Senior Airman surprises cousin on Aubrey Rogers softball senior nightPolice: 15-year-old injured after accidentally shot in the leg
NORTH NAPLES Senior Airman surprises cousin on Aubrey Rogers softball senior night Aubrey Rogers senior pitcher and infielder McKenzie Vargas surprised by her Air Force cousin for Senior Night.
BONITA SPRINGS Police: 15-year-old injured after accidentally shot in the leg Lee County deputies say the teen was accidentally shot in the leg.
PUNTA GORDA Exclusive: Brother and best friend of accused pedophile priest speak out Riley’s brother reached out to WINK on Friday, saying people aren’t getting the full story.
IMMOKALEE Caught on video: Huge gator crosses Immokalee neighborhood Fridays in Florida are for gators
FORT MYERS FGCU softball pitcher making a name for herself One season in FGCU, freshman pitcher Allison Sparkman is already ruffling feathers in the circle.
Surrendering-pets trend at Gulf Coast Humane Society concerns An large amount of pets are being surrendered by their owners. About half of the dogs at the Gulf Coast Humane Society are surrender dogs.
Students benefitting from millions in sales tax dollars So far, the voter-approved half-cent sales tax has brought in $507 million for the Lee County School District.
PORT CHARLOTTE ‘Shady’: One woman feels misled after federal student loan consolidation It takes some people decades to pay off their student loans. One woman’s last payment was in sight until she took a gamble she said she was told to take.
FORT MYERS Homeless encampments inch closer to neighborhoods Law enforcement has swept multiple encampments, cleaning the trails of mess and muck left behind, and some of these encampments are right in our backyards.
BIG CYPRESS PRESERVE What changes if Big Cypress National Preserve becomes a Wilderness Area? America’s first nationally designated preserve is in Southwest Florida’s backyard, and it is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Method to treat IBD being used for other health issues Trying to get treatments for the brain when fighting neurological diseases like epilepsy and ALS is a challenge.
FORT MYERS NTSB report reveals new details in helicopter crash after Hurricane Ian The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released its final report on a helicopter crash that occurred in Iona, Florida, shortly after Hurricane Ian.
NAPLES Memorial celebrates the life of John Passidomo Hundreds of friends and family gathered for a memorial at Baker Park in Naples.
‘Latinos in Action’ empowers all students to succeed WINK News talked with teachers who are a part of the program, helping kids reach their full potential.
Immokalee ‘The eyes always draw me in’; Immokalee portrait artist turns dark times into color One of Southwest Florida best portrait artist, Martha Maria Cantu, almost gave up art. Now she’s on the forefront of the city of Immokalee, to make her community filled with color.
NORTH NAPLES Senior Airman surprises cousin on Aubrey Rogers softball senior night Aubrey Rogers senior pitcher and infielder McKenzie Vargas surprised by her Air Force cousin for Senior Night.
BONITA SPRINGS Police: 15-year-old injured after accidentally shot in the leg Lee County deputies say the teen was accidentally shot in the leg.
PUNTA GORDA Exclusive: Brother and best friend of accused pedophile priest speak out Riley’s brother reached out to WINK on Friday, saying people aren’t getting the full story.
IMMOKALEE Caught on video: Huge gator crosses Immokalee neighborhood Fridays in Florida are for gators
FORT MYERS FGCU softball pitcher making a name for herself One season in FGCU, freshman pitcher Allison Sparkman is already ruffling feathers in the circle.
Surrendering-pets trend at Gulf Coast Humane Society concerns An large amount of pets are being surrendered by their owners. About half of the dogs at the Gulf Coast Humane Society are surrender dogs.
Students benefitting from millions in sales tax dollars So far, the voter-approved half-cent sales tax has brought in $507 million for the Lee County School District.
PORT CHARLOTTE ‘Shady’: One woman feels misled after federal student loan consolidation It takes some people decades to pay off their student loans. One woman’s last payment was in sight until she took a gamble she said she was told to take.
FORT MYERS Homeless encampments inch closer to neighborhoods Law enforcement has swept multiple encampments, cleaning the trails of mess and muck left behind, and some of these encampments are right in our backyards.
BIG CYPRESS PRESERVE What changes if Big Cypress National Preserve becomes a Wilderness Area? America’s first nationally designated preserve is in Southwest Florida’s backyard, and it is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Method to treat IBD being used for other health issues Trying to get treatments for the brain when fighting neurological diseases like epilepsy and ALS is a challenge.
FORT MYERS NTSB report reveals new details in helicopter crash after Hurricane Ian The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released its final report on a helicopter crash that occurred in Iona, Florida, shortly after Hurricane Ian.
NAPLES Memorial celebrates the life of John Passidomo Hundreds of friends and family gathered for a memorial at Baker Park in Naples.
‘Latinos in Action’ empowers all students to succeed WINK News talked with teachers who are a part of the program, helping kids reach their full potential.
Immokalee ‘The eyes always draw me in’; Immokalee portrait artist turns dark times into color One of Southwest Florida best portrait artist, Martha Maria Cantu, almost gave up art. Now she’s on the forefront of the city of Immokalee, to make her community filled with color.
FILE – In this Thursday, Nov. 23, 2017, file photo, Jesus Reyes pushes a television down an aisle as he shops at a Black Friday sale at a Best Buy store in Overland Park, Kan. Shoppers feeling good about the economy, who are spending more than expected on items like kitchen gadgets, toys and coats, could make this the best holiday season in several years. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File) This year, Black Friday is more than just the starting gun for the all-important holiday shopping season (or the day you elbow your neighbor out of the way to score a TV). For retail’s struggling players, shopping’s mega-day is crucial. Remember: In September 2017, Toys “R” Us filed for bankruptcy in hopes of turning around its struggling business. But terrible holiday sales left it on life support. The company said it would close all its US stores three months later. There are six fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas on the calendar than last year. But there’s no other reason stores should stutter. As my CNN Business colleague Nathaniel Meyersohn points out: Consumer confidence remains high, and low unemployment should buttress spending. The National Retail Federation estimates retail sales in November and December will grow between 3.8% and 4.2% compared with a year ago. “We’re in a very strong consumer environment,” Cowen analyst Oliver Chen told me. “If you’re having difficulties, what does it mean for the future?” Companies like Macy’s and Kohl’s, which have recently struggled, aren’t likely to go the way of Toys “R” Us, Chen notes. Both have healthy cash flow and aren’t financing their businesses with too much debt. But the next few weeks could be “make or break” for their current turnaround strategies, he said. Watch this space: If Macy’s, which recently lowered its expectations for the holidays, underperforms, it could accelerate store closures, according to Chen. Those who can afford extra investment, meanwhile, may pull further ahead of the pack. Take Walmart, which has started to offer free next-day delivery on orders over $35 for more than 200,000 items. It’s also pledged to staff up stores with extra workers. Some will be outfitted with mobile checkout scanners to ring up customers on the spot, helping them bypass lines. Target said it’s increasing its holiday payroll by $50 million. Target and Walmart’s commitment to curbside pickup, plus their easy-to-use mobile apps, will also provide an advantage, Chen said. Of course, looming over all these players is Amazon. The company still beats Walmart and Target on average delivery speed by a day (two days vs. three days), according to new research from Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Amazon also offers lower prices on a sample basket of holiday shopping items that includes LEGO toys, a 23andMe DNA test and a Playstation 4 Pro. Amazon has the greatest number of items available, too. The $4 trillion force propelling US stocks to record highs The Federal Reserve’s rescue of the overnight lending market appears to be having an unintended side effect: it’s juicing the stock market, my colleague Matt Egan reports. The situation: The September spike in overnight lending rates revealed that the plumbing of financial markets was broken. Banks and other financial institutions simply didn’t have enough cash. As a result, the Fed — acting as a plumber — started pumping in lots of cash to ease the crunch. The Fed also reversed course by promising to purchase bonds. A ton of them. After months of shrinking its balance sheet, the Fed vowed to buy $60 billion worth of Treasury bills per month through the spring of 2020. The result: The Fed’s balance sheet has swelled by $286 billion since early September, to $4.05 trillion. The Fed has stressed that its current efforts are just a technical fix, and do not mark a return of that 2008 crisis-era bond-buying program aimed at stimulating the economy. But there’s a growing realization that the Fed’s bond purchases are supporting stocks, even if that wasn’t the goal. “I don’t even think it’s debatable,” Danielle DiMartino Booth, a former Fed official who’s now CEO of Quill Intelligence, told Matt. “It’s patently obvious that the Fed’s interventions into the market is having a huge effect on the stock market.” One contributing factor: Fed liquidity is boosting the bond market, making it easier for companies to borrow cash that can be used for share buybacks. Those share repurchases help boost demand for stocks while simultaneously boosting per-share earnings. Up next Monday: Dallas Fed manufacturing data Tuesday: Alibaba’s Hong Kong listing; S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index; US consumer confidence; Abercrombie & Fitch, Best Buy, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Dollar Tree, Dell and GameStop earnings Wednesday: US durable goods orders; US personal spending and income Thursday: US markets closed; EU business confidence Friday: Half day for US markets; UK and Japan consumer confidence; India and Canada GDP