collier county, Fla. – 1,000 elementary school students could be going to a new school next year if Amendment 8 doesn’t pass on the November ballot.?
The vote could give districts more flexibility to deal with the state’s Class Size Amendment. ?It was adopted in 2002 and limits the number of students in each classroom. ?Nine Collier County elementary schools would have to be rezoned.
The district held a public meeting about the Class Size Amendment, on Thursday. ?
“You don’t want that to happen to any child or family for that matter,” said parent Nick Crane. ?
“It’s hard on the child because they have to make new friends again,” said parent Antoinette Mullendore.
Collier County school officials tell Wink News they wouldn’t have to switch the kids if Amendment 8 passes on the November Ballot. ?District leaders hope they’ll get out of paying the state massive fines for not complying with the original 2002 Class Size Amendment.
“Its up to $7 million for the total fine,” says the district’s Michele LaBute. ?”But, we’ll get 75% back.” ?
That totals about $2 million. ?
If Amendment 8 doesn’t pass, the school district will also have to hire another 150 teachers.
“The new teachers we’d need would cost us anywhere from $14 to $16 million,” said LaBute.
But, Wink News spoke with one parent who’s also an out of work teacher. ?Renee Hughes says the Class Size Amendment could help put teachers back to work and help students succeed.
“I think they would ultimately enjoy it better with a smaller class, a more intimate setting where they could be one on one with the teacher more,” said Hughes.
The district tells Wink, it’s possible Amendment 8 won’t make it on the ballot. ?The Florida Education Association has filed a lawsuit about it, saying the language is misleading. ?A judge is supposed to hear that case on September 8th.?

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SEATTLE (AP) — Dell Inc. doesn’t have to start over in its quest to become a significant purveyor of technology for businesses after losing a multibillion dollar bidding contest for an obscure data-storage maker.

But it won’t be easy, either, for Dell to shake its “Dude, you’re getting a Dell” image and move into the more profitable business of selling powerful behind-the-scenes technology to other companies.

Dell, which launched the bidding contest for 3Par Inc. on Aug. 16, conceded defeat Thursday and said it won’t match the latest offer from its archrival, Hewlett-Packard Co.

HP raised the stakes to $33 per share, or about $2.07 billion – 83 percent above Dell’s first offer and more than three times what 3Par stock was trading at then. Dell’s latest offer had been a dollar per share less, or about $2 billion.

Dell was hoping to buy 3Par so it could diversify its business more quickly.

Dell’s made-to-order computer business helped make PCs inexpensive and ubiquitous, but other companies including HP found ways to build even cheaper machines using contract manufacturers.

Although HP was able to expand beyond the business of selling computers, Dell has remained very much a computer company, with more than half its revenue coming from PCs last fiscal year. Rising component costs and the PC industry’s race to rock-bottom prices, accelerated by the rise of cheap netbooks from competitors such as Acer Inc., combined to sap much of the profit out of Dell’s core business.

Through a string of acquisitions, Dell has raced to follow IBM Corp., HP and other high-tech companies into the more lucrative business of selling data-center hardware and consulting services.

And while its servers do not generate as much revenue as its PC business, Dell is a leading maker of x86 servers, a low-end product for companies and data centers. Those servers are seeing a surge of demand as improvements in technology make them increasingly competitive with more expensive servers. In the second quarter, Dell was the second-largest maker of server computers by number shipped, according to Gartner Inc.

But Dell’s ambitions have often been met with skepticism because of its lower-end focus, and because it started branching out later than its competitors. In the meantime, the market has grown more crowded; database software maker Oracle Corp. began selling servers after acquiring Sun Microsystems in January, and networking equipment king Cisco Systems Inc. started to build its own servers last year.

Even Dell’s biggest acquisition to date, Perot Systems, didn’t carry the weight Dell might have hoped, Forrester Research analyst Andrew Reichman said. The large technology-consulting business, which Dell bought last fall for $3.9 billion, isn’t influential enough “to really move the needle as much as Dell would need to be on an equal footing with HP and IBM,” Reichman said.

“People see them (Dell) as box-pushers,” he said in a recent interview.

Dell defends its strategy of staying away from huge storage or server systems and says it sees more value in selling building block servers and storage appliances that customers can link together when they need to grow.

“For those customers who have bought from us, who are our customers, even the largest ones are very satisfied with our ability to solve their data-center needs and really stick with us,” said Praveen Asthana, Dell’s vice president of strategy for its enterprise technology segment.

But Dell, like its competitors, is eyeing cloud computing, a massive shift just under way in data-center technology, as the next area of rapid growth and sweeter profits.

To take advantage of it, Dell needs to beef up its product line and set itself apart from the competition. Dell could have used 3Par, which makes the sort of massive, high-end systems that Dell had stayed away from.

But that isn’t the only option, especially at such a high price, said Morningstar analyst Michael Holt. Dell can still consider other storage providers, companies that make data-center management software or makers of networking equipment, he said.

Increasingly, companies aren’t buying their own computer servers for certain tasks anymore. Instead, they’re paying to have software they would have stored on those machines delivered to them over the Internet.

Cloud computing is attractive to Dell and the others because the systems are designed to be shared by multiple customers, which spreads out the cost of operating pricey equipment. Servers and storage computers need to ramp up or scale down quickly based on demand to give all the customers the same high level of service. Storage machines from 3Par are made for that kind of system.

Dell, HP and others are trying to decide how many pieces of the cloud puzzle they need to own, and how many they can offer through partnerships. All are trying to make their data-center solutions more flexible and less expensive, and make it easier for customers to get new programs running.

Owning the entire range of products might make it faster to get a customer up and running, but it might mean some parts are not the best of breed, said Adrian O’Connell, an analyst for Gartner Inc. Every company will see the trade-offs differently.

For Dell, O’Connell doesn’t believe 3Par would have been a critical piece. Dell’s bigger challenge, he said, is to come up with a unique vision for the entire data-center structure.

Dell also needs to train its sales staff to sell that vision to high-level technology executives. Gaining their trust takes time, he said.

“If you’re an IBM or an HP or a Sun/Oracle, you’ve got a heritage of many, many years of selling mission-critical systems into those very large customer environments,” O’Connell said. “Dell has to prove it’s got a right to be there.”

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LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. – Deputies are on the scene of a death investigation in Lehigh Acres.

Deputies say three people are dead – one man, a woman, and a child. It appears to be a double homicide and suicide.

WINK News has a crew on scene at East Lake Drive.

The man who lives in the home has been arrested before for domestic violence.

Details are still developing.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The showdown over 3Par Inc. that ended Thursday was a puzzling spectacle.

It pitted two of the world’s biggest technology companies against each other for control of a company that was obscure outside of technology circles and flat-out unloved on Wall Street, with a stock that was stuck around $10 for a year and a half.

3Par, which was founded 11 years ago by former Sun Microsystems managers, was seen as a takeover candidate well before Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. started bidding on it in mid-August. The company’s uneven financial performance dampened investors’ enthusiasm despite the fact it is in the lucrative market for “virtualized storage,” which is an important technology for companies that sell services over the Internet.

What wasn’t anticipated was the ferocity of the wrestling match for a company that was seen as only tangential to HP’s and Dell’s core businesses.

The bidding contest revealed more about HP and Dell and the changing technology landscape than it did about the innovations that 3Par brings to the table.

HP won 3Par with an offer of $2.07 billion, or $33 per share, which is more than three times what 3Par’s stock was trading at when rival Dell Inc. made its first offer Aug. 16. Dell said Thursday it is walking away from the negotiations after a final bid of $2 billion, or $32 per share.

Many analysts were surprised the bidding went so high.

“At this price, it’s a little ridiculous,” said Jayson Noland, an analyst with Robert W. Baird & Co. “To me, it tells you how far behind HP and Dell are in storage, not necessarily how incredible an asset 3Par is.”

Technologies from 3Par will be part of HP’s expansion beyond personal computers and printer ink. HP’s former CEO, Mark Hurd, aggressively pursued that expansion, and many industry analysts saw HP’s intensity in pursuing 3Par as evidence that the company wanted to prove that it can still close big deals.

“They’re sending a clear message that, ‘We’re in transition but we’re not missing a step,’” said Nina Buik, chief marketing officer for Connect Worldwide, an organization of more than 50,000 customers of HP’s business-technology products. “They’re wanting to instill confidence, and mission accomplished.”

HP’s tender offer is scheduled to expire on Sept. 24, and the acquisition is expected to close by the end of this year.

Before Dell made its first offer, 3Par stock was trading at just under $10 per share. It closed Thursday’s regular trading session at $32.88 per share, just below HP’s latest offer price.

Meanwhile, HP’s stock during that time has fallen 2 percent to close at $39.68 Thursday. Dell’s stock has risen 3 percent to $12.36.

3Par is based in Fremont, Calif., and employs 670 people. It went public three years ago at $14 per share. HP is based in Palo Alto, Calif., and has about 300,000 employees.

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cape coral, Fla. – A Cape Coral veteran is starting a grassroots campaign to help a local soldier.

Vietnam vet, Bruce Millier is starting the Get Well Card Project.

He’s trying to get as many get well cards and notes of support to send to Corey Kent.

Private Kent, is a Cape soldier seriously wounded in Afghanistan earlier this summer.

Bruce Miller is asking for the city council’s support and plans on asking for help from the school district.

He wants to go in school classrooms so children can write letters of encouragement.

“Support is very important. It will help him heal a lot quicker,” Miller said.

Hiller plans on talking to Cape Coral City Council next week.

He anticipates the whole project taking up to six months.

If you want to help or find out more information, email Bruce at facmech666768@aol.com

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cape coral, Fla. – It’s a story you saw first on WINK.

Cape Coral homeowners said their water bills skyrocketed for no reason.

Now WINK News is getting results and those homeowners are getting their money back.

Several homeowners along SW 51st Terrace knew something was wrong when their utility bills surged in water usage.

Turns out they were right, the water meter was faulty.

“I was shocked. I was angry,” said Pam Pearson.

Pearson couldn’t believe it when her water bill jumped in price and water consumption.

“In those two billing periods we were gone for 23 days. Why would our bill go up? We turned the water off,” she said.

Pam knew something had to be wrong, but not on her end.

“We just had our pipes re-piped, so we know there were no leaks,” she said.

Pam suspected the water meter.

Partly because her neighbors also complained of a spike in water usage.

One her neighbor’s water consumption jumped to 30,000 gallons in one month.

“It seems like everyone has a problem,” Pam said.

Pam wrote to the city.

She says her first letter got no response.

So, she wrote a second one.

But when WINK News got involved last Friday, Pam says she finally got results.

Her meter was pulled from the ground and tested.

The test results didn’t surprise Pam.

“The meter is faulty. It was faulty on their side,” she said.

Sine then, Pam says her old meter has been taken out and a new digital meter put in the ground.

“I am pleased with the out come,” she said.

Not only that, Pam’s bill be adjusted from the money she paid on the faulty meter.

Her neighbor’s, the ones with a 30,000 gallon bill, will also get an adjustment.

The city took out their water meter as well and replaced it with a new one.

However, a city spokesperson says the neighbor’s meter may not be faulty.

They’re classifying it as “involuntary use”.

Pam’s just glad her issue has been resolved and the meter has been replaced.

“We want an accurate reading. We want to be charged for what we are using,” she said.

If you have concerns, the city say to call them.

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The mean streets of the City of Brotherly Love are once again coming to television.

“Wreck Chasers,” a reality show about the city’s notoriously aggressive tow truck drivers, is shooting and is slated to premiere in late October on TLC.

Production crews are following several drivers with one unidentified Philadelphia towing company, often on nights and weekends when more crashes occur, as they try to beat the competition to wrecks. Filming started in May and is expected to continue until sometime in October, Jim Kowats, the show’s executive producer, said Thursday.

“They’re very colorful, they’re larger than life, they’re very Philly,” he said of the show’s soon-to-be stars. The city was chosen because of the unusual and competitive nature of its towing businesses, he said.

It’s the second series focusing on the daily difficulties for Philadelphia drivers. “Parking Wars,” in its third season on the A&E cable network, features Philadelphia Parking Authority employees as they write tickets, clamp yellow locking “boots” to traffic scofflaws’ car wheels, take plenty of flak from furious drivers and generally deal with the chaos that comes with trying to park in Philadelphia.

“Wreck Chasers” comes amid renewed scrutiny over Philadelphia’s long-criticized tow truck drivers, who police and lawmakers say combatively compete for business as soon as an accident comes across their scanners. Rival companies getting to a crash simultaneously can resort to blows, or worse.

A driver from J & Son’s Towing is accused of shooting a competitor from Mystical Complete Auto Service in the thigh on July 19 because he thought his rival was trying to swoop in on a job, police said. Two days later, 13 cars on the J & Son’s lot were torched and Mystical’s offices were riddled with six bullets.

TLC had contacted city officials about shooting “Wreck Chasers” weeks earlier, said Sharon Pinkenson of the Greater Philadelphia Film Office.

Kowats said the crew profiled in the show are “dedicated, likable” people who view their work removing wrecks and clearing accident scenes as providing a service that the city doesn’t.

“They do take it seriously. They’re passionate about what they do,” he said.

“They see what the ambulance drivers see, what the cops see, the injuries, the fatalities. There’s a lot of emotions involved.”

Philadelphia’s attempts to tame its anarchic wreck chasers have failed to stop the free-for-all.

Two years ago, the city began requiring police to rotate towing jobs among 96 tow companies. Wreck chasers skirt the system, however, by monitoring police radio and even beating officers to crashes.

After the July shooting, police began using laptop computers in cruisers instead of police radio to report accidents. Now they believe some of the towing companies are instead monitoring Fire Department radio calls for rescue units being dispatched to crashes.

Councilman Jim Kenney has called for a suspension of the rotation system while the city reviews the licensing status of the 96 companies, including the two involved in what he called a “Wild West shootout.”

Numerous complaints or violations have been lodged against 19 companies on the list, Kenney has said, while others are not properly licensed or simply changed names after losing their licenses. Some wreck chasers also have been accused of signing up unwitting drivers to contracts that commit them to expensive repairs.

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LEE COUNTY, Fla. – Thursday a plea of guilty was entered by defendant Reginald McKinnon in Lee County court for the charge of Leaving a Child Unattended in a Vehicle Causing Great Bodily Injury, a third degree felony.

He was sentenced to five years probation and as a condition must serve 20 community service hours. He must use that time to speak to parenting or pre-natal classes about the tragic event. Judge Margaret Steinbeck withheld adjudication as agreed on by the parties.

Assistant State Attorney Francine Donnorummo who prosecuted the case said, “Obviously the real punishment to Mr. McKinnon was the loss of his daughter. This resolution and the requirement for Mr. McKinnon to relate this to parents and expecting parents may help prevent similar tragedies in the future.”

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LEE COUNTY, Fla. – In mid March, 2010, members of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Unit initiated an undercover operation aimed at the manufacturing and selling of fraudulent identification cards and social security cards in Bonita Springs. The nearly six-month-long operation targeted a family living at 27881 New York Street, Trailer 1A, Bonita Springs.

Over the past several months, undercover operatives made several purchases of fraudulent documentation from three individuals, identified as Roberto Cruz (DOB 3/13/66), his wife Eva Cruz (DOB 10/10/77) and their son, Alex Cruz Juarez (DOB 10/17/90). Due to the actions of the suspects, along with information obtained through the course of the investigation, all three were arrested on September 1, 2010 (please see attached photos).

During the investigation, detectives would go to the Cruz’s home and pay one-hundred to one-hundred and twenty dollars for a resident alien card and a social security card. After a number of visits to the Cruz home for similar transactions, investigators learned of a sophisticated system set up in the family’s garage designed to create fake identification cards and other fraudulent documentation. The cards provided by the Cruz’s would identify the buyer as a Mexican citizen, complete with his or her own social security number. These cards were then believed to be utilized by a number of undocumented citizens in Southwest Florida to obtain work with unsuspecting employers.

The incident remains under investigation. In addition to state charges, detectives are currently working with ICE to obtain possible federal indictments against the suspects.

The investigation has resulted in the following charges:

Eva Cruz – Nine felony charges including; three counts of Possession of Fraudulent or Stolen Identification Cards (322.212-1a), three counts of Selling or Manufacturing Fraudulent or Stolen Identification Cards (322.212-1d) and three counts of Selling, Trading or Giving Away a Driver’s License or Identification Card (322.212-2).

Roberto Cruz – Six felony charges including; two counts of Possession of Fraudulent or Stolen Identification Cards (322.212-1a), two counts of Selling or Manufacturing Fraudulent or Stolen Identification Cards (322.212-1d) and two counts of Selling, Trading or Giving Away a Driver’s License or Identification Card (322.212-2).

Alex Cruz Juarez – Six felony charges including; two counts of Possession of Fraudulent or Stolen Identification Cards (322.212-1a), two counts of Selling or Manufacturing Fraudulent or Stolen Identification Cards (322.212-1d) and two counts of Selling, Trading or Giving Away a Driver’s License or Identification Card (322.212-2).

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) – Preliminary figures show Florida’s population went up slightly in 2009 after a one-year decline broke a steady string of growth dating to the end of World War II.

The University of Florida reported Thursday that the state added an estimated 21,000 residents last year. That’s after losing more than 56,000 in 2008.

Florida’s total estimated population now is 18,771,768.

Stan Smith, director of the university’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research, said while population was up last year it was the smallest increase since the 1940s.

Smith said it also didn’t make up for the previous year’s decline.

He attributed the growth to a slight improvement in Florida’s economy although it’s still bad.

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