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Lee County leaders mull transportation projects, including Ian-damaged Little Pine Island Bridge

For the Little Pine Island Bridge, planners want to either add new seawalls to the existing bridge or replace the entire structure. The bridge was built in 1977 and Hurricane Ian caused significant soil loss, and loss of the seawalls and approach slabs on both sides of the bridge.

Wildfire in Big Cypress National Preserve within the Florida Everglades is burning through acreage, moving to the southwest, shutting down roads and trails and putting residents in the heavily wooded region on notice that evacuations are escalating

U.S. 41 closed Saturday by smoke from Sandy Fire; firefighters using drones to thwart fire's advance

The Florida Highway Patrol closed a 58-plus mile portion of 41, from Krome Avenue in Dade to State Road 29 in Collier on Friday and Saturday to ensure the safety of travelers as well as for the firefighters working along the roadside.Friday's closure ran several hours and the FHP on Saturday said it anticipated another multi-hour closure.

Rebuilt Big Cypress Bend boardwalk offers a window to the Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park

The Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park‘s Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk Expansion project came about after the walkway was damaged by Hurricane Ian and closed in 2022. Reconstruction began in 2024 and it reopened in late 2025. An official ribbon-cutting ceremony for the reopened boardwalk was held at the Collier County-sited park Saturday.

New Mexico Ended Civil Asset Forfeiture. Why Then Is It Still Happening?

New Mexico passed a sweeping overhaul of civil asset forfeiture. Legislators say some cities' budgets are so dependent on seized assets that they disregarding the law.

COVID-19 Morning Report

State health officials reported 3,269 new cases of COVID-19, Thursday, increasing Florida's total to 611,991 cases. The Florida Department of Health also reported 135 new coronavirus-related deaths, Aug. 27, bringing the statewide death toll to 11,011 fatalities.

Australian softball players, the first foreign team to arrive for the Tokyo Olympic Games, wave from their bus after arriving at Narita International Airport on June 1.

The Olympics Are Really Happening. For Athletes, That Means A Huge Number Of Rules

Tokyo 2020 organizers now face two tests: Preventing the spread of COVID-19 from foreign visitors to residents of Japan, and keeping athletes healthy and virus-free so they can compete.

A sticker on a lamp post warns of voter fraud on Nov. 7, 2022, in Anchorage, Alaska. Alaska is part of a bipartisan compact of more than 30 states that shares voting data.

3 more Republican states announce they're leaving a key voting data partnership

Florida, Missouri and West Virginia announced they're pulling out of the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, the only system states have to share voter registration data.

Two women embrace and cry as they look out over a burned area in Lahaina, Hawaii in August 2023. A new survey finds most Americans expect the impacts of climate change to worsen in the next 30 years, as climate scientists warn.

Here's how Americans feel about climate change

The majority of Americans think climate change will kill and displace a large number of people in the U.S. in the next 30 years, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center.

Co-founders and CEOs of The Fearless Fund, Arian Simone and Ayana Parsons, speak to journalists outside federal court in Miami in January. A U.S. federal court of appeals panel suspended the venture capital firm's grant program for Black women business owners, ruling that a conservative group is likely to prevail in its lawsuit claiming that the program is the discriminatory.

Grant program for Black women business owners is discriminatory, appeals court rules

The ruling against the Fearless Fund is another victory for conservative groups waging legal battles against corporate diversity programs,

A National Park Service was parked for the night late Monday after 100 firefighters from four agencies finished their first complete week battling the blaze

Wildfire season is smoldering; what happens next is up in the air

Southwest Florida may be the driest part of the state right now, but forecasters are in agreement that they have no clue what comes next: a rough wildfire season, or calm in the woods

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