Where to drop off your mail-in ballots on Election Day Those who still have their mail-in ballots in Southwest Florida have two options on Election Day: vote in person or drop them off at a specified location.
WINK NEWS Lee County race for Sheriff It is now Election Day, and two candidates for the Lee County Sheriff are vying for the position.
WINK NEWS Floridians to vote on legalizing recreational marijuana With Election Day in full swing, WINK News is monitoring the results of the most controversial amendments on the ballot, including Florida’s Amendment 3.
Know where your voting precinct is in Southwest Florida Election Day is only one day away, so it is important to know where to go and if you qualify to vote in Southwest Florida.
WINK NEWS How Floridians are voting on Consitutional right to abortions As Election Day ramps up, WINK News is monitoring the results of the most controversial amendments on the ballot, including Florida’s Amendment 4.
Collier County commission race As the 2024 general election gets underway, WINK News is monitoring the election results in several local races, including the Collier County Commission race.
Cape Coral 5 seats in Cape Coral City Council to be decided on Election Day The Cape Coral City Council election will be decided on Tuesday. Five seats are up for grabs.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers City Council race for 2 wards The 2024 elections are looking to be a tense battle that will have every American on the edge of their seats. In Southwest Florida, the feeling is no different.
Lee County Superintendent election; School Board District 7 Voters in Lee County are going to the polls to fill some crucial seats in the school district.
PUNTA GORDA The race for Punta Gorda City Council November 5 is election day, as politicians across the country compete for office, with Southwest Florida being no different.
Lee County commission race for districts 3 and 5 The 2024 elections include several local Southwest Florida races, among them are races for two districts on the Lee County Board of County Commissioners.
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.
Where to drop off your mail-in ballots on Election Day Those who still have their mail-in ballots in Southwest Florida have two options on Election Day: vote in person or drop them off at a specified location.
WINK NEWS Lee County race for Sheriff It is now Election Day, and two candidates for the Lee County Sheriff are vying for the position.
WINK NEWS Floridians to vote on legalizing recreational marijuana With Election Day in full swing, WINK News is monitoring the results of the most controversial amendments on the ballot, including Florida’s Amendment 3.
Know where your voting precinct is in Southwest Florida Election Day is only one day away, so it is important to know where to go and if you qualify to vote in Southwest Florida.
WINK NEWS How Floridians are voting on Consitutional right to abortions As Election Day ramps up, WINK News is monitoring the results of the most controversial amendments on the ballot, including Florida’s Amendment 4.
Collier County commission race As the 2024 general election gets underway, WINK News is monitoring the election results in several local races, including the Collier County Commission race.
Cape Coral 5 seats in Cape Coral City Council to be decided on Election Day The Cape Coral City Council election will be decided on Tuesday. Five seats are up for grabs.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers City Council race for 2 wards The 2024 elections are looking to be a tense battle that will have every American on the edge of their seats. In Southwest Florida, the feeling is no different.
Lee County Superintendent election; School Board District 7 Voters in Lee County are going to the polls to fill some crucial seats in the school district.
PUNTA GORDA The race for Punta Gorda City Council November 5 is election day, as politicians across the country compete for office, with Southwest Florida being no different.
Lee County commission race for districts 3 and 5 The 2024 elections include several local Southwest Florida races, among them are races for two districts on the Lee County Board of County Commissioners.
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.
This photo combo shows OceanGate Expeditions’ Titan submersible (top) and The Pisces IV submersible (bottom). The Titan, developed and operated by OceanGate Expeditions, was touted for a design that included a carbon fiber hull, an elongated cabin for crew and passengers, and more. But outside experts say the design and construction of the submersible put greater stress on its structure. (AP Photo/File) The deadly implosion of the Titan submersible raises questions about whether the vessel exploring the Titanic wreckage was destined for its own disaster because of its unconventional design and its creator’s refusal to submit to safety checks that are standard in the industry. All five people aboard the Titan died when it was crushed near the world’s most famous shipwreck, U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger said Thursday, bringing an end to a massive multinational search that began Sunday when the vessel first lost contact with its mother ship in the unforgiving North Atlantic. RELATED LINK: Tourist sub’s implosion draws attention to murky regulations of deep-sea expeditions The Titan, owned and operated by OceanGate Expeditions, first began taking people to the Titanic in 2021. It was touted for a design that included a carbon fiber composite hull and an elongated chamber for crew and passengers — a departure from more traditional spherical cabin areas and all-titanium construction. The cabin where people sit in most submersibles is spherical, said Chris Roman, a professor at the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography, who had not been on the Titan but has made several deep dives in Alvin, a submersible operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts. The sphere is “the perfect shape,” because water pressure is exerted equally on all areas. “There’s no stress hotspots and there’s no obvious place where stress is higher than any other place,” he said. By comparison, the Titan’s chamber was a larger, more elongated tube shape, he said. To his knowledge, the vessel was one of the largest submersibles in operation. The 22-foot long (6.7-meter long), 23,000-pound (10,432-kilogram) Titan’s larger internal volume — while still cramped with a maximum of five seated people — meant it was subjected to more external pressure. Elongating the cabin space in a submersible increases pressure loads in the midsections, which increases fatigue and delamination loads, said Jasper Graham-Jones, an associate professor of mechanical and marine engineering at the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom. Fatigue, he said, is like bending a wire back and forth until it breaks. Delamination, he said, is like splitting wood down the grain, which is easier than chopping across the grain. Furthermore, the Titan’s hull had been subjected to repeated stress over the course of about two dozen previous dives, Graham-Jones said. Each trip would put tiny cracks in structure, he said. “This might be small and undetectable to start but would soon become critical and produce rapid and uncontrollable growth.” OceanGate promoted the Titan’s carbon fiber and titanium construction as “lighter in weight and more efficient to mobilize than other deep diving submersible” on its website. It also said the vessel was designed to dive four kilometers (2.4 miles) “with a comfortable safety margin,” according to documents filed in April with a U.S. District Court in Virginia that oversees Titanic matters. “The strength, weight and buoyancy that we get out of it exceeds really any other material out there,” OceanGate director of engineering Tony Nissen told KOMO-TV in 2018. But carbon composites have limited life when subject to excessive loads or poor design which leads to stress concentrations, Graham-Jones said. “Yes, composites are extremely tough. Yes, composites are extremely long lasting. But we do have issues with composites and the fact that composites fail in slightly different ways than other materials,” he said. Most submersibles are all titanium, Graham-Jones said. Documents show that OceanGate was also warned that how the experimental vessel was developed could pose catastrophic safety problems. David Lochridge, OceanGate’s then-director of marine operations, said in a 2018 lawsuit that the company’s testing and certification was insufficient and would “subject passengers to potential extreme danger in an experimental submersible.” The Marine Technology Society, an organization of ocean engineers, technologists, policymakers and educators, also expressed concern to OceanGate about the size of the Titan, the construction material and the fact that the prototype wasn’t being submitted for scrutiny by a third party. “We were very afraid that without that certification process, they might be missing something,” Will Kohnen, the organizations chairman said Friday. He sent a letter to the company in 2018 warning that its “current experimental approach … could result in negative outcomes (from minor to catastrophic) that would have serious consequences for everyone in the industry.” Graham-Jones said it’s standard procedure in engineering to seek outside expertise the ensure that vessels conform to the highest industry standards. In a 2019 company blog post, OceanGate criticized the third-party certification process as one that is time-consuming and stifles innovation. “Bringing an outside entity up to speed on every innovation before it is put into real-world testing is anathema to rapid innovation,” the post said. Famed undersea explorer Robert Ballard, who first located the Titanic wreckage in 1985, called the lack of outside certification and classification a “smoking gun” in the vessel’s failure. “We’ve made thousands and thousands and thousands of dives with other countries as well to these depths and have never had an incident,” he said Friday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “Titanic” director James Cameron, who has made multiple descents to the Titanic, said there are several possible reasons for the submersible’s destruction, but said the most likely is a failure of the hull. “The question is, was it the primary failure, or a secondary failure from something else happening?” he told “Good Morning America” on Friday. “And I’m putting my money on the composite because you don’t use composites for vessels that are seeing external pressure.”