SWFL Scoreboard: High School Football Regional SemifinalsLarge response to rollover crash in Fort Myers
WINK NEWS SWFL Scoreboard: High School Football Regional Semifinals It’s the regional semifinal round of high school football in Southwest Florida. Check out the scores and highlights.
FORT MYERS Large response to rollover crash in Fort Myers There was a large response to a multi-car crash with a rollover in Fort Myers just after 8 p.m on Friday night.
FORT MYERS BEACH New information on why FEMA put Fort Myers Beach on probation FEMA was sure to lay it out in a letter. Out of the five points listed, three areas need work on Fort Myers Beach to re-apply for the flood insurance discount.
CAPE CORAL Exclusive: Cape Coral Police Chief speaks out on hate crime incident New exclusive surveillance video shows the moment a Cape Coral home is vandalized. The suspects painted racial slurs on the wall in red paint. WINK News broke this story on Wednesday.
CAPE CORAL New police precincts coming to Cape Coral The Cape Coral Police Department is adding new precincts around the city. The reason? Growth.
Vietnam veteran’s unique service animal companion When we think of service animals, dogs usually come to mind, but it’s not just dogs that help people navigate through their challenges.
NAPLES Gulfshore Life’s Men and Women of the Year award honoree: John Cooney It’s one thing to be philanthropic and help our community. It’s another to provide so much help and want absolutely nothing in return, not even your name mentioned.
FORT MYERS Dunbar High principal named Lee County Principal of the Year Carl Burnside was the last to find out Friday morning that he was selected as Lee County Schools Principal of the Year for 2025.
FORT MYERS BEACH Fort Myers Beach businesses excited for increased season traffic Those on Fort Myers Beach are excited for the town to return to normal. Businesses are ready to accept snowbirds and residents again.
CAPE CORAL Mom faces DUI charge after crash during pick-up at Oasis High School A crash in the pick-up line at Oasis High School led Cape Coral police to a DUI investigation.
Rethinking daily Asprin intake Many of us have heard the saying, “An aspirin a day keeps the doctor away,” but new research shows that taking aspirin every day might not be as good for you as we once thought.
NAPLES Embezzlement investigation in Naples WINK News is looking into claims of embezzlement in the Naples government.
NORTH FORT MYERS Where did the Shell Factory animals go? With the closure of The Shell Factory in September, people have been wondering where the animals went.
Tim Aten Knows: Publix to demolish, rebuild Naples store Two days after Thanksgiving, the 38-year-old Publix supermarket in Neapolitan Way Plaza will close to begin a Naples redevelopment project that has been planned for years.
Planned retail, lifestyle center seeking tenants at Babcock Ranch A new 112,000-square-foot mixed-use complex designed for retail shops, restaurants, bars, office space and residential units is planned for Babcock Ranch. Called B Street at Babcock Ranch, there are approximately 20 parties negotiating leases, said Jon Cashion, a principal with commercial real estate agency Katz & Associates. A groundbreaking ceremony is slated for early 2025, […]
WINK NEWS SWFL Scoreboard: High School Football Regional Semifinals It’s the regional semifinal round of high school football in Southwest Florida. Check out the scores and highlights.
FORT MYERS Large response to rollover crash in Fort Myers There was a large response to a multi-car crash with a rollover in Fort Myers just after 8 p.m on Friday night.
FORT MYERS BEACH New information on why FEMA put Fort Myers Beach on probation FEMA was sure to lay it out in a letter. Out of the five points listed, three areas need work on Fort Myers Beach to re-apply for the flood insurance discount.
CAPE CORAL Exclusive: Cape Coral Police Chief speaks out on hate crime incident New exclusive surveillance video shows the moment a Cape Coral home is vandalized. The suspects painted racial slurs on the wall in red paint. WINK News broke this story on Wednesday.
CAPE CORAL New police precincts coming to Cape Coral The Cape Coral Police Department is adding new precincts around the city. The reason? Growth.
Vietnam veteran’s unique service animal companion When we think of service animals, dogs usually come to mind, but it’s not just dogs that help people navigate through their challenges.
NAPLES Gulfshore Life’s Men and Women of the Year award honoree: John Cooney It’s one thing to be philanthropic and help our community. It’s another to provide so much help and want absolutely nothing in return, not even your name mentioned.
FORT MYERS Dunbar High principal named Lee County Principal of the Year Carl Burnside was the last to find out Friday morning that he was selected as Lee County Schools Principal of the Year for 2025.
FORT MYERS BEACH Fort Myers Beach businesses excited for increased season traffic Those on Fort Myers Beach are excited for the town to return to normal. Businesses are ready to accept snowbirds and residents again.
CAPE CORAL Mom faces DUI charge after crash during pick-up at Oasis High School A crash in the pick-up line at Oasis High School led Cape Coral police to a DUI investigation.
Rethinking daily Asprin intake Many of us have heard the saying, “An aspirin a day keeps the doctor away,” but new research shows that taking aspirin every day might not be as good for you as we once thought.
NAPLES Embezzlement investigation in Naples WINK News is looking into claims of embezzlement in the Naples government.
NORTH FORT MYERS Where did the Shell Factory animals go? With the closure of The Shell Factory in September, people have been wondering where the animals went.
Tim Aten Knows: Publix to demolish, rebuild Naples store Two days after Thanksgiving, the 38-year-old Publix supermarket in Neapolitan Way Plaza will close to begin a Naples redevelopment project that has been planned for years.
Planned retail, lifestyle center seeking tenants at Babcock Ranch A new 112,000-square-foot mixed-use complex designed for retail shops, restaurants, bars, office space and residential units is planned for Babcock Ranch. Called B Street at Babcock Ranch, there are approximately 20 parties negotiating leases, said Jon Cashion, a principal with commercial real estate agency Katz & Associates. A groundbreaking ceremony is slated for early 2025, […]
In this photo provided by the North American Aerospace Defense Command, a 22 Wing member is seen showing how they track Santa on his sleigh on Christmas evening during a media preview at the Canadian Forces Base in North Bay on Dec. 9, 2021. In a Christmas Eve tradition going on its 66th year, a wildly popular program run by the U.S. and Canadian militaries is providing real-time updates on Santa’s progress around the globe — and fielding calls from children who want to know St. Nick’s exact whereabouts. (Sable Brown/NORAD via AP) For 68 years, the North American Aerospace Defense Command — known as NORAD — has tracked Santa Claus’ global gift-giving journey every Christmas Eve. The annual tradition started in 1955, when, according to NORAD and Col. Elizabeth Mathias, U.S. Northern Command public affairs director, a child hoping to speak with Santa dialed the wrong number and ended up on the line with a U.S. colonel instead. The child had mistakenly called the operations center of NORAD’s precursor, the Continental Air Defense Command, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Col. Harry Shoup, the commander on duty, asked his staff to check the radar for jolly old Saint Nick’s whereabouts, and thus began the first incarnation of the Santa tracking program, NORAD says. Now, what began as an accidental phone call has grown into a sprawling operation involving more than 1,000 volunteers. “When I meet perfect strangers, and they ask what I do, and I say that I’m in the military, and that I’m stationed at NORAD, they always ask me about NORAD Tracks Santa,” Mathias told CBS News. “It really has been amazing how it brings people together who maybe have no knowledge of the military.” Mathias, who oversees the Santa tracker project but prefers to call herself a “steward of the program” out of deference to its storied history, started her role in 2022. “I actually remember calling into NORAD as a child and asking NORAD where Santa was,” Mathias said. “When I was able to come back here in my job and find out that this was part of my main duties, my husband actually said to me, ‘Just make sure you don’t break Santa.'” Months of planning Although the Santa tracker is only live for less than 24 hours a year, preparations begin months in advance. “My team and I think about [it] all year long,” Mathias said. Mathias’ team spends the early part of the year reviewing how things went in the previous December, and thanking the program’s more than 70 corporate contributors “who bear virtually all of the costs” associated with the project, according to NORAD’s website. In the spring, the team starts reaching out to past participants again to ask for their support in the coming holiday season. Then, in the first months of fall, they begin coordinating with service members at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs to prep the facility with the communications equipment necessary for its transformation into the NORAD Tracks Santa operations center. “When we get into November, we start to schedule our volunteers to come in and take those calls,” Mathias said. “So where we are now in December, middle of December, we get to start decorating the space, make sure we’re plugging in the phone calls, so that we’re ready on Dec. 24 for everybody to start going.” The big day The tracker launched at 6 a.m. ET on Dec. 24, when Santa begins his approach to far eastern Asia. With the help of radars, satellites and jet fighters, NORAD says, it is able to keep tabs on Mr. Claus’ globetrotting. Throughout the day, “about 1,100 to 1,200” volunteers will answer phone calls from people around the world who dial into the 1-877-HI-NORAD hotline. Members of the Colorado Springs community bring food for everyone, Mathias said, and the program’s partners at the base make sure the lights stay on. While many volunteers are in-person at the operations center, those on leave or off-station also participate remotely through a call bridge. In 2022, the program answered 73,000 calls in-person, and 260,000 total, according to Mathias. “When they still call us and find out it’s real people, they’re very surprised,” Mathias said. “I’ve had callers literally go speechless because they weren’t expecting to talk to someone.” Apart from the hotline, NORAD shares Santa’s progress on its website, mobile apps and social media pages, as well as with Amazon Alexa, OnStar and SiriusXM Radio. Everything comes to a close at 2 a.m. ET on Dec. 25, when the last volunteers sign off for the night. The future of the Santa tracker With the 70th anniversary of NORAD Tracks Santa only two years away, Mathias credits the program’s continuation to the dedication of everyone involved — as well as to Santa’s everlasting popularity. “He doesn’t need me to tell you how great he is,” she said. “I think there are many fans around the world who can tell you that.” NORAD’s willingness to adapt the tradition to evolving technology may be another reason it has kept going after nearly seven decades. The tracker first hit the internet in 1997, and now it may soon make a similar leap — this time into virtual reality. Mathias told CBS News that NORAD has discussed possibly developing a VR experience that lets people fly along with Santa, but “it’s not quite ready yet.” “We’re always thinking of ways to make sure that we keep the experience relevant for the people who want to track Santa today, while still also being true to the tradition that started in 1955,” Mathias said. “We as a command take great, great pride in running the NORAD Tracks Santa program every year, and bringing that little bit of extra goodwill to people around the world.”