I.M. STACKEL

Staff Writer

• Contact I.M. via e-mail
• Call I.M. at 239-263-4891

Beat: Collier County growth

Started at the Daily News: February 2001

Bio: I was born and reared in Brooklyn, N.Y., in a small boating community that -- in the 1950s -- looked a lot like Naples without the palm trees. I entered Brooklyn College in 1970, but the first five years of the 70s was still "the sixties," so I was way too busy traveling and experimenting with life to get a degree. I always wrote. When I was in grade school, we used to listen to a Board of Education-produced news show called, "Let's Look at the News." Students were encouraged to write in letters addressing issues. We all did that. It was a sign of the times. Remember, that I was 10 when the Cuban Missile Crisis went down, and we all thought the world was coming to an end. While my first "grown-up" job was in Jerusalem in 1973 just after the Yom Kippur War, I spent most of the 1970s writing poetry. I was a travel writer during the 1980s and early 1990s, mostly covering Asia, the South Pacific and the Caribbean.

My spare time is spent exploring the same subjects and issues that have always fascinated me: geotectonics, spiritual belief systems, love, the anthropology of food. The latter is nicer than saying I obsessively collect and read cookbooks.

Recent stories:

• Collier Commissioners may amend county’s camping ordinance to give homeless the boot
  May 15, 2008
• Collier cuts benefits for non-profits that don’t verify the legal status of those they serve
  May 13, 2008
• Collier commissioners to vote on proposed pier at Vanderbilt Beach
  May 12, 2008
• Career law officer wants seat on Collier County Commission
  May 9, 2008
• Collier’s Supervisor of Elections running for re-election
  May 8, 2008
• Sexually explicit images on Collier County computers lead to investigation of about 40 employees
  May 8, 2008
• New laws give condo directors more power
  May 4, 2008
• Plans made locally to observe Holocaust Remembrance Day
  May 3, 2008
• Collier fire districts discuss discus how to merge with EMS without raising taxes
  May 2, 2008
• Comcast moving headquarters from Collier to Lee
  April 29, 2008
• See full list of stories by I.M. STACKEL...