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Residents in a small north Florida county are outraged tonight. A federal judge has ordered county officials to remove a statue of the Ten Commandments from the county courthouse. As Whitney Ray tells us, officials have less than a month to find a new location for the commandments.

Eighteen hundred people call Cross City Florida home. There are more churches in the town than gas stations and at the entrance of the Dixie County Courthouse, engraved in stone, are the Ten Commandments.

Darcy Patterson says the commandments belong at the courthouse… but a federal judge disagrees. The judge ruled last week the commandments had to go because they violated the separation of church and state laid out in the US Constitution.

“It has nothing to do with the courthouse. It’s our God, our Maker,” said Darcy.

Dixie County residents are furious.

“If they are going to take it down we should all picket,” said Dixie County resident Nancy Lupo.

“Federal judge he doesn’t come down here everyday and see this,” said Bo Patterson.

“It should stay it’s not hurting anything,” said Georgia Jerrells.

The court battle to remove the statue began in 2007, after the ACLU filed suit.

This is actually owned by a private citizen, that’s the case Dixie County made in court. They also posted a plaque saying the views and opinions expressed in this area aren’t necessarily the views of the county, but it wasn’t enough to appease the judge.

Now officials have until August 14th to get rid of the statue. Lifelong Dixie County residents Richard and Sissy Elton are sad to see it go.

Richard: If people don’t want to look at it, they don’t want to see it there, then turn their head.
Sissy: Come in the backdoor.
Richard: Come in the backdoor.

Residents are asking the owner to place the commandments on private property as close to the courthouse as possible. We tried to talk to Dixie County officials to see if they planned to move the statue or appeal the decision, but they denied our request for an interview. The ACLU of Florida issued this statement about the judge’s decision.

“We hope that Dixie County officials will find a permanent place for it at a church or other house of worship, which is the appropriate place for religious monuments. Removing the monument is the right thing to do. It is not the business of government to promote religious messages about monotheism, idolatry, taking the Lord’s name in vain or honoring the Sabbath,” said Howard Simon the Executive Director of the ACLUFL.

A plan to cut the cost of Medicaid could also cost thousands of pharmacists their jobs. The plan would require Medicaid patients to fill most of their prescriptions through the mail. As Whitney Ray tells us, the move to mail-in prescriptions could be a coffin nail for some of Florida’s 10-thousand community pharmacies already suffering from the recession.

The Economy Drug Store has been in Alexis McMillan’s family for decades.

“My family has had this pharmacy since 1951,” said Alexis.

But a plan to force Medicaid recipients to receive most of their prescriptions through the mail would make it hard for Alexis to keep the doors open.

“It would be detrimental more so to have less and less traffic coming into the pharmacy,” said Alexis.

Economy Drug Store is just one of 10-thousand community pharmacies fighting the mail order prescription plan. The pharmacies employ 235-thousand Floridians. Monday, opponents of the plan gathered outside Alexis’ store to voice their concerns.

“The mail order mandate will harm Florida’s economy. It will increase unemployment across the state,” said Bill Mincy with PCAN.

There are 2.9 million Medicaid patients in Florida, costing taxpayers an average of 7-thousand dollars a piece.

Mail in prescriptions are a small piece of much larger Medicaid reform plan being crafted to safe the state money.

The Agency for Health Care Administration, by order of the state legislature, is writing the plan. Our request for an interview about how the plan would work, was denied. ACHA will submit its plan to the Federal government for approval August 1st.

Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos decided today he is not the GOP’s best chance to unseat US Senator Bill Nelson. Haridopolos posted a video message to his website today announcing his departure from the race. Haridopolos told his supporters his plate was full with leading the state senate… too full to properly campaign for the US Senate.

“Today I’m announcing that I will no longer be a candidate for the US Senate nor will I seek any office this year or the next. Instead I am rededicating myself to finish the job you sent me here to do in Florida,” announced Haridopolos.

There are still a lot of GOP contenders looking to unseat Nelson. The most recent entry into the race is former Ruth’s Chris CEO Craig Miller.

A bill to lengthen yellow lights at traffic intersections was filed early in Tallahassee. The light turned red on a similar measure during the past legislative session. As Whitney Ray tells us, the bill comes as angry drivers ticketed by red-light camera claim yellow lights are too short.

The race to get into the intersection before the light turns red is on. The stakes are high. Enter a split second late, and red light cameras will snap a picture. Stop early and you may get rear ended.

Friday John McGrew piled friends into his new car. He says at some lights he can barely get his BMW into the intersection before the light turns red.

“Sometimes it does change a little too fast,” said McGrew.

A bill to lengthen yellow lights has been refilled in Tallahassee. The light turned red on a similar measure last year. Representative Brad Drake hated to see the brakes put on the bill.

“And that’s what they are doing with these cameras, they’re catching people as they go through but it’s unfair because the yellow light is so short,” said Drake.

At this intersection, a few blocks from the state capitol, the speed limit going North and South is 35 miles an hour. The yellow light lasts about 3.2 seconds. The new bill would require it to last 4 seconds.

The bill is a response to complaints about red light cameras. As dozens began popping up around the state, claims that yellow lights were shortened to catch more drivers began to surface.

Shamika Whitlock heard the stories and changed her driving.

“I definitely stop. I can’t get anymore tickets. I stop before it turns yellow,” said Whitlock.

During a six month period beginning last year, 11 million dollars in fines were mailed out because of red-light cameras. Opponents of the devices believe longer yellow lights will lower that number.

Right now local governments set the length of yellow lights based on an equation factoring in speed limits, the size of the road and other variables. The bill would base the length of the light on just the speed limit.

Proposed Yellow Light Changes
25 MPH or slower 3 sec
35 MPH 4 sec
45 MPH 5 sec
55 MPH or faster 6 sec

If there isn’t an agreement in Washington on raising the debt ceiling and there is a lengthy federal government shutdown, Florida may not be prepared to deal with the consequences. As Whitney Ray tells us, the state depends on 24 billion federal dollars to meet its obligations and if Congress doesn’t reach a deal, that money will be in jeopardy.

80- year old Patty Parkhurst is fed up with the stalemate in Washington over government spending and the debt ceiling.

“I don’t know who to call. I don’t know what to do to influence them, as if I could influence them, but they influence my lifestyle,” said Patty.

That’s because Patty, like most seniors, receives Social Security and Medicare and if Congress can’t reach a deal by August 2nd those programs could be at least partially shut down.

“I depend on those checks at the first of the month,” said Patty.

Seniors aren’t the only ones worried. The disabled, military, and the nearly two million Floridians on food stamps all rely on Uncle Sam.

And so does the state. One third, or about 24 billion dollars, of Florida’s budget is federal money. It funds everything from roads to schools.

Robert Weissert, the Vice President for Research at Florida TaxWatch, says if the debate rages long past the deadline there will be cuts in the state budget.

“If we reach a doomsday scenario on August 3rd, funding for all kinds of programs including education, transportation would be at risk,” said Weissert.

Governor Rick Scott doesn’t think Congress will let a doomsday scenario play out.

“I don’t think that is going to happen,” said Scott.

We called the Department of Children and Families, the Department of Transportation and the Agency for Health Care Administration to see if they were working on plans to deal with less money from Washington. They all denied our request for an interview.

Florida receives some federal money annually, some quarterly and some is reimbursed. So even if the deadline comes and federal money is cut off, the state will still have enough to put off major decisions for at least a little while.

UPDATE: SCOTT’S OFFICE NOW SAYS THE GOVERNOR HAS BEEN REIMBURSING COLUMBIA COLLIER LLC FOR THE USE OF THE PLANE, WHICH WOULD NOT REQUIRE THE TRIPS TO BE REPORTED AS A GIFT. WE HAVE ASKED FOR COPIES OF THE CANCELLED CHECKS.

Since taking office in January, Governor Rick Scott has been using a private jet to travel. The plane is owned by a corporation controlled by Scott, and, as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the Governor has apparently made a “rookie” mistake in failing to report the plane use as a gift.

When Rick Scott travels by air, he flies on a Raytheon Jet. FAA records show the jet registered to a Naples corporation, which is in turn owned by another corporation, Rick Scott Investments.

When Scott first announced he would use the plane back in January, we asked how he might account for the use of a corporately owned plane under state law.

Reporter: How will that work?

Scott: It’s my plane, I’ll pay for it myself.

But as the documents show, Scott doesn’t really own the plane; a corporation, providing significant legal protections to the Scott family, is the legal owner. We showed the paperwork on the plane to one of the state’s foremost ethics attorneys.

“In this case, it’s my understanding that it’s from a corporation,” ethics and elections expert Mark Herron said. “It has to be reported as a gift, unless the person who’s traveling is paying fair market value under ethics rules for that transportation.”

Under Florida law, Governor Rick Scott should have filed this form for the airplane trips he took in January, February, and March by June 30th with the Florida Commission on Ethics.

The Ethics Commission says they have nothing on file.

We asked the Governor Thursday about the failure to file the necessary gift report.

“I’d have to look into it.” Scott said. “I don’t know, I’ve got an accountant that does all that.”

Experts chalk up the failure to report the trips as a rookie mistake by a staff and legal team not familiar with the requirements of Florida law.

The Republican Party of Florida spent half a million dollars to improve the governor’s image. But as Whitney Ray tells us, it isn’t working.

A media blitz of phone calls, internet ads and prewritten letters to the editors of seven Florida newspapers, hasn’t changed the public’s opinion of Governor Rick Scott.

Back in May, Quinnipiac Pollsters put Scott’s job approval rating at 29 percent. The Republican Party of Florida came to the governor’s aid. A financial disclosure form released Tuesday shows the party spent half a million dollars on Scott’s image.

But according to a new poll the efforts aren’t working and in fact, the governor’s slipping. The Sunshine State News is reporting now 27 percent of voters approve of the job Scott’s doing, down two percentage points from May.

At noon Wednesday Scott hadn’t seen the poll.

“I’m going to have to look at, but my job is, I got elected on a very specific platform to get our state back to work,” said Scott.

While his focus remains on jobs, Scott seems more willing to change his stance. This week he killed a plan to bring campgrounds and a RV park to a popular State Park, after hundreds spoke out against the renovations.

“It’s their parks we’ve got to make sure we listen to them,” Scott said.

In Scott’s first media availability since he shook up his inner circle last month, the governor gave the capital press corps nine minutes to ask questions. That’s double the amount of time of most previous media availabilities.

The State Republican party’s efforts to improve Scott’s image continue. The party’s new spokesman Brian Hughes, who last month worked for the governor, released this statement today explaining their public relations strategy.

“The Governor has a great story to tell the voters about turning the state around, five straight months of declining unemployment thanks to 76,000 new jobs, a balanced state budget without raising taxes, property tax cuts for most Florida homeowners and cracking down on pill mills and one of our jobs at the party is to help him tell it. The calls and web ads are a very efficient way to directly keep voters informed about what the Governor and Republican leadership are doing to get our state back to work.”

–Brian Hughes / RPOF Spokesman

Governor Rick Scott met with members of the Department of Homeland Security in Tallahassee today. Reporters were kept out of the meeting until the last 10 minutes. Scott says the meeting was about keeping Floridians safe after natural disasters and preventing terrorist attacks. He also told reporters he supports the TSA, which has been under scrutiny for its sometimes controversial airport screening tactics.

“I hope the TSA continues to take their job very seriously, which I think they do, because it keeps our tourism going,” said Scott.

Last month the Texas legislature came close to passing a bill to ban the TSA from performing screenings without a reasonable suspicious that a passenger is a threat. The bill failed in the last moments of the Texas special session.

The Florida Department of Motor Vehicles is adding more options for people who want to take their learners permit test online. Right now there are two vendors. Two more will be added by the end of the month. The price of the test varies depending on the vendor. DMV Spokeswoman Ann Howard says there is still one place left where people can take the test for free.

“If you don’t want to pay to take the test online you do have the option of taking the test in one of our offices for free,” said Howard.

The test went back online last week, months after a study found as many as 40 percent of the people who took the test online couldn’t pass it under supervision. To prevent cheating this go round one in every 100 people who take the test online will be selected to retake the test at their local DMV. If caught cheating their parents will lose their license.

The head of Citizens Property Insurance wants to explore handing over the more than a million policies to a private company. Citizens board chairman told members today privatization may be the answer to the concerns surrounding Citizens ability to pay claims. Governor Rick Scott says its worth considering.

“If looking at things like privatizing Citizens is something that will help drive down the cost of insurance of our state I want to look at it very closely,” said Scott.

Citizens holds properties the private sector deems too risky to insure. Many of the properties are on the coast. If a major storm wiped out a large number of those properties, Citizens could pay claims so taxpayers would to foot the bill.

One out of every five dollars of personal income in Florida comes from government programs, and by years end many of those programs will be scaled back. The research comes from Moody’s Analytics a New York based research group, but what it means to Florida, as Whitney Ray tells us, is fewer dollars for people to spend on food, clothing and other necessities.

The recession has more Floridians enrolling in unemployment, food stamps and social security programs. But by years end, many of those programs will be cut.

Tuesday Florida House Democrat Alan Williams was speaking up to save Medicare. He says the cuts will hurt.

“I think it leaves a lot of folk behind and it leaves a lot of services that could be given to our citizens when they need them the most,” said Williams.

On top of Uncle Sam closing his wallet, the state is also scaling back the amount of money it gives people in need. August 1st changes to the state’s unemployment compensation system will keep thousands from claiming benefits.

Rob Weissert, the Vice President for Research at Florida TaxWatch, says the changes mean fewer dollars for Floridians to spend at Florida businesses.

“This change will likely have a negative impact on real Floridians and on Florida’s fiscal situation, but it could be a positive in the long run,” said Weissert.

The positive, says Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll, is that the cuts are expected to help businesses create jobs. Carroll says the strategy is already starting to work.

Carroll: Right now we are also seeing that in the short term that our revenues coming in are higher that expected.
Reporter: So it’s all about jobs.
Carroll: Jobs jobs jobs.”

But with 20 percent of the personal income in Florida coming from the government, if those jobs don’t come soon the recession will likely deepen.

Since Florida has no income tax and relies heavily on sales tax to fund government, cuts in entitlement programs could hit Florida harder than other states.

A new drivers license program is making it easier to identify veterans.

Today the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles rolled out its new veterans license, which is just the same as a regular license except for a small “V” in the bottom right hand corner. The change was adopted after years of lobbying by Daniel Garza a retired Army staff sergeant and CEO of Tampa based Operation Enduring Gratitude.

“The initial reason I wanted it on there was a bunch of merchants and retailers who want to give us discounts on a daily biases, but they don’t know who we are,” said Garza.

Veterans who want to change their license need to bring their DD-214, which is proof of an honorable discharge and pay one dollar for the V.

As fireworks light up the sky over the Fourth of July weekend, so did the lights of the Florida Highway Patrol.

Today FHP released its Independence Day holiday statistics. 85-hundred citations were issued. Three thousand of those were for speeding. 90 were for driving under the influence. FHP Regional Chief Grady Carrick says troopers work overtime to watch the roads during times of celebration.

“The Florida Highway Patrol along with our other state and local partners are serious about traffic safety and we are serious about helping people enjoy the holidays in a safe and responsible way,” said Carrick.

Along with the arrests were 12 crashes that resulted in 13 deaths.

Art may be on the chopping block to help fill the budget deficits in some Florida cities and counties. Broward County is considering a vote on every art project with a six figure price tag. Since 1979, the state has spent 11.5 million dollars on art and, as Whitney Ray tells us, there have been numerous efforts to stop tax dollars from paying for the creations.

A tranquil fountain of dolphins greets visitors at the Florida state capitol. In the courtyard a statue reminds them of the sacrifices made by law enforcement.

“We want them to see that this is the reality of what law enforcement, correctional officers go through everyday,” said Matt Puckett, Spokesman with PBA.

The Florida Police Benevolent Association donated the Officer Down statue in 2009, the same year a bill calling on the state to stop buying art failed in Tallahassee.

Over the past 30 years the state has spent 11.5 million dollars on art. That’s about 360-thousand a year. Division of Cultural Affairs Spokesman Chris Cate says the pictures, paintings, and sculptures enhance the Florida experience.

“Public places are a great venue to promote Florida’s artists, Florida’s talent, Florida’s environment,” said Cate.

State law allows an art budget of up to 100-thousand dollars per new building.

Florida’s First District Court of Appeal went way over its art budget, so Florida’s CFO stopped payment to the artist. Now more than 350 framed photographs sit wrapped in paper while the artist sues the state for the money she was promised.

With the state and local governments cutting programs and laying off workers to fill massive budget deficits, some people are asking if now is the time to spend tax dollars on art.

“I don’t care about no pictures hanging up, I’m trying to get to my destination, get to work, take care of my family,” said Anthony Jackson.

At least one Florida County is taking action. Broward County may soon require a vote for every six figure art purchase. A bill introduced to require the state to only buy art from Florida artists failed this session.