You're watching Southwest Florida in focus.

On today's program, the show goes on at Naples Pride Fest despite an ongoing legal battle.

A last minute court order didn't stop event organizers from getting their signature drag performance on stage.

But they did have to make some c Rebuilding Fort Myers Beach, how its mayor hopes to hang onto Florida vibes while embracing th communities growth.

And it was supposed to give one of Florida's poorest communities an economic boost.

But a proposed cargo airport in County has yet to take flight.

Hello, I'm Sandra Viktorova Thank you for joining us.

The annual Naples Pride Fest avo multiple legal hurdles to bring the celebration to thousands of attendees this y Still, a late court decision impacted t plus event 24 hours before the g The 11th Circuit Court of Appeal granted a request by the city of to force the marquee performance the drag extravaganza, indoors instead of outdoors at Camp Beer Park, and barred anyone under 18 from attending w Eddie Stewart reports.

We just try to show off and spread love, and that's all we do.

We're just here to be loving.

Over 4000 people showed up to Pr Fest in Naples last weekend, enjoying food and drinks organiz in support of the Lgbtq+ communi and a variety of performances at Cambia Park.

That is, most performances.

Only about 600 people could expe festival's signature drag extrav That's because of a last minute decision, which confined the dra show off the main stage and indo And yesterday, you know, we had you know, do a lot of changes, which means she had to deal with when, you know, she actually wok She did not wake up early home.

It's been stressful for, you know, the fact that they wai you know, the 11th hour to tell we did have to move inside, but we have done it before, insi and especially in here.

So we knew we knew the game plan We knew how to to adjust quickly But, it'd be fun to be out with because we know it's like a spec year this year, and it's a beaut But, yeah, it's sometimes you gotta roll with th One attendee said the controvers made her more determined to atte When there's this one ugly on th it makes you even want to more come in more with that ribbon that other protesters also showe supporting the city of Naples ban on outdoor drag shows.

Naples police estimated about 250 prote Only one incident led to an arre Advocates for Pride Fest say they're still in the fight to bring the drag show out in th next year.

We are here.

We are proud to be who we are and we want to be seen, and we w for others to know that we are c with our community, putting us inside, putting us in the shadows, liter putting us hidden away, tucked a so that people can't see us is the embodiment of what we're here to fight agai and we're going to move to the end of the case as fast a so that by this time next year, we're here outside celebrating with a drag show that's outside.

For WGCU news, I'm Eddie Stewart Last month, a lower court ruled against the city of finding their permitting restric for the event as clearly invalid under the First Amendment.

Governor Ron DeSantis and Repres Byron Donalds both criticized previous rulings in favor of the They cite concerns about protect children from sexually explicit Attorneys for the ACLU of Florid played an instrumental role in clearing a path for Pride Fes this year.

ACLU of Florida Executive Direct Jackson spoke about the restrictions placed on the drag show.

She says while their side didn't get the ruling they hoped they move forward, saying that justice is rarely li We are joined now by Howard Simo He spent 23 years as executive d of the ACLU of Florida.

Thank you for joining us, Mr. Simon.

We appreciate it.

Thank you for the invitation.

So the district judge in this ca that the drag show is protected I want you to help us to underst where the legal boundaries are i when something goes from being considered free speec and then can cross into that are which may not be protected, such as such as obscenity.

Well, obscenity is a very techni legal definition that has to dea things like community standards, whether there's any redeeming artistic value.

And of course, there's plenty of value because there's lots of Br shows, Mozart operas, a history of that shows on Broad now that deal with drag performa and so on.

And I don't know why the city of is trying to bang its head against the wal and trying to defend a dam, which is clearly unconstitutiona as it is a violation of the free of speech of the people of our a to put on this performance.

Mr. Simon, when you first took o the ACLU of Florida in 1997, LGBTQ issues were certa a major issue back then as well.

I'm thinking of issues like same sex marriage.

How have you seen the discussion rights change over the years?

Well, that's a really interesting ques There's some things that are cha and there's some things that hav stayed the same.

I think what's changed is that w are a lot closer to legal equali for members of the LGBT communit than we were several decades ago I it took us several years to strike down the ban on adoptions by gay men and lesb It took us a while to establish before the US Supreme Court that the right to When it took us many years to de local ordinances that prohibited discrimination on the basis of b So the legal environment has really changed.

I think culturally, we've moved I don't think people think that, gay is a legitimate basis for discrimination anymore.

So a lot has changed culturally and legally.

What has not changed, unfortunat is a lot of the ugly rhetoric.

When did it become permissible i to say that I may be offended by a drag performance?

I wouldn't want my children to s I wouldn't want to obtain one.

But I have the right to ban it f everybody else who doesn't objec I think that's a profoundly un-A attitude towards freedom of speech in this countr Why do you think it's important to protect events like pride from a legal perspect Well, because I have a constitut right of freedom of speech.

It's important to protect everyb freedom of speech from the point regardless of political point of That's the work of that the ACLU now for more than 100 years.

I mean, you're asking me why it's important.

It's important because if we don have the protection of freedom o for everybody in this country, r of their political point of view regardless of whether you agree or whether you are offended by i We've gone a long way towards becoming some country other than Mr. Simon, we appreciate your in Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

A new town hall and better bridges are some of the rebuildi underway on Fort Myers Beach.

Coming up next, we sit down with Allen's to learn more about the island communitie 15 years of talk and promises and no cargo airport to show for That's the situation in Henry Co Since 2010, investors have promo a giant cargo hub near Clewiston They talked about high paying jo one of the poorest counties in t So where do things stand with th flying dreams?

Mike Walter tried to find out.

Welcome to Air Glades International Airport.

Air.

As the Federal Aviation Administration calls it.

It's pretty quiet, especially fo touted as a potential major cargo airport, bringing in produ and flowers from Central and Sou and providing, investors claim, good paying jobs.

There's more than enough unemployment he so that would definitely be posi You have any hope it'll happen?

I guess I haven't really heard anything So it's been that long that they been discussing it, so I don't k Maybe not.

Everglades has a notable history It was Riddle Field at the start War two, when 1300 British pilots trained Recently, the airport's had skyd and pilot refresher flights, but a company called Florida Car Fresh envisions a cargo hub here It has partnered with Hilliard B Agriculture, headquartered near the airport, and U.S. sugar, based in Clewiston.

The parent company is Everglades The future of logistics.

It foresees a 10,000ft runway double the current length, plus refrigerated warehouses and trucks to distribute the pro It will give it an international of goods coming from abroad.

Many.

Benitez has spent his adult life in aviation and has operated a consulting firm in Miami the past 22 years.

I believe the economics to Henry County will be exceptional.

We contacted Air Glades and received a statement saying there is no substantive u It does say it's talking with th about the agency's money require that Everglades must have at lea million available to start building and operating a cargo hub.

I mean, I haven't seen any progr towards it personally, and I don't think we need anythi more here.

I. I moved here for a little town f A big obstacle is that Miami Int Mia is the king of cargo in the southeast U.S., and it has no desire to give up It's a huge moneymaker for Miami-Dade County.

It charges a fee for every plane that lands based on weight.

An average sized, loaded cargo j pays about $400 every time it touches down.

Mia sets a new cargo record almost every year, with 3 million tons coming in la and predictions of 5 million ton Miami-Dade has earmarked for hundred million dollars to build a new and bigger cargo at Mia.

That would guarantee more jobs and likely more aviation repair and parks shops around th Municipalities of Doral.

Medley, West Hialeah they have been expanding for man with tremendous cargo complex ca huge warehouses and the influx of such aircrafts with goods and cargo stimulates Henry County government official refusing interviews about the ca However, in a statement to WGCU county management says the investors could be helping t local economy right now and.

On this land, investors could build and hangars, Henry says.

Or they could build maintenance and repair shops.

Cargo is an it's a pinnacle point of our economy, both locally and globally.

And so the Everglades of dreams shimmers in the heat.

No one knows whether it will bec the engine for economic revival for this area, or remain just a quiet airfield for WGCU News and Henry County.

I'm Mike Wilcher.

One community that is having suc with large construction projects is the town of Fort Mye The new Big Carlos Pass Bridge that connects the south end of t island to Lovers Key, is project to be completed by the summer of Fort Myers Beach also hopes to o this new town hall in about a mo Hurricane Ian destroyed the form hall in 2022, buying this struct on a sterile boulevard and repai its storm damage cost about $8 m The new town hall will house about 65 employees who have had from locations across the area to get a better understanding of beach community is recovering fr We recently sat down with Mayor Adler's in Times Square.

Here is part of that conversatio Mayor Alice, welcome.

Thank you.

So it is hard to believe that in it will have been three years since Hurricane Ian.

So we'll start with the big pict How is the recovery going as far as residential units comi How many did you lose?

How many are back and how about Well, lodging.

We'll start with that I guess.

We lost, quite a few.

Obviously hotels were probably just over 50%, 52% or so of the units that are back that we had which is a significant number.

If you look at the the whale, the beach bar is anot that's, you know, pretty close to being done this So we're excited about the progr that we see.

Things could go much faster.

We'd love things to go faster, but building in a barrier island is very difficult.

It's very challenging.

It's not As you know, I'm from the Midwest building up there is far easier than it is d There's so many more regulations when codes you got to deal with structure wise elevation flood m So it's it's challenging.

It takes time to design projects you know, a year to two years sometimes to design a project once it's been approve And then the construction is another year to two years.

So, you know, three years has go or almost three years has gone by pretty fast, but we still have a long way to I'd say probably 14, 1500 rooms we lost because I think we had right aro 2600 rooms pre-storm.

And we're just over 1300 or so b How many home structures were lo and any idea how many have come of the 3500 ish structures?

When I say structures that, you know, kind of building the s not every unit within it.

We lost about 1900 that were sub damaged, of how many of those ar It's really hard to put a number because it changes every single I would say we're probably less than 50% of that have come back, or at least are in the process of coming bac But what's encouraging is that you can't go down a street on th that you're not seeing, either new house that's been bui and is being lived in already, or one that is coming out of the or one that's already cleared, p and is now ready to come out of the ground.

So it's encouraging.

Some streets have several three, 5 homes that are coming out of t So it's exciting to see, that pe are investing back in the island I think they see that we're movi down the right path to be more r to hopefully never have to deal with the stor But should we have to deal with I think we're prepared to do it.

You know, when another hurricane and we see streets flooded here, some people question, you know, are we meant to be here on this Yeah.

What are your thoughts on Well, you know, people have been to barrier islands for decades, For centuries because it's a beautiful place t But you have to understand that some challenges when you live he You know, you're not very far above sea le You know, most maybe on our isla ten, 12ft, 14 at the max.

If you're lucky to be above sea So when you're getting a 15 to 18ft storm surge, like Ian Se I mean, you're going to have wat If one thing I would say that came out of Ian is, you know, most of the structures now are going to be elevated.

So low flooding those lower levels will be far l than it was in talking about reb I know a huge frustration was this loss of the discount from the federal government on on flood insurance.

It's been a frustration also for small business owners l the one we're at who've been ope out of these containers.

Do you feel like these small bus owners haven't given enough time to rebuild and get out of these containers?

Well, we've tried as hard as we to fight on their behalf.

Not just for the business owners but for our residents.

You know, residents are kind of the backbone of this island without the residents.

A lot of the business that don't have support here outside of season, as you can tell, is not nearly as many peop now as it is during season.

So to be able to support that, you have to have the local base.

You know, it's like I've always kind of like a tripod.

You've got to have your local bu you've got to have your resident you got to have your visitors or your seasonal residents.

So if you've got all three of th in a good combination of those, that's what this island has been And if you lose one of those that that tripod could tip over.

So it's very hard to balance tha But losing the national Flood In discount was upsetting.

You know, to me, I took it personally as a as a f but I think we're well on our wa when, we were just told a couple weeks that, we've been taken off probation as of November 18th, which allow to get back in the community rat and potentially earn our 25% discount back.

I could tell you that staff know that the direction from council is to make sure that that happen as best as we can, to be able to get back off of probation as did, I think is a testament to t how hard our staff is working to that we're giving everything in the former format that FEMA wants to see it.

To them, I think that was part of the hic is some communication issues on both sides.

You know, it's unfortunate we went on probation.

It's not what we wanted.

We thought we were doing the rig FEMA didn't quite see it that wa But the fact that we're back off of probation again this year allows us to get back CRS program.

Our goal is to get at least a 25 discount back, if not more.

So, by the end of August, we'll be able to get the reviews through FEMA, their on site visi We still have a few things that to get cleaned up, both business and and residential home wise, which staff is fully aware of and have reached out to the few that are left that need to come into complianc to ensure that the rest of the residents on the island will get that discount back.

So now, unfortunately, it's going to come into a time where we're going to yeah, it's going to be kind of ugly.

I've been saying for several, several years now that there's going to come a time where the t going to have to do some things that are probably not going to b but, in the greater good of the island has to be don You know, some folks are concern they're losing the the small town charm of Fort Mye Do you see it that way?

No.

I mean, I've said every day.

Every single day.

I seem to repeat it over and ove Fort Myers beach, the charm.

Yes.

All the buildings are part It's the people that are here.

I the visitors.

It's the people that choose to l It's the families that raising t at the beach school.

It's.

It's the people that work hall.

It's the people that you elected to represent you.

It's that's what makes the time the buildings are going to look We I mean, we're going to have a very unique mix once it's finally all built back of still some cottages that survive You're going to have new homes that are built bigger.

You're going to see bigger resor you're going to see bigger busin But they have to be they have to be elevated.

And it's no one's fault other th It's Mother Nature's, you know, it happened.

You can't go back.

I think things were starting to before the storm.

You were starting to see some of elevation happening as people we You know, it's either elevating their homes or taking And and building bigger homes.

It was starting to happen alread I think Ian just sped it up by a And, you know, we certainly want to see people We want things to be resilient because we don't want to have to go through what we di You know, it still resonates in The mess that I saw just minutes after the storm was gone, walking around and looking, what does Town Square look like?

And thinking, is this island ever going to com So to see where we're at two and a half years after the storm to say I'm satisfied.

I mean, there's degrees of satis right?

I would love it to be back fully but I think we're making good pr You know, we're learning along t and we're speeding up as fast as where we can, but we want to mak that things are built correctly.

So we want to make sure we're go to leave something that is susta And I think we're well on our wa And, if that looks like slow pro then I can I can take that punch Mayor, thank you for your time.

After the break, we head back 65 million years to ge at one of the largest creatures to roam Earth and how Florida fa during the time of the dinosaurs On June 16th.

Get ready to head back 65 million years as a new progra walking With Dinosaurs, airs on This three night event tells the story of six iconic di species uncovered from incredible dig si So what can these prehistoric gi tell us about our current planet conditions and could species once thought lost forever return To help answer these questions, we are joined by paleontologist and geologist Doctor Ken, like A Thank you so much, doctor.

Like a very.

We appreciate your You're welcome.

Great to be with So you have found some of the most incredible spec that have ever roamed the Earth.

Nothing compares to this discove of the dreadnoughts, I guess bac when I was reading the stats on that 85ft in length, weighing as much as a herd of animals.

First of all, what was that disc like for you, and how is it poss that these dinosaurs just thrived at such a large siz Well, I was down in southern most Pata at the bottom of Argentina, and there tr del Fuego.

And I was prospecting for giant Place that had rocks to the righ and big exposures of those rocks And I found a, femur of this ani the thigh bone.

And it was about six feet long.

You know, it's such a privilege to be the first person to see something, the first person to know somethi And then, you know, I stare at that fossil, and I th who were you and what were you d And what was your life about, and what was the world like?

And all of these questions trying to connect ourselves to the Earth's ancient past.

So how did how did these animals thrive at the at this time at such a large siz Well, dinosaurs were the, undisputed champions of an entire Earth era.

They were a cosmopolitan, meaning all over the world.

They were on every continent.

They were in practically every t niche that an animal could be.

And they're really the paragons of success.

This particular group of dinosau that dreadnought is, is part of.

It is known as the sauropods.

Is a long necked, long tail.

Quadruped plant eaters think Brontosaurus These are the largest land creatures ever.

And so they're models of efficie They were able to get more out of a calorie of energy that I think any animal alive to with that long neck that they ha Dreadnought has had a 40ft neck, it could stand in one place and this huge feeding envelope of ve taking in tens of thousands of c and then stepping a few feet to or right and doing that again.

So they're just incredibly effic animals.

And, you know, the more I know a the more admiration I have for t A lot of us don't think of dinos in Florida necessarily, right?

We think of these discoveries being made in other parts of the If we were able to go back, you millions of years ago, would we any sort of interesting fossils here in the, I'll say, Florida r Florida hadn't happened yet.

The age of the dinosaurs.

So Florida was ocean.

During the time of the dinosaurs there would have been mosasaurs right through where you are righ and they were the all time apex predator of the world's oceans.

And you would have had giant pte in the skies above Florida.

But all dinosaurs lived on land, so they would be on the coast, which for you would be in Georgi And then it's later, after the t of the dinosaurs and very warm tropical seas, that the shells and the coral reef started to pi And that's what actually created Florida is essentially one giant fossil made of trillions and trillions of ancient creatures, doctor, li So interesting.

And thank you so your time.

We appreciate it.

My pleasure.

Thank you.

And if you want to catch walking with dinosaurs.

The three night event begins this Monday at 8 p. right here on GCU.

The youth movement behind classi Coming up next week, we learn more about how younger generations could be called in to save the symphony.

Join us for that story and much more.

Next week.

And don't forget to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel where you can find all of our stories, plus those extended interviews.

Have a great weekend everyone, and we'll see you again next week.