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Conservation groups sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Wednesday to protect endangered Florida panthers from a new development within the panthers’ occupied breeding habitat in Collier County. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Fort Myers, said the federal agencies violated the Endangered Species Act when they authorized a 10,264-acre residential and commercial development project known as Rural Lands West in important habitat for panthers in Collier County.

A flood insurance issue that could end up costing millions for residents in unincorporated Lee County and several of the county's cities will be aired Tuesday at the Board of County Commissioners meeting.At stake is federal flood insurance community ratings in unincorporated Lee County and multiple municipalities in the county. FEMA confirmed Monday that unpermitted work, lack of documentation, and failure to properly monitor the rebuilding of properties in flood hazard areas in the post-Hurricane Ian world is why the federal government has chosen to significantly downgrade those ratings.That means federal flood insurance policy holders — there are more than 51,000 in unincorporated Lee County alone — will lose their 25 percent discounts on flood insurance premiums come Oct. 1. Some 64,000 policy holders in Bonita Springs, Estero and Cape Coral will no longer quality for the discounts until possibly spring 2026.The matter will be discussed in further detail when the Lee County Board of County Commissioners meet for their regular board meeting at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Lee County records showing dangerously high levels of arsenic on Pine Island were ignored by county and state environmental officials, an investigation by…

Lee County Commissioners Tuesday unanimously appointed deputy County Manager Dave Harner as manager and voted to negotiate a contract for a new county manager with the announced July 31 retirement of current County Manager Roger Desjarlais.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission recently charged two suspects for poaching thousands of Florida’s native turtles from the wild and…

The state has purchased more than 20,000 acres of land in Central and South Florida to protect it from development, and most of the 31 square miles of mainly agricultural land was put into the public’s trust are within Collier and Hendry counties

Local scallop fans can now harvest bay scallops for a 10-day period in Pasco County.

In an unusual move, the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity objected to a proposed development plan in Hendry County.The Sugar Hill development…

The South Florida Water Management District plans to conduct a prescribed burn of up to 800 acres in the Hickory Hammock Wildlife Management Area in Highlands County today, Thursday, August 21.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has threatened local county governments with funding cuts if they don't do enough to get people off the street. He recently passed an executive order encouraging local governments to remove homeless encampments.