For the next five days, Margaritaville is being invaded by Nashville.

Nearly 90 performing songwriters -- with credits featuring hits for such country megastars as Tim McGraw, Toby Keith, Trisha Yearwood and Tanya Tucker -- have come to Key West for the 12th annual Hog's Breath Songwriters' Festival.
There are 29 shows at 16 venues during the 12th annual Hog's Breath Key West Songwriters' Festival. The chart-topping writers scheduled to play their hit songs and preview new tunes include Brett James, who authored Carrie Underwood's "Jesus Take the Wheel"; the legendary Don Schlitz, who penned "The Gambler" and Scotty Emerick.

“The first song that I played was a song that a buddy of mine, Toby Keith, and I wrote a few years ago called Beer for My Horses and had a big hit with it and it was real exciting especially because Willy Nelson sang on it and for Toby and I Willy’s always been a hero of ours.”

The 2007 festival includes 30 shows -- each featuring multiple writers who sing, play, and tell the stories behind their songs. The Hog’s Breath Songwriter’s Festival runs today through Sunday in Key West.

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The Key West Songwriters' Festival runs today through Sunday with a sunset performance overlooking Key West Harbor. More than 70 of the United States' top performing songwriters are showcasing their original music in intimate, audience-friendly tropical settings.
They include Scotty Emerick, whose writing triumphs include "Beer for My Horses" recorded by Willie Nelson and Toby Keith.

“My favorite thing – the world famous Hog’s Breath Saloon – there’s an upstairs listening room of about 150-200 people. It’s a great place to play. It’s one of my favorite places I’ve ever played around the country. There’s a lot of great songwriters that come down and play there also and that’s the favorite spot.”

Others who play during the songwriter’s festival include legendary writers Chuck Cannon, who co-wrote "How Do You Like Me Now?" and "American Soldier" with Toby Keith; and Wendell Mobley, whose megahits include “I Melt,” recorded by Rascal Flatts.

Lee County Tourism Officials will release January sales figures Friday – and the numbers are forecast to be excellent.

Tourism Director DT Minich says after some somewhat slow winter occupancy rates following two tough hurricane seasons in 2004 and 2005 – things are hopping.

“the planes are full the hotels are full it’s our time of the year to be making money for our hotel and tourism industry and they’re definitely doing this these last few weeks and its looking good all the way through mid April.”

Minich credits bad weather up north and good weather in Southwest Florida for the high occupancy rates – along with baseball fans here to see the Boston Red Sox and Minnesota Twins for Spring Training. South Seas Plantation – one of the areas largest resorts – and badly damaged by Hurricane Charley in 2004 also reopened this week.

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South Seas Plantation Resort on Captiva Island officially re-opened last night. It was badly damaged by Hurricane Charley in August 2004. Director of Tourism for Lee County D.T. Minich says the opening caps off what’s been the busiest tourist season in several years.

“they’ve done an incredible job out there of redoing that resort and it’s like having a brand new resort in our area we’re real excited. This is really our first good season since Charley”

Minich says planes and hotels are full and will be until at least mid-April. He says other travel destinations in Florida are also doing well this season – but that Lee County is doing exceptionally well.

Sanibel vacation packages; pastel paintings; pot holders; even bags full of shells supposedly from Sanibel’s beaches…all items up for sale at the online auction site eBay. But a Port St. Lucie Man found out the hard way that selling SAND from the barrier island is against the law.

While it is legal to take shell casings from Sanibel’s beaches…it’s illegal to remove living shells, starfish. It’s also illegal to remove the sand.

The City of Sanibel got a tip through their online comment form about a man in Port St. Lucie who was offering up ‘Genuine Sanibel Sand’ for 7-dollars a package on eBay.

Judy Zimomra is City Manager.

“Sanibel is one of the top 2 shelling destinations in the world. We have a very unique ecosystem on the beach. And if people decide to come up and harvest our sand and take it to other locations to use in construction material or to use in their homes as landscaping, etc. you’d be disrupting that entire ecosystem on the beach.”

Zimomra says they contacted eBay, which immediately took down the posting. Sanibel Chief of Police Bill Tomlinson then sent the seller a letter warning him that failure to cease and desist could result in fines or even jail time.

Removing sand, or live shells or animals, from any Florida beach can result in penalties up to 60 days in jail - and up to a 500-dollar fine per occurrence, per day.

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A Port St. Lucie man is on notice with Sanibel authorities…after trying to sell sand from the barrier island on the online auction site eBay.

The City of Sanibel was tipped off through its online comment form the day after Christmas.

City Manager Judy Zimomra says they issued a warning, this time…

“The penalty is up to 60 days in jail and up to a $500 fine per occurrence per day. So he’s now on written warning, and if for some reason he chose to ignore that warning we would be prepared to prosecute. It would be up to a judge to convict him and determine a sentence.”

Zimomra says eBay took down the posting immediately – once its illegality was explained.

And she says it didn’t really surprise her because Sanibel has such a recognized name around the world – and lots of people are looking for ways to make a buck.

It’s illegal to remove live shells or sand from all of Florida’s beaches.

The number of visitors to Florida in 2006 is down from a year ago. But Lee County is bucking the trend.

According to Smith Travel Research there were double digit declines in September and October hotel occupancy in the Orlando area. But the Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau’s Nancy Hamilton says the agency’s advertising and promotion efforts have paid off.

“when we able to increase the tourist tax rate we were able to pull in more tourist tax dollars to devote to our marketing campaign and the numbers are up when other areas are showing a decrease so I think it’s helped”

Hamilton says expenditures are also up 9 percent. The latest tourism numbers plus projections for early 2007 will be released at the bureau’s December meeting on Friday. In 2005 more than two million visitors spent more than two billion dollars in Lee County.

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Lee County Tourism officials say aggressive marketing campaigns have kept hotels and resorts busy – bucking a decline that’s hit most of the state. The Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau’s Nancy Hamilton says numbers were even up in the steamy, slow month of September.


“looking at this year to date through October overall every area we look at are up – we seem to be having a good year…we were up in both visitor counts and expenditures in September – so has it been a fabulous blow them out of the sky year – no – but everything is on the positive side so I think some of our extra advertising campaign and promotions have helped out”

An increase in the county’s tourist tax provided the revenue for the boost in advertising. Hamilton says the German and Canadian markets were targeted this summer and efforts paid off. Projections for 2007 will be reviewed at the tourism bureau’s monthly meeting this Friday.

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Collier County recommends visitors and tourists should evacuate. Authorities say the so-called voluntary, precautionary order is needed in case ‘Ernesto’ takes a more northerly path and strikes Southwest Florida. Collier County Emergency Management coordinator Jim Von Rinteln says the evacuation recommendation would give people maximum time to leave the area.

“That’s for people who don’t desire to be here during a hurricane or tropical storm event or have medical conditions that power outages could affect. Often they’re people who just have the ability to go visit friends or take a mini-vacation. This is a good time to do it if you don’t want to be around for bad weather and potentially a hurricane.”

One prominent Florida-based Cuba expert says if the communist island nation becomes a democracy, there could be some economic benefits to the Sunshine State. Cuba is home to 11-million people and few outsiders have had the opportunity to tour the country that sits 90 miles off Florida’s coast. If Castro’s nearly half-century run as president comes to an end, University of Central Florida professor Luis Martinez-Fernandez says it opens up important tourism possibilities for this state and Cuba.

“Miami and Havana are in many ways twin cities. And I don’t see why tourism could not be constructed in terms of a regional package.”

Martinez-Fernandez is also director of U-C-F’s Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies. He spoke on Gulf Coast Live and said if Cuba becomes a democracy, there are other economic possibilities too. He points to the Cuban workforce, which he says is very disciplined and skilled.

Beginning tomorrow, commercial airline passengers should expect some changes in the way they’re screened before boarding.

Officials with the Transportation Security Administration – or TSA - say the changes are necessary to allow screeners to better focus on serious terrorist threats.

Passengers are now allowed to bring scissors with blades no longer than 4 inches…and screwdrivers less than 7 inches. Box cutters, ice picks, lighters, ninja-style throwing stars and tools with long cutting edges are still NOT permitted.

TSA spokeswoman - Lauren Stover – says the rule changes reflect security upgrades put into place since the September 11th terrorist attacks.
“We are now well beyond 911 where we’ve got layers of security in place. All of the cockpit doors have been hardened to protect against anyone gaining access to the cabin area. Scissors under 4 inches don’t pose the threat to us in civil aviation that they may have posed post 911.”

Stover says several recent studies found nearly a quarter of screeners’ time was being spent on these newly excluded items.

She says travelers should expect more additional screenings – like pat downs and shoe inspections…

“With these changes we want the public to know that they may be subject to more random searches and maybe some pat downs…if we find somebody’s wearing something very bulky that may be obscuring something. So just want people to understand that we’ve got new changes in place so our screeners can focus on the bigger threats, which are explosives.”

Some other holiday travel tips to keep in mind…don’t wrap carry-on presents in case they require inspection.

And because explosive detection systems used on checked bags can damage unprocessed film - be sure to pack it in carry-on luggage.

The Beaches of Ft. Myers and Sanibel are open for business. That’s the word Lee tourism officials are working to get out. They met Friday for the first time since Hurricane Wilma passed by. WGCU’s Valerie Alker reports.