Department of Health warns of blue-green algae in Alva canalCouple accused of drugging and molesting girl make court appearance
ALVA Department of Health warns of blue-green algae in Alva canal If you live on Sebastian Court along the canal in Alva, the Florida Department of Health in Lee County wants you to remain cautious. A blue-green algae bloom has been spotted there.
SAN CARLOS PARK Couple accused of drugging and molesting girl make court appearance A San Carlos Park couple accused of drugging and molesting a girl while covering it up for two years appeared in court.
FORT MYERS Lee County Schools receives over $2M in Juul settlement The Lee County School District has received over $2 million in a settlement with Juul, and now, it’s putting that money to use.
JERUSALEM (AP) Israel says it reopened a key Gaza crossing after a rocket attack but the UN says no aid has entered The Israeli military said Wednesday that it has reopened its Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza after days of closure, but the U.N. said no humanitarian aid has yet entered and there is no one to receive it on the Palestinian side after workers fled during Israel’s military incursion in the area.
ATLANTA (AP) Georgia appeals court agrees to review ruling allowing Fani Willis to stay on Trump election case A Georgia appeals court on Wednesday agreed to review a lower court ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue to prosecute the election interference case she brought against former President Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) Police clear pro-Palestinian protest camp and arrest 33 at DC campus as mayor’s hearing is canceled Police cleared a pro-Palestinian tent encampment at George Washington University early Wednesday and arrested demonstrators.
2 Collier County men arrested for street racing Collier County Sheriff’s Office deputies have arrested two men after catching them street racing.
CLEWISTON Lewis Boulevard in Clewiston closed after semi-trailer carrying palm trees loses load Lewis Boulevard in Clewiston from U.S. 27 to 13th Street is closed this morning while crews remove trees from the roadway.
ARCADIA Juvenile and 18-year-old arrested for stealing, burglarizing multiple cars in DeSoto County A juvenile and an 18-year-old have been arrested after allegedly stealing several cars and burglarizing them in DeSoto County.
IMMOKALEE Immokalee man arrested for child porn possession An Immokalee man has been arrested and charged on ten felony counts after allegedly being in possession of child pornography.
ESTERO Caught on Camera: Alligator chases after teen’s catch while fishing in Estero A 15-year-old teenager from Estero bit off more than he could chew while fishing for Peacock Bass as a hungry alligator chased after the fish and him.
Gainsville Gov. DeSantis responds to Pro-Palestinian protest held at University of Florida Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke about the dispersal of pro-Palestinian protestors at the University of Florida.
The Weather Authority Hotter and drier Wednesday with a few inland storms this afternoon The Weather Authority is tracking a mild and drier Wednesday morning with rain expected inland this afternoon.
Cape Coral City Council to discuss repairs for yacht club pier The Cape Coral City Council will discuss and possibly decide upon three options to repair the damaged yacht club pier.
LEHIGH ACRES Kitchen fire causes substantial damage to a home in Lehigh Acres The Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue responded to a kitchen fire at a Sunset Boulevard home on Tuesday night.
ALVA Department of Health warns of blue-green algae in Alva canal If you live on Sebastian Court along the canal in Alva, the Florida Department of Health in Lee County wants you to remain cautious. A blue-green algae bloom has been spotted there.
SAN CARLOS PARK Couple accused of drugging and molesting girl make court appearance A San Carlos Park couple accused of drugging and molesting a girl while covering it up for two years appeared in court.
FORT MYERS Lee County Schools receives over $2M in Juul settlement The Lee County School District has received over $2 million in a settlement with Juul, and now, it’s putting that money to use.
JERUSALEM (AP) Israel says it reopened a key Gaza crossing after a rocket attack but the UN says no aid has entered The Israeli military said Wednesday that it has reopened its Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza after days of closure, but the U.N. said no humanitarian aid has yet entered and there is no one to receive it on the Palestinian side after workers fled during Israel’s military incursion in the area.
ATLANTA (AP) Georgia appeals court agrees to review ruling allowing Fani Willis to stay on Trump election case A Georgia appeals court on Wednesday agreed to review a lower court ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue to prosecute the election interference case she brought against former President Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) Police clear pro-Palestinian protest camp and arrest 33 at DC campus as mayor’s hearing is canceled Police cleared a pro-Palestinian tent encampment at George Washington University early Wednesday and arrested demonstrators.
2 Collier County men arrested for street racing Collier County Sheriff’s Office deputies have arrested two men after catching them street racing.
CLEWISTON Lewis Boulevard in Clewiston closed after semi-trailer carrying palm trees loses load Lewis Boulevard in Clewiston from U.S. 27 to 13th Street is closed this morning while crews remove trees from the roadway.
ARCADIA Juvenile and 18-year-old arrested for stealing, burglarizing multiple cars in DeSoto County A juvenile and an 18-year-old have been arrested after allegedly stealing several cars and burglarizing them in DeSoto County.
IMMOKALEE Immokalee man arrested for child porn possession An Immokalee man has been arrested and charged on ten felony counts after allegedly being in possession of child pornography.
ESTERO Caught on Camera: Alligator chases after teen’s catch while fishing in Estero A 15-year-old teenager from Estero bit off more than he could chew while fishing for Peacock Bass as a hungry alligator chased after the fish and him.
Gainsville Gov. DeSantis responds to Pro-Palestinian protest held at University of Florida Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke about the dispersal of pro-Palestinian protestors at the University of Florida.
The Weather Authority Hotter and drier Wednesday with a few inland storms this afternoon The Weather Authority is tracking a mild and drier Wednesday morning with rain expected inland this afternoon.
Cape Coral City Council to discuss repairs for yacht club pier The Cape Coral City Council will discuss and possibly decide upon three options to repair the damaged yacht club pier.
LEHIGH ACRES Kitchen fire causes substantial damage to a home in Lehigh Acres The Lehigh Acres Fire Control and Rescue responded to a kitchen fire at a Sunset Boulevard home on Tuesday night.
FILE – In this Jan. 31, 2018 file photo, Republican Jeff Colyer is sworn in as the 47th governor of Kansas during a ceremony at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. In February, Colyer announced an executive order that requires his staff to use official email accounts for all government business. He also banned private accounts for any communications related to “the functions, activities, programs, or operations” of the office. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner, File) One app promotes itself as a way to discuss sensitive negotiations and human resources problems without leaving a digital record. Another boasts that disappearing messages “keep your message history tidy.” And a popular email service recently launched a “confidential mode” allowing the content of messages to disappear after a set time. The proliferation of digital tools that make text and email messages vanish may be welcome to Americans seeking to guard their privacy. But open government advocates fear they are being misused by public officials to conduct business in secret and evade transparency laws. Whether communications on those platforms should be part of the public record is a growing but unsettled debate in states across the country. Updates to transparency laws lag behind rapid technological advances, and the public and private personas of state officials overlap on private smartphones and social media accounts. “Those kind of technologies literally undermine, through the technology itself, state open government laws and policies,” said Daniel Bevarly, executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition. “And they come on top of the misuse of other technologies, like people using their own private email and cellphones to conduct business.” Some government officials have argued that public employees should be free to communicate on private, non-governmental cellphones and social media platforms without triggering open records requirements. Lawmakers in Kentucky and Arizona this year unsuccessfully proposed exempting all communications on personal phones from state open records laws, alarming open government advocates. A Virginia lawmaker introduced a bill to exempt all personal social media records of state lawmakers from disclosure. New Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer went the opposite direction in February with an executive order that requires his staff to use official email accounts for all government business. He also banned private accounts for any communications related to “the functions, activities, programs, or operations” of the office. In neighboring Missouri, Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill that would make clear that personal social media pages and messages sent through digital platforms such as Confide and Signal are public records as long as they relate to official business. The legislation arose because of a controversy involving use of the Confide app by former Gov. Eric Greitens, who resigned in June amid a series of scandals. “We need to clarify the expectations, because we should not be allowed to conduct state business using invisible ink,” said state Rep. Ingrid Burnett, who said she’s disappointed the bill didn’t advance. The proposals were captured by a new Associated Press application called SunshineHub, a digital tool that tracks bills related to government transparency in all 50 states. They point to the mushrooming challenge of defining and maintaining government records in the smartphone era. The issue exploded into public view last year amid reports that several employees in the office of Greitens, then Missouri’s governor, had accounts on Confide. The app makes messages disappear immediately after they are read and doesn’t allow them to be saved, forwarded, printed or captured by screenshot. The news prompted an inquiry from the state attorney general, an ongoing lawsuit alleging the practice violated the state’s sunshine law and the bill that would declare all such communications relating to government business to be public records. Greitens and aides have said they used Confide only to discuss logistics such as scheduling matters that were insignificant, “transitory” and therefore not required to be maintained as public records. An inquiry by Attorney General Josh Hawley found no evidence the practice as described was illegal, but investigators didn’t recover the disappeared messages. Greitens’ explanation for using the app has drawn skepticism from critics, who question why mundane messages would be sent on a platform that promotes “honest, unfiltered confidential conversations” on sensitive topics. “That’s absurd. Nobody switches out to a secret burner app to do that,” said Missouri attorney Mark Pedroli, who is suing Greitens on behalf of an open government group and using the case to investigate whether the former governor used the app to communicate with donors and political aides. “One of the motivating factors of this lawsuit is to find out — what could be the worst-case scenario of a governor or elected official using a secretive app like this?” He said government agencies should move to ban or severely restrict the use of such applications before they become commonplace. He already has obtained during the litigation a training slide that repeatedly instructed members of Greitens’ staff to never send text messages on government cellphones, an apparent suggestion to do such business only on personal phones. In Kentucky, language added to an unrelated bill in March would have exempted all electronic communications related to public business — including calls, text messages and emails — from the state open records law. Those messages would be exempt from disclosure as long as the phone or computer was paid for with private money and used non-governmental accounts. Open government advocates protested the legislation, which would have been the first of its kind in the nation. Lawmakers modified it so it would exempt only “communications of a purely personal nature unrelated to any governmental function.” Media and open government advocates called the language unnecessary, saying personal communications already aren’t subject to disclosure. A similar bill introduced in Arizona to shield all communications created, stored or received on electronic devices paid for with private money died without a hearing. The measures in Kentucky and Arizona were introduced after the states’ attorneys general issued legal opinions concluding that government agencies were not responsible for managing their employees’ personal phones, and because of that such communications are not subject to open records laws. Similar concerns arose after Gmail introduced its confidential mode, which allows senders to control who can access, forward, print or copy sensitive data and to set a time for messages to “expire.” National Freedom of Information Coalition board president Mal Leary recently wrote a letter to Google arguing that those features, which were recently launched as part of a redesign, could promote the illegal destruction of public records. Leary noted that Google’s suite of services is commonly used by state and local governments and urged the company to disable that feature from accounts and emails linked to public agencies. “Technology that allows the self-destruction of official, electronic public communications is not promoting transparency, and under most state open government laws, is illegal,” Leary wrote. Google responded that those features are similar to other tools in the marketplace, and that government administrators will be able to choose to disable them on their networks. The company noted that even after a message in “confidential mode” expires and its content is no longer available, a history of the message remains available in the sent folder and the headers and subject line remain visible in the recipient’s inbox.