Sara Girard

Vital unemployment programs that were put in place nationwide at the start of the pandemic end this weekend and many unemployed people in Florida fear the worst. With the delta variant surge and the eviction moratorium lifted, for some, it’s the only thing keeping a roof over their head and food on the table. Ken […]

There are now new complications being reported with Florida’s unemployment website plagued by fraud. A change meant to keep your account secure and keep scammers out is confusing people who need to claim their benefits. What’s at issue is a new two-factor authentication log in screen. First, you sign-in with your email and password as […]

A growing problem in Southwest Florida’s hot real estate market is thieves stepping up to steal and sell land that doesn’t belong to them. It almost happened to Realtor Peter Davis. “We were doing everything at that point by an email,” Davis said. It’s a recipe for property fraud. One person claiming to be a […]

Over the last three years, hundreds of thousands of tax dollars were spent by the City of Naples to sue property owners along seawalls they said were in disrepair. As it turns out, the City owned the seawalls all along and they ultimately settled. It’s all about a question that dates back to roughly 2012, […]

A cyberattack is causing more issues with the unemployment system. The state has released a new tool to combat it, not long after a data breach that’s kept thousands of people from their benefits. Florida Department of Economic Opportunity says its new tool will help people verify their identities to get back in. It’s called […]

There are not enough primary care doctors to go around, and that’s just one piece of the puzzle for why all of Southwest Florida is considered “medically underserved.” It’s been this way for years, and at the rate we’re going, Florida is projected to have the second-largest physician shortage in the country by 2030. According […]

UPDATE: After this story aired, a representative from DEO responded with the following statement in an email. “The Reemployment Assistance program currently has 22 staff members dedicated to investigating Reemployment Assistance fraud. This does not include other areas within the Department, such as the Office of Inspector General, that also investigates Reemployment Assistance fraud. Additionally, […]

Florida lawyers are getting ready to file a lawsuit against the state for cutting off extra federal unemployment money early. Gov. Ron DeSantis and 25 other Republican governors stopped allowing the $300 a week the feds offered to supplement regular unemployment payments, called the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program (FPUC). The governor said it would […]

UPDATE: Since this story aired, WINK News learned the Elseroads paid $7,800 for the Cape Coral property, while the current assessed value is $8,200. David Elseroad said he paid taxes for the property for the year and he is still hoping to move to the area, but has not been given much information on what […]

Widespread problems are coming from Florida Department of Economic Opportunity as people continue to battle the unemployment system. The state promised things were getting better, since the pandemic overwhelmed the website and kept people from their payments. It might feel like a broken record at this point, but the question remains: How is this still […]