‘It’s devastating’: Neighbor reflects on fatal fire in Port Charlotte‘The sound of death’ Neighbors concerned by amount of crashes on Joel Blvd
PORT CHARLOTTE ‘It’s devastating’: Neighbor reflects on fatal fire in Port Charlotte A devastating house fire Monday night in Port Charlotte has left one person dead and another hospitalized while neighbors mourn the possible loss of a beloved member of their community.
‘The sound of death’ Neighbors concerned by amount of crashes on Joel Blvd A woman is heartbroken from witnessing crash after crash outside her Lehigh Acres home.
Fort Myers get 15% increase on flood insurance discount WINK News is finding out what led to the city of Fort Myers going from just a 5% FEMA flood insurance discount to a 20% discount.
FORT MYERS Locals house California wildfire victims The effects of the California fires are being felt worldwide as people evacuate some are in southwest Florida.
LOVERS KEY Couple returns to Lovers Key condo post Ian While Hurricane Ian is long gone from Southwest Florida, many are still feeling its impacts.
EVERGLADES Biden signs Water Resources Development Act, its effect on SWFL President Biden recently signed into law the Water Resources Development Act with an aim to improve rivers and harbors across the country and provide for the conservation of water. Southwest Florida was included in that act. Putting the 240-page plan together took a lot of work, not just from state and federal lawmakers, but also […]
Turning business travel into a vacation Would work travel seem a little easier if you could turn it into a vacation? Two professors say they have proof that would help business travel.
The future of biometrics: Safer security or new AI risks? In 2021, the Transportation Service Agency (TSA) launched its new touchless identity solution in the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County airport.
CAPE CORAL Pelican Elementary resource officer saves infant A school resource officer at Pelican Elementary saved an infants’ life at a traffic stop in Cape Coral.
FORT MYERS Progress being made on City View Park in Dunbar More promises made by a city that has not kept its promises for the last six years have some neighbors concerned about the future of their community.
COLLIER COUNTY Seacrest hoops player hits a full court buzzer beater Seacrest Country Day School boys basketball player Hayden Fuller hits full court buzzer beater against Aubrey Rogers.
NAPLES Cutting-edge ACL surgery reducing reinjury risk by 80% Known for its game-changing orthopedic repair options, Naples-based Arthrex has done it again.
NAPLES MacStrength FL offers sport and lifestyle training for young athletes In 2025, MacStrength FL is swinging for success with their current players and for a wider reach in its community.
You can appeal FEMA’s decision on your claim – Here’s how Now a week after the deadline for FEMA hurricane assistance has closed, the federal agency says you can appeal their decision on your claim if you don’t agree.
Naples selects city CFO as next city manager, averts national search Naples Deputy City Manager and Chief Financial Officer Gary Young will become the next city manager, averting a lengthy, expensive national search for a replacement.
PORT CHARLOTTE ‘It’s devastating’: Neighbor reflects on fatal fire in Port Charlotte A devastating house fire Monday night in Port Charlotte has left one person dead and another hospitalized while neighbors mourn the possible loss of a beloved member of their community.
‘The sound of death’ Neighbors concerned by amount of crashes on Joel Blvd A woman is heartbroken from witnessing crash after crash outside her Lehigh Acres home.
Fort Myers get 15% increase on flood insurance discount WINK News is finding out what led to the city of Fort Myers going from just a 5% FEMA flood insurance discount to a 20% discount.
FORT MYERS Locals house California wildfire victims The effects of the California fires are being felt worldwide as people evacuate some are in southwest Florida.
LOVERS KEY Couple returns to Lovers Key condo post Ian While Hurricane Ian is long gone from Southwest Florida, many are still feeling its impacts.
EVERGLADES Biden signs Water Resources Development Act, its effect on SWFL President Biden recently signed into law the Water Resources Development Act with an aim to improve rivers and harbors across the country and provide for the conservation of water. Southwest Florida was included in that act. Putting the 240-page plan together took a lot of work, not just from state and federal lawmakers, but also […]
Turning business travel into a vacation Would work travel seem a little easier if you could turn it into a vacation? Two professors say they have proof that would help business travel.
The future of biometrics: Safer security or new AI risks? In 2021, the Transportation Service Agency (TSA) launched its new touchless identity solution in the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County airport.
CAPE CORAL Pelican Elementary resource officer saves infant A school resource officer at Pelican Elementary saved an infants’ life at a traffic stop in Cape Coral.
FORT MYERS Progress being made on City View Park in Dunbar More promises made by a city that has not kept its promises for the last six years have some neighbors concerned about the future of their community.
COLLIER COUNTY Seacrest hoops player hits a full court buzzer beater Seacrest Country Day School boys basketball player Hayden Fuller hits full court buzzer beater against Aubrey Rogers.
NAPLES Cutting-edge ACL surgery reducing reinjury risk by 80% Known for its game-changing orthopedic repair options, Naples-based Arthrex has done it again.
NAPLES MacStrength FL offers sport and lifestyle training for young athletes In 2025, MacStrength FL is swinging for success with their current players and for a wider reach in its community.
You can appeal FEMA’s decision on your claim – Here’s how Now a week after the deadline for FEMA hurricane assistance has closed, the federal agency says you can appeal their decision on your claim if you don’t agree.
Naples selects city CFO as next city manager, averts national search Naples Deputy City Manager and Chief Financial Officer Gary Young will become the next city manager, averting a lengthy, expensive national search for a replacement.
FILE – Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his wife Casey, walk in the July 4th parade, July 4, 2023, in Merrimack, N.H. As the six month sprint to the Iowa caucuses begins, the sprawling field of Republican presidential candidates is facing growing pressure to prove they can become serious challengers to former President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Reba Saldanha, File) For a large portion of 2023, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been on the road in Iowa, stopping in coffee shops, sports bars and barns — looking to convince voters that he should be the Republican party’s standard bearer, and not former President Donald Trump. At the crux of DeSantis’ bid in Iowa, the first state to vote in the Republican presidential nominating contest, is a tour of all 99 counties, known as the “full Grassley,” named after Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa who pioneered the all-county tour, and has been doing it for over 40 years. Past Iowa caucus winners — former Sen. Rick Santorum in 2012 and Sen. Ted Cruz in 2016 — made a similar effort during their presidential bids. DeSantis is set to complete his own Iowa tour on Dec. 2 with an event at the “Thunderdome” wedding venue in Newton, according to details first shared with CBS News. Yet the unprecedented nature of Trump’s campaign and popularity with the GOP electorate may make Iowa’s political tradition of rewarding intense attention from contenders a moot point this cycle. Trump has been the consistent frontrunner in the race for the 2024 GOP nomination against a now dwindling field of challengers, most of whom have largely avoided taking him on directly. The race is playing out as Trump also faces criminal charges in multiple cases, in part due to his failed effort to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election. DeSantis has been the only active candidate to commit to holding at least one event in every county so far, and he’s made 130 stops in Iowa overall. A majority of those events, 92, were hosted by the super PAC backing him, Never Back Down, who frequently had the governor on their bus as he trekked from county to county. On the ground in Iowa vs. Trump “hurdle” But DeSantis is not the only one to focus intensely on Iowa in the closing weeks before the Jan. 15 caucus. Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy announced earlier this month that he rented an apartment in the state and says he will hold over 200 events until the caucus. Nikki Haley, former South Carolina governor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has done over 60 events in the state — and is now polling closely with DeSantis in Iowa and leads him in New Hampshire By comparison, Trump has held just 17 events in the state since March. Historically, Iowa voters care deeply about interacting with the candidates. Collecting that kind of grassroots support is key to building the organizing needed to turn out the kind of ground game that can deliver a win on caucus night. Steve Scheffler, the Iowa Republican Party’s National Committeeman, has worked on four presidential campaigns in Iowa before the caucuses. Compared to past cycles, he said that most candidates this cycle didn’t “lay down stakes” early enough. “Winning the caucus is pretty labor intensive work,” Scheffler explained. “You’re looking at a band of people that you have to identify are gonna go to the caucus, then you have to work with them and try to get ’em on board, and then you’ve gotta get them in your database, and then you’ve gotta have a mechanism to turn them out. Those things don’t just happen overnight.” He added that Trump’s presence is “the hurdle” for his challengers, “since many Iowa caucus-goers know what he did. They know he kept his promises.” The DeSantis campaign has called its 99-county tour “an organizational effort,” and said it allows them more flexibility to target areas with bigger media markets, along with certain rural counties where DeSantis’ support is stronger. At his stops, Never Back Down volunteers are often spotted asking attendees to sign “commitment to caucus” cards. The group says 30,000 of these cards, which are not legally binding but signal support for a candidate, have been collected. DeSantis’ campaign said the state will be the “primary focus” in the closing weeks before the caucus, but believed that completing the “full Grassley” gives them more flexibility to campaign in New Hampshire, where DeSantis has fallen behind Haley and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in recent polls. “The Iowa caucus is littered with campaigns that lost because they thought they could win through the air alone, relying solely on paid television advertising,” DeSantis communications director Andrew Romeo said. “The reality is you need a strong mixture of paid media, candidate presence, and ground game to win an Iowa Caucus, and no one is executing in all three areas better than us as we hit the closing stretch.” “Cruz was only at 10% at this point of the race in 2016,” Romeo said. “That’s a good reminder of how Iowa traditionally breaks late, which is exactly when you will begin to see the dividends of the historic ground organization we have built in the state.” Power of Iowa endorsements Romeo added that several notable DeSantis endorsers — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats and 41 state legislators — have a network they can tap into to turn people out to caucus. Iowa represents fraught territory for Trump given that he lost the caucus in 2016. But he has a large advantage in caucus polling to date, despite only making 13 visits to the state since he launched his third White House bid. Both before and after Reynolds’ endorsement of DeSantis, Trump has criticized her this year. And in a somewhat surprising move, he also recently called out Iowa’s two U.S. senators, who haven’t taken a public side in the race. Regarding Grassley and Sen. Joni Ernst, Trump claimed at a rally in Fort Dodge earlier this month that “I got ’em elected, remember that.” Ernst won re-election in 2020, and Grassley in 2022, in what is now a reliably red state. Trump even praised Grassley roughly a year ago while the senator was running for re-election, calling him a legend at an Iowa rally before the 2022 midterms. The 90-year-old Grassley has spent decades in Iowa politics, and according to his congressional website, is the longest serving senator in the state’s history. He was in office long before Trump had any kind of political influence on the GOP. Ernst was elected in 2014, before Trump won the White House. “Here in Iowa, the voters want to see you” “Here in Iowa, the voters want to see you,” said John Pentecost, an undecided voter considering DeSantis and Trump. Pentecost attended a DeSantis event earlier this month in Plainfield, DeSantis’ 98th county. “That’s been the trick to winning Iowa. Grassley started it, and I think all the other candidates are kind of following that same winning strategy.” Asked what will help him decide, Pentecost said he’ll “probably just keep coming to events.”