Dannielle Garcia

A family and a community are heartbroken over the death of a 4-year-old girl. Maleena Valdez was described as a “happy little girl.” Maleena and a second child were hit as they played in the playground of Imagination Station Learning Center, a preschool and daycare in Arcadia. The second child, a 5-year-old who has not […]

A 43-year-old man was arrested in Collier County after deputies say he attacked a person in a parking lot just after midnight Wednesday. Diego Gaston Dominguez faces charges of burglary with a battery, exposure of sexual organs and resisting arrest without violence. The attack happened at 1460 Golden Gate Parkway, according to the Collier County […]

Cape Coral police have identified the body found in a canal in Cape Coral as missing 22-year-old Jeremiah Don Ballam Jr. This is heartbreak. The moments after members of JJ Ballam’s family say divers found his body in a Cape Coral canal. Police say Ballam was last seen leaving Backstreets Bar around 3:30 Sunday morning. […]

A truck ran a red light, smashed into the driver’s side of a car, and then took off. This happened near the intersection of Hancock Bridge Parkway and Del Prado Blvd. The whole crash was caught on dashcam video, and you can clearly see the truck blow past the red light. The video is clear, […]

Baseball is back: The MLB and its player association have reached a tentative collective bargaining agreement and all eyes are now on spring training in Southwest Florida, set to return by March 18. The MLB and its players’ union agreed on a new five-year deal Thursday. Local businesses and vendors at JetBlue Field’s spring training […]

On Friday night, there’s a chance for parents to unwind in Collier County, where Better Together is hosting Parents’ Night Out at the Golden Gate Community Center. It’s a chance for someone else to watch your kids so you can go out on a date or take off to run some errands. The organization Better […]

The Florida Highway Patrol is looking for an unidentified driver after a hit-and-run crash killed a pedestrian on San Carlos Boulevard in Lee County on Wednesday night. The unknown driver’s vehicle, shown by surveillance video to be a white or light-colored sedan, probably with front-end damage, was traveling south on San Carlos Boulevard in the […]

Authorities are searching for two men who hopped a fence and tormented an alligator protecting her nest at the Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center. One of the men was captured on video hitting a gator with what appeared to be palm fronds. Another man stood by and watched. Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center CEO Michael Bednar said […]

A house fire in Lehigh Acres on Tuesday left one person dead. Now, neighbors and a pastor describe the man who they say died as a generous guy who only cared about helping others. Authorities have confirmed that a man died in the home, but they are not yet identifying the man. Many people who […]

Economists say we haven’t seen inflation rates spike like this since the energy crisis of the 1970s. For so many families, the cost of living is now outpacing what most people earn. Whether you make $20,000 or $200,000 a year, the price of the necessities in Southwest Florida is digging into everyone’s wallets. Gas, food […]