This year, Florida lawmakers paid the most attention to affordable housing of any legislative session since 1992. Analysts say the outcome was both good and bad. They spoke Thursday at a workforce housing symposium in Fort Myers. WGCU’s Amy Tardif reports.

A team from the University of North Carolina and Mote Marine Lab is back in Sarasota Bay continuing a three-year study of the bottlenose dolphins that call the area home. They really want to know if the dolphins actually do call the area something like our word for home. They’ve already proven the animals recognize their own names – a signature whistle unique to each dolphin.
Biology Layla Sighig says the study is a small piece in understanding how dolphins talk with one another and what it means.

“The fact that we found that they do use these arbitrary symbols to represent other animals implies that they have perhaps mental images of these animals or in some way or form concepts of these other animals.”

Sighig used natural recordings of signal whistles from other familiar dolphins to measure the responses. And to ensure the dolphins were not just responding to a known voice, they used computer-generated signals. In both instances, the dolphins turned around as if to ask, "Are you talking to me?"

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A team of researchers from the University of North Carolina and Mote Marine lab are conducting experiments with dolphins in Sarasota Bay this month. They’ll spend about two weeks studying if the dolphins respond to signals besides their names. Their names are whistles unique to each animal. Researcher Layla SEYE-ig has been working with this pod for 20 years.

“My overall interest is really trying to understand the natural communicational system of dolphins. There could be relevance in terms of understand more about human language I suppose if we do find more parallels with our own language system in dolphins it might help to understand evolutionary forces that have driven the development of these types of communication systems in different animals.”

They plan to play random recorded signals and monitor the dolphins' reactions. SEYE-ig says the research could give scientists clues if dolphins relay messages of stress, unhappiness or have conversations. But that type of information could require several more years of study.

It may be almost hurricane season but termites cause more damage to homes every year than storms, fires and floods combined. The pests cost Florida consumers more than 700 million dollars each year yet only half the state’s homes have any kind of termite protection. Now two new species of super-termites have invaded the state and one expert has made it his mission to snuff them out. WGCU’s Amy Tardif reports.

The Early Learning Coalition of Southwest Florida held a party celebrating the first birthday of the state’s voluntary prekindergarten program last night in Estero. State officials say it was the biggest party like it in Florida. WGCU’s Amy Tardif was there.

Audubon of Florida says it's discovered the oldest wild Roseate
spoonbill on record while studying the species as part of Everglades
Restoration in Florida Bay. Researchers captured the 16-year-old they’ve named Enrico last month as part of a new Spoonbill Satellite Telemetry Project. Audubon Research Director Jerry Lorenz says the pink-colored bird has more than doubled the known life expectancy of a roseate spoonbill.
The organization hopes to get an interactive website up soon so everyone can watch the satellite data being brought in from the spoonbills.

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Deaf children are learning from dolphins in the Florida Keys this week. It’s part of an effort to encourage expression of feelings and experiences through art, movement and discussion. WGCU’s Amy Tardif has the story.

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida has a new president.
Andrew McElwaine has led the organization for four months and already has numerous missions to tackle including Babcock Ranch, Southern Golden Gate Estates and Lake Okeechobee freshwater releases.

He was most recently the president of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council. McElwaine was also director of environmental programs at the Heinz Endowments and was legislative assistant for U.S. Senator John Heinz, Republican of Pennsylvania, in the mid to late 80’s.

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This weekend marks the 26th Florida International Airshow at the Charlotte County Airport in Punta Gorda. This year’s Air Show “Pioneer In Aviation” is retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Joseph Kittinger Junior of Orlando. He’ll be honored today (March 31st ).

Colonel Kittinger is best known for his accomplishments as an early "space hero," a characterization which first appeared in the cover story of the August 1960 issue of Life magazine. He still holds the record for the highest parachute jump and first man to exceed the sound barrier in free-fall. He was born in 1928 in Orlando…