday in Collier County; some have been there for a while, and this year marks their first time working at a polling place for others.
CAPE CORAL Voters decide: Will Cape Coral City Council members stay or go? Stipends, Jaycee Park and new developments have been topics of concern in the City of Cape Coral for months now.
MATLACHA Lee County residents still dealing with damage from hurricanes Hurricane recovery has been an ongoing project here in Southwest Florida since Hurricane Ian.
FGCU Former FGCU golfer Frankie Capan III makes PGA Tour After playing two seasons on the Korn Ferry Tour, former FGCU golfer Frankie Capan III is moving up to the PGA Tour.
Parents cast their votes for Lee County school superintendent With just hours now until the election, WINK News wants to highlight a few local races that haven’t gotten as much attention. One of them is the election of Lee County’s next superintendent of schools.
NORTH FORT MYERS Former Dollar General employee accused of stealing $7,000 in returns A woman has been arrested after defrauding a Dollar General in North Fort Myers.
FORT MYERS BEACH The Tropics and Red Tide; what happens if or when they interact? The Tropics are active despite the fact that there’s less than a month left in hurricane season. But how will a system interact with red tide?
CAPE CORAL Police investigate gunfire at Cape Coral rental home The bullet holes left behind by shots heard in a normally quiet Cape Coral neighborhood scared one woman into buying security cameras for her home.
CAPE CORAL Bimini Basin residents face housing challenges Time is running out for the families who live in one Cape Coral community to find places to call home.
Harris and Trump make a furious final push before Election Day A presidential campaign that has careened through a felony trial, an incumbent president being pushed off the ticket and multiple assassination attempts comes down to a final sprint across a handful of states on Election Day eve.
Using AI to detect pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer is the third leading cause of cancer death in the United States. That’s due in part to the limited testing available for early detection.
People protest in support of the DACA program outside the U.S. Supreme Court building. Credit: CBS The Biden administration on Wednesday finalized a rule to transform the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) immigration policy for more than 600,000 so-called “Dreamers” into federal regulation, a move aimed at protecting the program from legal challenges that imperil its existence. The 453-page rule by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is set to take effect on Oct. 31 and will codify the Obama-era program, which has been governed by a 2012 memo for a decade, into the federal government’s code of regulations. Since its inception, DACA has allowed hundreds of thousands of unauthorized immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children to live and work in the country legally without fear of deportation. As of March 31, 611,270 immigrants were enrolled in DACA, government data show. While technical in nature, the change announced Wednesday is designed to address some of the Republican-led legal challenges against the DACA program, which a federal judge in Texas last year closed to new applicants. Unlike the 2012 DHS memo that created DACA, the new regulation underwent a months-long rulemaking process that was open to comments from the public, steps that the federal judge in Texas said the Obama administration should’ve undertaken before implementing the policy. “Today, we are taking another step to do everything in our power to preserve and fortify DACA, an extraordinary program that has transformed the lives of so many Dreamers,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement to CBS News. “Thanks to DACA, we have been enriched by young people who contribute so much to our communities and our country.” The regulation will maintain the longstanding eligibility rules for DACA, which include requirements that applicants prove they arrived in the U.S. by age 16 and before June 2007; studied in a U.S. school or served in the military; and lack any serious criminal record. DACA recipients will continue to be eligible for work authorization under the new rule, as well as considered to be “lawfully present” in the U.S. for the purposes of other immigration applications. Even with the regulation, however, DACA will remain in legal jeopardy. U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen, who closed DACA to first-time applicants in July 2021, ruled that the policy itself violates federal immigration law, as Texas and other Republican-led states have argued in a lawsuit. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which held a hearing in July on the Biden administration’s appeal of Hanen’s ruling, is expected to issue an opinion on DACA’s legality later this year. The conservative-leaning appeals court is expected to side with Republican state officials who argue that DACA is unlawful. The Biden administration could appeal such a ruling to the Supreme Court. The ongoing litigation could keep DACA closed to new applicants and even lead to its complete termination, a scenario that would bar the program’s beneficiaries from working in the U.S. legally and render them eligible for deportation, though they would likely not be prioritized for arrest under the Biden administration. Such an outcome would also reignite legislative efforts to place DACA recipients on a path to U.S. citizenship. Despite bipartisan support for Dreamers, Congress has repeatedly failed to create such a path amid more than 20 years of gridlock over other immigration issues, including U.S. border policy. Congress’ failure to pass these so-called “Dream Act” proposals prompted the Obama administration in 2012 to create DACA, which utilizes a longstanding immigration policy known as “deferred action” to shield beneficiaries from deportation and render them eligible for work authorization. Former President Donald Trump’s administration tried to end and scale back DACA, calling it illegal. Its efforts, however, were halted by federal courts, including the Supreme Court, which in June 2020 said officials had not followed the proper procedures to terminate the program. A DHS official said the Biden administration will continue to defend DACA against lawsuits. In the event of another adverse court ruling, the administration will “assess our response and our options for continuing to protect the program,” the official added. On Wednesday, President Biden urged lawmakers to legalize Dreamers, calling them “part of the fabric of this nation.” “I will do everything within my power to protect Dreamers, but Congressional Republicans should stop blocking a bill that provides a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers,” Mr. Biden said. “It is not only the right thing to do, it is also the smart thing to do for our economy and our communities.” A recent poll by the liberal group Immigration Hub and Democratic polling outfit Hart Research showed that 65% of surveyed voters in states with competitive congressional elections this November would want Congress to grant relief to DACA recipients if the program is struck down in court. Approximately 80% of DACA recipients were born in Mexico, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) statistics show. Immigrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, South Korea, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia and Argentina make up the other top 10 nationalities enrolled in the program. Nearly 70% of the 611,270 immigrants enrolled in DACA as of March 31 were 30 or younger, including 17,070 recipients under the age of 21, the USCIS data show. Flavia Negrete, a DACA beneficiary who came to the country as a 4-year-old, expressed frustration that her fate has been dictated by a “chess game” among politicians in Washington, D.C. The Maryland resident hopes to attend medical school to study gene therapy, but those plans could be derailed if DACA is shut down. “I don’t want someone in Congress debating whether I can work tomorrow, or whether I can go see a doctor tomorrow,” Negrete told CBS News on Wednesday. “I think that these are two things that belong to me, rightly so. And I’d like to take ownership over that.”