Mike Walcher

A teenager from Immokalee will travel to Rome soon to take part in a global initiative for peace. About 40 young people from some of the most troubled places on earth will collaborate on ways to bring peace to their home communities.

Voters in Charlotte County will decide on extending a higher sales tax. Commissioners held a special meeting to consider a 20-year extension of the local option, one percent hike in the sales tax. If approved, the Charlotte tax would continue at seven percent, instead of the state-mandated six.

Collier County has approved an exchange of land that could eventually lead to thousands of new homes in what now is a rural part of the region. But the deal also could lead to preserving a corridor for wildlife, including panthers.

Lee and Charlotte Counties are agreeing to work on possible solutions to complaints about new parking laws for the coastal community of Boca Grande.

The old ball park soon will be no more. Fort Myers City Council has voted to sign a contract to tear down Palms Park. It was the spring training home of the Boston Red Sox during much of the 1990s and early 2000s.

The future of the Bonita-Estero rail trail, known as BERT, will depend on a vote of Bonita Springs residents in August. The Bonita Springs City Council approved a referendum to be held at the time of the primary elections on Tuesday, August 18.

It was a show of protest, frustration, disaffection and concern and it was shared by thousands Saturday in various Southwest Florida sites, other parts of the state and across the United States and the world. The No Kings III event was billed as a protest rally and drew people of many different political affiliations who said they had concerns with how the current administration in Washington run by President Donald Trump was handling things.

Details are available now on how people can vote on naming the Collier County Veterans' Nursing Home.

A Southwest Florida company has submitted the low bid to demolish City of Palms Park in Fort Myers. The city administration confirms it now plans to ask the council to award a contract on April 6.

Collier County Commissioners voted Tuesday to draw up a contract to pay $11.6 million to the Trust for Public Lands for a major bike and walking trail. That group needs $60 million by fall to buy abandoned tracks from Seminole Gulf Railway.