WGCU News

With Florida’s citrus industry declining, it’s important for growers to have robust backup crops to prevent financial loss. Dr. Zhanao Deng and his team with the University of Florida are decoding blackberry DNA to help Floridian growers.

With the Government Shutdown showing no end in sight, the impact from limited Federal Government resources is now impacting the community, by limiting events such as Air Shows.

In a closely watched dispute about First Amendment rights, attorneys for a biologist who was fired because of a social media post after the murder of conservative leader Charlie Kirk squared off against lawyers for the state on Monday. Biologist Brittney Brown, who worked for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission studying shorebirds and seabirds in the area of Tyndall Air Force Base in the Panhandle, alleges in the lawsuit that her firing on Sept. 15 — five days after Kirk was shot during an appearance at a Utah university — violated her First Amendment rights.

In light of the longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history, local nonprofit organizations are feeling the brunt of the impacts as a lapse in SNAP benefits persist causing individuals as well as families to function without food for extended periods of time. Find out how one organization in particular is taking extra steps to help not only its clients, but also other local organizations weathering the storm of SNAP uncertainty.

This week, three shows open, eight close, seven continue their runs and there are two limited engagements at Southwest Florida equity and community theaters.

A court ruled against Lee County in a case that could affect new housing projects. One of them, Kingston Development, is planned for thousands of homes in southeast Lee County. The circuit court judge's ruling went against Lee County in the approval of a waste-water treatment plant on Alico Road.

Sam Bobrick is known as a comedy writer for shows such as Captain Kangaroo, The Flintstones, Andy Griffith Show, Get Smart, Bewitched, Smothers Brothers' Comedy Hour and Saved by the Bell. But he also wrote "Baggage," onstage now at Arts Center Theatre on Marco Island.

Temperatures are dropping this week, and local areas are stepping up with different warming stations for residents.

This year represents the 100th anniversary of legendary artist Robert Rauschenberg’s birth. To mark the occasion, the Alliance for the Arts is screening “Taking Venice” at 7 p.m. on November 13th. The documentary reveals how a team of U.S. insiders allegedly pressured the Venice Biennale to confer the Grand Prize in Painting on Rauschenberg in 1964.