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People wanting to hold an elected office traveled to Tallahassee today in efforts to get their names on the August primary and November ballots. Candidate qualifying began at noon at the Secretary of State’s office. In order to qualify for the state legislature people seeking office have to file the proper paper work and pay 6 percent of their annual salaries to the office their seeking. Florida lawmaker Julio Robaina can’t wait to get the campaign season started. Robaina filed shortly after the doors opened. He says it’s better to file early incase you forget something.

“You notice some people come up here and don’t have the types of documents they need. This makes you very comfortable when you know when you came here you have everything. If you forgot something it gives you a chance to go get it. It’s just peace of mind to know that you’re in the computer and you’re qualified,” said Robaina.

People wanting to seek office have until noon Friday to get their paperwork filed.

The high price of gas has apparently convinced a majority of people that drilling for oil here at home and off the coast of Florida isn’t such a bad idea after all. As Mike Vasilinda tells us only 20 percent of those surveyed say it should never be considered.

This rollerblader, these college students, and this retiree all believe that oil drilling can be done safely and closer to home.

“I even bought myself a little car, traded in my gas-guzzler,” state employee John Mirallas said.

“I like the idea of, hey, developing our natural resources,” J.V Noriega, a student, said.

“It’s time that we wake up and do something to help ourselves more than we’ve been doing,” retiree Barbara Agee said.

And with each uptick of the price of here at the pump, there is a growing voice of people who believe that paying people for oil who don’t like us is a bad idea.

Florida’s oil industry says it has gas deposits as close as 50 miles from the panhandle cost and can’t get to them. The current buffer is 125 miles. The industry says it must be allowed to drill closer and it must be allowed to explore.

“The seismic imaging is getting ancient now, 30 or 40 years old. It’s like a first generation computer,” Dave Mica with the Florida Petroleum Council said.

But U-S Senator Bill Nelson says web sites like this one are a ploy to gen up support for off shore oil drilling.

“What we ought to do is keep our eye on the target,” Nelson said.

The target says Nelson, is renewables.

“Start weaning ourselves off dependence on oil. We can do that with plugged in hybrids, making ethanol from things we don’t eat,” Nelson said.

But with each price increase at the pump, opposition to drilling at home is decreasing.

Nelson also contends that oil speculators…not a lack of oil are driving up prices. He hopes to hold hearings in Washington this week to look at how speculators are affecting the price of oil.

A Florida teacher’s union is suing to keep two school voucher amendments off the November ballot. The State Supreme Court ruled religious school vouchers unconstitutional in 2006. As Whitney Ray tells us, the union wants to keep voters from having the final say on the issue.

Here it Here: Teachers Union Files Suit To Keep Amendments Off Ballot

An amendment to provide state funding for kids in failing schools to go to private and religious institutions is slated for the November ballot. The Florida Supreme Court ruled school vouchers unconstitutional in 2006.

The Taxation and Budget Reform Commission resurrected the issue in the form of two constitutional amendments headed to the November ballot.

A Lawyer for the Florida Education Association filed a suit Friday asking the Secretary of State to keep amendment 7 and 9 off the ballot. Attorney Ron Meyer said the amendments are deceptive.

“They’re hiding the ball. They’re trying to confuse the public, this is purposeful, because the public won’t support school vouchers,” said Meyer.

The voucher program is tied to a popular school spending requirement… mandating 65 percent of education funds be spent in the classroom. Florida Education Association President Andy Ford says schools are already spending at least 65 percent in the classroom. Ford said if the amendments pass schools would have to compete for students.

“What it could be setting up is a system where the state would assign a dollar amount per student and then disperse check individually to parents and let the go shopping for their own school,” said Ford.

The Florida Catholic Coalition wrote the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission in support of the amendments. The statement said the Catholic Church has a long history of educating people regardless of their faith, and they’d welcome state funding.

If the lawsuit fails the issue will be left up to voters who will have to approve the amendments by 60 percent. A recent Quinnipiac Poll suggest that 65 percent of voters would cast ballots for the school voucher program in order pass a measure to mandate 65 percent of education funds be spent in the classroom.

A man in South Florida becomes the state’s first case of salmonella tied to the tomato scare. Health officials say the man got sick after eating tomatoes while in New York. Officials say Florida Tomatoes are still safe to eat, but the state remains in question for tomatoes that were harvested in April. Florida Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Liz Compton said tomato farmers in Florida are tightly regulated.

“We’re pretty confident given our strict guidelines that it will come out that we weren’t the source. If we do then we will deal with it then. Right now food safety is the issues and the tomatoes that people are eating now are safe,” said Compton.

Since April more than two hundred people in 23 states have gotten sick after eating tomatoes. Officials still haven’t found the source of the outbreak.

State lawmakers have been graded by the Florida Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber released its annual legislative report card today. Grades are giving to lawmakers based on how they voted on pro business issues. The Chambers Vice president of Government Affairs David Daniel said it was a good year for business but not for legislators.

“I think in the end we have a lot of legislators that do and some that don’t. We saw a down turn this year. I think it was a successful year for business, but I think it was a tough year for legislators,” said Daniel.

The chamber named Lakeland lawmaker, Dennis Ross, the Most Valuable Legislator. According to the report card Ross scored a 100 percent for his work in the 2008 legislative session.

This weekend is graduation day for two dozen disabled vets. They have been participating in an intensive, one of its kind, week long “Boot Camp” at the Florida State College of Business. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, the goal is to teach the vets how to operate their own successful businesses.

Hear it Here: Graduation Day for Disabled Vets

They arrive early and leave late and often study into the night. These disabled vets are part of a one of kind week long boot camp to help them start businesses and learn how to succeed despite their disability.

JR Martinez was burned over 40 percent of his body when a roadside bomb exploded in Iraq. He now wants to turn the worst thing that ever happened to him, into the best.

“But For now, it’s the real world and there’s another path and there’s another battle that you have to face,” Martinez said. “And that battle is how you chase your dreams that you may have of creating a business or owning a business.

Once a successful Private Detective, Clay Rankin was a national guardsman deployed to Iraq. His injuries leave him unable to bend over, which is why he travels with a service dog.

“What brought me here is trying to figure where do you go when you can’t do what you’ve done your entire adult life,” Rankin said. “Which direction do you head from there?”

The entrepreneurial class is in its second year and not a dollar of tax payer money is involved. Randy Blass is the professor who brought it together.

“I’m retired air force, I retired just a couple years ago,” Blass said. “And there was something missing.”

And the common traits of the participants? The will to survive and succeed.

The boot camp was funded with a hundred thousand dollars in private donations and covers all of the costs for the vets, including travel, lodging and food.

Taking a shower could do more harm than good. A report released today claims chemicals in vinyl shower curtains are making people sick. As Whitney Ray tells us, some people are taking the news with a grain of salt.

From bottled water to cell phones, these days it seems everything is bad for you. Fluoride in tap water maybe good for your teeth, but bad for your brain.

The latest threat is in the bathroom, but don’t boycott bathing just yet, it’s your shower curtain causing problems. A new report released nationwide claims chemicals in vinyl shower curtains are making people sick.

Concerned groups listed 108 chemicals they say are inhaled when you open a new shower curtain. The smell of a new vinyl shower curtain is really strong and some people like it. The report claims that’s part of the danger.”

Norene Chase took a sniff. She claims the smell was so strong she had to hang her shower curtain outside.

“There was a terrific strong smell from it and I didn’t like it, it felt dangerous to me,” said Chase.

Some folks are turning their noses up at the report, and not just because they don’t like the smell.

“Things kind of change over the years, you know, milk’s dangerous for you, or something like that. Its crazy talk I guess,” said Justin Long.

Erin Loewe says you can’t believe everything that you read.

“I don pay attention, I do take some of it with a grain of salt, and you just try to have a common sense approach. If you paid attention to everything, you’d freak out all the time,” said Loewe.

Whether it’s the chemicals in your curtain or Fluoride in your water flow the bigger risk maybe not bathing at all. The report claims people should avoid vinyl shower curtains and instead use cloth curtains. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission says they’re not convinced vinyl shower curtains are a heath hazard.

School districts throughout the state have until the end of the year to come up with a plan to deal with school bullies. After several failed attempts a piece of legislation aimed at stopping bullying in public schools passed both chambers. Governor Charlie Crist signed the bill into law earlier this week. Now school districts will have to draft an anti-bullying policy outlining plans on how to deal with school bullies and their victims. Leon County School District Policy directory Barbara Wills says many schools have a plan in place the hard part will be spotting the bullies, especially the ones that use the internet to pick on students.

“The variety of ways that the students bully each other has gotten worse unfortunately, so we have to work hard to keep all of our students safe and secure and find out what’s going on and how to solve those problems,” said Wills

Every school can adopt a different anti-bullying policy as long as it follows the State’s Department of Education’s guidelines.

A day after the governor signed a budget billions of dollars lighter than last year’s Florida TaxWatch released recommendations to help local governments deal with budget cuts. The recommendations highlight 150 best practices of Florida counties, cities and schools. The plan is for local governments to save money in order to keep from cutting vital services. TaxWatch President Dominic Calabro said pay and benefits for municipal employees shouldn’t suffer.

“I think you’ve got to have good compensation for our local employees, whether they’re administrators, parks and recreation, school teachers, police or fire, but its got to be reasonable not excessive,” said Calabro.

The new budget will go into effect on July First.

Maybe not deadly, just dizzy. A new report says the PVC laced curtains could be a health hazard. raw-shower.mp3

It could soon be more difficult and expensive to travel to Cuba. Lawmakers passed a bill requiring stricter regulations and cost on travel agencies that book trips to Cuba. As Whitney Ray tells us, some say if the Governor signs the bill it will be harder to reunite families.

Hear it Here: Legislation Could Make Travel to Cuba More Difficult, Expensive

Holding signs and shouting veto, more than a hundred Cuban-Americans stormed the state Capitol to ask the Governor to say “no” to stricter travel regulations to Cuba. The legislation requires travel agencies licensed to book flights to Cuba to post a 250,000 dollar bond. Travel agents say many companies couldn’t get bonded.

“The way it is spelled out in the bill are so risky that a bond company would not do it,” said Armando Garcia the president of Marazul, a Miami Charter Company.

Travel agencies that get bonded may have to increase rates. Mechanic Juan Marino said he couldn’t afford to pay more.

“The fare to go to Cuba is going to be higher. It’s going to be more difficult. We’re going to have to be forced to go to third country,” said Marino.

Some Travelers say, if getting to Cuba from Florida gets too difficult they’ll just hop a plan to another Caribbean country and go from there. Opponents of the legislation say if people stopped flying to Cuba from Miami then the state economy would suffer.

“They’re not going to stay in our hotels. They’re not going to eat at our restaurants and they’re not going to spend their money in Florida,” said Tessie Aral, the President of ABC Charters.

Others say it would just be harder for them to get medication to their relatives who can’t buy it in Cuba.

“They would die because they don’t have the medication in Cuba,” said Isabel Rodriguez who has relative who live in Cuba.

About a hundred companies in Florida are federally licensed to sell trips to Cuba. Representative David Rivera pushed the legislation through the chambers. Rivera says stricter regulations on travel agencies would help protect consumers taking trips to Cuba and other terrorist nations.

People using prepaid phone cards in Florida should expect to get every minute they pay for. The Attorney General’s office is asking 9 prepaid calling card companies to start playing by the rules. An investigation by the AG’s office uncovered deceptive advertising and hidden charges by the companies. Some companies were charging people as much as 70 cents just to end a call, two dollars a month if all the minutes weren’t used. They were even rounding call times up to the nearest 4 minute mark. Deputy Attorney General Bob Hannah said the companies will stop over charging callers.

“We are going to require that they end the process of pumping up the time from a 1:10 to 4 minutes. They can only round up to a minute so that practice is going to end under the terms of this agreement,” said Hannah.

Some companies were advertising in Spanish and posting disclaimers in English, so unless a user was bilingual they couldn’t read the fine print.

Governor Charlie Crist has signed the state’s 66 billion dollar budget without fanfare, and as Mike Vasilinda tells us the budget is as notable for what is doesn’t do as for what it does.

For the first time in recent memory, the state budget was signed behind closed doors.

“There’s a reason it was done behind closed doors: there was nothing here to cheer.”

Education faces a billion dollar cut. Some teachers will lose their jobs, raises will be few and far between. The Teachers’ Union says parents are going to be surprised when their kids show up in August.

“There’s going to be programs that are going to be gone,” Mark Pudlow with the Teachers’ Union said. “You’re going to find school resource officers not there. There’s just going to be less available for children.”

Trustees at Florida State will figure out how to make due with 32 million less when they meet Friday. Tuition is going up by 6 percent. Lucy Dyer and daughter Kelly were touring campus for orientation.

“From what I’ve seen from orientation, I think that they’re going to do their best to make sure programs are still in place,” Dyer said. “I know classrooms may be larger than they’d probably like.”

Eric Goldsmith worries the cuts will keep him in school longer.

“It affects me the most because the budget in general will make it harder for me to get into classes here, the professors will be going down,” Goldsmith said. “There won’t be as many classes available.”

Court fees will go up to avoid layoffs. Some public defenders are saying they will have to refuse cases to meet their constitutional responsibility to do a good job.

On Tuesday, the governor praised lawmakers for a difficult task.

View Budget Veto Letter Here

The economy isn’t just hurting people’s financial health… it’s also making them sick. A recent poll claims people facing foreclosure may lose their health along with their house. As Whitney Ray tells us, people in debt report more ulcers, heart attacks and back pains than people with good credit.

Hear it Here: Finacial Woes Cause Heath Problems

Few states are feeling the foreclosure pain like Florida. Attorney
General spokeswoman Sandi Copes said people are getting desperate.

“If you’re trying to save your home, you’re going to go to anyone who
offers you assistance or offers you a way out. Many times those offers
are not legitimate and you’re going to end up losing your home,” said Copes.

Florida State University Professor Charles Figley researches natural
catastrophes and the stress storms cause victims. Figley said people who
lose their homes to foreclosure feel the same kind of stress as storm
victims the only difference, foreclosure victims blame themselves.

“They fundamental thing that sets them apart is the shame and the
embarrassment, that they’ve let themselves down they’ve let their family
down,” said Figley.

A recent poll suggests debt stress is making people sicker today than it
did in 2004. More than 40 percent of people surveyed say they’ve had migraines
because of financial problems, compared to just 15 percent in 2004.”

More than 20 percent suffered from depression and six percent reported
heart attacks. Figley says people who are stressed don’t sleep well and
their immune system suffers. Massage therapist Jennifer Mason said many
of her clients stay up at night worrying about debt.

“Their mind is clearer because they actually become alert and yet
relaxed after a massage,” said Mason.

Councilors say people need to deal with financial stress, so they don’t
lose their health along with their house.

The Food and Drug administration is placing Florida’s tomatoes on the safe-to-eat-list. Until this afternoon the FDA was telling consumers to stay away from tomatoes grown in Florida, after a salmonella outbreak in 16 other states made 145 people sick. The outbreak killed a Texas man. Tomatoes remained banned in most of the country. State Agriculture Department spokeswoman Liz Compton said no one has gotten sick from Florida grown tomatoes.

“We’ve had zero illnesses in Florida. We also sell along the Eastern seaboard and we have not see illnesses in that area. The illnesses are in Western states,” said Compton.

Florida farmers produce 36 percent of the nation’s tomatoes.