Unincorporated Lee County to keep FEMA discountNew blue-light system to be implemented to flag red-light runners
Unincorporated Lee County to keep FEMA discount According to the Lee County Government, residents in unincorporated Lee County will keep their discount.
New blue-light system to be implemented to flag red-light runners Green means go, red means stop and blue means you just ran a red light.
New Punta Gorda City Council accepts city managerâs resignation Punta Gordaâs new City Council accepted City Manager Greg Murrayâs resignation Nov. 20 and agreed to pay toward hurricane repairs and provide several months of rent abatement to business owners who lease space at city-owned Herald Court. Debi Lux was named mayor and Greg Julian vice mayor by the new-look Council, which saw three incumbents […]
Vehicle catches on fire after crash at intersection of Alico and Oriole Rd. A vehicle caught on fire after a crash at the intersection of Alico Rd. and Oriole.
NAPLES A first look inside the Gulfshore Playhouse What does it take to become a candidate for Gulfshore Life’s Men and Women of the Year?
WINK NEWS Best time to shop for Black Friday Long gone are the days of people camping out overnight, waiting for their favorite store to open after Thanksgiving.
WINK NEWS Thanksgiving events across Southwest Florida Thanksgiving in Southwest Florida is a blend of tradition, offering both classic holiday gatherings and unique local events.
CAPE CORAL Caught on Camera: Social media influencer arrested for theft at Cape Coral Target The Cape Coral Police Department arrested a woman accused of stealing items worth nearly $500 from a Target.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers woman pleads guilty to possessing loaded firearm as person with felony convictions Fort Myers woman pleaded guilty to possessing a loaded firearm and ammunition as a person with felony convictions.
CAPE CORAL What’s next for Cape Coral City Council after repealing stipend? The City of Cape Coral elected five new council members Wednesday night, and their first motion was to repeal the controversial self-imposed stipend.
FORT MYERS California man pleads guilty to distributing drugs to Lee County A California man has pleaded guilty to conspiracy with the intent to distribute methamphetamine and fentanyl to Lee County.
Holiday events scheduled in Lee County throughout December It is the most wonderful time of the year, as Lee County is preparing for several Christmas and holiday-themed events in December.
FORT MYERS BEACH 34th annual American Sand Sculpting Championship begins on Fort Myers Beach The resilience of the Southwest Florida community is on display Thursday morning in the form of sand on Fort Myers Beach.
the weather authority Decreasing humidity and mostly sunny skies for your Thursday The Weather Authority is tracking a cold front dropping humidity and temperatures on this Thursday afternoon.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coralâs new council eliminates stipend on day one People in Cape Coral are getting what they voted for: the new city council members were just sworn in, and they eliminated the stipend.
Unincorporated Lee County to keep FEMA discount According to the Lee County Government, residents in unincorporated Lee County will keep their discount.
New blue-light system to be implemented to flag red-light runners Green means go, red means stop and blue means you just ran a red light.
New Punta Gorda City Council accepts city managerâs resignation Punta Gordaâs new City Council accepted City Manager Greg Murrayâs resignation Nov. 20 and agreed to pay toward hurricane repairs and provide several months of rent abatement to business owners who lease space at city-owned Herald Court. Debi Lux was named mayor and Greg Julian vice mayor by the new-look Council, which saw three incumbents […]
Vehicle catches on fire after crash at intersection of Alico and Oriole Rd. A vehicle caught on fire after a crash at the intersection of Alico Rd. and Oriole.
NAPLES A first look inside the Gulfshore Playhouse What does it take to become a candidate for Gulfshore Life’s Men and Women of the Year?
WINK NEWS Best time to shop for Black Friday Long gone are the days of people camping out overnight, waiting for their favorite store to open after Thanksgiving.
WINK NEWS Thanksgiving events across Southwest Florida Thanksgiving in Southwest Florida is a blend of tradition, offering both classic holiday gatherings and unique local events.
CAPE CORAL Caught on Camera: Social media influencer arrested for theft at Cape Coral Target The Cape Coral Police Department arrested a woman accused of stealing items worth nearly $500 from a Target.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers woman pleads guilty to possessing loaded firearm as person with felony convictions Fort Myers woman pleaded guilty to possessing a loaded firearm and ammunition as a person with felony convictions.
CAPE CORAL What’s next for Cape Coral City Council after repealing stipend? The City of Cape Coral elected five new council members Wednesday night, and their first motion was to repeal the controversial self-imposed stipend.
FORT MYERS California man pleads guilty to distributing drugs to Lee County A California man has pleaded guilty to conspiracy with the intent to distribute methamphetamine and fentanyl to Lee County.
Holiday events scheduled in Lee County throughout December It is the most wonderful time of the year, as Lee County is preparing for several Christmas and holiday-themed events in December.
FORT MYERS BEACH 34th annual American Sand Sculpting Championship begins on Fort Myers Beach The resilience of the Southwest Florida community is on display Thursday morning in the form of sand on Fort Myers Beach.
the weather authority Decreasing humidity and mostly sunny skies for your Thursday The Weather Authority is tracking a cold front dropping humidity and temperatures on this Thursday afternoon.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coralâs new council eliminates stipend on day one People in Cape Coral are getting what they voted for: the new city council members were just sworn in, and they eliminated the stipend.
A man prepares to smoke fentanyl on a park bench in downtown Portland, Ore., on Thursday, May 18, 2023. Smoking has surpassed injecting as the most common way of taking drugs in U.S. overdose deaths, according to a study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024. (Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian via AP, File) Smoking has surpassed injecting as the most common way of taking drugs in U.S. overdose deaths, a new government study suggests. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called its study published Thursday the largest to look at how Americans took the drugs that killed them. CDC officials decided to study the topic after seeing reports from California suggesting that smoking fentanyl was becoming more common than injecting it. Potent, illicit versions of the painkiller are involved in more U.S. overdose deaths than any other drug. Some early research has suggested that smoking fentanyl is somewhat less deadly than injecting it, and any reduction in injection-related overdose deaths is a positive, said the studyâs lead author, Lauren Tanz. But âboth injection and smoking carry a substantial overdose risk,â and itâs not yet clear if a shift toward smoking fentanyl reduces U.S. overdose deaths, said Tanz, a CDC scientist who studies overdoses. Illicit fentanyl is an infamously powerful drug that, in powder form, increasingly has been cut into heroin or other drugs. In recent years, itâs been a primary driver of the U.S. overdose epidemic. Drug overdose deaths in the U.S. went up slightly in 2022 after two big leaps during the pandemic, and provisional data for the first nine months of 2023 suggests it inched up last year. For years, fentanyl has mainly been injected, but drug users have increasingly smoked it. People put the powder on tin foil or in a glass pipe, heated from below, and inhale the vapor, explained Alex Kral, a RTI International researcher who studies drug users in San Francisco. Smoked fentanyl is not as concentrated as fentanyl in a syringe, but some drug-takers see upsides to smoking, Kral said. Among them: People who inject often deal with pus-filled abscesses on their skin and risk infections with hepatitis and other diseases. âOne person showed me his arms and said, âHey, look at my arm! It looks beautiful! I can now wear T-shirts and I can get a job because I donât have these track marks,ââ Kral said. CDC investigators studied the trend by using a national database built from death certificates, toxicology reports and reports from coroners and medical examiners. They were able to get suitable data from the District of Columbia and 27 states for the years 2020 to 2022. From those places, they got information on how drugs were taken in about 71,000 of the more than 311,000 total U.S. overdose deaths over those three years â or about 23%. The researchers found that between early 2020 and late 2022, the percentage of overdose deaths with evidence of smoking rose 74% while the percentage of deaths with evidence of injection fell 29%. The number and percentage of deaths with evidence of snorting also increased, though not as dramatically as smoking-related deaths, the study found. Itâs complicated to map out exact percentages of deaths that occurred after smoking, injecting, snorting or swallowing drugs, experts say. In some cases a person may have used multiple drugs, taken different ways. In other cases, no drug-taking method was identified. The study found that in late 2022, of the deaths for which a method was identified, 23% of the deaths occurred after smoking, 16% after injections, 16% after snorting, and 14.5% after swallowing. Tanz said she feels the data is nationally representative. Data came from states from every region of the country, and all showed increases in smoking and decreases in injecting. Smoking was the most common route in the West and Midwest, and roughly tied with injecting in the Northeast and South, the report said. Kral described the study as âmostly goodâ but said it has limitations. It can be difficult to ascertain the how and why of an overdose death, especially if no witness was present. Injections might be more commonly reported because of injection marks on the body; to detect smoking âthey likely would need to find a pipe or foil on the scene and decide whether to write that down,â he said. Kral also noted that many people who smoke fentanyl use a straw to inhale vapors from the burning powder, and itâs possible investigators saw a straw and assumed it was snorted.