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News Archive Index
01-31-2006
Officials with Lee County’s homeless coalition are tabulating results from a weeklong census of the homeless. The annual survey tries to get a handle on how many people live on the streets in Southwest Florida. Experts want to learn why people are homeless and what life events led them to live in the woods, under bridges, in cars or park benches. Robert Stryker is coordinator of the Lee County Homeless Coalition. He says 30 volunteers visited the jail, soup kitchens and homeless camps in the woods. Stryker says it’s difficult to find them all.
“I think that even though you may have someone there who’s homeless, they may not want to participate in the survey because one they’re not interested in giving information about themselves or two, they don’t want to be counted.”
Stryker hopes to have the Lee County numbers tabulated by Friday. Last year they counted about two-thousand homeless people. He expects it will be higher this year...in part because of this region’s soaring cost of living.
The initial results of an annual survey of Lee County’s homeless show this region’s high cost of living has forced more people onto the streets.
Last year, organizers of the annual count said there were about two-thousand homeless people living in Lee County. Homeless Coalition Coordinator Robert Stryker says it’s definitely more this year. He says there are two main reasons.
“What we might be seeing is a difference in why folks are homeless...one being the affordable housing issue and two being the continued difficulty for accessing mental health and substance abuse services.”
Stryker and 30 volunteers spread out through the county last week to interview, tabulate and try to learn why people are homeless. They went where the homeless go: parks, the woods and jail. Stryker says they inevitably miss some people. He hopes results of the homeless count will be completed by Friday.
01-30-2006
Protective barriers are the key to preventing drowning. That’s the message often repeated at the National Drowning Prevention Symposium held last week in Ft. Myers Beach. WGCU’s Valerie Alker reports.
01-30-2006
Florida’s public universities received more than 90-million dollars from the federal government for research projects this year. The University of Florida and Florida State got the most...F-G-C-U was near the bottom. There are eleven public universities in the state. Florida Gulf Coast University is the youngest: open just nine years. The federal government gave F-G-C-U one million dollars for a single bio-defense technology program. F-G-C-U Vice President of research Tom Roberts says he’s happy to have received any money.
“It’s such a tough budgetary year for the federal government fighting different wars around the world and the natural disasters [like] rebuilding one of our major cities. There are a lot of different competing priorities. I’m thankful we were able to get what we did get this year.”
Roberts says the one-million dollars in funding is a similar amount to previous years. He also hopes there will be opportunities to partner with other universities which got more research money.
Despite money battles in Washington to fund wars, hurricane relief and other issues, the state’s public universities managed to snag plenty of research money in the most recent federal budget. But Florida Gulf Coast University didn’t fare as well.
Congress gave the state’s public university system more than 90 million dollars. The University of Florida led the way with more than 17 million to be used on various research projects and studies. Florida State snagged more than 11 million. F-G-C-U received just one million dollars for a single bio-defense technology project. F-G-C-U Research Vice President Tom Roberts is pleased with any funding amount...and says top research universities didn’t start out that way.
“It took them a lot of time to become what they are and considering FGCU is less than 10 years old, I’d put us against anybody in the same scenario in terms of our research growth.”
There’s still a chance for FGCU to win additional money. Roberts says the University of South Florida in Tampa has expressed interest to partner together on several research projects using funding it received from the federal government.
01-30-2006
The world premiere of an uncut version of the story of a mathematical genius who broke the Nazi Enigma code, is being held on Sanibel on Monday. The producer is a part-time resident. Wendy Humphrey reports.
01-27-2006
The Florida Scrub Jay will not be re-classified as endangered. The
U-S Fish and Wildlife Service says the bird has ample numbers to survive at least for a century. The scrub jay is a relative to the blue jay. But it has a different color scheme. It’s a pale blue and the body of the 10-inch bird is a light gray. The scrub jay is found nowhere else in the world but Florida. Development has gobbled up its native habitat. The bird is currently listed as a threatened species...but not the more stringent ‘endangered’. Environmental groups like the Sierra Club have been trying to get the extra protection. Sierra Club member Mary Sphar is surprised and disappointed by the federal government’s decision.
“A lot of the population that are medium to small don’t have a very good chance of surviving for a very long time into the future.”
Biologists say that by the 1980s, the Florida scrub jay’s numbers had plummeted 80 to 90 percent from historic levels. An estimated three to four-thousand breeding pairs of scrub jays remain.
01-27-2006
Milk Producers do it. So do Cattle Ranchers. Florida Orange juice makers have done it for decades – promoted their products on national television. Now Florida tomato growers are getting into the act – after a couple nasty hurricane seasons took a large bite out of profits. The half billion dollar industry kicks off its ad campaign Monday. WGCU’s Valerie Alker reports.
01-27-2006
Southwest Florida’s beaches have been named among the top ten U.S. travel destinations for 2006. A travel trend survey of Carlson Wagonlit Travel Agency Associates asked travel agents to identify their top bookings for 2006 and Lee County’s barriers island and beaches placed ninth on the list. Other desirable destinations on the top ten list include Las Vegas, Orlando, Honululu, Maui and New York City. The area is collecting other kudos as well. In its January 13 issue Life magazine named Sanibel and Captiva “Gifts from the Sea” one of ten perfect island getaways for quote “families suffering from theme park overload”. Tourism is Lee County’s number one industry = pumping about two billion dollars a year into the local economy.
01-27-2006
Rural DeSoto County is perhaps best known for its long-running rodeo, its cowboys and cattle, and the airfields that were active during World Wars I and II. What many people don’t realize, however, its that the county is also the birthplace of a number of useful inventions, such as Jessup’s Root Plow and Parker and Garner’s Cattle Squeeze, among others.
DeSoto County Historian, Howard Melton says several members of one local family, the Gaskins, created some practical tools to make frontier life in the early 20th century a little easier. One of them was a product designed to trap cockroaches…
“It was a cylinder of cardboard about an inch across and 2 inches long and it had roach poison in it. It was cooked and then cooled and cut into little quarter inch squares and then put into these tubes for roaches to go into ‘em. It was Gaskins, Tom Gaskins Junior that developed that –But his father before him was an even greater inventor, he invented the railroad coupling that joined railroad cars together. In 1892 is when that was It went from the lynch pin connection that held cars together to an automatic when the cars clamped themselves together. And that was Tom Gaskins Senior that invented that. Then the third Thomas Gaskins come along and he was the one that made the cypress knee famous), he made clocks in these cypress knees. There were three generations of Gaskins that played an important part in our history.
The Gaskins weren’t the only DeSoto County residents known for their inventions. In the 1930’s, Arcadia City Councilman Lewis Bishop invented a device intended to make his life easier, but it ended up starting a small revolution. Historian Howard Melton:
“Lewis Bishop invented the rotary mower; the rotary mower succeeded the cylindrical mower it became so successful all the counties and state government and federal government immediately took up with everything he could make. It was a revolution in mowing, so whenever you see a rotary mower today, you can say Lewis Bishop did that mower. That was probably the most tremendous invention that came out of Arcadia.
That was DeSoto County historian Howard Melton. To learn more about rural DeSoto County and the products invented there, tune in tonight at 8:30 to Untold Stories on WGCU-TV.
01-26-2006
Southwest Florida’s red-hot housing market got some of its bounce back last month. New statistics from the Florida Association of Realtors show record gains in Lee, Collier and Charlotte Counties.
After a slight cooling in November due to Hurricane Wilma, the region’s housing numbers have returned to record levels. The median price in Naples was 492-thousand dollars in December...a 39-percent increase over a year ago. The median is the price where half the homes sell above that amount and half below. The median in Lee was 322-thousand, a 46-percent annual jump and Charlotte checked in at 223-thousand. Florida Association of Realtors spokeswoman Marla Martin says the secret’s out.
“It seems like the entire world wants to move to Florida. Every month we think the numbers can’t possibly get any stronger...or how are people finding more homes to buy. And yet it seems that they do.”
But there are signs of a slowdown. Longtime Naples real estate agent and president of the Board of Realtors there, Jo Carter, says last year she had a hard time finding homes for buyers. Now, it’s just the opposite. More homes are on the market and they’re not selling as quickly.
Home sales in Florida reached new records last year. The state Association of Realtors said Wednesday the median home price increased 29-percent in 2005...despite an active hurricane season. Statewide, almost a quarter million homes changed hands with an average price of 235-thousand dollars. Home prices were even higher in Southwest Florida...Naples, Fort Myers and Punta Gorda all saw impressive gains. But realtor association spokeswoman Marla Martin says those big numbers aren’t sustainable.
“It seems to be the realtors that I talk to across the state believe that perhaps we may be about to see that finally in Florida...at least some sort of balance return to the market between buyers and sellers. A more normalization of median price gains and sales pace.”
The median is the level where half the homes sell above that amount and half below. Low mortgage rates helped push prices higher. But realtors in Southwest Florida say they have noticed more homes being put on the market and taking longer to sell.
01-26-2006
Shares of Fort Myers-based Innova Holdings increased more than 40-percent Wednesday after the technology company announced it will buy a competitor. As W-G-C-U’s Russell Lewis explains, it’s been a banner week for Innova’s investors.
Innova is a small company that provides computer help to the military, industrial technology and robotic markets. It purchased Washington state-based CoroWare for an undisclosed amount of money to use that privately-held company’s robotic technology. Innova’s share price has fluctuated in the last year but it’s been no higher than eight cents. On Tuesday, the day before the company announced the acquisition, Innova’s shares doubled in value and trading volume was nine times higher than normal. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the NASDAQ routinely track big swings in share prices to investigate if there’s a reason for it. An SEC official would not comment on this instance. Innova is known as a penny stock...whose share prices can be volatile for no reason.
01-26-2006
A local restaurant owner jumped into a canal, broke a van’s window with a rock and saved a Golden Gate Estates neighbor – whose van had plunged into the canal early yesterday morning.
48-year-old Sandra Ranew thought she was on another road but drove through two reflectors at the end of Shawn Teeters’ road and into the canal in the early morning darkness. She climbed to the back of the van and had about of foot of air left when she called 911 on her cell phone. But she gave the wrong street number to operator Sandra Long.
(hear part of the 911 call)
The crash woke the Teeters. Josi Teeters called 911 with the correct street while Shawn Teeters jumped in to rescue Ranew. He broke the window and pulled her by her hair out of the van, managing to get the panicking woman to the edge of the alligator infested canal. Josi Teeters told the News-Press Ranew is the sixth person who has driven off their street into the canal. The Teeters own Cheeburger Cheeburger in Naples Park and the Key Western Grill in Estero.
01-26-2006
eBay has banned the trade of smalltooth sawfish parts from its online auction sites. Scientists at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota will help ebay enforce the ban. They’ve studied smalltooth sawfish since 1999. They also tag them to study their growth, movement patterns, habitat use and behavior. This data helped the Ocean Conservancy petition federal officials to get the fish listed as an endangered species in 2003.
Staff biologist with Mote’s Sawfish Conservation Biology Program, Tonya Wiley, says the saws would sell for up to 1200 dollars on ebay so stopping that trade is vital the the species survival.
(listen)
Tonya Wiley is a staff biologist with Mote Marine Laboratory’s Sawfish Conservation Biology Program. If you catch or see a sawfish e-mail sawfish@mote.org to report it.
01-26-2006
It was standing room only Wednesday in Fort Myers – as water managers, elected officials, farmers and environmental advocates gathered to discuss efforts to manage Lake Okeechobee’s water resources. Mike Kiniry was there and has this report.
01-25-2006
The world-renowned Cleveland Clinic facilities in Naples are changing hands. The hospital’s former owners say an effort to stop their plans from performing open-heart surgeries is principally to blame. Only one hospital in Collier County, NCH Healthcare System, is permitted to do open-heart surgeries. There are state guidelines that regulate the number of providers in any area...late last year the state decided there wasn’t enough demand for a second cardiac program in Naples. Cleveland Clinic spokeswoman Eileen Sheil says that left her company with no decision but to jettison their plans for a major expansion in a growing, upscale community.
“It was our goal to build an open-heart surgery program and other clinical programs of excellence...when we realized that that was going to be difficult to do moving forward, our long term plans were going to change…so.”
Cleveland employs 900 workers and 60 physicians. Sheil says they all will make the transition to the new owner, Naples-based Health Management Associates. H-M-A principally operates hospitals in rural areas. The acquisition came on the same day H-M-A reported its quarterly profit fell due to increased costs and unpaid medical bills.
One of Naples best-known hospitals is changing hands. The Cleveland Clinic announced plans Tuesday to sell its outpatient clinic and hospital to another Naples-based medical company.
The Cleveland Clinic is known worldwide for its strong reputation of cardiac, open-heart surgery and specialty care. But after the state stepped in last year to block Cleveland’s plans to perform open-heart surgeries, the facility says it had no choice but to sell. Only one hospital in Collier County, NCH Healthcare System, is licensed for cardiac care. The state ruled there aren’t enough people to justify competing programs. Cleveland Clinic spokeswoman Eileen Sheil says that sealed the deal
“We started to realize that we would have more challenges building the kind of program that we wanted to hear to bring clinical programs into this area.”
Rural hospital operator Health Management Associates bought Cleveland’s Naples facilities for an undisclosed amount. Sheil says the 1-thousand workers will retain their jobs. The announcement comes as H-M-A reported disappointing earnings for the first quarter citing increased costs and millions lost due to hurricanes.
01-25-2006
A ten-year-old program designed to breath economic life into poorer parts of Lee County is expanding. The Fort Myers-Lee County Enterprise Zone was created in 1996 after state lawmakers passed legislation encouraging the creation of such zones across the state.
Its original boundaries encompassed 5 square miles in the City of Fort Myers, and unincorporated Lee County – east of downtown. It’s now been reauthorized – and its size nearly doubled to 10-square miles. Jennifer Dunn is with Lee County’s Economic Development Office.
“An enterprise zone is an area that can help a local community by offering tax incentives to businesses that locate businesses in the area – or employ people from the area. It was really created to look at areas that possibly need to have life breathed back into them.”
Since 1996, businesses in the enterprise zone received almost a million dollars in sales tax refunds – representing capital investments of nearly 17-million dollars. There are 53 such zones in Florida.
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