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Pharmacists in Florida can give flu shots but other vaccinations are off limits.

Hundreds of pharmacists and pharmacy students were at the state capitol today rallying for the right to administer shingles and pneumonia vaccines. Legislation to give them the right is being sponsored by Representative Ana Logan. Her bill passed a House committee earlier today.

“A number of individuals that could be saved from a lifetime of shingles or cost and the adverse reaction to pneumonia is definitely important at this time,” said Logan.

Currently 40 states allow pharmacists to administer shingles shots and 45 allow them to give pneumonia vaccinations.

Hispanic students who came to Florida as teenagers are asking lawmakers for instate college tuition.

They were in the state capitol today supporting a bill that would allow anyone who attended three years in a Florida public school to pay instate tuition. Estaban Roncancio was brought to Florida by his parents when he was 14. He graduated from a Miami high school but had to sit out a year to earn money to cover out-of-state tuition to Miami-Dade College.

“I had to wait a whole year because I didn’t have any money to go to school. So I had to save money to be able to pay 5-thouand dollars a semester at community college,” said Estaban.

The instate college tuition bill has yet to receive a committee hearing.

Florida’s Commissioner of Agriculture was honored today for his efforts to end hunger.

The Second Harvest of the Big Bend presented the award during its annual Bowls of Hope event at the state capitol. Bowls of Hope is an ongoing effort to raise awareness of the state’s food needs. Rebecca Brislain, the Executive Director of the Florida Association of Food Banks, says the need has grown since the Great Recession struck Florida.

“There is abundance here in Florida and there is an opportunity for them to step up to the plate and help us find more fruits and vegetables to meet people’s needs,” said Brislain.

The Florida Association of Food Banks takes donations year round. They’re also collecting fresh fruits and vegetables farmers aren’t able to sell to grocers because of their shape or size.

Parents could fire teachers or ask a charter school company to take over their child’s school under legislation moving in Tallahassee. The Parent Empowerment Act would allow the changes if 51 percent of parents signed a petition and the state board of education approves. As Whitney Ray tells us, it would also allow parents to pull their kids out of a classroom if the teacher isn’t performing well.

To hold public schools accountable this group of lawmakers and education advocates wants parents to have more power.

“They really don’t think their involvement counts that much,” said former state senator Al Lawson.

The Parent Empowerment Act would allow parents to craft their own reform plan if their child’s school is failing. With enough signatures, parents could fire teachers and administrators or turn the school over to a charter company.

They could also pull their child from a classroom if the teacher has received low performance reviews and put them in a virtual classroom with a better teacher.

Senate Sponsor Lizbeth Benacquisto says the reforms would force schools to improve their product.

“The full intent of the bill is to get parents engaged and involved in the turn around process,” said Benacquisto.

Education groups around the state like the Florida PTA and Fund Education now say the goal isn’t to empower parents… it’s to shut down public schools.

Representative Marty Kiar hopes that’s not true, but says he can see how a charter school organization could use parent involvement to its advantage.

“I could definitely see some of these for-profit institutions run a campaign, do mail outs, do phone banking and basically run the campaign to get the signatures,” said Kiar.

Kiar voted no to the bill in Committee Tuesday, but says with a few tweaks he could change his mind. Many Democrats already support the bill. 51 percent of parents would have to sign off on the reform plan. It would then be submitted to the state board of education along with a reform plan from the school district. Then it would be up to the board to pick the which plan to implement.

The state is launching a year long effort to find jobs for returning soldiers. The National Guard estimates nearly one in five returning soldiers struggles finding work. Governor Rick Scott announced the state’s efforts to find jobs for vets during National Guard Day at the state capitol. Scott, a Navy Veteran, remembers how hard it was to make the transition when he came home in 1974.

“I remember how hard it was for people to get jobs. It was a similar time frame in our country when they were downsizing from the Vietnam War and people had a very difficult time getting jobs,” said Scott.

Part of the veteran employment plan includes a bill discussed in the Senate to give college credit for military service.

Lawmakers have a plan to save jobs at seven state prisons scheduled to close in July. Their plan: ask the feds or states with large inmate populations if they want rent space in the Florida prisons. The prisons are closing because Florida’s inmate population is down by 12-thousand inmates. Senate President Mike Haridopolos says he’s open to suggestions.

“If we can open up some of those prisons to other states or the federal government to get some of the resource from other people, all the better, so I’m open to those suggestions,” said Haridopolos.

The Department of Corrections is closing the prisons because the state’s inmate population has fallen by 12-thousand inmates.

Florida is considered a national leader in open government, but two recent court decisions draw that title into question. Local officials are required to meet in the open, they are not required to listen to the public. Yet. State lawmakers want to make sure you can speak your mind.

Father Nathan Monk thought he had a right to speak his piece to the Pensacola City Council. The date was December fifteenth 2011. He was there to criticize the council for throwing three people out of the meeting the week before.

“That was a sick and gross abuse of power.”
“Your time is up..sit down.” He was told by the chairman.
“No. I have a minute and twelve seconds left” he replied.
“I’m ruling you out of order” said the chair.
“Well, I am absolutely within order” responded Monk.

First one..then two and finally three officers approached the podium. Monk was nearly arrested, but stood his ground until his time expired.

One council member left the meeting in anger. “I will be outside” she chimed from the dais.

Turns out Monk had a legal right to be at the meeting, but not speak. At least two courts have said Yes, you can come to a meeting, but no, you don’t have a right to talk. The rulings baffle first amendment advocates.

“When I first read it, I was like What!” says Barbara Peterson, President of the First Amendment Foundation in Tallahassee. “How can you have a representational democracy and not let the citizens speak?” she asks.

Two bills are currently moving through the state legislature. Both would require local governments to listen. Sen. Joe Negron is the sponsor of the Senate legislation. “And I can’t think of anything more fundamental. To me its up there with the right to a jury trial, the right to vote. the right to speak is out first amendment right” says Negron

Even with the legislation local boards will be able to set limits on speech, but they will be required to hear citizens. The bill would let local governments allot time to citizens or groups of citizens and to consolidate the time for either side of an issue.

Cure Alzheimer’s Now is launching public relations effort for baby boomers at risk of the disease. Statistically one in 40 Floridians already has the disease and the state has twice as many cases as any other state. Cure Alzheimer’s is seeking three million dollars from state lawmakers to speed up promising research, which Dr. David Morgan of the Bird Institute at the University of South Florida says will lead to a way to prevent Alzheimer’s by the year 2020.

“We have been able to begin being able to recognize who is at risk of developing Alzheimer’s dementia before they even get the disease. Until recently we could not not even diagnose alzheimer’s disease positively until a brain came to autopsy” says Morgan.

Testing is currently underway to detect chemicals in a persons brain. At the same time, drugs are being developed to treat the chemical. So far no one is promising a cure for those with the disease, but there is hope it can be prevented with the right screening and drug therapy.

Once again Florida is at the center of presidential politics. There’s a GOP primary debate in Tampa tonight, one in Jacksonville Thursday, and still no clear frontrunner. Florida’s cabinet members are lining up behind Mitt Romney. Governor Rick Scott isn’t endorsing, but as Whitney Ray tells us, his image is being used in an attack ad.

This attack ad running in Florida all week features Mitt Romney.

“While Romney was a director of the Damon Corporation, the company was defrauding Medicare of millions,” says a narrator.

Toward the end of the 30 second TV spot, Romney turns into Governor Rick Scott.

“Corporate Greed. Medicare Fraud. Sound Familiar?”

The ad is sponsored by AFSME. The union is trying to draw a line from Romney to Governor Rick Scott. Scott isn’t endorsing. He offered this advice to all the candidates on Fox News Monday.

“Get around the state. Talk to people and tell them, why are you going to change the direction of this economy,” said Scott.

Florida’s three cabinet members endorsed Romney weeks ago.

“I firmly believe he is the candidate who can beat Barack Obama,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi.

“Romney has an extraordinary business background that I think best positions him to lead us out of this economic crisis,” said Adam Putnam, Commissioner of Agriculture.

Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam isn’t worried about Romney’s defeat in South Carolina or a new poll that shows him down nine points to Newt Gingrich.

“I worked with Speaker Gingrich when I was in Washington and I feel his troubled past, his record, his erratic temperament is ill-suited for the presidency,” said Putnam.

Putnam says having no clear frontrunner is proof moving the state’s primary forward was the right decision.
Early voting is underway. 250-thousand people have voted either early or absentee. Their voters are expected to favor Romney since Gingrich only began to surge during the past few days.

Opposition to two controversial privatization bills is growing.

This morning protestors held signs in front of the state capitol, less than a week after the bills passed their first committee stop. The bills privatize 18 South Florida prisons and remove the requirement that lawmakers justify privatization before outsourcing government jobs. Protestor Barbara DeVane says privatization hurts Florida’s economy.

“They are cutting, cutting, cutting because they don’t want to do the right thing and go for more revenue,” said DeVane.

The protestors belong to two groups; Fight Back Florida and Occupy Tallahassee. They say the legislature should close corporate tax loophole and end sales tax exemptions to save money instead of privatizing state functions.

Professional sports teams in Florida are required to use their stadiums as homeless shelters during the off-season, but they don’t.

Legislation to allow the state to take back some of the 300 million dollars in taxpayer money Florida’s pro sports teams receive passed a senate committee today. Mike Bennett is the bill’s sponsor. He says the teams need to follow the law or stop taking tax dollars.

“The professional sports franchises keep going back to the taxpayers, the people of the State of Florida, and asking them for money, but they give nothing back and it just kind of irritated me,” said Bennett.

The bill was also amended to include penalties for pro teams that have games blacked out due to low attendance. If the bill passes, teams would be charged 125-thousand dollars for every game taken off the airwaves.

Experts in business licensing and regulation are leaving their offices to help customers in person this week.

The Department of Business and Professional Regulation is setting up a booth in the state capitol to answer questions and take complaints. Sandi Poreda, a DBPR spokeswoman, says the booth is equipped with computers and wireless internet so experts can walk people through online applications.

“People who have questions about license applications, who may have questions about specific professional licenses, they can come here and meet with specialized teams from our department and get those questions answered. Any trouble they have with their applications we can go ahead and get that fixed right here at the capitol,” said Poreda.

Thursday construction licensing experts will be on hand and Friday cosmetology regulators will be at the DBPR booth. The booth will also be set up on select days in February.

Two businessmen in rural Marianna, Florida, 60 miles west of the state Capitol, are crying foul over their inclusion in an anti Mitt Romney video. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, the half hour production, titled “King of Bain” is the work of a super PAC supporting Newt Gingrich.

8700 people cal Marianna, Florida home. The sleepy Florida Panhandle town has become center stage in the GOP primary fight for the presidency.

“One stop on Romney’s quest: Marianna, Florida.”

Romney’s Bain Capital purchased, then sold, a small washing machine manufacturer, here.

A video accusing Mitt Romney of being a jobs killer features two Marianna businessmen.

There’s just one problem: those who were interviewed here in Marianna say everything they said was taken out of context.

The video implies that Tommy Jones’s income suffered after Bain took over.

“We prospered from the time that UniMac was sold to Raytheon, through Bain,” Mike Baxley, former UniMac employee and current co-owner of Marianna based Washers-R-Us. “Then the fact is at the end they closed our factory down and we had to go find more employment.”

Jobs were lost here, but Jones and partner Mike Baxley started their own successful company. Both say every quote in the video was taken out of context.

“You don’t know what’s true anymore,” Jones said.

The partners say its disgusting that more than 176,000 people have seen the video.

The men are hoping that Mitt Romney will come to town in person, so they can tell him first hand they didn’t say bad things about him.

Tonight we are learning about another case of hazing at FAMU. Four more band members are facing charges, for what police says was the beating of five clarinet players trying to join a secret group within the Marching 100. As Whitney Ray tells us, the hazing ritual in question took place two months before the death of drum major Robert Champion.

Arrested for hazing, four FAMU band members are the latest students to face charges, after the school pledged to end the violent tradition… that may have cost one student his life.

The charges date back to September before the first home football game of the year. That’s when five pledges tried to join a subsection of the clarinets, according to court documents they had to endure a beating to get in. It happened here near FAMU’s campus. The pledges were told to play music while, according to police, senior members of the band punched and slapped them.

“The culture of the campus is changing,” said Floide Shelly, a member of FAMU Student Government.

Shelly says even though the incident occurred nearly five months ago, it’s proof FAMU is turning things around.

“Our student body has become a lot more aware and more cautions of how their actions not only affect themselves, but affect others,” said Shelly.

Governor Rick Scott says the school needs to uncover all hazing cases, even old ones.

“I’m glad that FAMU is taking this seriously. They are looking at the issues they’re dealing with. I hope there are no more incidents were somebody is hazed,” Scott said.

This is the second round of arrests at FAMU for hazing. But there still hasn’t been any arrests made in connection to the hazing that lead to Champion’s death.

Florida’s unemployment rate has fallen into the single digits for the first time since mid-2009.

December labor statistics were released today. They show Florida’s unemployment rate down from 10 percent to 9.9. Since Governor Rick Scott took office the rate has fallen from 12 percent. Scott says cutting taxes and regulations has helped rejuvenate the job market.

“Lower taxes, less regulation, easier permitting; those are things that are getting people to build their businesses here. So business is doing it. The private sector is doing it. Government is just creating the environment,” said Scott.

Florida has added 142-thousand jobs in 2012. 17-thousand were added in December.