Michael Braun
Managing editorMike Braun is a formerly with the Fort Myers News-Press and Naples Daily News where he worked for 17 years as a page designer/copy editor and breaking news reporter.
He also worked for 25 years at The Vindicator in Youngstown, Ohio, serving as a general assignment reporter, rewrite editor, copy editor, Sunday edition editor, outdoors columnist, designer and chief of the design desk.
He graduated in 1977 with a degree in media communications from Youngstown State University where he was editor-in-chief of the school newspaper The Jambar.
He lives in Fort Myers and is originally from Peoria, Illinois.
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Florida Power & Light and Lee County Electric Cooperative are preparing for widespread outages as Milton comes closer to the west coast.FPL Spokesperson Mike Mazur (Mazer) says that the company is equipped for the large number of outages with a workforce of around 17,000 on standby. -
In a lot of places, when adversity hits, they slap a label ending with the descriptive “Strong" on the response. For Pine Island residents, that response means more than just a label, it's a motivation for neighbors lending a hand to neighbors.One organization that takes that spirit to heart — the Greater Pine Island Alliance — has been in full help mode for over a week with volunteers assisting residents picking up the pieces after Hurricane Helene blew past Southwest Florida. -
While most people are running from the dangers created by the massive Hurricane Helene, there are those who steer themselves into harm's way.While they aren't actually putting human lives in danger, the folks at Saildrone are putting their assets on the line by sailing equipment into the teeth of raging storms for their 2024 Hurricane Mission. -
A disturbance in the Caribbean has been designated as Invest 97 by the National Hurricane Center Sunday evening with increasing probabilities of it forming into a stronger tropical system in the coming days and week. -
Submarines are not known to ply the shallow waters of the Caloosahatchee, preferring to run silent at greater depths. But former crewmen of one such vessel recently found the riverside haunt of the man their sub was named for was a perfect place to drop anchor — sans the boomer though.Those former crewmen of the USS Thomas A. Edison — named for Thomas A. Edison naturally —recently got a glimpse at the inventor's life in Fort Myers when they attended a reunion at the Edison and Ford Winter Estates. -
Some 24,000 TRIM notices for the wrong year were mailed Friday to Lee County homeowners, by mistake.Property Appraiser Matt Caldwell says the error was made when a batch of the notices did not get overwritten with the current year's data. -
According to the National Weather Service more than 12 inches of rain fell from Tropical Depression Debby during it's passage by Sarasota last weekend and most of the day Monday.Here's where you can get a look at the NWS rain data chart.All tropical storm and storm surge warnings for Sarasota County have been cancelled but there are still several other watches, warnings, and advisories in effect for Sarasota County. -
“Catastrophic rain” is what Florida officials said Sunday they expect when Tropical Storm Debby comes ashore Monday, likely as a hurricane.Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and other state officials held multiple media briefings Sunday as Debby started to move over the warm Gulf of Mexico waters and targeted the Big Bend area of the state.Florida Department of Emergency Management director Kevin Guthrie says the situation coming from Debby will change Monday. -
Information on candidates vying for Florida senate and house seats and those seeking your vote in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate for the 2024 primary and general elections is available via a Public Media Voter’s Guide on WGCU.org beginning Thursday, Aug. 1. -
The Big Backpack Event began with the idea that not all Southwest Florida children had the supplies they needed to get a good education.Twenty-five years later, that's still the idea.That need could be seen Sunday in Fort Myers. Again, as has been the case at every Big Backpack Event, a line of those needing school supplies snaked around the distribution area.
