Fort Myers Beach, Florida

Amid the nationwide economic slowdown, Southwest Florida’s newest minor league franchise says ticket sales are off to a running start as they look toward their debut season next spring.

All three of Southwest Florida’s spring training teams will feature reigning Gold Glove winners when they come to town next year.

A huge flurry of final-hour voting pushed vote totals for the top two nominees up dramatically. But at the close of voting at 7p.m. Thursday, the NBC2 Gridiron 2Night Game of the Week was Naples at Lely.

Originally posted by ABC7 News on: Wednesday, November 05, 2008 Last updated on: 11/5/2008 12:24:03 PM FORT MYERS : Sculptors started digging in Wednesday afternoon for the 22nd Annual Sand Sculpting Festival …

The city’s newest parking garage is once again at the center of a controversy. Naples resident Sharon Kenny filed a citizen’s complaint against two art selection committee members, alleging that Andrea Clark Brown and Andrew Eisele violated the state Sunshine Law, which prohibits two or more members of a governmental body to meet privately. Kenny served as the chairwoman of the parking garage’s Call to Artist Selection Committee. The committee’s task was to choose an artist to commission a piece of art for the outside of the parking garage.

A public official at the center of Ave Maria’s questionable compliance with state open meeting laws is no longer on the town’s government.
Until Tuesday, Brian Goguen, a vice president at town co-developer Barron Collier Cos., served on the development’s private decision-making body and on the town’s governing board. Goguen’s tenure on both boards overlapped with two employees of town co-developer Tom Monaghan, raising eyebrows from open government experts.

The American Cancer Society has scheduled the Great American Smokeout (GASO) for Nov. 20, 2008, to encourage smokers to quit smoking for a day in the hope they may quit for good.

Baseball legend Roberto Clemente is not only remembered as an athlete. “He was a professional athlete,” said Nancy Olson, senior park naturalist with Collier County. “But he was a humanitarian first and I think that’s important for children to know.”

The Seminole Immokalee Casino is expanding 35,000 square feet. The casino is erecting a building on part of its parking lot to create more space for additional machines and players, Seminole Tribe of Florida Inc. President Richard Bowers Jr. said.

Letter-writing is a lost art, some say. Folks in the governor’s office might disagree. With 4,000 letters and faxes received regarding the potential lease of Alligator Alley since June 1, Gov. Charlie Crist is finding that Floridians are still dedicated to communicating through the written word.

A 10-year veteran of the Collier County Sheriff’s Office was demoted from sergeant to corporal after an investigation revealed he downed a pint of bourbon and then flipped his sport utility vehicle on Livingston Road. George Otto “Tray” Radford, 42, admitted during an internal interview that he started drinking about two hours before the accident and stopped drinking about a half hour before the crash.

For years Golden Gate firefighters have been eager to reach out to the community beyond service calls. The Golden Gate Fire District and Golden Gate Professional Firefighters Local No. 3182 joined efforts along with community groups to host “Fired Up for the Holidays,” a holiday supply drive to benefit needy Golden Gate families.

A 50-year-old former nurse who was addicted to painkillers and falsified patient records to steal pills was sentenced to five years of house arrest for that and other crimes. But Debra Archer Hauenstein of Golden Gate, who got hooked on drugs after an injury, may never finish her sentence: She’s in the terminal stages of breast cancer.

So far in 2008, there has been a decrease in the number of traffic fatalities in Southwest Florida. The sheriff’s office says high gas prices may be one of the reasons for the decline.