Gulf Coast Life

In the wake of last week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, we’ll explore what it could mean for abortion access in Florida going forward.

Pollinators are responsible for assisting about 80% of the world's flowering plants to reproduce, and that includes quite a few crops grown for food. We learn about the work being done by pollinators all around us, and get some tips on how to attract them to our yard, and how to keep from harming them by misusing pesticides.

The latest reading scores for students in Florida show that 47% of Florida’s 3rd graders are not reading on grade level. And data shows that if a student is struggling in third grade they are very likely to struggle in middle school and beyond. Eighty-percent of high school dropouts were struggling readers in 3rd grade.In the new book "America's Embarrassing Reading Crisis: What We Learned From COVID" Dr. Lisa Richardson Hassler explores reading proficiencies among third-graders, both pre and post-pandemic, and compares established virtual learning methods like those used by Florida’s Virtual School with traditional brick-and-mortar schools.

For nearly 40 years, high school students in Collier County have been given the opportunity to learn about their county’s government through a program called Know Your County Government. They get a first-hand look at the work being done behind the scenes in their community.

We talk with a professor at Florida Gulf Coast University who is working with a team of researchers at the University of Geneva in Switzerland to try and help the World Health Organization decrease the number of deaths and disabilities caused by venomous snakebites by half by 2030. Their team has developed a web-based app called Snake ID that uses visual pattern recognition algorithms to help doctors and patients identify venomous snakes. The technology can also be used to help healthcare systems determine what kinds of antivenom treatments to have on hand in particular geographic areas.

In this documentary special, we learn about a remarkable agency: the Freedmen’s Bureau, established by Congress to help this population as the war drew to a close. We find out about the journey of millions of newly freed people toward citizenship. And we hear about the spiritual faith that enabled them to hang on — against past horrors and the new hostility they would endure: the terrorist backlash against emancipation including the Ku Klux Klan, which arose in this period.

For more than a decade researchers and growers have been exploring the potential efficacy and economic impact of developing a commercial-scale olive industry in Florida. In recent years, they’ve been making advances in identifying olive varieties that can thrive even in Florida’s warmer southern regions. We’ll explore the latest research findings with Florida Olive Council founder and President Michael O’Hara Garcia.

Can solving specially designed brain games on a computer or tablet reduce the chances of developing dementia, like Alzheimer’s, or delay the loss of function associated with the disease and other forms of dementia? That is the primary question being tested by researchers at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Earlier stages of the study have demonstrated promising results. For instance, healthy older adults who have received this targeted computerized training had a 29% lower risk of dementia after 10 years, and those completing additional training were 48% less likely to show signs of dementia 10 years later.

The 2022 Atlantic Hurricane Season is well-underway, with southwest Florida’s recent brush with Tropical Storm Alex, which was the first named storm of the season. Alex caused significant flooding in parts of Florida and killed three people in Cuba. The storm serves as a reminder that even though the peak of hurricane season typically doesn’t arrive until September, severe weather can come at any time throughout the six month hurricane season and that now is the time to prepare. We talk with the director of Lee County Emergency Management's Department of Public Safety to get some tips on what residents should do to be ready.

The Florida Supreme Court will hear arguments tomorrow in a dispute about a 2011 state law that threatens stiff penalties if city and county officials pass gun-related regulations. The so-called ‘preemption law’ is being challenged by more than 30 local governments and dozens of local officials, as well as Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Nikki Fried. We talk with Fried about the lawsuit and issues around gun violence. Fried is also a Democratic candidate for Governor.