As the Northern Gulf Coast braces for Cindy, Florida is in the potential path of Tropical Storm Dennis. Most of the Florida peninsula appears in Dennis’ 5-day cone of uncertainty. Conditions could begin to deteriorate in south Florida by Friday. Forecasters say this is the earliest that four named storms have ever formed in the Atlantic hurricane season… at least since record keeping began in 1851. Meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center—Erik Blake—says now is the time to prepare.

“If you were a little lax and didn’t get your hurricane plan in place, now’s the time… basic hurricane supplies. It would be a good time to kind of stock up. You know, they’ll be good the whole year.”

Forecasters call Dennis’ satellite imagery “impressive…” and say it’s a large system… with 20 knot winds as far as 300 miles from the center.

Clergy members from around Sarasota County are gathering this morning to discuss what role their congregations might play in hurricane preparedness and recovery.
Nearly 400 pastors, rabbis and other faith leaders were invited - in hopes of enlisting their help – if it’s needed - this hurricane season. The Community Foundation of Sarasota County is organizing the informational breakfast. Foundation President – Stewart Stearns – says he’s already had positive feedback.

“Just talking to a number of pastors and rabbis in this area we found that many of them were very interested in exploring the opportunities to present these concepts to their congregations. So as part of our disaster relief program we’re going to outline a new way of thinking about how we do emergency services in Sarasota County.”

Sarasota’s new disaster relief program includes a secondary emergency operations center that will house health & human service agencies. The county is also setting up what it calls Places of Distribution, or PODS, to help organize relief efforts… Stearns says he’s hoping to enlist the help of local churches and synagogues. In related news, seven Florida Catholic charities recently signed an agreement to provide coordinated assistance - if another hurricane strikes the sunshine state.

A group of about a dozen protestors – carrying signs reading Peace is Patriotic and Bring our Troops Home rallied in Naples Monday. Mike Kiniry was there. (AUDIO)

By a narrow margin, the U-S House has defeated an amendment to ease travel restrictions to Cuba. The bill failed by a vote of 211 to 208. Republican Congressman Connie Mack—of Fort Myers— vehemently spoke against the measure Thursday.

“Do we want to reward the most notorious human right abuser in our hemisphere—with American trade, American commerce, and American currency? This is a call to conscience for this body. Do we want to stand for freedom? Or do we stand with tyrants? The choice today couldn’t be more black and white. Either you stand for freedom or you stand with Fidel. I urge all my colleagues to vote no on this amendment.“

Under current law, family visits to Cuba are limited to once every three years. Opponents call that “inhumane.” House members also voted to retain a trade embargo on Cuba—which as been in place since 1960. A measure to ease travel restrictions also failed in the Senate.

An Austrian tourist who was bitten by a shark as he stood in chest-deep water in the Gulf of Mexico has been released from a Fort Myers hospital. The attack came days after another tourist was killed and one seriously injured by sharks in the Florida Panhandle. Witnesses say 19-year-old Armin Trojer limped away from the attack at Gasparilla Island Beach near Boca Grande. He underwent surgery Friday to repair ligaments, tendons and blood vessels on his right ankle.
Spokeswoman for the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, Ileana Limarzi, says it was clearly a shark bite.

“Somebody in the water saw a shark and local firefighters—by looking at the bite—were able to determine that’s what had attacked him.”

Limarzi calls this an “isolated” case for the region. The latest attack took place well south of two others… one last Monday, in which a boy lost a leg and another a week ago Saturday, which took the life of a 14 year old girl. Tthese developments prompted Sanibel to issue a shark advisory… and remind beachgoers to always swim with other people, avoid wearing shiny jewelry and never swim at night.

Lack of affordable housing in southwest Florida is an obstacle to attracting skilled workers. That’s what C-E-O-s of several high-tech companies tell WGCU. Heads of a robotics firm, two software firms, a medical tools manufacturer, and a biotech firm spoke to Gulf Coast Live! All of them expressed concern about the rising costs of housing… and whether wages can keep up.
METI—or Medical Education Technologies Inc.—is based in Sarasota. CEO Lou Oberndorf says workforce housing is absolutely something he thinks about.

“It is very difficult for young families—and we’re attracting young engineers. Our people tend to have to commute farther and farther away… up and down 75.”

According to the Florida Association of Realtors, the average price of an existing home in the state has climbed 27 percent in the last year… to just over 230-thousand dollars.

A Naples High School graduate on leave from serving in the Army in Iraq is celebrating the Fourth of July with his mother in Naples today. Staff Sergeant Jason Crain spoke with Amy Tardif. (AUDIO)

Senators have passed legislation to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from relying on studies in which people are purposely exposed to pesticides. It’s the EPA’s job to issue permits for new pest killers. Before this, the agency had been drafting rules that would allow it to consider tests conducted on children and even pregnant women. The issue hit home for Democratic Senator Bill Nelson when he learned of a study in Jacksonville—funded jointly by government and the chemical industry—to test pesticides on babies. According to Nelson, in return for the families’ cooperation, they would receive a cash payment, a t-shirt, and a calendar.

“And, by the way, guess which part of town this was going to occur in? You guessed it. It was going to occur in the lower income and minority sections of Jacksonville. This is unlike pharmaceutical studies on humans that offer the possibilities that a human subject may benefit from the experiment.”

The Jacksonville study was cancelled after Senator Nelson and others used the matter to temporarily block the nomination of now EPA administrator Stephen Johnson. Several years ago, the EPA commissioned the National Academy of Sciences to look into the ethics of pesticide tests on humans. In a final report, the academy granted that—in some cases—testing on humans can yield vital data. It made a total of 17 recommendations before such tests should proceed… including that the societal benefit clearly outweighed individual risks.

Governor Jeb Bush signed 3 new growth management laws recently creating the “pay as you grow” plan. The new laws aim to ensure roads, schools and water will be available as demand grows. Lee County’s Smart Growth manager Wayne Daltry says the new laws will embellish local comprehensive planning and attempts to pay for visionary growth.

“Regional entities are to refine the state vision further and build on local visions and it’s supposed to be interactive. The local government without vision would have share in the regional vision – the local governments with vision would help drive the regional vision which would feedback and help refine the state vision – the state comprehensive plan chapter 187 Florida statutes has not been updated or seriously looked at for two decades. Without a state vision… separate local governments are hard to pull together.”

The legislation builds upon the 1985 Growth Management Act requiring local governments to be financially feasible, with the goal of helping communities as they plan for the future. The new laws provide 1.5 billion dollars this year for transportation, water and school infrastructure, with 700 million dollars expected each year thereafter.

National weather forecasters say the U.S. is at the beginning of what could be a decade of fierce hurricanes. Lawmakers in Washington DC are looking for better ways to prepare coastal communities for the inevitable. Benjamin Shaw reports from Capitol Hill. (AUDIO)