Lee Commissioners award over $41.6M for rehabilitation of affordable housing unitsDefense rests without Trump testifying in hush money case
WINK NEWS Lee Commissioners award over $41.6M for rehabilitation of affordable housing units The Lee Board of County Commissioners voted to award more than $41.6 million in Community Development Block Grants-Disaster Recovery funds.
New York (AP) Defense rests without Trump testifying in hush money case The defense rests its case without ex-President Donald Trump taking the witness stand in his New York hush money case. Closing arguments are expected next Tuesday.
IMMOKALEE Immokalee girls robotics team competes at VEX Worlds The Immokalee High School girls robotics team got to compete and learn at the VEX Robotics World Championships in Dallas.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral Police Department launches drone program The Cape Coral Police Department has officially launched its Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Program.
BUCKINGHAM Airplane crashes after veering off runway at Buckingham Airport An airplane veered off the Buckingham Airport runway during takeoff, according to the FAA incident report, leaving it damaged.
FORT MYERS Premier Mobile Health Services adds 6th Lee County location in Fort Myers The Premier Mobile Health Services has added its sixth Lee County mobile clinic location in Fort Myers.
FORT MYERS FDOT discusses plan regarding Caloosahatchee Bridge project The Florida Department of Transportation is set to hold a news conference regarding the closure of the Caloosahatchee Bridge project.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Auburn running back Brian Battie on ventilator after weekend shooting in Florida, coach says Auburn running back Brian Battie has been hospitalized following a weekend shooting in Sarasota, Florida, where his brother was killed and three others injured.
nokomis Port Charlotte man killed in park shooting in Sarasota The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a fatal shooting that involved a man from Port Charlotte on Sunday.
THE WEATHER AUTHORITY Cooler and less humid morning ahead of a hot afternoon The Weather Authority is tracking dry conditions with high Tuesday afternoon temperatures and isolated showers developing inland.
WINK NEWS Miracle Monday: A home away from home An expecting couple received an unexpected surprise as a family welcomed twins into the world—two months early.
FORT MYERS The future of the Fort Myers yacht basin The Fort Myers yacht basin is lacking in the “yacht” part right now, or any boat for that matter. It’s been that way since Hurricane Ian hit.
VENICE BEACH Diving duo makes prehistoric discovery Half a mile off Venice Beach, deep below the surface of the water, two divers, Blair Morrow and Alex Lundberg, found a sign of prehistoric times buried in the sand.
Commissioner reacts to state attorney ruling in death of Christopher Jordan On Monday, the detective who fired the fatal shot that killed Christopher Jordan in his Fort Myers home went back to work.
PORT CHARLOTTE Is Sunseeker Resort losing money? It’s a place designed to bring in people and a lot of money to Charlotte County. The Sunseeker Resort opened on December 15 and features 785 rooms, 20 different food and beverage places, and 60,000 square feet of convention space.
WINK NEWS Lee Commissioners award over $41.6M for rehabilitation of affordable housing units The Lee Board of County Commissioners voted to award more than $41.6 million in Community Development Block Grants-Disaster Recovery funds.
New York (AP) Defense rests without Trump testifying in hush money case The defense rests its case without ex-President Donald Trump taking the witness stand in his New York hush money case. Closing arguments are expected next Tuesday.
IMMOKALEE Immokalee girls robotics team competes at VEX Worlds The Immokalee High School girls robotics team got to compete and learn at the VEX Robotics World Championships in Dallas.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral Police Department launches drone program The Cape Coral Police Department has officially launched its Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Program.
BUCKINGHAM Airplane crashes after veering off runway at Buckingham Airport An airplane veered off the Buckingham Airport runway during takeoff, according to the FAA incident report, leaving it damaged.
FORT MYERS Premier Mobile Health Services adds 6th Lee County location in Fort Myers The Premier Mobile Health Services has added its sixth Lee County mobile clinic location in Fort Myers.
FORT MYERS FDOT discusses plan regarding Caloosahatchee Bridge project The Florida Department of Transportation is set to hold a news conference regarding the closure of the Caloosahatchee Bridge project.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Auburn running back Brian Battie on ventilator after weekend shooting in Florida, coach says Auburn running back Brian Battie has been hospitalized following a weekend shooting in Sarasota, Florida, where his brother was killed and three others injured.
nokomis Port Charlotte man killed in park shooting in Sarasota The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a fatal shooting that involved a man from Port Charlotte on Sunday.
THE WEATHER AUTHORITY Cooler and less humid morning ahead of a hot afternoon The Weather Authority is tracking dry conditions with high Tuesday afternoon temperatures and isolated showers developing inland.
WINK NEWS Miracle Monday: A home away from home An expecting couple received an unexpected surprise as a family welcomed twins into the world—two months early.
FORT MYERS The future of the Fort Myers yacht basin The Fort Myers yacht basin is lacking in the “yacht” part right now, or any boat for that matter. It’s been that way since Hurricane Ian hit.
VENICE BEACH Diving duo makes prehistoric discovery Half a mile off Venice Beach, deep below the surface of the water, two divers, Blair Morrow and Alex Lundberg, found a sign of prehistoric times buried in the sand.
Commissioner reacts to state attorney ruling in death of Christopher Jordan On Monday, the detective who fired the fatal shot that killed Christopher Jordan in his Fort Myers home went back to work.
PORT CHARLOTTE Is Sunseeker Resort losing money? It’s a place designed to bring in people and a lot of money to Charlotte County. The Sunseeker Resort opened on December 15 and features 785 rooms, 20 different food and beverage places, and 60,000 square feet of convention space.
240 Ledge. (Credit: Dr. James Douglass, associate professor of marine science at the Water School at FGCU) A week-long voyage in the Gulf of Mexico has come to an end. Scientists aboard the Hogarth research vessel traveled south from St. Pete to Collier County to study Hurricane Ian’s impact on the Gulf. “Every time I went there, this was one of my favorite places to go dive in Southwest Florida,” said Cole Tillman, a marine science student in the Water School at Florida Gulf Coast University. “I was always excited to come out here.” There is a reef approximately 25 miles off Fort Myers Beach in the Gulf of Mexico called 240 Ledge. Tillman has dove this reef nearly two dozen times. 240 Ledge. (Credit: Dr. James Douglass, associate professor of marine science at the Water School at FGCU) “It was this really lush reef. It had a great abundance of soft corals, hard corals,” said Tillman. Dr. James Douglass, an associate professor of marine science at the Water School at FGCU, provided shared photos of 240 Ledge from before Hurricane Ian. It is one of many areas he’s studied. 240 Ledge before Hurricane Ian. (Credit: Dr. James Douglass, associate professor of marine science at the Water School at FGCU) “One of the reasons that we’re monitoring the sea bottom life is we want to see how it changes when there’s a disturbance like a red tide or, in this case, a hurricane happened to happen in the middle of our study, so we’re really interested to see how that affected the life,” said Douglass. 240 Ledge after Hurricane Ian. (Credit: Dr. James Douglass, associate professor of marine science at the Water School at FGCU) The life, as you can see from the photo above, taken by Douglass three weeks after Ian hit, is hurting. “There were just a few survivors from among that diverse community that was there before peaking their heads out of the muck,” Douglass said. “I was excited to be able to go down there since we were worried about the conditions before, but I wasn’t too excited about what we saw. It was very beat up down there, it almost looked like the moon.” A thick layer of clay-like mud now smothers the sea floor. Hard corals at 240 Ledge were completely wiped away. “One of the strangest things down there was this ledge that the site is named after was almost gone because the mud had filled in on the other side of the ledge,” said Douglass. They did spot a few fish down there, a positive sign, but a lot of native species were gone. That absence has allowed invasive species like the lionfish to move in. Invasive Lionfish on 240 Ledge. (Credit: Dr. James Douglass, associate professor of marine science at the Water School at FGCU) “It’s going to take mother nature a long time to rebuild. I don’t know how long. That’s what we’re trying to find out, actually. Could be decades, could be years, I don’t know,” said Tillman. “What we hope is in the meantime we don’t get any further after effects to the storm like algae blooms because if we have this physical disturbance of the waves and the burial in mud and then we have algae blooms afterwards that can really be a knockout punch for the life down there,” Douglass said. If the water quality improves, it could help chart the path toward recovery.