A Collier County man, on patrol in Afghanistan, has been awarded the nation’s top honor for injuries received during combat.  WGCU’s Valarie Edwards has more.

Cold water temperatures have drawn hundreds of manatees to the warm wateroutflow at the Florida Power and Light Plant on the Orange River in Lee
County.  And hundreds of people have turned out to the see them.  Valerie Alker reports.

Freezing temperatures Monday night caused further damage to Florida’s vegetable and citrus industries.  As WGCU’s John Davis reports, growers are out in their fields assessing the impact.

Recent freezing temperatures have hurt sea turtle and manatee populations, but wildlife biologists are also noting the cold weather’s benefit in terms of controlling some exotic invasives.  WGCU’s John Davis reports.

Sanibel poet Joe Pacheco offers this holiday reflection on the economy:

The Night Before Christmas, 2010

Tis the night before Christmas in Florida’s Southwest,
Not a bank that survived will lend or invest.
The stores are all open till the stroke of midnight —
In hopes a late shopper will come into sight.

Portfolios still hang with their stocks stripped bare
While Republicans dream of repealing health care.
The home equity we tapped has completely run dry,
But the rich keep getting a bigger slice of the pie.

Like rats returning to a sinking ship,
They’ve auctioned the condos we once planned to flip.
Tis the night before Christmas in our “underwater” house,
Not a crumb left over for even a mouse,

We’re dining on food stamps this Christmas night
In our remodeled kitchen, our Euro delight ---
The extension we added to help entertain
Still cluttered with posters from Obama’s campaign.

I’ve cut down on Viagra as has Mom on Botox
We’ve sent back to Comcast our new cable box.
That cruise round the world seems far off tonight
As we lie down in darkness to save on the light,

Waiting like children for the clatter and click
Of someone downstairs who might be Saint Nick.


Joe Pacheco

It’s going to be a bleak Christmas for many farm workers in Florida.  Recent freezes destroyed crops leaving them with little work. Valerie Alker reports.

A recent report on the economic recovery from the Brookings Institution ranks the Fort Myers/Cape Coral area the second weakest economy among the nation’s one hundred largest metropolitan areas.  WGCU’s John Davis reports.

 


The Transportation Security Administration is holding media briefings this week to help get the word out to travelers to “pack smart.”  WGCU’s Valerie Alker reports.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is taking count of woodstorks in response to a petition to change its status from endangered to threatened.  WGCU’s Valerie Alker reports.

More Florida counties are cutting the D.A.R.E. program from classrooms. In 2001, 84% of the states’ school districts participated in the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program for elementary schools. Today, less than half of them teach the D.A.R.E. curriculum. They often blame cost and scheduling issues. But instead of leaving the students without a drug prevention program, more districts are replacing it with one of their own. WGCU’s Amy Tardif reports.