Something In Our Bloodstream

Ten years ago, 12-year-old Rory Staunton dove for a ball in gym class and scraped his arm. He woke up the next day with a 104-degree Fahrenheit fever, so his parents took him to the pediatrician and eventually the emergency room. It was just the stomach flu, they were told. Three days later, Rory died […]

High Water Everywhere

It’s a day for the blues. There’s nothing like a toe-tapper about a mass casualty event. When it comes down to it, that’s all the blues are about: making the insufferable thing bearable. In High Water Everywhere, Charley Patton sang about the 1927 Mississippi levee break that displaced tens of thousands. Patton lived on Dockery’s […]

Lee Hospital Patients Are Being Evacuated

Lee Health is evacuating up to 400 patients to hospitals in Collier County because of water pressure losses at two of its campuses. More patients will be transferred in the coming days as beds are found, said Dr. Larry Antonucci, president and chief executive officer of Lee Health. When Lee Health says “campuses” they mean […]

The Swamp

Runoff from farms collects in Lake Okeechobee and is discharged regularly across the state, polluting the waterways, bays, and shorelines of Florida. Red Tide is just one of the adverse consequences imposed by big agricultural concerns (sugar, citrus, dairy) that lurk in the rural interior of the Sunshine State. “We discovered that nitrogen-enriched Caloosahatchee River […]