The House is expected to wrap up debate Friday on a "resolution of disapproval" of the President's troop surge in Iraq. A south Florida lawmaker is one of the latest to speak in support of the resolution. Our congressional correspondent Max Cacas prepared this report.

The Tower Gallery on Sanibel is celebrating its 25th year as an artists’ cooperative this weekend. Wendy Humphrey reports.

Florida Gulf Coast University is hosting a Fulbright Scholar this month who hails from Pakistan. Dr. Muhammad Zakria Zakar is in Southwest Florida thanks to a U.S. State Department Program called “Direct Access to the Muslim World”. He’s giving a series of lectures on the role of Madrassa, or religious schools, in Pakistan. WGCU’s Valerie Alker sat in on one of his classroom sessions and prepared this report.

An almost seven-year void will be filled Thursday when commercial air service returns to the middle Florida Keys.

Delta Connection’s daily, nonstop roundtrip service from Atlanta to Florida Keys Marathon Airport will begin. For almost four years, businesses and residents of the Keys worked with Monroe County officials to attract airlines back to the Marathon airport terminal. The last regularly scheduled commercial flight departed Marathon in April 2000.

Monroe County Airports Director Peter Horton says the route is already very popular for a new market.

“Delta told me that February is booked at 63% and March is booked at 67%. That’s absolutely outstanding for a new market and most importantly the bookings in Key West remain strong showing that we’re not siphoning passengers from Key West to Marathon. It’s a totally new market.”

Almost 4 million dollars was raised to refurbish the airport. County officials agreed to waive ramp fees, provide rent-free counter space and free parking.

The event almost didn’t happen after the Transportation Security Administration first said it wouldn’t staff the refurbished airport. It later reversed the decision after the community protested and enlisted the help of local Congressmen and women.

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Commercial airline service returns to Marathon in the Florida Keys Thursday after a 7 year absence.

In 2000 some small Florida airports including in Vero Beach, Daytona and Marathon lost their commercial air service. Marathon tried 3 times before succeeding in 2005 in getting federal money to entice an airline to come back. Now Delta Connection begins daily non-stop service to Atlanta.

Monroe County Airports Director Peter Horton says he had to work out a deal to get the Transportation Security Administration to allow it.

“So that we could have legacy carriers or first line carriers serve us and not become an economic burden to the TSA and we did that through a program called the SPP or the screening partnership program.”

The Marathon airport is in the center of the Florida Keys which means that virtually all of the Keys are within an hour-and-a-half in any direction.

Delta's new service is to be operated by a regional jet that accommodates 40 passengers.

This is Hazardous Weather Awareness week in Florida. Emergency planners are taking advantage of the designation to raise awareness of how to prepare….and survive potentially destructive weather.

Twenty people recently died in North Central Florida when tornadoes struck in the middle of the night. Gerald Campbell of the Lee County Emergency Operations Center says some of those folks may have survived if they’d received a tornado warning from NOAA Weather Radio.

“Tornadoes in particular are notorious for having a very short lead time to take action and the weather alert radio will give you the maximum lead time that’s out there. you will receive the warning as soon as the national weather service issues them. They have an alarm feature that’s loud enough to awaken a family in the middle of the night and yet they sit there quietly when they’re not needed.”

Campbell says new technology allows weather radio owners to program them to only react to weather emergencies in their immediate area. They cost about 50 dollars – and all come with battery back-ups so they can continue to work if the electricity goes out.

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Lee County is training interested people this week to become weather spotters. It’s part of a push to alert the public to the threat severe weather can pose – as part of the state’s Hazardous Weather Awareness Week. Gerald Campbell of the Lee County Emergency Operation Center says trained spotters can be the eyes and ears of the weather service.

“we train these folks to pay attention to the weather and understand what they see and then they can report that information back into the national weather service. it’s helpful for the weather service to know from a ground truth level what their radar and other instruments are telling them.”

Campbell also stresses the importance of residents arming themselves with NOAA weather radios – which can warn of hazardous weather whatever time of day or night it threatens.

Schools are also marking Hazardous Weather Week by holding Tornado drills – to test their preparedness. Twenty people died earlier this month when 3 tornadoes struck central Florida.

Marine life artist Wyland, who has painted 94 mammoth "Whaling Wall" murals around the world to promote ocean conservation, dedicated his final U.S. wall painting Monday in the Florida Keys.

Wyland’s newest mural is a panoramic 7,500-square-foot representation of the living coral reef that parallels the Keys. It wraps around a four-story, four-sided building in the median of the Overseas Highway.

Wyland has spent more than 20 years diving in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. He credits the Keys reef, the only contiguous coral expanse in North America, for inspiring his work.

“So I take all that inspiration that I see when I’m diving in the Florida Keys in this case. I take all that beauty and I simply paint it up on a wall for people to enjoy. This is a mural that is really the gateway to the Florida Keys”

Like Wyland's previous walls, the Key Largo mural is designed to motivate environmental awareness and stewardship, particularly in children.

Wyland, who began painting such "Whaling Walls" in 1981, plans to continue his series internationally until he has completed 100 murals. This one was his last planned for the United States.

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Marine life artist Wyland dedicated his final U.S. wall painting Monday in the Florida Keys. It’s his 95th such mural.

The panoramic 7,500-square-foot representation of the living coral reef that parallels the Keys features islands, manatees, manta rays, assorted indigenous fish and bottlenose dolphins. Wyland says he means to motivate.

“Art is something that can touch people’s emotion. And you can choose not to go into a gallery or a museum but you can’t ignore a giant mural like this. It demands attention. And if people see this beauty I know they’ll want to get involved in protecting it. It’s really the first step to conservation.”

During breaks from painting this month, Wyland painted separate canvases with kids, hoping to inspire youngsters to preserve the world’s oceans.

He intends to paint his last huge artwork, more than two miles long, in Beijing, with the help of children from around the world, prior to the 2008 summer Olympics.

Representatives from Consumer Reports are in Ft. Myers this month – testing lawn-mowers. They’re compiling information for magazine’s May issue. WGCU’s Valerie Alker reports.

Testers from Consumer Reports Magazine are in Ft. Myers this month, checking out lawn-mowers. They’re compiling information for the non-profit magazine’s May Issue. Peter Sawchuck is a program leader for consumer reports, specializing in testing outdoor equipment and power tools.

"this year we’ll be testing ten different lawn tractors – but we will also test about thirty walk behind mowers. Every year we vary it – one year we’ll do more lawn tractors – last year I did 25 lawn tractors and about 15 walk behind mowers – this year I’m doing more walk behind mowers and fewer lawn tractors."

Fort Myers has been the test site for years – selected because, thanks to irrigation, the grass is always green. The May editon of Consumer Reports Magazine in April – just in time spring showers and the mowing season.

Saturday night (02-10-07) the sixth planet in our solar system – Saturn – will be closer to the earth than it’s been in decades. And some local folks will be taking a look.

The earth travels around the sun once a year. It takes Saturn about thirty times that long. Tomorrow night their orbits coincide, bringing Saturn, the Earth and the Sun into alignment…and that means the “ringed planet” will be as close as it ever gets to the earth - and as close as it’ll be again until 2029.

Carol Holmberg is Deputy Director of the Planetarium at the Calusa Nature Center in Fort Myers. She says this alignment means Saturn appears larger and brighter than when normally viewed …and is higher in the sky.

“They call that a favorable opposition. It happens with Mars every 14 to 17 years…people get really excited. It happens with Saturn ever 25 to 30 years. So Saturn will be a little bit brighter and a little bit closer than it will be in the next few decades.”

Holmberg says while it is a bit brighter…barring clouds, Saturn is always visible to the naked eye.

Right now it’s visible all night – with its peak at midnight. Members of the Southwest Florida Astronomical Society will be taking their telescopes to Caloosahatchee Regional Park in North Fort Myers tomorrow night. The public is welcome. Please arrive before dark.

A southwest Florida program that provides therapeutic riding lessons to mentally and physically challenged children and adults is looking for a new place to call home. The non-profit Special Equestrians has operated from a 40-acre stable in North Fort Myers…but that’s about to change. WGCU’s Mike Kiniry spent some time with the dozens of volunteers that make this twenty-year-old program possible…