3 To Know: Electric Corvette, Rookery Bay and Arbor Day

1. GM confirms it will offer an all-electric Corvette sports car

General Motors is confirming what President Joe Biden told the world about 18 months ago: There will be an all-electric Corvette. 

On Monday, GM President Mark Reuss announced that, in addition to the new Chevrolet Corvette Z06 and other gas-powered variants coming, "we will offer an electrified and a fully electric, Ultium-based Corvette in the future."

An "electrified" version means a form of electrification that is not a full EV, said GM spokesman Shad Balch. Balch declined to comment further on the specific type of application.

Reuss first said on CNBC and then wrote about it on his LinkedIn page. He said the electrified Corvette will come out "as early as next year" and said more details "and names" will come at a later date.

The news is not totally unexpected. In an 80-second campaign spot posted on Biden's Twitter account in August 2020, Biden talked about his love of the Corvette and the American car market. In it, he says, "They tell me that GM is making an all-electric version of its iconic sports car that will go 200 mph." – Jamie L. LaReau/USA Today

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2. Former anchor tacks on age discrimination claim against TV station

Jane Monreal, a former WFTX-Fox 4 anchor, has tacked on an age discrimination claim to her federal lawsuit against the Southwest Florida news station and its parent company.

Monreal, who had been a weekday evening anchor and investigative reporter for Fox 4 from 2017 to December 2021, filed her lawsuit in Florida’s Middle District Court in January. Among the defendants are Fox 4 Vice President Evan Pappas, and Fox 4’s owner Scripps Media, Inc.

The lawsuit cites the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 and race discrimination and retaliation pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, alleging the station participated in discrimination and sabotaged her broadcasting career when it terminated her contract soon after she voiced complaints about race discrimination at the news station.

Monreal, 51, alleges the discrimination began after WFTX-Fox 4 hired Pappas early last year, three months after the media organization awarded her a three-year employment contract as an anchor/multimedia journalist.

At the time of her departure, the evening team was made up of Monreal, chief meteorologist Derek Beasley, meteorologist Cindy Preszler, and anchor Patrick Nolan.

All four were told the station was not renewing or was ending their contracts late last year, court records show.

Monreal is now a weekend evening anchor and a reporter at WCNC Charlotte in North Carolina. Read more at marconews.com. – Rachel Heimann Mercader/Staff

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2. BOGO Rookery Bay admission for National Arbor Day

The Rookery Bay Environmental Learning Center, 300 Tower Road, offers BOGO admission from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday, April 29, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of National Arbor Day.

In addition to the aquariums, touch tank, exhibits and art gallery, the center has a tree-filled “Snail Trail” that encourages explorers to use all their senses to connect intimately with the natural world, meandering slowly like a snail. The trail starts by crossing a pedestrian bridge over Henderson Creek and includes an additional boardwalk viewing platform at the water’s edge.

Visitors can take the half-mile walking trail with a surface suitable for strollers and wheelchairs, or two more half-mile unsurfaced trails for the more “adventurous” explorers.  

Highlights on the trail system include an old homestead dating back to post-Civil War times when squatters began to farm this rugged terrain; a cement rainwater storage cistern that collected rainwater running off the old home’s roof and stored it through the dry winter months, when it could be used for cooking and watering livestock; a primitive swale system designed to drain the land during driving summer rains; and sanseveria, an ornamental plant commonly associated with early homesteads.

Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for children ages 6-12, and free for active and retired military personnel and their families.

Learn more at rookerybay.org.

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