The Florida International Air Show marks its 30th anniversary this weekend.  The sky over Punta Gorda will be abuzz with aircraft – from fighter jets & gliders to World War II era bombers.  Skydivers will descend to the earth from 5,000 feet, and of course there will be world class aerobatics.  WGCU’s Valerie Alker talked to one of the pilots and has this report.

More than a hundred people, some from as far away as Ohio and Michigan, gathered in Matlacha last Saturday behind the Mulletville Restaurant for a 19 year old competition that has become a tradition for Pine Islanders. WGCU’s Luis Hernandez was at the mullet tossing championship and has this report.

The 2010 U.S. Census will bring thousands of temporary jobs to Southwest Florida.   Although the bulk of the work won’t begin until next spring, Census officials say the time for job seekers to act is now.  WGCU’s John Davis reports.

Sanibel Poet Joe Pacheco remembers his brother on this Memorial Day.  Peter Paul Pacheco, or Pedrito died in World
War II in 1944.

Monday is the 25th anniversary of a staged secession in Key West, which created the fabled Conch Republic. Beginning Friday the Conch Republic Independence Celebration commemorates the founding of the "island nation.”

The situation began when, back in 1982, the United States Border Patrol erected a roadblock and checkpoint at the top of the Florida Keys’ Overseas Highway. Ostensibly searching for drugs and illegal aliens, the roadblock created a miles long traffic jam on the only road that connects mainland Florida with the island chain.

Former Key West Mayor and first Conch Republic Prime Minister Dennis Wardlow says they felt like foreigners in their own land.

“And that’s how the Conch Republic evolved. If they’re going to treat us as a foreign country, we’ll become a foreign country. And that was what the stand was and that was the true feeling of how they were treating us.”

Key Westers protested by staging a secession, declaring war on the United States, promptly surrendering and applying for foreign aid.

The secession will be re-enacted in Key West Monday. The Celebration continues through the following Sunday.