The tension is building over Collier County’s proposal to build a new Interstate 75 interchange at Everglades Boulevard. Many Golden Gate Estates residents have clamored for the interchange for years as a quicker way to get out of the way of wildfires and floods. But a barrage of environmental concerns from regulatory agencies is slowing plans for the interchange and threatening to snuff it out altogether, county transportation planners say.

Fear for Marco Island’s American Bald Eagles is soaring to new heights. The Conservancy of Southwest Florida and a newly formed political committee want to bring bald eagles under their wings following an announcement in late May that charter high school proponents changed their preferred venue from the Marco YMCA to the property known as Tract K, where eagles reside.

A 20-year veteran of the Collier County Sheriff’s Office was fired this month after she was accused of harassing her husband’s ex-girlfriend by targeting her for an inappropriate traffic stop and repeatedly driving by her house.

Frankie Anne Tester, a licensed clinical social worker of 27 years, was accused by the Department of Health of being sexually involved with a woman who came to her in 2005 for psychotherapy. The therapy ended in June 2006, according to a complaint filed by the department, but Tester and the patient carried on a relationship until March 2008.