Driver arrested after failing to stop in Lehigh AcresWINK Neighborhood Watch: burglary, aggravated battery and cockfighting
Driver arrested after failing to stop in Lehigh Acres According to the Florida Highway Patrol, a driver was arrested after he failed to stop for troopers on State Road 82 and Blackstone Drive in Lehigh Acres on Saturday Night.
WINK Neighborhood Watch: burglary, aggravated battery and cockfighting This week’s segment of WINK Neighborhood Watch features a burglary spree, aggravated battery with a vehicle and a man arrested for cockfighting.
NAPLES Death investigation underway at Naples house party The Collier County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a shooting that happened at a house party in Naples.
southwest florida Beautiful Sunday on tap with temperatures reaching the low 80s this afternoon It will be another seasonal day with sun and clouds across Southwest Florida with temperatures reaching yet again topping out in the low 80s.
NAPLES Community raises funds for family of elementary school choking victim Staff and students from Laurel Oak Elementary School gathered at a Naples Culver’s to raise money for the family of Benjamin Cronin, an 11-year-old boy who died after choking at school.
NB lanes of US 41 at Olympia Ave closed due to traffic investigation According to the Punta Gorda Police Department, the northbound lane of US 41 at Olympia Avenue and Marion Avenue is closed due to a traffic crash investigation.
NAPLES Swine in the 239: Collier’s pig showdown Over 250 pigs took over the Collier County fairgrounds Saturday morning for Swine in the 239.
immokalee Fatal crash in Immokalee leaves 2 dead, both cars engulfed in flames The Florida Highway Patrol responded to a crash that left one person dead in Immokalee near the intersection of State Road 82 and Gators Slough Road.
NAPLES Motorcyclist dies in crash with pickup truck in Collier County The Florida Highway Patrol is investigating a deadly crash on Wilson Boulevard, near 10th Avenue Northeast in Collier County.
southwest florida Plenty of sunshine and less humid air for your Saturday plans The Weather Authority says this weekend is kicking off with some beautiful, less humid weather, perfect for any outdoor plans you may have!
WINK NEWS SWFL Scoreboard: High School Football Playoffs Round 1 21 Southwest Florida high school football teams were in action in round one of the playoffs trying to keep their state title hopes alive.
CLEWISTON Suspect identified in shooting investigation at Clewiston Walmart According to the Clewiston Police Department, a suspect has been identified in the shooting investigation at a Walmart in Clewiston on Friday night.
WINK Investigates: Everything we know so far about Beattie Development A southwest Florida developer has now surrendered his six different contracting licenses, which include general contracting, plumbing and roofing. Paul Beattie, owner of Beattie Development cannot build homes anymore. It’s not a permanent situation, but part of a settlement agreement with the state says he’d need to pay $300,000 before he could get a new […]
Florida Attorney General speaks out following lawsuit against FEMA Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has spoken out following the filing of a lawsuit alleging that a FEMA supervisor directed aid workers to avoid going to homes in Lake Placid that had yard signs supporting Trump.
FORT MYERS BEACH How to increase odds of getting your hurricane insurance claim paid When Hurricane Helene hit Southwest Florida in September followed by Milton, many people’s lives were affected.
Driver arrested after failing to stop in Lehigh Acres According to the Florida Highway Patrol, a driver was arrested after he failed to stop for troopers on State Road 82 and Blackstone Drive in Lehigh Acres on Saturday Night.
WINK Neighborhood Watch: burglary, aggravated battery and cockfighting This week’s segment of WINK Neighborhood Watch features a burglary spree, aggravated battery with a vehicle and a man arrested for cockfighting.
NAPLES Death investigation underway at Naples house party The Collier County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a shooting that happened at a house party in Naples.
southwest florida Beautiful Sunday on tap with temperatures reaching the low 80s this afternoon It will be another seasonal day with sun and clouds across Southwest Florida with temperatures reaching yet again topping out in the low 80s.
NAPLES Community raises funds for family of elementary school choking victim Staff and students from Laurel Oak Elementary School gathered at a Naples Culver’s to raise money for the family of Benjamin Cronin, an 11-year-old boy who died after choking at school.
NB lanes of US 41 at Olympia Ave closed due to traffic investigation According to the Punta Gorda Police Department, the northbound lane of US 41 at Olympia Avenue and Marion Avenue is closed due to a traffic crash investigation.
NAPLES Swine in the 239: Collier’s pig showdown Over 250 pigs took over the Collier County fairgrounds Saturday morning for Swine in the 239.
immokalee Fatal crash in Immokalee leaves 2 dead, both cars engulfed in flames The Florida Highway Patrol responded to a crash that left one person dead in Immokalee near the intersection of State Road 82 and Gators Slough Road.
NAPLES Motorcyclist dies in crash with pickup truck in Collier County The Florida Highway Patrol is investigating a deadly crash on Wilson Boulevard, near 10th Avenue Northeast in Collier County.
southwest florida Plenty of sunshine and less humid air for your Saturday plans The Weather Authority says this weekend is kicking off with some beautiful, less humid weather, perfect for any outdoor plans you may have!
WINK NEWS SWFL Scoreboard: High School Football Playoffs Round 1 21 Southwest Florida high school football teams were in action in round one of the playoffs trying to keep their state title hopes alive.
CLEWISTON Suspect identified in shooting investigation at Clewiston Walmart According to the Clewiston Police Department, a suspect has been identified in the shooting investigation at a Walmart in Clewiston on Friday night.
WINK Investigates: Everything we know so far about Beattie Development A southwest Florida developer has now surrendered his six different contracting licenses, which include general contracting, plumbing and roofing. Paul Beattie, owner of Beattie Development cannot build homes anymore. It’s not a permanent situation, but part of a settlement agreement with the state says he’d need to pay $300,000 before he could get a new […]
Florida Attorney General speaks out following lawsuit against FEMA Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has spoken out following the filing of a lawsuit alleging that a FEMA supervisor directed aid workers to avoid going to homes in Lake Placid that had yard signs supporting Trump.
FORT MYERS BEACH How to increase odds of getting your hurricane insurance claim paid When Hurricane Helene hit Southwest Florida in September followed by Milton, many people’s lives were affected.
Malachi Love Robinson is back in the news. According to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, Robinson, 23, was arrested Thursday. Back in March, the owner of United States of Freight, in Delray Beach, told authorities that Love Robinson rerouted payments from the business to his own personal account, according to the arrest report. Love Robinson was a contracted employee. The arrest report states the owner of United States Freights had documentation that more than $9,000 had been rerouted. The owner of the freight company had screenshots of text message conversations with Love Robinson. He told Daniel O’Sullivan he “can’t say how truly sorry” he is and that he will pay the money back, according to the affidavit. Love Robinson is charged with grand theft and organized scheme to defraud. He was booked at 9:15 a.m. Thursday and bailed out just after 8 p.m. Many may recall Robinson from a few years ago. At 18, he pretended to be a doctor. His elaborate scheme began in West Palm Beach at a clinic on Congress Ave. where authorities first arrested the wannabe doctor. In a matter of months, Love-Robinson had been exposed by his victims and the law, accused of stealing thousands of dollars and practicing medicine without a license. He spent about 20 months in jail and was released in September of 2019.
A 3-vehicle crash in south Fort Myers Friday night left two children with critical injuries. According to the Florida Highway Patrol, a 44-year-old man from Lafayette, Indiana was traveling east on the left turn lane of Daniels Parkway approaching Apaloosa Lane and turned onto incoming traffic. The driver sustained minor injuries. A 34-year-old woman in the vehicle sustained serious injuries. Two boys in the vehicle, ages 9 and 11, were critically injured, according to the FHP news release. The 11-year-old died the next day, on Jan. 2. The SUV collided into a pickup driven by a 78-year-old Cape Coral man, who sustained minor injuries. A 78-year-old woman, also of Cape Coral, sustained minor injuries. A third vehicle collided with the pickup. The driver, a 61-year-old man, and passenger, a 55-year-old woman, both of Cape Coral, sustained minor injuries. The crash closed the roadway for a period of time and remains under investigation. The Florida Highway Patrol no longer releases the names of individuals in crashes, citing Marsy’s Law. Credit: WINK News.
New year, new neighbors. And those new neighbors are driving up the prices of homes. Josh Marzucco, CEO of Marzucco Real Estate, said it is a good time to be in the real estate business in Southwest Florida. “Things just kind of went crazy from March until now,” Marzucco said. His buyers are coming from all over the country, including the states of New York and California. “We’re seeing full price cash offers before people are even seeing the home in person,” Marzucco said. It’s not just retirees making their move to the Sunshine State. “I would say more so families right now,” he added, “They figured out they can work remotely and they want to get the heck out of the states that are shut down.” Median Prices and Sales Florida Gulf Coast University’s Regional Economic Research Institute put together economic indicators and found single-family home sales in the region improved 43% in November 2020 over November 2019. In Charlotte County, they are up 39%, Lee County up 36% and Collier County up 66%. Median prices for single-family homes in Charlotte, Lee and Collier counties increased by 12% to 26% in November 2020 compared to November 2019. In Charlotte County, the median home price went from $239,950 to $269,900. Lee County’s median price rose from $262,500 to $319,150 year over year. Collier County saw the biggest jump over the same period, going from $435,000 in November 2019 to $550,000 in November 2020. This price jump is unprecedented, according to Shelton Weeks, director of the Lucas Institute for Real Estate Development & Finance at Florida Gulf Coast University. “When you look at the median home price in Collier County, it’s $550,000,” said Weeks, a real estate expert and economist. “Now, you don’t want to be in that situation, trying to recruit first responders, school teachers, nurses, people that we absolutely have to have. That’s a real challenge. So this sort of sets the stage for what I think will be some very important discussions regarding housing affordability, and how we can address this moving forward in order to maintain the quality of life.” The recent real estate boom is the result of a few factors. Weeks suspects some may have accelerated their plans to relocate to Southwest Florida. In addition, record low-interest rates also make it tempting to buy. Right now, the average 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage is 2.67%, according to Freddie Mac.
Servers had it tough in 2020. We saw it when restaurants closed, unemployment spiked, and food lines grew. To start 2021, it took one person to show us there are better days ahead for people in the restaurant industry. Dawn Sliger greets every one of her customers with a high energy, and good karma made its way back around to her to end the year and start 2021 at a time when she needed it. “After the holidays I’m sitting on like less than $200, and I just have like an A to B car,” Sliger explained. “I’m not looking for anything fancy, I had a $2,000 cap.” Sliger told us she had been trying to save up for a new car when she got an unexpected boost. “It’s definitely magical; that’s for sure,” Sliger said. A customer went into Masala Mantra in Cape Coral and left her a gift she’ll never forget. As we said goodbye to 2020, Sliger received the tip of a lifetime. “The only thing else I could say was, ‘Do you wanna receipt for that?’” And we were all laughing so hard,” Sliger said. “You know for him to do that and to give, it just made my year.” This act of kindness is already giving 2021 a good rep. “The fact that it really is truly magical,” Sliger said. “I’m sitting here, it’s monetary form, you have to, you know, there has to be an amount, and that’s $2,000, and what he felt led to give was exactly what I need for this vehicle.” We reached out to the man who gave Sliger the tip. He wants to remain anonymous, but he says her passion for life fueled him to give her the money. Sliger also says when she gets the car, she hopes to take him to dinner. It’s more than just a tip for Sliger said. It’s the start of something beautiful. “I’m excited to go into the new year and what a way to do that because of a simple act of kindness,” Sliger said.
The year 2020 was tough for everyone, but the new year was already starting off better than the last for some Southwest Florida families Friday. We spoke to parents among the of the first to have their babies born at two hospital systems in Southwest Florida in 2021, and learned how it’s bringing light to the new year. While many rang in the new year at parties, two families did it at the hospital. The families of babies Ozara and Adalynn saw their bundles of joy make their grand entrances among the first babies at NCH Healthcare System and Lee Health respectively. “It’s a wonderful feeling to actually see her in front of my face, you know, like she’s here,” mom Sandy Laurent said. “It was definitely surreal,” new mom Harmony Duncan said. “I never thought I could love someone or something so much until she was there.” Harmony Duncan and David Torres are new to parenthood. “Exactly a year ago today around the same time she was born, he asked me to marry him,” Duncan said. This is Laurent and her husband’s sixth child. Both told us bringing a baby into the world is scary enough already, but especially during a pandemic. “You know, stress because you’re trying to get yourself safe from all the things that are going on you know,” Laurent said. “You don’t wanna get sick, and you’re probably thinking like, ‘OK, if I get coronavirus, what’s going to happen to me and the baby?” “It’s definitely hard, especially with family,” Duncan said. “Because everybody wants to see her and meet her, but it makes it so much harder during a pandemic because you don’t know, you know? You don’t wanna expose her to anything that could be harmful to her.” All these families are focusing on is keeping their baby girls safe. “I hope she stays healthy,” Torres said. “I’m going to definitely tell her like, ‘You are a miracle baby,’” Laurent said.
Coronavirus started out slow. We now know it may have been in the U.S. as early as December 2019, but it took months to officially show up in Florida. “Last night, the Department of Health announced there are two presumptive positive cases of coronavirus disease here in the State of Florida,” Gov. Ron DeSantis announced in March. Soon after, he declared a public health state of emergency. Four days later, in early March, Southwest Florida saw its first case and death. “It is with great sadness that I tell you that one of our patients has passed away,” Dr. Larry Antonucci, president and CEO of Lee Health, said on March 7, 2020. Coronavirus concerns not only spread in hospitals, but in shopping aisles as well. Items like hand sanitizer, masks and toilet paper started disappearing, leading to shortages with limits remaining on certain items to this day. Long lines formed at stores and families weighed the decision of going shopping or ordering things online. Across the state, beaches and bars closed and we had to give up indoor dining at restaurants too. Free testing sites started popping up in Southwest Florida. “W.H.O has been assessing this outbreak around the clock and we’re deeply concerned, both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction. We have therefore made the assessment that covid-19 can be characterized as a pandemic,” said World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. And while experts thought the summer months would help us fight back against the virus by encouraging us to gather outdoors. That didn’t happen. Instead, on July 12, the state saw the most new cases ever, 15,300 new infections in a day. That trend was evident in Southwest Florida as well, with 167 new cases on the very same day. By mid-August, hope had arrived. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for convalescent plasma. And more good news glimmered on the horizon. Several coronavirus vaccines approached the finish line. But the vaccine didn’t come in time to stop Florida from hitting one-million coronavirus cases on Dec. 1. It also didn’t come in time to stop COVID-19 infections from becoming the number one cause of death in the country. “We are in the midst of a terrible pandemic in this country. We are seeing record numbers of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths,” said Dr. William Moss, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. On Dec. 14, Pfizer’s vaccine was introduced. Moderna came a week later and frontline workers began to get vaccinated. In Florida, when they opened up vaccinations for those in the public who are 65 and older, chaos ensued in Lee County as people wanted a shot of hope heading into 20201.
A recent map show the highest levels of red tide along Southwest Florida’s coast. But more research needs to be done to know just how it affects air quality and humans. The last month of 2020 saw dead fish and high levels of red tide sprinkled across SWFL beaches. Pilot Ralph Arwood with Lighthawk Conservation Flying shared video he shot on New Year’s Eve of dozens of dead fish on the Naples shore. RED TIDE MAP “You knew with that out there, the fish just couldn’t get away from it, so it really wasn’t a surprise that they’ve started to wash in,” Arwood said. While red tide is a nearly annual event, we still need more observation to know how toxins in the air affects humans. Mike Parsons is a Marine Science professor at FGCU’s Water School. “We did put out one of our air sampling units at the Vester Field Station,” said Parsons. Parsons and his team have installed a red tide sampler at their Bonita site. “It will be probably closest to red tide since it’s on the backside of Bonita Beach,” Parsons said. FGCU is collaborating with Florida Atlantic University to the study, similarly to how they’ve done with blue-green algae testing in the past. “It’s going to be very similar. Nasal swabs, blood and urine samples,” said Parsons. They will be monitoring their health as well. “And then we will probably start setting them up in Cape Coral probably mid-January, because we’re still waiting to coordinate things,” Parsons said. “Two of our Cape Coral sites potentially could be exposed by red tide or by the aerosols, and so we would be using those as that potentially one-two punch of measuring the brevetoxins from red tide and microcystsins from the blue-green algae bloom,” he said. A new year that hopefully means answers on how new algae blooms will impact Southwest Florida. Parsons said that they will stop the sampler in Bonita Springs next week. As for other locations, they will have to monitor them but have the capability to move samplers as blooms show up.
We’ve been reporting about the great lengths people are going to get vaccinated. In Lee County, there have been hundreds of people waiting and camping out in lines for hours. A lucky 77-year-old woman in South Florida we spoke to went into a Walgreens and walked out having been vaccinated for COVID-19 recently. For nine months Marsha Leoni isolated herself. “I thought before, if I got COVID, that it was going to be really a death sentence because I just had stents put in in March, so, you know, I was really afraid,” Leoni explained. She tried going through the right channels to get vaccinated for days to no avail. “My message to everybody is to persevere wherever they’re offering the shot,” Leoni said. Then, she got lucky. She calls what happened to her a miracle. “Walgreens was inoculating their employees, and they had a little leftover,” Leoni said. “So they made an announcement, ‘We have a little leftover, and if you’re here by five, you can get it,’ so we got on line, and we got it.” Leoni got the shot in the arm. “I feel so lucky, and I feel so blessed, and you know knowing the right people, being able to be at a certain place at the right time,” Leoni said. Walgreens responded to us about what allowed it to vaccinate others outside of its employees. At least one other place this same type of thing has been reported was in Louisville, Kentucky. “We experienced an isolated situation in which the amount of vaccine doses requested by facilities exceeded the actual need,” Walgreen shared in a statement. Leoni hopes she is a day closer to hugging her 10 grandchildren again. She says she is scheduled to receive her second booster shot at the same Walgreens Jan. 16. “I feel like I have one foot into the new world, the new life now,” Leoni said. “That’s what the vaccination kind of means to me; that it’s, you know, I’m heading in the right direction where I’ll be able to hug my grandchildren soon.”
Johnny was an 1,800-pound dog. That is how Alex Solenberg described the 4-year-old bull that was found slaughtered for its meat in a private pasture off of Shawnee Road on Wednesday. “He was bottle raised from a calf,” Solenberg said. “He was loved like a pet.” The bull was adopted with two others — Johnny, June and Carter —by the Solenberg family from another family who raised him as a pet. The family has hundreds of cattle that are not pets, but Johnny was different. “He had the disposition of like an 1,800-pound dog,” Solenberg said. That’s why the family believes it made him vulnerable to the person who came in and slaughtered the bull for its meat. “He was raised as a pet,” Solenberg said. “That was what his purpose in life was supposed to be. As a pet. And his life was wasted, because of someone so selfish.” Investigators with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office said someone broke into the pasture near the intersection of State Road 82 and Daniels Parkway The family is offering a $5,000 reward from their own pockets for anyone who may have information on who slaughtered the bull because they don’t want this to happen to another family. Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers is also asking the public for tips. To make matters worse, the family’s 4-year-old was there when they found Johnny’s carcass. “They actually both got out of the truck and walked up to feed the cows and she saw what happened,” Solenberg said. “Nothing that cruel should be seen by someone that young.” Solenberg said the family went to the pasture to play with the herd two days before Johnny was slaughtered. “They’re big gentle giants,” Solenberg said. “It was so sweet to watch her play with them” Anyone with information is asked to call the Lee County Sheriff’s Office at 239-477-1000 or call Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers at 800-780-TIPS.
A family awoke on New Year’s Eve Day to find a bullet that came close to striking one of their own. The Herrons, who live in the Hitching Post community in Collier County, said they heard a lot of bangs and noise, but it wasn’t until Friday morning they noticed a bullet had made it close to striking their nephew. “Me and Kenny were sitting here watching the fireworks go off and I stepped in the house to get something and we heard something hit the roof,” said Frances Herron, who is from West Virginia. Her nephew Kenneth Roby, 65, said he heard what sounded like gunshots coming from the front of the house. Stuff landed on him. The family wasn’t sure if it had been a stray bullet until Jackson Herron checked it out with his metal detector. Roby said the bullet hit the ground right behind him. “Gave me the shakes just how big it was,” Roby said. When Frances Herron saw the bullet, it nearly blew her away. “Kenny, you was lucky,” she said. “Very lucky.” The Herron said they hear gunfire nearly every New Year’s they have spent in the neighborhood. They wonder whether it’s wise to continue watching fireworks outside or if they should move it indoors. “Guess God was on my side this time,” Roby said. His aunt agrees. “We were lucky last night but that’s not to say we will be the next time,” she said.