Tired of traffic trouble spots? Now is your chance to weigh in on changesPunta Gorda Council discusses proposed new $16M City Hall
FORT MYERS Tired of traffic trouble spots? Now is your chance to weigh in on changes Voice your thoughts on what Southwest Florida roads need improving.
Punta Gorda Council discusses proposed new $16M City Hall Punta Gorda City Council got sticker shock Dec. 4 when they learned that a new City Hall building with a design chosen by former council members would cost close to $16 million.
Department of Labor seeks to distribute $4.7M in wages owed to Florida workers With year-end approaching, the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor is working to return $4,737,110 in wages it recovered to almost 7,500 Florida workers who earned them.
GLADES COUNTY Florida panther struck by vehicle in Glades County; 32nd death in 2024 A 7-to-8-month-old panther was killed by a vehicle in Glades County, increasing the death toll of the endangered species to 32 for 2024.
FORT MYERS Commissioner Hamman: Caloosahatchee bridge project to be completed soon The pedestrian walkway project on the Caloosahatchee bridge in Fort Myers is on schedule and is expected to be completed before Christmas Day.
WINK NEWS Citizens Property Insurance passes important milestone in depopulation program This is a sign our insurance crisis in Florida is recovering. Citizens, designed to be Floridian’s last resort insurer, is shrinking.
WINK NEWS Warmer temperatures build in for your Thursday plans The Weather Authority is tracking increased temperatures. Thursday is in the 50s, and the warming trend is continuing into the weekend.
WINK NEWS Smoke from prescribed burns this Thursday The Weather Authority is tracking smoke in the air Thursday morning. If you notice smoke, it’s likely from recent prescribed burns.
LEHIGH ACRES Firefighters break open submerged car in Lehigh Acres Firefighters break open a submerged car and appear to rescue someone stuck inside in Lehigh Acres overnight.
FORT MYERS Stem donor meets recipient at Florida Gulf Coast University An FGCU student is giving the gift of life this holiday season. FGCU senior Zoe Horowitz met the person who received her stem cell donation.
PORT CHARLOTTE CCSO ‘Shop with a Cop’ event spreads holiday cheer Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office deputies spent time helping kids pick out gifts for their families during the annual Shop with a Cop event.
CLEWISTON Caught on camera: Explosion in hotel parking lot in Clewiston There was an explosion in the parking lot of a Holiday Inn in Clewiston on Wednesday.
PUNTA GORDA Punta Gorda leaders outline plans for Gilchrist Park repairs Gilchrist Park is closed, and Punta Gorda city leaders have been discussing possibly restoring the park.
NORTH NAPLES Airman surprises 6-year-old daughter at school for the holidays after ten months of service in Kuwait After almost a year of service in Kuwait, one airman came home for the holidays and surprised his daughter.
FORT MYERS Breaking down the Lee County Sheriff’s Office budget The Lee County Sheriff’s Office and Sheriff Carmine Marceno have been under scrutiny since a federal investigation on potential money laundering began. Many have questioned LCSO’s spending, so we broke down the budget.
FORT MYERS Tired of traffic trouble spots? Now is your chance to weigh in on changes Voice your thoughts on what Southwest Florida roads need improving.
Punta Gorda Council discusses proposed new $16M City Hall Punta Gorda City Council got sticker shock Dec. 4 when they learned that a new City Hall building with a design chosen by former council members would cost close to $16 million.
Department of Labor seeks to distribute $4.7M in wages owed to Florida workers With year-end approaching, the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor is working to return $4,737,110 in wages it recovered to almost 7,500 Florida workers who earned them.
GLADES COUNTY Florida panther struck by vehicle in Glades County; 32nd death in 2024 A 7-to-8-month-old panther was killed by a vehicle in Glades County, increasing the death toll of the endangered species to 32 for 2024.
FORT MYERS Commissioner Hamman: Caloosahatchee bridge project to be completed soon The pedestrian walkway project on the Caloosahatchee bridge in Fort Myers is on schedule and is expected to be completed before Christmas Day.
WINK NEWS Citizens Property Insurance passes important milestone in depopulation program This is a sign our insurance crisis in Florida is recovering. Citizens, designed to be Floridian’s last resort insurer, is shrinking.
WINK NEWS Warmer temperatures build in for your Thursday plans The Weather Authority is tracking increased temperatures. Thursday is in the 50s, and the warming trend is continuing into the weekend.
WINK NEWS Smoke from prescribed burns this Thursday The Weather Authority is tracking smoke in the air Thursday morning. If you notice smoke, it’s likely from recent prescribed burns.
LEHIGH ACRES Firefighters break open submerged car in Lehigh Acres Firefighters break open a submerged car and appear to rescue someone stuck inside in Lehigh Acres overnight.
FORT MYERS Stem donor meets recipient at Florida Gulf Coast University An FGCU student is giving the gift of life this holiday season. FGCU senior Zoe Horowitz met the person who received her stem cell donation.
PORT CHARLOTTE CCSO ‘Shop with a Cop’ event spreads holiday cheer Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office deputies spent time helping kids pick out gifts for their families during the annual Shop with a Cop event.
CLEWISTON Caught on camera: Explosion in hotel parking lot in Clewiston There was an explosion in the parking lot of a Holiday Inn in Clewiston on Wednesday.
PUNTA GORDA Punta Gorda leaders outline plans for Gilchrist Park repairs Gilchrist Park is closed, and Punta Gorda city leaders have been discussing possibly restoring the park.
NORTH NAPLES Airman surprises 6-year-old daughter at school for the holidays after ten months of service in Kuwait After almost a year of service in Kuwait, one airman came home for the holidays and surprised his daughter.
FORT MYERS Breaking down the Lee County Sheriff’s Office budget The Lee County Sheriff’s Office and Sheriff Carmine Marceno have been under scrutiny since a federal investigation on potential money laundering began. Many have questioned LCSO’s spending, so we broke down the budget.
Former speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy (CREDIT: AP) Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is resigning from Congress at the end of the month, he announced Wednesday, ending weeks of speculation about his future after he was ousted from his leadership role in October. “I have decided to depart the House at the end of this year to serve America in new ways,” McCarthy wrote in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal. “I know my work is only getting started.” McCarthy’s departure makes him the latest member to retire amid growing polarization that has made it difficult for Congress to operate. His decision comes a day after Rep. Patrick McHenry, who briefly served as temporary speaker following McCarthy’s ouster, also announced he would leave Congress. Without McCarthy, the Republicans’ slim majority — already weakened after Rep. George Santos was expelled from Congress — will shrink yet again, with Republicans holding 220 seats to Democrats’ 213. A special election has been set for Santos’ seat for Feb. 13, with the district considered a toss-up by the Cook Political Report. “Hopefully no one dies,” Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said about the party’s majority after McCarthy announced his retirement. McCarthy represents California’s 20th District in the central part of the state, stretching from the San Joaquin Valley and the southern tip of the Sierra Nevadas to the Mojave Desert. It’s a reliably red district that includes his hometown of Bakersfield. McCarthy recently indicated that he’s been going through stages of grief since his ouster and did not want to make a rash decision about his future. “If I decide to run again, I have to know in my heart I’m giving 110%. I have to know that I want to do that,” McCarthy said recently at the New York Times’ DealBook Summit. “I also have to know if I’m going to walk away, that I’m going to be fine with walking away.” “If you just got thrown out of speaker, you’d go through different stages, would you not?” he added. “I want to know that it’s the right thing to do. And then if I’m walking away from something that I spent two decades at, I don’t want to look back and say I made an emotional decision.” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre congratulated McCarthy on his long career in Congress. “The president wishes Speaker McCarthy well, and congratulates him on a career of service. While they have important differences about policy, the president appreciates that they were able to work across the aisle,” Jean-Pierre said. McCarthy’s tumultuous speakership McCarthy, who was elected to Congress in 2006, held the top post for nine months before a deal he made to secure the speakership led to his downfall. His fight to win the gavel when Republicans took control of the House in January included 15 rounds of votes, and foreshadowed the limits of his power over a fractured party. To win the support of far-right Republican holdouts, he agreed to a rule allowing a single member to trigger a no-confidence vote to remove the speaker. That came back to haunt him when fellow Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida introduced a resolution to do just that after McCarthy relied heavily on the votes of House Democrats to temporarily avert a government shutdown in September. Eight Republicans voted with all Democrats to remove McCarthy, making it the first time in U.S. history a House speaker was ousted by such a motion. His successor, House Speaker Mike Johnson, has made similar decisions since taking over, including relying on Democrats to avert a shutdown in November, but has so far avoided McCarthy’s fate. McCarthy has not hidden his disdain for the Republicans who voted for his removal, telling CNN last month that Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina did not deserve to be reelected, and the Republican Party would benefit “tremendously” if Gaetz was not in Congress. He also questioned the motives of Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee. “They care a lot about press, not about policy, and so they seem to just want the press and the personality,” McCarthy told CNN. Burchett later accused McCarthy of elbowing him in the back in a Capitol Hill hallway in retaliation for the vote, which McCarthy denied. “If I were to hit somebody, they would know I hit them,” McCarthy said. On Wednesday, Johnson praised McCarthy for helping Republicans secure the majority and lifting restrictions that had been implemented in Congress during the COVID-19 pandemic. He wished McCarthy the best, saying he “served faithfully and sacrificed substantially for the good of our country and our cause.” “It’s like losing Michael Jordan,” Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma said. Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana said Wednesday that McCarthy’s leadership would “be missed around here.” McCarthy did not give him a heads up about the announcement, he said. “I would have liked him to stay. But it’s kind of hard to ask somebody to stay after they’re weighing some longer-term decisions,” Scalise said. “He was going to have some really good options in the next phases of his life.”