GOLDEN GATE ESTATES Parents in Golden Gate Estates are worried for their kids’ safety as bullets fly through their neighborhood. A recent Facebook post shows a bullet tore through the tire of a family’s truck while it parked in their driveway on 47th Avenue Northeast. The parents say they have 1-year-old twins who run and play outside. Gunfire went off in broad daylight. “All the time, every day, every weekend, mostly on the weekends. It’s all the time, anytime of the day night. It doesn’t matter. It’s all the time,” said Lady Mazzarollo. Erik Patterson loves his daughter. Like any good father ..read more

WINK News 12,200,000 Americans have had suicidal thoughts in recent years, and of that group, 1,200,000 attempted suicided, and rates have risen 30% since the year 2000. However, recent research found that prescription Folic Acid reduced suicide thoughts by 44% in patients. Research form the University of Chicago examined Folic Acid treatment from over 800,000 Americans, and their suicidal behavior over two years. WINK News spoke about the treatment with associate professor in genetic medicine, biomedical informatics in psychiatry at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Dr. Douglas Ruderfer ..read more

BAY COUNTY While Southwest Florida struggles in the aftermath of Ian, there are lessons to be learned from the people of north Florida who survived Hurricane Michael. When it comes to FEMA dollars and cents, the lesson is patience. Many of you have reached out about the federal money that’s supposed to help. More than four years after Michael, Bay County is still dealing with FEMA. They are still fighting to get money from them. Building back better can be a bit ambiguous. “It will be frustrating. It will be time consuming,” said Bay County Manager Bob Majka. There are pros. “You get new const ..read more

Days ago, the City of Cape Coral fired City Manager Rob Hernandez and, in his place, put Michael Ilczyszyn. Last week, Hernandez sent a letter detailing that he felt discrimination occurred within the Cape Coral City Council. For a week now, the mayor and members of city council have had Hernandez’s bombshell letter in their possession. Hernandez accused a handful of city leaders of discriminatory practices toward LGBTQ and Black employees. “He was terminated the very next day for not cause,” said Benjamin Yormak, who is representing Hernandez.  “We were concerned when Mr. Hernandez was n ..read more

WINK News Progress toward improving water quality in Southwest Florida thanks to the teamwork of the Army Corps of Engineers and South Florida Water Management, breaking ground Wednesday on a new reservoir. A mountain of granite will shortly make up the EAA Resovoir. WINK News discussed the project with the South Florida Water Management District Vice Chair, Scott Wagner. “This is a reservoir as big as Manahatten,” Wagner said. Working to create the reservoir. CREDIT: WINK News The biggest resovoir in all of the Everglades restoration projects and another place for the water in Lake Okeechobee ..read more

FORT MYERS Ahead of Franklin Park Elementary School’s coming makeover, Black History Month provides the perfect opportunity to look deeper into the historic school’s past. For 19 years, Gabrielle Babyak has taught classes at Franklin Park Elementary, and every day she touches history. “We have so many members that are in our community that have either kids that go here or they went here,” Babyak said. “We have Chandrika McIntosh. She has the pharmacy of MLK, and it’s the first African American-owned pharmacy… by a woman, as well. So, that’s incredible. I had her child in my class last year.” F ..read more

LEE COUNTY The “Ban the jab” resolution passed with a majority vote in the Lee County Republican Party and will now head to governor DeSantis’ desk. The resolution calls on the governor to ban the sale and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine claiming it is a “Bio-weapon.” The governor knows the resolution is coming. WINK News called his office on Wednesday and told them, hoping to get a comment. That didn’t happen, but the Lee County GOP vice chair said the debate leading up to the vote was robust. “These shots are deadly. They need to be pulled off the market,” said Joe Sansone, Lee County R ..read more

All the resources of WINK News, Southwest Florida’s leading local news source, are now available on demand on your connected tv or smart tv on the new WINK Streaming App on Roku, Amazon Fire, and Google Chromecast.  “With the new WINK News app viewers can watch newscasts, breaking news, weather forecasts, our live WINK Doppler 3x radar as well as consumer, investigative, environmental and all local news covered by WINK on demand,” says WINK News Director Rich Garcia.  The WINK News streaming app is video-on-demand streaming that puts everything you want to see at your fingertips. Unl ..read more

CAPE CORAL A man was killed Wednesday afternoon after being run over by a car backing out of an empty lot in Cape Coral. According to the Cape Coral Police Department, a 70-year-old man was killed on Northwest 3rd Avenue by a vehicle that was backing out of an empty lot. The driver did not notice the man. The man died at the hospital. This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available ..read more

COLLIER COUNTY The Collier County Sheriff’s Office hosted a targeted training to stop human trafficking in Collier County and beyond. On Wednesday, the sheriff’s office hosted the training for law enforcement and key stakeholders at Florida SouthWestern’s Collier County campus. Sheriff Kevin Rambosk said the community-based program brings awareness to human trafficking and, more importantly, how to report and stop it. “We are providing that kind of training specifically to law enforcement here. And our company, we provide this type of training to law enforcement agencies all across the country ..read more