Rachel Iacovone is a reporter and associate producer of Gulf Coast Live for WGCU News. Rachel came to WGCU as an intern in 2016, during the presidential race. She went on to cover Florida Gulf Coast University students at President Donald Trump's inauguration on Capitol Hill and Southwest Floridians in attendance at the following day's Women's March on Washington.Rachel was first contacted by WGCU when she was managing editor of FGCU's student-run media group, Eagle News. She helped take Eagle News from a weekly newspaper to a daily online publication with TV and radio branches within two years, winning the 2016 Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Award for Best Use of Multimedia in a cross-platform series she led for National Coming Out Day. She also won the Mark of Excellence Award for Feature Writing for her five-month coverage of an FGCU student's transition from male to female.As a WGCU reporter, she produced the first radio story in WGCU's Curious Gulf Coast project, which answered the question: Does SWFL Have More Cases of Pediatric Cancer?Rachel graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University with a bachelor's degree in journalism.
Entries are being accepted for the Friends of Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve 2026 Photo Contest honoring Carolyn Babb. The deadline is Jan. 31, 2026. The contest is limited to amateur photographers and only digital entries can be submitted. Photos must be of native species and must have been taken at the Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve, which includes Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve North.
Meteorological winter began on Dec. 1 while astronomical winter began on Dec. 21. Astronomical seasons are based on the Earth's position in connection with the sun.
Holiday motorists going a bit too fast through a school zone on the Florida Keys Overseas Highway might receive an onion from the Grinch instead of a traffic ticket. Colonel Lou Caputo, who recently retired from the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, donned the Grinch costume Friday morning to stage an awareness-raising holiday traffic patrol at Key Largo School.