WGCU Staff

A burn ban went into effect Saturday morning for Sarasota County due to local drought conditions and an increased chance of fire hazards.Under Sarasota County’s burn ban ordinance (Sarasota County Code Section 58-2), burn bans automatically go into effect countywide and prohibit almost all open burning when the Keetch-Byram Drought Index (KBDI) meets or exceeds 500.

Publix is allowing shoppers to open carry firearms in its Florida stores.The super market chain’s move comes after an appeals court decision in September overturned a 1987 law banning open carry. Attorney General James Uthmeier embraced the open-carry decision by a panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal as “the law of the state.”

Lee County government Thursday confirmed the death of County Commissioner Mike Greenwell.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month so we’re doing our part to increase awareness about breast cancer and the importance of screening, both self and diagnostic, and learning about how treatments and screenings have evolved since 1985 when Breast Cancer Awareness Month was initiated. According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation 1 in 8 women in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. We get a snapshot of the state of screening and treatment, and risk factors to consider — and we learn about Partners for Breast Cancer Care, a nonprofit that funds breast screening, diagnostic testing, and treatment for uninsured patients in Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Hendry and Glades counties.

A public health alert for U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service-inspected ready-to-eat meals produced by FreshRealm with riced cauliflower, that may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes has been issued by the FSIS.

As internet use became common, communities formed in different ways. Early examples would include internet forums, or message boards. In the early 2000s a message board called 4chan was created that was anonymous by design. And posts made to it, and replies, were inherently temporary. While 4chan had message boards for all sorts of topics its anonymity combined with posts that would eventually disappear led to the emergence of an online culture that would seem strange and even extreme to many people who didn’t spend time there. Our guest grew up immersed in this online culture, and is now a researcher of it, so we thought he’d be a good person to help us understand this world a bit better as it seems to increasingly enter into mainstream culture, from media to public discourse, and the polarization it contains.

Grant will add three new workforce education academies at Lee County high schools and expand eight others.

Nearly $6.5 million in Tourist Development Tax revenue is being used to authorize work and reimburse expenses for a number of agreements across the county.Commissioners also voted to leverage additional drone technology to enhance efforts to ensure public safety by approving the purchase of four autonomous drones to be based across Lee County.

Cape Coral Animal Shelter's first community yard sale benefits homeless animals.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution remains the gold standard globally when it comes to protecting speech. But our guest says free speech protections cannot be guaranteed without strong support from those who it protects — including supporting others’ right to express ideas you might strongly disagree with. Jacob Mchangama has spent his career tracking free speech trends globally and understanding how it has ebbed and flowed over the course of recorded history. He is director of the Future of Free Speech think tank at Vanderbilt University, a Senior Fellow at The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression in Philadelphia, and the author of “Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media.”