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The American Bittern is known to science as Botaurus lentiginosus – a name that tells us a bit about it. Botaurus is derived from an old English word that refers to a bull – because this bird’s unique deep-throated call reminded people of the bellowing of a bull. The species name “lentiginosus” means freckled – a reference to the tiny black spots on this bittern’s back.
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Florida Gulf Coast University's softball team won the 2024 Atlantic Sun Conference Championship 7-6 Saturday on a Neely Peterson walk-off home run in the bottom of the eighth.It was the first ASUN softball championship for the Green and Blue since 2012 and qualified the team for the NCAA College World Series.The Eagles (37-19) will pair up against the Number 4 seed University of Florida Gators (46-12) in the Gainesville regional playoff contest at noon on Friday.
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Bruises continue to be inflicted on Florida’s citrus industry, as the forecast for the nearly concluded growing season dropped further Friday.The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued an updated production forecast that was 5.6 percent below projections released in April. Meanwhile, a decades-old citrus association shut its doors this week, and a major grower told investors its groves might need at least one more season to recover from 2022’s Hurricane Ian.
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The Fort Myers Community Redevelopment Agency held a listening session to encourage ideas for the Cleveland Avenue Redevelopment Plan.
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Over 100 scholars attended 2024 Sunshine State Scholars Conference~ , with 37 students earning 1-year scholarships.
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Sid Vicious, of the Sex Pistols, lived and died as fast as the punk music he helped create. Vicious was born John Simon Ritchie on May 10, 1957 in London, England. Twenty-one years later, he died of a drug overdose in 1978.
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For the second month in a row the Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island metro area led Southwest Florida in annual job growth over the 12 months ending in March, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, besting the statewide figure by almost a half percent. The Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island area lead the same category by itself for March and shared that distinction with the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area in February.
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A property-insurance company has agreed to pay a $1 million fine after a state review found it violated claims-handling requirements following Hurricane Ian, according to an order signed Thursday by Florida Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky.The order and a report issued in March said Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance Co. violated state insurance laws, including by not promptly acknowledging that it received communications about claims, not paying or denying claims within a 90-day timeframe and not maintaining complete claims records.
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The rate of guns stolen from cars in the U.S. has tripled over the last decade, making them the largest source of stolen guns in the country, an analysis of FBI data by the gun safety group Everytown found.The rate of stolen guns from cars climbed nearly every year and spiked during the coronavirus pandemic along with a major surge in weapons purchases in the U.S., according to the report, which analyzes FBI data from 337 cities in 44 states and was provided to The Associated Press.
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When the wildlife corridor was envisioned, subdivisions with 10,000 houses and hundreds of thousands of feet of office space were not planned.
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