Obituary - Ricardo James Otero

Ricardo James "RJ" Otero passed away after a lengthy illness on April 21, 2026. RJ was born on October 17, 1999 in Fort Myers, Florida to Ricardo and Angela Stewart Otero. RJ loved talking to people, he never met a stranger. 

He enjoyed playing with his Legos, Hotwheels, and playing video games with his sisters. RJ loved watching cooking shows with his mother, and keeping his dad informed on current events. RJ was loved by his entire family very much. RJ had several girlfriends even though they might be been married, but the husbands of these girlfriends knew to play along with RJ because that is how much he was loved by everyone who knew him. 

His "Uncle Loren Bischel would buy him huge Lego sets at Christmas, Birthdays, and in between, just for the fact that he loved RJ him like a true nephew. His grandmothers, Sandy and Maria loved him with all of their hearts, like everyone did.

He was everyone's heart, soul and "little man". His sisters, Jamie and Kayla were not only sisters, but they were his other mama also, loved and spoiled him every chance they could. He was mama's and daddy's heart and soul and will be forever remembered and never forgotten by everyone.

RJ leaves fond memories with his parents, Ricardo and Angela Otero, his sisters; James and Kayla Otero, his grandmothers, Sandy McClenithen, Maria Maldonado, his loving aunts; Dora Senirch, Elena Lopez, Tracy Billings, and his loving uncles; Loren Bischel, Calvin Billings, Gerald White, Charles Bihori, Angelo Otero along with a host of cousins and other family members and his friends that he made throughout his young life.

RJ was greeted in Heaven by his great-grandparents; James and Glady Stenford, Uncle Joe Senirch, grandma, Sefrina Otero, Uncle Juan and Aunt Maria, Great grandparents; Joaquin and Caytana Garcia, and Grandpa Pete McClenithen.

RJ's life will be celebrated with a funeral service on Monday, April 27, 2026 at 11:00 a.m. at the First Christian Church of LaBelle, where a visitation will start at 10 a.m. Rev. W.T. "Bill" Maddox, Jr will officiate the funeral service. Cremation Rites will take place after the funeral service.

Everglades Restoration Projects Featured On YouTube Channel

CLEWISTON, FL. -- The Jacksonville District hosted Aaron Witt and the BuildWitt team for a look at our ongoing restoration work within the South Florida ecosystem on 13 February 2026. 

Maj. Cory Bell took the team on a tour of the Central Everglades Planning Project (CEPP) and the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) A-2 Reservoir, which focus on restoring more natural water flows into and through the central and southern Everglades.

BuildWitt hosts a YouTube channel focused on the “DIRT WORLD!” Witt travels worldwide to explore the people and projects that keep our world moving—the Dirt World. “None of us could live even one day without food, water, power, and shelter; each is no accident!” said Witt.

The CEPP EAA A-2 Reservoir and associated Stormwater Treatment Areas are storage and treatment features that capture and store water before releasing it to the Everglades. In addition to improving the quantity, quality, and timing of water deliveries to the central and southern Everglades, stress on the northern estuaries is alleviated due to improved water flow during both the dry and wet seasons.

The BuildWitt episode was recently released, titled “Why is the US Army Building a $4B Reservoir to Save the Everglades?” 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8zb4ZG9ZVc

Moore Haven Basketball Player Sa'Nyree Myers Selected All-American Team Player

MOORE HAVEN, FL. -- In a historic moment for Florida high school basketball, Moore Haven's Sa'Nyree Myers has been selected as a high school All-American 4th team player by maxpreps. 

Throughout the season, Myers has consistently stood out as a top scorer, leading her team to numerous victories and earning recognition for her outstanding performance.

Coach Jeff Gonzales, the head varsity coach at Moore Haven, expressed his pride and excitement for Myers, highlighting her impact on the team and the Florida basketball community as a whole. This selection is a testament to Myers' skill and passion for the game, solidifying her place as one of the best high school players in the nation.

As the only Florida selection on the maxpreps high school All-American 4th team, Sa'Nyree Myers has brought honor and recognition to her school, her community, and the state of Florida. Her dedication to the sport and her commitment to excellence serve as an inspiration to aspiring young athletes everywhere.

Support May Be Growing For Monkey Import Legislation

Washington — PETA today announces support for groundbreaking legislation introduced by U.S. Reps. Greg Steube (R-Fla.-17) and Dina Titus (D-Nev.-01) that would stop all monkey imports destined for U.S. laboratories or their suppliers, ending the suffering and death of more than 20,000 monkeys shipped into the U.S. every year from Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean.

Hendry and Collier county in Florida are home to hundreds of imported monkeys raised for breeding and eventual animal experimentation. In February, a live monkey, just flown into the U.S. from Africa, was tossed in a biohazard dumpster in Southwest Florida and remained undiscovered for five days, posing a serious biosecurity risk. PETA reported it to state officials. The president of the monkey importation company, BC US, has been criminally charged.

The Preventing Risky Importation of Monkeys to Avoid Toxic Exposures (PRIMATE) Act (H.R. 8471) would protect monkeys, public health, and the integrity of U.S. science by reducing biosecurity risks and eliminating reliance on animals who generate unreliable, non-reproducible data.

Over the last five years, using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) records and internal laboratory reports, PETA has uncovered a sharp rise in monkeys imported into the U.S. carrying tuberculosis, shigella, malaria, Herpes B, and other dangerous pathogens. Human exposure to infectious diseases that are circulating in primate laboratories, as happened in a Michigan laboratory in 2023 and in the federally funded National Primate Research Centers, can lead to serious illness and create a real risk of spreading disease to family members and others outside the laboratory.

PETA scientists have shown that CDC requirements are dangerously outdated and ineffective. Monkeys continually enter and exit CDC-mandated quarantine infected with pathogens that can infect other monkeys in transit or in the destination laboratories. The CDC requires testing for only tuberculosis, and that test is done by method known to be inexact. When infections have been found post-quarantine, laboratories aren’t even required to inform the CDC.



Workers at a Cambodian monkey farm prepare to stuff an endangered long-tailed macaque into a crate to ship her for use in experiments. Image obtained by PETA.

“Every year, tens of thousands of monkeys are funneled into the United States through a global supply chain that is inherently unstable, opaque, and a public health risk,” says PETA Chief Science Advisor for Primate Experimentation Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel. “PETA applauds Reps. Steube and Titus for recognizing that state-of-the-art research doesn’t need this pipeline, and that it’s time to shut it down.”

The profit-driven monkey importation industry also threatens endangered species, destabilizes ecosystems, and rips culturally significant animals from the communities that have lived alongside them for generations. Those animals are then subjected to cruel and often deadly experiments. Decades of studies on monkeys have produced inconsistent, non-reproducible results that rarely translate into effective human vaccines and treatments.

Imported monkeys are bred on squalid farms or abducted from their forest homes, pushing long-tailed macaques toward extinction. Many die during capture or transport, and those who survive are ultimately killed in U.S. laboratories.

Note: PETA supports animal liberation, opposes all forms of animal exploitation, and educates the public on those issues. PETA does not directly or indirectly participate or intervene in any political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office or any political party.

Trump Trade Policy A Failure - House Committee Meets Today

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- April 22, 2026 -- U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer is testifying today before the House Ways and Means Committee on the Administration’s trade policy. The data shows it has been a costly mistake that has failed by even its own metrics of increasing manufacturing jobs and reducing the U.S. trade deficit.

Businesses in states represented by House Ways and Means Members paid $190 billion in extra tariffs between March 2025 and February 2026, including at least $113 billion in illegal IEEPA tariffs.

We Pay the Tariffs, a coalition of over 1,100 small businesses nationwide, is releasing this data as Ambassador Greer testifies before Congress and is calling on him to stop adding new tariffs while manufacturing jobs fall to decade-plus lows. In testimony before the committee today Ambassador Greer said that Administration trade policies are “bearing fruit for American workers.”

But says  Dan Anthony, Executive Director of We Pay the Tariffs, “Any objective look at the data shows administration trade policies have resulted in the lose-lose scenario of higher costs and fewer manufacturing jobs.”

One Year of Tariffs: Businesses and Workers are Paying a Steep Price

The $190 billion in extra tariffs paid by companies in states represented by Ways and Means Members from March 2025 to February 2026 included an estimated:

$113 billion in now-illegal IEEPA tariffs
$30 billion in Section 232 tariffs related to steel and aluminum
$25 billion in Section 232 tariffs related to autos and parts
$21 billion in Section 301 tariffs related to China
$1.4 billion in other Section 232 tariffs

The figures include $2.4 billion in extra tariffs paid by companies in Chairman Jason Smith’s home state of Missouri and $2.9 billion in extra tariffs paid by companies in Ranking Member Richard Neal’s home state of Massachusetts.

States where imports faced the highest average tariff increase included Oklahoma (+27.1%), Missouri (+26.1%), Nevada (+25.7%), Iowa (+25.3%), and Texas (+24.2%).

Despite these high costs, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ State and Area Employment, Hours, and Earnings database shows they have not produced a manufacturing revival.