WGCU Staff

Forty-five water projects across the state — including a wastewater treatment project in Fort Myers — will share in $100 million of funding.

The Lee County NAACP, Advancement Project and Mount Olive AME Church are co-hosting Access to the Ballot Box and Voting Rights in Lee County on Sunday, Nov. 1.

Cape Coral will partner with Costco Wholesale to bring the retailer’s first location to the city, planning the store on Chiquita Boulevard South. It will be the third Costco in Lee County.

A judge in Florida’s 20th Circuit Court has denied a petition challenging Lee County’s zoning approval for South Seas Resort on Captiva, which allows the approval to stand.

Punta Gorda Airport will be hosting a TSA PreCheck® enrollment and/or renewal event at bag claim inside the Bailey Terminal, 28000 Airport Road, Punta Gorda, Nov. 17-20, 2026.

Starting in the late 2000s, environmental engineers and policymakers began talking about taking "nature-based" approaches to protect ourselves from storms. Concepts like 'living shorelines' were developed, where planners would work with nature. Think planting seagrasses and protecting or restoring dunes along the beach, or strategic mangrove placement as examples. But those approaches are still far from standard. The Conservancy of Southwest Florida has created a new Flood Resilience Blueprint called Working with Nature that uses the City of Naples as a test-site to show just what's possible, and what approaches would work best and where. We learn more from their Climate Resilience Advisor, Dr. Carrie Schuman.

The Florida Wildlife Commission said Monday they have recovered the remains of another Florida panther, this time a 2-year-old male, in Collier County. The new death comes a little more than two weeks after two previous Florida panther deaths were reported – a nine-month-old panther found injured in Collier County in September and the remains of a four-month-old panther found Oct. 15 in Hendry County.

Whether or not we'll ever find irrefutable proof that humans are not alone in the universe is something that has been speculated about since the dawn of humanity. As the scientific age arose — from first crude telescopes to modern space exploration — the idea that actually finding real proof has seemingly come into closer reach. But what happens then? And will irrefutable still be refuted by some? And what would the implications be, from shaking the foundations of some faiths, to adding a new global dynamic to an already tense world? We talk with two people who are part of a new limited-run podcast called "When We Find Them" that talks to people from all backgrounds to try to approach these questions and more.

Hope Eternal Gardens in Punta Gorda became Southwest Florida's first natural burial cemetery when it opened in 2024. Now, it's also Charlotte County's first accredited Level One Arboretum. That means they've met specific professional standards for curating, maintaining, and labeling the trees and woody plants on site for public benefit, research, and education. We learn about the cemetery, what it means to be an arboretum, and how the Museum of Trees works and where it fits into the story of gaining Level I Arboretum accreditation.

Penniman's husband, Nicholas G. Penniman IV, died September 29 at the age of 88.