Search results for

We meet southwest Florida resident Marina Berkovich. She’s a native of Kiev, Ukraine, who fled the Soviet Union and Communism with her mother at the age of 18. Trained as a CPA, Ms. Berkovich was chief financial officer of a New York City-based hotel and property management company before she began teaming up with her husband Alex Goldstein, a renowned Russian-American cinematic composer, to make documentary films -- many of which help tell the story of Jewish people who made, and make, a positive impact on life in Southwest Florida. Ms. Berkovich is an oral visual history interviewer for the Holocaust Museum of Southwest Florida. She and her husband moved here from New York in 2004, and in 2010 helped found the nonprofit Jewish Historical Society of Southwest Florida, where she remains president. We sit down with her to hear her thoughts on the world today — including Russia's war against Ukraine, and the Hamas attack on Israel and what has unfolded since — as well as the work they do at the Jewish Historical Society of Southwest Florida.

David Rahahę·tih Webb was born in Southwest Florida and grew up on Sanibel Island, which puts him in a relatively small group of people compared to this area’s current population. But, his family roots go back for generations and their connections to life on Sanibel are both broad and deep. His ‘pioneer’ side goes back eight generations on Sanibel and his Seminole side goes back past recorded history. His direct ancestors were Spanish Seminole members of the Sanibel Island Rancho. Ranchos were small, tight-knit communities settled by Europeans centuries ago. They were essentially fishing camps with as many as 600 residents, most of which were Seminole. And, David is a 4th generation Ding Darling employee — his great grandfather was the first refuge employee; the admin building was dedicated to his grandmother, who worked there for 33 years; his mother worked there when she was pregnant with him and he worked there while serving in AmeriCorps in the mid 1990s.

When the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010 it guaranteed coverage for people going through addiction treatment for the first time. This was a huge benefit for many people, but it also created conditions that led to some treatment providers taking advantage of people in recovery — and part of that corrupt system is what’s referred to as The Florida Shuffle. Put simply, the Florida Shuffle is when proprietors of what are called ‘sober homes’ effectively "broker patients" in order to keep them in a cycle of addiction and recovery. Well-run sober homes are meant to be a place where people who have been through supervised detox and inpatient treatment and then outpatient care can use as a bridge between treatment and returning to their lives.

Jurors believed that Carroll's allegation of sexual abuse in a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s was more likely true than not. They awarded her $5 million in total damages.

The once-mighty U.S. Olympic swim team has only won two gold medals so far at the Paris Games. Athletes say the sport has grown more competitive since Americans like Michael Phelps owned the pool.

Mourning 5 people lost to the pandemic

Honoring people lost to the coronavirus pandemic

Remembering 5 people lost to the coronavirus

Remembering 5 people lost to coronavirus

Did you ever wonder where the name “whisk broom” came from? First of all it is Norwegian – and originated long ago as a result of the Norse people using this plant with a long bare stem to hang onto, and multiple almost bare branches at its tip. Got dirt on your sport coat? Pluck one of these plants hold it by the stem – and “whisk” it off. The Norse people used them to “visk” off the offending dirt. Only later did “visk” become “whisk” in English. Long before “whisk brooms” were “invented”, the Norwegian people found them in nature, made use of them, and gave them their name.