A.C. SHILTON

By the numbers alone, the completion of the Tamiami Trail was a mind-boggling event. Across 76 swampy miles, more than 2,000 workers toiled for the better part of five years.

By the numbers alone, the completion of the Tamiami Trail was a mind-boggling event. Across 76 swampy miles, more than 2,000 workers toiled for the better part of five years.

Everglades National Park is offering some hands-on history lessons this weekend

St. Mark's Episcopal Church on Marco Island hosts Camp Jeffrey, a camp for challenged or disabled children and young adults, 1 to 3 p.m., Tuesdays, which serves as a respite for the caregivers of the campers now through April. Volunteers ...

While Southwest Florida has more festivals than you can shake a corn dog stick at, the Everglades Seafood Festival is one of the few that is still all about good food, cold beer and hanging out with old friends. In ...

As 8-year-old Parker Seward swung around the final lap in Able Academy’s first-ever “Try-Athlon,” he punched the air victoriously. Behind him, nearly a dozen other children would soon do the same.

Every journalist wants to feel like the stories they produce change lives, but a story produced by Lisa Sylvester — a correspondent for CNN — in 2008 did just that.

TheatreZone is developing a bit of a reputation. The good news? It’s a wonderful reputation that’s luring top-notch professional actors to perform in the company’s shows. The bad news? You’re going to need to reserve your tickets ASAP.

A lasting tribute to Vietnam and all veterans will now honor them every day in Bonita Springs. After four years of fundraising and planning, the Bonita Springs Veterans Memorial Monument was unveiled Sunday during a special ceremony at Riverside Park ...

Nov. 6, 2012 is a big day. For two presidential candidates it will mark the endpoint of what has been a long, exhausting and expensive election.

Eleven years later, for many of us, life has returned back to normal. Maybe it's a new normal, as we surrender our shoes in security lines and gasp at decades-old movies where the Twin Towers still stand, but it's more-or-less ...

It started out so innocently. She was a teenager, dreaming of a fairytale life — and he would be her Prince Charming. It was young love at its best: swift, fast and completely overwhelming. Two months later, a subtle shift ...

Kay Folsom is about the most fashionable soon-to-be 88-year-old that you’ll ever meet. She arrives for our interview in a smart outfit—bright slacks, a crisp shirt and a sleek blazer—her hair and makeup impeccably done. She sits down, crosses her ...

Chances are, at some point you’ve used one of the following clichés to describe your workday: My boss bit my head off; I’m drowning in projects; working with my coworkers is like swimming with the sharks; it’s sink or swim ...

When Rose Murphy was diagnosed with stage three pancreatic cancer, she knew she was going to need the right doctor, the right drugs and just a bit of luck. As her diagnosis sunk in, Murphy realized that what she also ...

Kevin Van Duser could tell something was bothering his student, Ashleigh Baker. Van Duser, the director of sports outreach at First Baptist Academy, had accompanied a group of students from the Naples Baptist Academy on a field trip to Immokalee. ...

From reality TV to learning about the gritty realities of making it in the music business, what a year it's been for Casey Weston

As Chris Andrews of Fort Myers came across the finish line at last Saturday’s Miracle Limbs Courage In Motion Benefit Bike Ride, she looked at the gal who’d finished just minutes before her and said, “She kicked my butt!” Andrews ...

Until the first drops of rain plunk down on your head, it’s easy to take your trusty umbrella — you know, the one you didn’t happen to bring with you — for granted. Aside from that polka dot number you ...

If you had the Naples Daily News delivered to your home in the 1980s, it’s entirely possible that your morning paper was flung by the hands of a future rock star. Number 25 on last week’s Adult Contemporary Billboard chart ...

Bradbury Ketelhut’s seashell collection isn’t a typical one. It’s not about the best or the biggest, the most unique or even the most valuable. Instead, it’s just about having them. Five hundred of them, to be exact. For Ketelhut, the ...

We’re just going to say it. There is something that just feels good about pinging a lawyer with a bright red rubber ball. “I don’t think people necessarily try to hit me harder because I’m a lawyer, I just think ...

Don’t call Jeff Evans a reality TV star. Sure, his team, named “No Limits,” came in second on ABC’s hit show “Expedition Impossible” last year, but the show certainly hasn’t defined who Evans is. And it’s not that he eschews ...

One after another, as guests entered Greystone Manor’s grand foyer, a look of, “oh wow” passed over their faces.

Under a gorgeous blue sky, the 11th annual Charity Golf Tournament got off to a glorious start on Sunday.

Five years ago, at age 50, Dale Blodgett started getting bizarre dizzy spells. Then, she couldn’t walk. A doctor’s diagnosis sent her world reeling. What she had was the incurable, progressive disease multiple sclerosis. This weekend, Blodgett will be out ...

It’s a quick thumb prick followed by a long wait. Maybe the 20-minute wait time isn’t that long, in the grand scheme of things. But when you’re waiting for your Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) test results to appear, it’s hard ...

Le Petite Gallery, the newest gallery in the Marco Island Center for the Arts, is, as the name would suggest, petite. In its former life, the diminutive space was actually a storage closet. But it’s the perfect space for hanging ...

When Joe Guthrie tries to explain why a statewide wildlife corridor is important, he starts like this: “Imagine you’re a bear. A bear living in Collier County. And you’ve been out-competed for resources. You need to move to survive, so ...

In the last two weeks, conservative heavy hitters Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and Michael Hayden have all spoken in Naples. But the liberals haven’t been sitting on their hands, completely idle either.

It started as a simple request: Janice Bronstein, a Naples senior living with multiple sclerosis, needed a new wheelchair ramp for the entrance to her home. The recent widow of a World War II veteran, Bronstein asked the Collier Building ...

Hardly a person in this country can hear the words, “A Night at the Prom,” without feeling at least a pang of nostalgia.

This past Wednesday morning, Lauren Book bounded energetically down the steps of a giant recreational vehicle. In athletic shorts, sunglasses and a hat, Book looked like she was dressed for an afternoon of tennis or a light jog. What she ...

No one would describe General Michael Hayden’s presentation to the Forum Club last Friday as “feel-good.” The lunchtime lecture was the kind of presentation that makes one contemplate taking out a huge life insurance policy, or better yet, applying for ...

Your shoes, belt, wallet and spare coins have all been removed. Your laptop is placed in its own little plastic bin, while your Ziploc bag of travel sized shampoo and mouthwash chugs along the conveyor belt – on display for ...

Forget making house calls, the doctors of Physician’s Regional Healthcare System are making bank calls. And just because your meeting your doctor at the bank, doesn’t mean you’ll need to take out a loan while you’re there. In fact, unlike ...

Remember the time you meticulously wrote that note to Santa? Written in your best penmanship, you tried to make sure to stress what a good kid you’d been all year, and sure, maybe you were a little overzealous with the ...

This time of year, the notoriously festive Victoria Park is lit up to the high heavens. Along the neighborhood’s quiet avenues inflatable Santa’s wave, snowmen bobble, and lights, lights and more lights dazzle. But outside one house, there’s a Christmas ...

So when the sign went up in a little strip mall off Goodlette-Frank Road advertising Simply Southern BBQ was opening soon, I practically stalked the place until it opened. The little takeout spot, which is Naples resident Mikkel Brinson's first ...

Kevin Takei, the chef de cuisine at St. Matthew’s House, offers answers to those question we who plan turkey dinners need.

When Kim Hochman gave birth to her son Cameron Hochman on Nov. 11, 2000, it didn’t take her mother-in-law long to figure out that the newborn would one day have a very special birthday.

As any parent knows, when your child’s favorite stuffed toy falls to the ground you have just moments to grab it and get it back in the stroller before the full-on wailing erupts. On Saturday, as a stuffed bunny hit ...

When Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot last January, Dale Mullin, like the rest of the nation, was glued to his television. “But the coverage went on for weeks and weeks and weeks,” Mullin said, “and I thought to myself, ‘There ...

For generations, librarians have been legendary for their super “shhhhhhhh-ing” powers. But last Thursday, in a certain departure from the profession’s tradition of shushing, Golden Terrace Elementary School’s media specialist — that’s the modern term for librarian — had 500 ...

For generations, librarians have been legendary for their super “shhhhhhhh-ing” powers. But last Thursday, in a certain departure from the profession’s tradition of shushing, Golden Terrace Elementary School’s media specialist — that’s the modern term for librarian — had 500 ...

When Alzheimer’s disease strikes, it doesn’t just affect the life of the person facing the diagnosis. “It effects every single person in the family, it really does,” says Kathy Kilijanski, a home healthcare provider for Home Instead Senior Care, adding, ...

If you’ve ever had a truly terrible boss, you’ve probably dreamed of his or her retirement party. But if Ernie Bretzmann is your boss, the scenario is exactly the opposite. After 16 years of service at the helm of the ...

Throughout Sean Mello’s 20-year career in the Army Special Forces he’s seen the sun rise in many places. He has seen it rise across multiple locations in the Middle East and he’s seen it rise in Uruguay, Paraguay and Peru. ...

In author C.B. Nash’s first book, “The Vengeance of Ben-Balla,” a twisted web of murder, terrorism and heroism plays out across Lee County. Throughout its pages characters frequent local restaurants and crisscross local roads in hot pursuit of bad guys.

As the glossy bowling ball spins down the spit-polished lane and collides perfectly with the triangle of pins waiting at the end, local resident Melissa Harmon realizes she has just bowled a strike and does a little happy dance. Behind ...