Body cam footage of woman and her dog rescued from Prairie Preserve PinesNaples Airport move study finds 4 possible sites
NORTH FORT MYERS Body cam footage of woman and her dog rescued from Prairie Preserve Pines A woman and her exhausted dog fight to survive while trapped in the elements and oppressive Florida heat.
Naples Airport move study finds 4 possible sites There’s a study looking at the possibility of moving the Naples Airport.
FORT MYERS Caloosahatchee River Bridge to close for 10 weeks to speed up bridge project The Florida Department of Transportation announced a busy Fort Myers bridge is closing for more than two months.
WINK NEWS No plea deal for woman accused of being part of one of Southwest Florida’s largest drug rings No plea deal for woman suspected of being involved in one of the largest drug rings in Southwest Florida.
OLGA 2 teens identified in Franklin Lock Park drowning Authorities have released the identities of two of the three Franklin Lock Park drowning victims.
Title and trust company expands to Charlotte County It’s a family affair at Lyons Title & Trust, which recently opened its third office in Port Charlotte.
Collier rejects $23M price tag for 2,247 acres Collier County commissioners unanimously rejected a $23 million price for a 2,247-acre Immokalee property for possible affordable workforce housing, fire house and other uses, opting to continue negotiating.
Voodoo Brewing Co. upends brewery business model Voodoo Brewing Co. began in 2005 and has since expanded to five corporate locations and 14 franchise locations, with the Fort Myers spot being the first to open in Florida.
COLLIER COUNTY Truck overturns, spills cargo; I-75 at mile marker 63 closed The Rest Area Access Road, under I-75 at mile marker 63, is closed due to an overturned truck that spilled its cargo onto the roadway.
FORT MYERS “I’m so grateful candlelight is here” Gulf Coast Symphony fills venue with thousands of candles Gulf Coast Symphony holds Candlelight concerts in an effort to introduce classical musicians and string quartets to the community in a unique atmosphere.
WINK NEWS 2 men arrested for fleeing from State Troopers; throwing backpack filled with drugs from car on I-75 Two men have been arrested after allegedly fleeing from State Troopers on Interstate 75 and throwing a backpack with drugs out of the car.
fort myers Local NAACP Branch plans protest in response to state attorney’s ruling The Lee County NAACP plans on protesting the state attorney’s ruling of an FMPD detective’s killing of an unarmed black man.
WINK NEWS Car fire on I-75 northbound temporarily closes lanes A car on fire has been reported near Bonita Beach Road on I-75 northbound.
downtown fort myers The downtown Fort Myers post office has reopened The downtown Fort Myers post office has officially reopened.
PUNTA GORDA Possibly more than 100 witnesses in alleged Punta Gorda hitman double homicide There could be more than 100 witnesses in the case that investigators are accusing a man of pulling the trigger in a double homicide focused on drugs and money.
NORTH FORT MYERS Body cam footage of woman and her dog rescued from Prairie Preserve Pines A woman and her exhausted dog fight to survive while trapped in the elements and oppressive Florida heat.
Naples Airport move study finds 4 possible sites There’s a study looking at the possibility of moving the Naples Airport.
FORT MYERS Caloosahatchee River Bridge to close for 10 weeks to speed up bridge project The Florida Department of Transportation announced a busy Fort Myers bridge is closing for more than two months.
WINK NEWS No plea deal for woman accused of being part of one of Southwest Florida’s largest drug rings No plea deal for woman suspected of being involved in one of the largest drug rings in Southwest Florida.
OLGA 2 teens identified in Franklin Lock Park drowning Authorities have released the identities of two of the three Franklin Lock Park drowning victims.
Title and trust company expands to Charlotte County It’s a family affair at Lyons Title & Trust, which recently opened its third office in Port Charlotte.
Collier rejects $23M price tag for 2,247 acres Collier County commissioners unanimously rejected a $23 million price for a 2,247-acre Immokalee property for possible affordable workforce housing, fire house and other uses, opting to continue negotiating.
Voodoo Brewing Co. upends brewery business model Voodoo Brewing Co. began in 2005 and has since expanded to five corporate locations and 14 franchise locations, with the Fort Myers spot being the first to open in Florida.
COLLIER COUNTY Truck overturns, spills cargo; I-75 at mile marker 63 closed The Rest Area Access Road, under I-75 at mile marker 63, is closed due to an overturned truck that spilled its cargo onto the roadway.
FORT MYERS “I’m so grateful candlelight is here” Gulf Coast Symphony fills venue with thousands of candles Gulf Coast Symphony holds Candlelight concerts in an effort to introduce classical musicians and string quartets to the community in a unique atmosphere.
WINK NEWS 2 men arrested for fleeing from State Troopers; throwing backpack filled with drugs from car on I-75 Two men have been arrested after allegedly fleeing from State Troopers on Interstate 75 and throwing a backpack with drugs out of the car.
fort myers Local NAACP Branch plans protest in response to state attorney’s ruling The Lee County NAACP plans on protesting the state attorney’s ruling of an FMPD detective’s killing of an unarmed black man.
WINK NEWS Car fire on I-75 northbound temporarily closes lanes A car on fire has been reported near Bonita Beach Road on I-75 northbound.
downtown fort myers The downtown Fort Myers post office has reopened The downtown Fort Myers post office has officially reopened.
PUNTA GORDA Possibly more than 100 witnesses in alleged Punta Gorda hitman double homicide There could be more than 100 witnesses in the case that investigators are accusing a man of pulling the trigger in a double homicide focused on drugs and money.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Ray Berrian has been smoking marijuana for years. But on Thursday he walked into a store on a busy street in the Portland suburbs and legally bought an “edible” – three small squares of rich chocolate infused with cannabis oil – for the first time. Berrian, a 66-year-old retired elementary school teacher, was one of hundreds of recreational users who lined up at retail stores around Oregon to buy such pot-infused sweets as the state made their sale legal to the general public for the first time. “It’s new for me, it’s new for a lot of my friends that there can be such a thing. I’m not really familiar with edibles so this will be actually new for me,” he said. “I’m kind of excited about getting home and trying these with some coffee.” Recreational marijuana sales became legal in Oregon last fall. Now, medical marijuana dispensaries participating in an early sales program may add edibles and extracts to the things they can legally sell to recreational users. Under the current early sales program, one dose of cannabis-infused edible can have no more than 15 milligrams of THC; consumers can buy up to 1 gram of oil, or cannabis extract, with no more than 1,000 milligrams of THC per cartridge. Customers are limited to one purchase per day. The Oregon Liquor Control Commission is in the process of licensing producers and expects to authorize recreational shops later this year. Oregon also wants to cap the dose for individual edible products at 5 milligrams each – half of what’s allowed in Colorado and Washington state. Dispensaries participating in the early recreational sales program can do so until Dec. 31, by which point Oregon authorities hope to have a licensing program in place for stand-alone recreational marijuana stores. Marijuana entrepreneurs have been gearing up for Thursday’s business for weeks, anticipating a rush by the general public on the newly available products. Edibles had already been available for legal sale to medical marijuana card holders. At Chalice Farms, every employee was recruited to wrap and box up hundreds of pot-infused goodies before their four Portland-area stores opened their doors at 9 a.m. The kitchen at the company’s headquarters can produce 500 packages of candies a day. Customers poured into the company’s retail location in Tigard, southwest of Portland as soon as its doors opened. By 11 a.m., the lime-flavored, cannabis-infused gummies were sold out. Business was brisk at the glass case displaying brightly colored boxes of truffles in salted caramel, coconut, lemon meringue and peanut butter flavors. Other offerings included gummies in a variety of fruit flavors and chocolate toffees, white chocolate chai squares and milk chocolate infused with hazelnut alongside the marijuana. The edibles sold for $12 to $16 per package. “Right now, the whole team, it’s all hands on deck, and they’re working hard to get it done,” said William Simpson, the company’s president. “This is a huge day for Oregon.”
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – Planned Parenthood has filed a lawsuit asking a federal district court to block restrictions on abortions signed into law earlier this year by Gov. Rick Scott. The bill prohibits state money from going to Planned Parenthood and also requires that doctors who perform abortions have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital, or that the clinic have a patient transfer agreement. Planned Parenthood officials said Thursday the restrictions scheduled to go into effect July 1 would bar access to birth control, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and other care for thousands of patients. The organization said it’s the 16th lawsuit filed in an attempt to protect care at its health centers. This comes as more than a dozen states have sought to halt or reduce public funding for Planned Parenthood. Jackie Schutz, a spokeswoman for Scott, said they were reviewing the lawsuit.
SMYRNA, Tenn. (AP) – A Blue Angels F/A-18 fighter jet crashed Thursday near Nashville, Tennessee, killing the pilot just days before a weekend air show performance, officials said. A U.S. official said the pilot was Marine Capt. Jeff Kuss. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. According to his official Blue Angels biography, Kuss joined the elite aerobatics team in 2014 and accumulated more than 1,400 flight hours. It was the second fighter jet crash of the day for the military’s elite fighter jet performance teams. A member of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds crashed in Colorado after a flyover for the Air Force Academy graduation where President Barack Obama spoke. That pilot ejected safely into a field. Harry Gill, the town manager in Smyrna just outside Nashville, said Thursday that the Blue Angels pilot was the only casualty and no civilians on the ground were hurt. The Navy said in a news release that the pilot was beginning to take off during an afternoon practice session when the crash happened. Five other F/A-18 jets landed safely moments after the crash. “My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of the Blue Angels after this tragic loss. I know that the Navy and Marine Corps Team is with me. We will investigate this accident fully and do all we can to prevent similar incidents in the future,” Adm. John Richardson, the Navy’s top officer, said in a Facebook post. The team is based at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida. The Blue Angels will not participate in the weekend air show, the Navy said in a news release. The Great Tennessee Air Show will go on as scheduled, though, Smyrna airport Executive Director John Black said in a news release. “After close consultation with the Blue Angels, regulatory officials and the performers, we have made the decision to carry on with this weekend’s show,” Black said. Kuss was a native of Durango, Colorado, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marines in 2006. He had previously served in Afghanistan before joining the Blue Angels. “It’s hard to put into words right now, but it’s beautiful that a person can live and die engaged in their life’s pursuits,” said his grandfather, Dolph Kuss, reached at his home in Durango. “This was his dream since he was a child, to be an aviator, a flier.” He choked back tears and said he was struggling to gather his thoughts. “It’s hard to celebrate someone’s life in this way,” he said. “It is certainly a shock. Everything in life has its dangers, I guess.” Kuss was married with two young children, his grandfather said. In Smyrna, retired teacher Brenda Lewis and her 21-year-old grandson had spent much of the day in her backyard near the airport watching the Blue Angels fly overhead. She’s seen them many times before. “But this afternoon, something made me really want to watch them,” she said. “They looked like they were having such a good time playing up there.” She went inside to bake a chocolate pie when she heard a loud boom. She didn’t think too much of it at first because the airport is just on the other side of her tree line and she’s used to loud noises. Then she heard sirens and went around the corner. She saw the smoke rising and police cars arriving. She went inside because she didn’t want to see any more. “I’m always so fascinated by them, the anticipation of it all,” she said of their airshow. “Then something tragic like this happens. My heart is just broken.” Phil Dennis, a manager at Auto Masters of Smyrna nearby, was standing on the business’s back deck with another employee watching the planes practice above. “I’m still shaken up about it,” he said, hours after watching the plane go down. Dennis watched one plane coming out of a loop that looked like it was flying too fast toward the ground. It disappeared behind a tree line, and he said his heart stopped. He said he could hear the engines roaring; then all he heard was silence. “I was so worried. I thought maybe he’d have time to recover,” Dennis said. “But he didn’t.” A massive fireball erupted from behind the trees. “I felt it down my spine,” he said. “It shocked me; I paused for a minute and questioned whether it really happened. I thought it can’t be real.” Thomas Bucher, 32, of Smyrna, lives about 2,000 feet from the crash site and was outside doing yard work Thursday afternoon. He had noticed the jets practicing near the airport. “That particular Blue Angel, I saw him doing some barrel rolls looked like in the air,” he said “He was flying awful low, I thought, and he kind of got below the tree line over there. And it looked like he was on his belly going down, and that’s the end of it.” After the plane went below the tree line, Bucher said he saw a cloud of smoke come up over the tree line. “I was hoping that he had ejected from his seat, but with him being that low … My dad is in aviation; I knew there was no way he could have ejected from that height and survived.” He said he thinks the air show on Saturday and Sunday where the Blue Angels were scheduled to appear should go on as planned. “Maybe have a moment of silence for him and for what happened, but I think they should go on with it.” Bucher said it was not raining when the plane crashed but there was a short rainstorm about 10 minutes after the crash.
Boxing great Muhammad Ali is hospitalized in the Phoenix area with what two people familiar with his condition say may be more serious problems than his previous hospital stays. The people told The Associated Press on Thursday that Ali is fighting respiratory issues that are complicated by the Parkinson’s that he was diagnosed with in the 1980s. The two spoke separately in describing Ali’s condition that they say is concerning to family members. The sources declined to be identified because they were not speaking on behalf of the family. A spokesman for Ali sent out a release earlier Thursday saying the former heavyweight champion is being treated at an unidentified hospital for a respiratory issue. Spokesman Bob Gunnell said that the 74-year-old was in fair condition, and that a brief hospital stay was expected. Ali has been hospitalized several times in recent years, most recently in early 2015 when he was treated for a severe urinary tract infection initially diagnosed as pneumonia. Ali has looked increasingly frail in public appearances in recent years, including on April 9 when he wore sunglasses and was hunched over at the annual Celebrity Fight Night dinner in Phoenix, which raises funds for treatment of Parkinson’s. His last formal public appearance before that was in October when he appeared at the Sports Illustrated Tribute to Muhammad Ali at The Muhammad Ali Center in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, along with former opponents George Foreman and Larry Holmes. Ali has suffered from Parkinson’s for three decades, most famously trembling badly while lighting the Olympic torch in 1996 in Atlanta. Despite the disease he kept up a busy appearance schedule until recently, though he has not communicated verbally in public for years. Doctors say the Parkinson’s was likely caused by the thousands of punches Ali took during his career, where he traveled the world meeting opponents in big fights. An iconic figure who was at one point arguably the most recognized person in the world, Ali has lived quietly in the Phoenix area with his fourth wife, Lonnie, who he married in 1986. News of his hospitalization brought well wishes from boxers and others on Twitter, including Sugar Ray Leonard, who modeled his career after Ali. “Prayers & blessings to my idol, my friend, & without question, the Greatest of All Time MuhammadAli ! #GOAT,” Leonard wrote.
FORT MYERS, Fla. – A 16-year-old has died after being struck by a car while trying to board his school bus near the corner of Pine Ridge Road and Bombay Lane, his family said. Cameron Mayhew family said he died Thursday before 2 p.m. He was taken to the Lee Memorial Hospital in critical condition Wednesday morning around 6 a.m. His bus was stopped and had extended its stop sign when a 2003 Chrysler, driven by 23-year-old Zackery Treinin of Cape Coral, hit the student, an FHP report said. Neither Treinin nor anyone aboard the school bus was injured, according to FHP. Treinin is facing charges for failing to stop for a school bus, FHP said. Mayhew had designated on his learner’s permit that he wanted to be an organ donor, and his family will honor that wish. The family will be holding a Gift of Life ceremony Friday at 2 p.m. at Lee Memorial Hospital. They said they are appreciative to the community for its support, according to a family representative. “His family would like to express their heartfelt thanks to everyone in the community, especially the staff and students of Fort Myers High School, for their thoughts and prayers during this very difficult time,” the representative said. Schoolmates described Mayhew as magnanimous and someone who put others above himself. “He was the quietest, nicest guy around,” friend Chase Desiderio said. “He was selfless and only talked about other people.” The death was particularly tragic given what he had the capacity to achieve, Desiderio believes. “I feel like I’ve lost a really good friend of mine and … the fact that of all people, that he would go through this, is astonishing to me,” Desiderio said, “considering that he was a straight-A student, really bright and nice guy, with bright future, and yet something this horrible would happen to him.”
PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. – Gas prices are up nearly 10 cents in the last week, according to AAA, in what many feel was an overnight price hike. While the average cost of gas is still significantly less than prices at this time last year, drivers say the increase still pains their pockets. “It’s harder to fill your car up because at the same time you still got to buy groceries, you got to pay your rent, you’ve got to do everything else,” commuter Gary Miller said. The brunt of the increase did happen overnight, according to AAA. Prices shot up nine cents in less than 24 hours. Southwest Florida drivers noticed and some of them said they paused at the pump. “I went to fill up and it was about 2.09, what yesterday?” said driver Lauren Bradley. “Normally I get plus and when I saw the prices I said ‘No, I’m going to do regular.’ The prices are way too high.” Drivers in Charlotte County have reported seeing prices as high as $2.39, which beat out Thursday’s national average of $2.32, according to AAA. Lee and Collier counties drivers have reported on gasbuddy.com that prices are as high as $2.49. A spokesperson from AAA said analysts are surprised at the recent price hike. There could be many factors contributing to the increase, but AAA’s best theory is a price gouging: one gas station or company raised its prices, tipping off a chain reaction of higher fuel costs. The surge has AAA evaluating where prices have peaked and estimating when they will begin to fall. Many drivers said they are waiting for relief. “I normally fill the tank but today I only put in $25. I’m like ‘Nope, I’ll just risk it hoping the prices will come back down,'” Lauren Bradley said.
JONESBORO, Ga. (AP) – A teenage driver accused in a lawsuit of causing a collision in Georgia while using the Snapchat app’s “speed filter” is now facing criminal charges. News outlets report a Clayton County judge signed arrest warrants Wednesday for 19-year-old Christal McGee, charging her with felony serious injury by vehicle, among other charges, following the conclusion of a police investigation. Clayton County Solicitor Tasha Mosley says McGee was speeding on a rainy road in September, when she crashed into driver Wentworth Maynard, who spent weeks in a coma and suffered brain damage. Maynard and his wife filed a lawsuit in April against McGee and Snapchat, saying the app’s filter tempted McGee to speed. Citing court records, WSB-TV reports McGee admitted going 90 mph, but denied using Snapchat at the time of the crash.
ALVA, Fla. – The health department recommends people avoid the Caloosahatchee River after the Florida Department of Environmental Protection found blue green algae at the boat ramp in Alva. A health alert has been issued because the green slime can cause stomach issues if ingested, according to the health department. The warning is not stopping a father-son duo, however. The two jumped into the river to pull their boat out of the ramp Thursday. Neighbors know to avoid contact with the water. Some, like Jim Hanson, said they refuse to eat fish from the river. “I used to eat the fish out of here years ago and I haven’t eaten fish out of this river in 15 years,” he said. The presence pf blue green algae is common with rain and hot temperatures, according to experts.