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Tropical Storm Debby didn’t look like trouble.No hurricane-force winds. No mass evacuations. Just forecasts, quietly urgent, calling for historic rainfall.Sarasota County officials weren’t alarmed. Days before landfall, the public works director — who two years earlier had called the county “one of the most flood-protected communities in the state, if not the nation” — went on vacation.On Aug. 5, the rain came. Then the flooding. Then the reckoning.

Phillippi Creek in Sarasota County won’t be dredged this hurricane season, no emergency permit issued.

Sarasota County administrators are stiff-arming recommendations from a stormwater consultant and plan to push another rate hike on residents despite a new audit showing the utility could have more than $70 million over the next five years without raising rates.Just two years after a substantial increase in stormwater environmental utility rates, Sarasota County staff is once again asking taxpayers to open their wallets to bolster water quality and flood protections ahead of future storms. The proposed tax increase comes as county leaders scramble to fill gaps in the stormwater system that last year left thousands of homes flooded in unsuspecting neighborhoods miles from the coast.A joint investigation by the Florida Trident and Suncoast Searchlight into the failures found the county ignored sediment buildup in Phillippi Creek, left key stormwater positions sitting vacant while work orders piled up and overlooked glaring system vulnerabilities noted by consultants years earlier. All contributed to a stormwater utility operating in disarray.

We get a first-hand account of the storm’s impact on Estero Island, and the Town of Fort Myers Beach and its residents and business owners, from Bill Veach. He is a member of the FMB Town Council and a resident of Estero Island. He has lived there with his wife in an old beachfront cottage for thirteen years — it was one of many structures on the island completely washed away by Hurricane Ian. We talk with Mr. Veach about his storm experience, how the rebuilding process is going so far, and how this storm is invariably going to change the character of the island.

We get a first-hand account of the storm’s impact on Estero Island, and the Town of Fort Myers Beach and its residents and business owners, from Bill Veach. He is a member of the FMB Town Council and a resident of Estero Island. He has lived there with his wife in an old beachfront cottage for thirteen years — it was one of many structures on the island completely washed away by Hurricane Ian. We talk with Mr. Veach about his storm experience, how the rebuilding process is going so far, and how this storm is invariably going to change the character of the island.

The Hall of Famer says he's been banned from future United Airlines flights after an incident earlier this month. But the airline says the ban was lifted almost immediately.

A Texas woman will spend 61 months in federal prison for a scheme involving the theft of more than $2.7 million in government money and using a false Id and a Naples bank account in the ruse. Kristin Cara Kunstler, 43, of Amarillo, was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Kyle C. Dudek to five years and one month in federal prison for the theft of government money and aggravated identity theft. Kunstler pleaded guilty on October 23, 2025.

Police body cameras have increased accountability for K-9 units, making it easier for defendants to claim unconstitutional searches. A federal lawsuit in Texas illustrates the new dynamic.