Sheldon Zoldan/Special to WGCU

Commissioners Kevin Ruane and David Mulicka asked to delay voting on the changes during Tuesday’s meeting. They said they haven’t had time to digest the 344-page report and additional 140 pages they received September 11. They also said they need more time to meet with constituents.

Six entrepreneurs, with businesses as diverse as an e-commerce marketplace and recycling pickleballs, made their best pitches in a “Shark Tank” atmosphere in hopes of winning cash and exposure at the SCORE (Service Core of Retired Executives) second annual pitch competition in Naples at the Botanical Gardens.

Six entrepreneurs, with businesses as diverse as an e-commerce marketplace and recycling pickleballs, will make their best pitches in a “Shark Tank” atmosphere Saturday in hopes of winning cash and exposure. SCORE (Service Core of Retired Executives) is holding its second annual pitch competition in Naples at the Botanical Gardens.

Lee County commissioners will have to cut $121 million from the budget in 2027-28 and $159 million the following year if Amendment 3 passes in November. County commissioners received the news and were given a list of options about how they could offset those cuts during an angst-filled workshop this week.

The pleas of more than 40 speakers couldn’t convince the Lee County Planning Agency to delay or deny changes to the road map that determines how the county will grow.

Plans to widen Interstate 75 from Golden Gate Parkway in Collier County to Alico Road in Lee County were explained Monday at Estero Community Park. The wider I-75 will have express lanes and auxiliary lanes — but it won’t have a sound barrier in Estero — and that absence is one that is making some residents none too happy.

Lee County commissioners approved changes to how growth can take place in the southeast portion of the county despite pleas from speakers worried about what it will mean for wildlife, water quality and other environmental concerns.

Republican candidates in the District 19 Congressional race are spending millions of dollars for television ads, mailers and online promotion, and most of that money is coming from their own pockets.

Once Seminole Gulf Railway finalizes the sale of 11.4 miles of right-of-way for the Bonita Estero Rail Trail, a new kind of negotiation begins. As many as 50 landowners will be eligible to sue the federal government for compensation once the right-of-way is sold to the Land for Public Trust. The $60 million sale is expected to be official later this summer or early fall.

The 16 Republicans seeking to represent two Southwest Florida districts in the U.S. Congress will be the most-watched local races of the August 18 primary.