FLORIDA’S SMALL DISTILLERIES bring in thousands of visitors for tours every year, but they aren’t allowed to sell a single cocktail or shot of whiskey or rum, to any of them.
In the lore of the Plains Indians, Old Man Coyote is both admired and disdained — a crafty trickster, a savvy hunter and seducer of other creatures’ wives sometimes ensnared by his own arrogance. In trouble, he escapes with his own ingenuity.
He’s an animal of broad and rapacious appetite.
I woke up this morning and instead of getting myself a beer, like Jim Morrison, I got myself a question: “Dad, do you think Gen. George Patton would have liked Trump?”
Either a beer or a spiked question at 6 a.m. will lead roughly to the same result: intoxication.
I’ve found it difficult to think of anything else ever since.
The Turkish government is obviously familiar with the concept of “chutzpah,” if not necessarily the word.
Forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center say the Atlantic could see another above-normal hurricane season this year.
If you are one of the millions of American worried about losing your health insurance coverage, join the club. The Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives passed the American Health Care Act earlier this month. The bill achieves the long-desired goal of conservatives to repeal and replace Obamacare, i.e., the Affordable Healthcare Act.
The 2017 disaster preparedness sales tax holiday for Floridians begins at 12:01 a.m. Friday, June 2, and ends at 11:59 p.m. Sunday, June 4.
The local chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America encourages everyone to recognize Gun Violence Awareness Day in events starting at Cambier Park at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 3. The group will march down Fifth Avenue South before returning to the park for comments from Naples Mayor Bill Barnett and Dr. Allen Weiss, president and CEO of the NCH Healthcare System.
It’s baby season for wildlife in Southwest Florida, and to help the youngest patients at its von Arx Wildlife Hospital, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida is holding a “baby shower” from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, June 3.
¦ Solo Singles of Collier County was organized more than 25 years ago to create and promote recreation, culture, charitable and social activities for those persons single, divorced or widowed. Members meet at 5 p.m. every Friday for happy hour and dinner at different restaurants around town.
The 25th annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive resulted in delivery of more than 260,000 pounds of pantry items to the Collier Harvest warehouse on May 13. The food was donated by postal customers and picked up at mailboxes by mail carriers and Collier Harvest volunteers along their routes.
Consumer sentiment among Floridians dropped in May for the second month in a row, falling 2.4 points to 93.3 from a revised April reading of 95.7.
The less-positive outlook was shared by all Floridians across age, gender and income groups.
The Collier Spay Neuter Clinic is dedicated to providing a non-lethal solution to the problem of shelter pet overpopulation. There are no income qualifications required. Pets and feral cats from Marco Island to Cape Coral and more are all welcome.
As part of Adopt-a-Shelter Cat Month, Humane Society Naples has declared Thursdays in June to be “Purrsdays,” when the adoption fees (typically $35-$75) are waived for all cats over 4 months old.
Gulfshore Playhouse has entered into a purchase agreement for a 3-acre site at Goodlette-Frank Road and First Avenue North in anticipation of building a new regional theater complex.
The land is within Naples Square, a mixed-use development by The Ronto Group in partnership with Wheelock Street Capital that includes 300 residences and the recently announced Shoppes at Naples Square.
Wawa Inc. is in the final stages of its launch into Naples, with the first store slated to open in August. Wawa’s store operations team has started accepting applications for jobs and will begin interviews and hiring for 50 night supervisor and customer service associate positions in the upcoming weeks.
The classic styling of today’s Jeep Wrangler is part of a slow design evolution from its WWII founding father. Retaining the visual connection to an American hero has been so successful that it sustains an entire brand.
Here’s where Collier County Sheriff’s Office deputies will be on traffic detail the week of June 5-9:
Monday, June 5
Naples Boulevard: Aggressive driving
U.S. 41 East and Commercial Drive: Red-light running
Immokalee Road and Juliet Boulevard: Speeding
The Collier County Sheriff’s Office Golden Gate patrol district teams up with the Golden Gate Kiwanis for the inaugural Kids Camp Golf Tournament set for Saturday, June 3, at Hammock Bay Golf Resort in East Naples.
Civilian and auxiliary volunteers assist Collier County Sheriff’s Office deputies in a variety of ways, including staffing special events, helping with traffic control, providing research or support to investigators, performing data entry and assisting with the agency’s many youth programs.
THE FLORIDA LEGISLATURE INCLUDES 160 men and women each sporting an ambition, a goal or a plan.
Naples isn’t under siege like many urban areas around the country are, but the local chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America encourages everyone to recognize Gun Violence Awareness Day just the same. Starting at Cambier Park at 10 a.m.
Politicians get to ride shotgun in the big truck of American culture.
And they get to help drive, all at the same time.
The truck pulls up and stops. The engine idles briefly while they wrestle to open the door and fight to climb into the cab.
Lydia Black, the executive director of the Alliance for the Arts, wrote Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Naples, in support of the National Endowment of the Arts. This was the congressman’s reply. ¦
For the past couple of years, the most important word in American politics has been the worst — “rigged.”
The Neighborhood Health Clinic — a volunteer-driven nonprofit organization with approximately 250 physicians and dentists, 100 nurses and 150 non-medical personnel donating their professional expertise to provide Collier County’s low-income, working, uninsured adults affordable medical and dental care — operates under
The Collier County Veterans Council invites the public to a Memorial Day ceremony at 10 a.m. Monday, May 29, at Hodges Funeral Home at Naples Memorial Gardens. CCVC president and U.S. Coast Guard Chief William Carl will welcome keynote speakers Congressman Francis Rooney (R-Fla., District 19) and Brig. Gen. Edward Dyer, US Army (Ret.).
Asala International Philanthropy Group invites everyone to hear recently arrived refugees from Syria and Afghanistan talk about their journeys to resettlement in the United States from 7-9 p.m. Saturday, May 27, at the Current Event Center, 975 Imperial Golf Course Blvd. in North Naples. Questions from the audience will be welcome.
Pedestrian calming
It’s baby season for wildlife in Southwest Florida, and to help the youngest patients at its von Arx Wildlife Hospital, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida is holding a “baby shower” from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, June 3.
The League Club awarded 31 community agencies a total of $324,278 at its recent Briefcase Breakfast. Funds were raised at the club’s “Lauren Bush Lauren: Charity by Design” 2017 luncheon event. The following agencies received grants:
During April, 1,032,783 passengers traveled through Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW), an increase of 14.7 percent compared to April 2016. This number also represents the best April in the 34-year history of the airport. Year-to-date, passenger traffic is up 1.1 percent from the same period last year.
The Center for Nonprofit Excellence at Hodges University presents “The State of Charitable Giving: The Profession, Politics and their Impact on the Charitable World,” from 8:30-10 a.m. Thursday, June 15, in the Stock Building at the university’s Naples campus, 2647 Professional Way.
It was a reunion that began with a remark.
One of the funniest (or misguided) classic car sales advertisements today is for the “rare Karmann Edition” Volkswagen Beetle convertibles. The joke here is that nearly all of the regular production original VW droptops were built by an outside company called Karmann.
Here’s where Collier County Sheriff’s Office deputies will be on traffic detail the week of May 29-June 2:
Monday, May 29
Livingston Road and Learning Lane: Speeding
Everglades Boulevard and Oil Well Road: Speeding
Immokalee Road and Palm River Boulevard: Red-light running
It’s no longer so new nobody knows what will happen: TIKD, the brainchild app of Miami-based Chris Riley, who insists you can pay a traffic ticket online in two minutes and save 15 to 30 percent of the fine while avoiding both traffic school and points on your license, can get sued by lawyers whose bread and butter is the traffic ticket.
It has happened.
¦ Wine Tasters of Naples is a social club that meets from 5-7:30 p.m. every Friday at different locations around town. More so than wine, members enjoy socializing and working together on philanthropic and service projects to benefit the community. Members pay a $7 door fee; guests pay $9. Light bites are served, and attendees pay for their own beverages.
David Lawrence Center announces the new children’s Partial Hospitalization Program, a voluntary, intensive therapeutic day program consisting of individual and family intervention and support that allows children to spend evenings at home.
Since the beginning of civilization, physicians have held the central role in the care and well being of society. “For the most high cometh healing,” is the biblical quotation on the archway entrance of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. It has welcomed generations of medical students, including me 48 years ago.
THE STARK WHITE, 4,700-SQUARE-FOOT home on Captiva Island looks more like a monument than a mansion.
The nine years since Robert Rauschenberg’s death in 2008 have not been without controversy over his art and estate.
Three trustees of the Rauschenberg Revocable Trust brought a lawsuit against the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation in 2011, seeking $60 million in fees for their services. The trustees were:
High school graduation is one of the most special and celebrated milestones in the life of any young adult.
You know what they say: Don’t talk about the weather unless you want it to happen to you.
Remember “The Perfect Storm,” based on a true story, the one that sunk the Andrea Gail out of Gloucester, Mass., with all hands, including George Clooney?
Concerned Americans, speak out!
If you’ve only followed coverage of the Republican health care bill loosely in the media, you might believe that House Republicans, after much effort, passed legislation to deny people with pre-existing conditions health insurance.
Almost 50 volunteers representing eight Greater Naples Leadership classes pitched in to dig holes and plant 66 trees, spread 25 bales of pine straw, trim and remove 10 golf carts’ worth of coin vines and feed the newly planted trees 500 gallons of water recently at Naples Botanical Garden as part of GNL’S “Done in a Day” community service project for the year.
Stock Development has announced plans for its affiliate, Vanderbilt Holdings Naples, to develop One Naples on the northeast corner of Vanderbilt Drive and Gulfshore Boulevard North.
The wheels are in motion for the 18th annual Naples Winter Wine Festival, set for Jan. 26-28, 2018, at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort. Co-chairs are Becky and Lewie Card, Susie and David McCurry and Kathy and Dan Mezzalingua. All are trustees of the Naples Children & Education Foundation, the festival’s founding organization.
The Community Foundation of Collier County has distributed $1,604,894 in 314 grants made to nonprofit agencies in the third quarter of the foundation’s fiscal year (Jan. 1-March 31). More than $1.1 million, including $50,000 to New Horizons of Southwest Florida, $36,000 to Collier Harvest and $30,000 to Naples United Church of Christ, came from donor advised funds.
Sweet, sweet revenge
Terracina Grand invites military veterans and their families to a Salute to Armed Forces Day ceremony from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 20, at the retirement community at Villa at Terracina Grand, 6855 Davis Blvd. Honored guests will include Maj. Gen. James Dozier, Gold Star Mother Polly Crews and WWII Army Air Corps veteran POW Harold Leavitt.
Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida and its Professional Action Network invite the public to a “Myth-Busting Mixer,” the first event sponsored by PAN, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 24, in Bonita Springs.
Moving critically ill children from one hospital to another requires great precision. So the staff at the new Golisano Children’s Hospital had practice runs before all the patients and staff were moved on May 10. Beds, isolettes and wheelchairs were rolled from the former pediatric space in HealthPark Medical Center next door, transporting patients to the new hospital.
The new Kia Niro feels like a vehicle that was built for the bonus generation. It’s for those people who got their best gadgets in the pre-internet era from late-night TV infomercials that screamed, “But wait!
The Collier County Sheriff’s Office and Naples Velo host the second annual Donut Ride in celebration of Bicycle Safety Month on Saturday morning, May 20.
Here’s where Collier County Sheriff’s Office deputies will be on traffic detail the week of May 22-26:
Monday, May 22
Goodlette-Frank Road and Pelican Marsh Boulevard: Speeding
Pine Ridge Road and Napa Boulevard: Aggressive driving
Immokalee and Oil Well roads: Speeding
Investments made in The Immokalee Foundation’s students and programs have ways of paying dividends throughout the Southwest Florida community.
The Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Collier County and Naples Jewish Congregation invite the public to an interfaith Shabbat service at 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 26, at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 6340 Napa Woods Way in Naples.
Volunteers at the Collier Resource Center know the community well and can help clients navigate the maze of health and human service resources available to meet various financial, physical or mental needs.
We’ve been watching women do it for themselves for a while, but why are they doing it by themselves? SCORE Naples aims to help female entrepreneurs get to the bottom of their business growth fears and obstacles with “inSights into Successful Growth Strategies: By Women! For Women!” The seminar is set for 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, May 20, at Pelican Marsh Golf Club.
Consider this, first: By 2100, there’s a chance Donald Trump’s Florida home, Mar-A-Lago, and everything near it could be underwater, according to a new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.
NOAA is not given to hyperbole.
Back in 2008, the Florida’s Senate and House of Representatives unanimously approved a formal resolution. Its purpose was to apologize for the state’s historical role in institutionalizing and promulgating slavery.
The David Lawrence Center, Collier County’s only comprehensive, not-for-profit mental health and substance abuse treatment facility serving children, adults and families, invites the public to an open house and me
The 25th anniversary of the National Association of Letter Carriers Stamp Out Hunger food drive is Saturday, May 13. Postal customers around the country are urged to leave nonperishable food items by their mailbox for their letter carriers to collect.
Republicans have put on a clinic on overpromising during the past several years.
Even if you were paying only very little attention, you would have gotten the distinct impression over the past four election cycles that the GOP was unalterably committed to repealing and replacing Obamacare.
¦ Naples area Sigma Chi alumni are invited to lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, May 12, at the Naples Sailing & Yacht Club, 896 River Point Drive. $25 for dues-paying members, $30 for others. RSVP by calling 293-5239. Members will also meet for happy hour from 5-7 p.m. Thursday, May 25 at the Pub at Mercato.
The Land of Opportunity Fund, an endowed field of interest fund of the Southwest Florida Community Foundation, has been established by an anonymous donor who will match donations of $50,000 or more with an additional $50,000.
