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  • In the leadup to the midterm elections Governor Ron DeSantis announced that the state of Florida’s new Office of Election Crimes and Security had arrested 20 people who allegedly had knowingly registered to vote illegally during the previous election in 2020. He said this was the first step in addressing wide-scale voter fraud — despite there being no evidence of such fraud in Florida. The problem is, there is no straightforward way for former felons — or for election officials — to determine whether someone who has completed their sentence for a felony conviction has satisfied all requirements to be eligible to vote.
  • Delegations from nearly 200 countries came together earlier this month in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt for the United Nations 27th Climate Change Conference, referred to as COP27. The goal was to bring countries together to try to take action towards achieving the world's collective climate goals as agreed to under the Paris Agreement in 2015. The consensus among many attendees was that COP27 was a disappointment. We get a first-hand take on what happened over those two weeks in Egypt with three local activists who are part of a team that produced daily video updates summarizing what was unfolding at the conference.
  • When it comes to gauging how risky it is to live where major hurricanes sometimes make landfall, the most important thing to know is what’s called the ‘return period.’ That is the estimated average time between such storms. But, because historic records only go back so far scientists use other ways to determine how frequent major storms have occurred in the past. One such technique is called paleoclimatology — or more specifically in the case of massive storms like Hurricane Ian, paleotempestology.We meet one of these scientists who is doing this kind of research work right here in Southwest Florida. Dr. Jo Muller is a paleoclimatologist and a Professor in the Department of Marine & Earth Sciences at Florida Gulf Coast University. She studies past tropical cyclone activity by collecting core samples from lagoons and bays behind Southwest Florida’s barrier islands.
  • In his new book, “Fort Myers Historic Hurricanes” Tom Hall offers a history of severe storms that have impacted southwest Florida dating all the way back to 1841, but he also provides a dire warning about this area’s severe risk from hurricanes and storm surge in general. It opens with a hurricane in 1841 that swept across the region making landfall near Sanibel Island and bringing 14' of storm surge to the U.S. Army fort on Punta Rassa.
  • The Biden administration points to fentanyl as the major culprit for the increase in deaths. Officials unveiled a new one-year strategy to reduce the number of fatalities from drug overdoses.
  • Musicians and insiders talk to NPR about the jazz label's legacy. "It's just like the Empire State Building or the White House," says one. "It's a monument."
  • Kirk Wallace Johnson's new book chronicles the real-life heist of 299 rare bird skins from Britain's Tring Museum in 2009. Maureen Corrigan says The Feather Thief reads like a "classic thriller."
  • Pinterest has created a database of things that matter to humans. And with a programming team that's largely been hired away from Google, the company has begun offering what it calls "guided search."
  • Anyone who was in Southwest Florida during 2018 will remember the two massive, simultaneous harmful algal blooms that devastated marine animal populations, and hurt local economies. The blue-green algae — or cyanobacteria — bloom that originated in Lake Okeechobee, choking the Caloosahatchee River, the canals that line it, and its estuary met the offshore red tide bloom which was lining beaches with dead fish, dolphins, and other marine life. While the blooms fouled the waters, and kept tourists away, there is growing evidence the toxins they produced can be harmful to humans.
  • Nominees for Favorite K-pop Artist are BLACKPINK, BTS, SEVENTEEN, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, and TWICE. The AMAs have been dubbed the world's largest fan-voted awards show.
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