The persistent and growing problem of plastics in our environment is becoming increasingly clear. We're sitting down with a local who man who has spent his career in the world of plastics and packaging to get his insights into where we are, and where the industry is heading. Warren Schirado is a Packaging Development and Design Engineer who has spent his life researching plastics, and the never ending efforts to use less of them, or discover more environmentally friendly ways to make them.

Last September, the Director of the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve in Port Aransas, Texas was walking along the beach when he came across a disturbing find -- millions of tiny, plastic pellets had washed ashore -- he’d stumbled across an apparent nurdle spill. Nurdles are tiny, plastic pellets that are used as the base material for the manufacture of other plastic products.

Florida lawmakers adjourned the state’s annual legislative session, Saturday, with an historic $91.1 billion budget for the coming fiscal year. Although just 5.6% of the nearly 3,500 bills filed during the session actually passed, Senate President Bill Galvano, House Speaker Jose Oliva and Governor Ron DeSantis are claiming victory, as many of their legislative priorities did pass.

Florida has long ranked at or near the bottom when it comes to spending for state-managed mental health programs. And while the lack of available mental health services, for people of all ages, is a statewide problem, it’s particularly acute here in Southwest Florida. In Lee, Collier and Charlotte Counties there is roughly one mental health provider per 1000 residents -- that’s compared to the state average of about one in 670 people. Add to that shortage the dramatic increase in the number of

May is National Foster Care Month, so we're listening back to a conversation we had earlier this year with the owners of a restaurant along U.S. 41 in South Fort Myers that’s hard to miss. It’s painted bright green and called FK Your Diet . The "FK" stands for "foster kids," and it’s run by a Doug Miller, who was raised in foster homes, and his wife, Amy Eldridge. They serve up dishes, mostly comfort foods, Miller learned to cook while staying in more than a dozen homes and in portion sizes that

Southwest Florida-based singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist Robert Bidney performs live in-studio ahead of his concert at the All Faiths Unitarian Congregation in Fort Myers, May 4, sponsored by the American Community Music Association . The performance marks the release of his second album, “Rush of Hope,” which comes out this month.

The Florida Repertory Theatre in downtown Fort Myers holds its 6 th annual PlayLab Festival May 9-12. The festival gives emerging and established playwrights an opportunity to workshop and develop their plays with a director and a cast of professional actors and will culminate with a public reading of five new stage plays and one musical. We’re joined by Florida Rep Artistic Director Greg Longenhagen and Associate Artistic Director and PlayLab Artistic Director Jason Parrish , both of whom will

The severity of last year’s dual toxic algae blooms have raised awareness among the public for a need to find real solutions to these persistent problems. While the causes are a complicated knot that won’t be easily untangled, there does seem to be a bipartisan consensus to work to find real solutions.

After years of searching for what was rumored to be a giant salamander living in the swamps of the Florida panhandle and southern Alabama, a team of researchers have found it, and recently published a paper describing for the first time this entirely new species they named the reticulated siren. This giant new salamander species, which can grow up to 2 feet long, is one of the largest new species to be described in the U.S. in more than a century.

Dr. David Thomas held many roles over the course of his 20 years in law enforcement. He was a patrol officer, detective, he served in the Street Crimes division, SWAT, Hostage Negotiations, Community Policing, and he trained other officers in many of these roles.