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The Florida Commission on Ethics is trying to collect more than $100,000.00 dollars in fines issued more than four years ago. City Council Members, Mayors and even a State Representative are on the list. Commissioners are asking state lawmakers from the authority to collect the money owed. Integrity Florida plans to push the issue during the 2013 legislative session.

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Florida’s unemployment rate dropped one tenth of a percent in May, marking the lowest it has been since December 2008. The downtick in the joblessness is having a positive effect on state tax collections, and real estate transactions are leading the way.

Peter and Mary Ribaudo spent the last four years trying to sell their Bradenton home. They’d just about given up when out of the blue they got an offer.

” We were surprised when along came a buyer. Um, It seemed to come out of nowhere and we thought this is the time we might sell” says Peter.

Now the couple has made an offer on a home in Tallahassee. It wasn’t their first choice, but Mary says other homes they were considering were snapped up before they could make an offer.

“These houses are moving quickly, and and you’ve got more than one person, sometimes, on a house.”

The taxes from the sale of real estate is one of the brightest pictures in Florida. It’s seventeen million dollars over estimate in just May alone. One reason for the uptick is that banks are lending again. Since the beginning of the year, financial institutions have created 57 hundred new jobs. That accounts for one of every ten new jobs created in Florida since the first of the year.

John Sebree of the Florida Realators says the horizon looks promising. “And the fact that pending sales are up thirty five percent shows that people are back in the market, they’re ready” says Sebree.

And realtors like Steve Hourigas are counting on the trend continuing. “They are out there ready to buy…if they take too long, they may not be buying what they thought they were buying”.

One of every four homes being sold is being purchased by a foreign national.

While home sales are increasing, new construction remains one of the hardest hit areas in the state’s economy\, losing twenty two thousand jobs over the last year.

Elected officials in Florida owe more than 100-thousand dollars in ethics violation fines and they have no intention of paying them. The Florida Commission on Ethics has no way to collect the money, but as Whitney Ray tells us, they’re asking the legislature to give them more authority to police ethics violators.

They’ve been compared to a paper tiger, fierce looking, but no teeth. At best the Florida Commission on Ethics can force elected officials to hire a lawyer and do the walk of shame past TV cameras.

But when it comes to penalties they have no authority to actually make violators pay.

“So we have a law. We just don’t have an enforcement mechanism in the law,” said Commissioner Matthew Carlucci.

Right now Florida politicians owe more than 100-thousand dollars in ethics fines. The commissioners tried to collect the money using private collection agencies, but if a fine isn’t paid within four years, it’s no longer valid.

“I can’t believe that a sitting house member hasn’t paid his fine,” said Commissioner Morgan Bentley.

To make violators pay, commissioners put fine collection authority at the top of their 2013 legislative wish list.

Dan Krassner, the director of Integrity Florida supports the change along with a dozen more to give the commission teeth.

“Integrity Florida would like to see an elevation of the issue of self-initiation of investigation of putting state ethics law enforcement officers on the beat,” said Krassner.

But getting the agenda approved is just the first step. Getting the changes passed the legislature is a whole nother battle. Lawmakers haven’t approve any changes to the ethics commission in more than a decade.

One hold back to giving the commission more power is many lawmakers have faced ethics violations and given the choice between a paper tiger and the real thing, most choose paper.

Included in the list of proposed changes are increasing the maximum fine from 10-thousand to 25-thousand dollars and allowing the commission to launch its own investigations. Right now the commission can only investigate a claim if a complaint is filed.

Things aren’t looking too bright for the Sunshine State when it comes to solar energy. A new report ranks Florida 14th in the nation in new solar production, at a time when, as Whitney Ray tells us, the solar industry nationwide is booming.

Welcome to the Sunshine State, but don’t let the name fool you. There is a lot of sun, but when it comes to solar power, the state is lagging.

A new report shows the US solar industry grew by 85 percent during the first quarter of 2012. New Jersey is leading production with Florida down the list at number 14. Kim Ross with Rethink Energy Florida says the ranking is unacceptable.

“There’s really no better place to have solar than here in the State of Florida. The reason we don’t have it is because our current politicians are hooked in the old paradigm,” said Ross.

Supporters of alternative forms of energy say the state was headed in the right direction five years ago when if offered massive rebates to people who installed solar panels on their homes. The program was so popular the state couldn’t afford to pay the rebates so the program had to be nixed.

Now Florida has a new energy policy. The director of the state Office of Energy says Florida is exploring its alterative energy options and solar is just part of the equation.

“We’re not going to pick solar has the number one technology to solve our problems. It’s going to part of an overall diverse sort of menu of options that we want to give Floridians,” said Patrick Sheehan, the director of the state energy office.

Most of the states above Florida on the solar list have a renewable energy standard, but Florida lawmakers have balked at the idea… leaving the state with nothing to shoot for.

The Florida Commissioner of Agriculture oversees the Office of Energy. He’ll hold an energy summit in Orlando this August where solar energy is expected to be a hot topic.

Governor Rick Scott, who is being sued by the Federal Government over his efforts to remove what he believes to be illegal voters from the rolls before this years elections, disclosed today that in 2006 he was told he couldn’t vote because he was deceased. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, Scott believes the mistake is proof that legitimate voters will always be able to have their votes counted.

Governor Rick Scott begins most mornings with a calls to talk radio shows. Thursday, he was defending his efforts to remove potential non citizens from the voter rolls, when he dropped this story about when he went to vote in 2006.

“They said I had passed away,” Scott said. “I said, here’s my drivers license, I’m here, I’m really alive. So they allowed me to vote provisionally, and then they went back and checked and saw actually I was alive.”

It was Florida’s Secretary of State using another agency’s database that told the Supervisor of Elections in Naples that Rick Scott was dead.

The Secretary of State sent information to Collier County that showed Richard E. Scott, born 12/1/1952, had died in January ‘06. But the Governor’s middle initial is ‘L”.

Collier County Deputy Elections Supervisor Tim Durham says it is the only time he has seen such a mistake.

“Very unusual set of circumstances,” Durham said. “The other Rick Scott has a different middle initial, he was also a Florida resident, with the exact same date of birth.”

Scott used the story to illustrate his point that voters who are eligible will indeed be able to cast a vote and have it counted, but the American Civil Liberties Unions says there is another lesson to be learned.

“What happened to him shows what is wrong about using inaccurate data to throw people off the voting rolls,” Howard Simon of the Florida ACLU said.

The Secretary of State’s office says it now no longer relies on the Department of Health database.

Comedians looking for material are finding a boatload in Florida. National comedy programs and late night talk shows are mocking Governor Rick Scott and his policies. As Whitney Ray tells us, the latest came last night when Jon Stewart spent an entire segment of his show cracking jokes about Scott.

He’s been asked to pee in a cup, called Mr. Clean and compared to a villain from a popular kid’s movie

“He probably would be doing better if he wasn’t trying to kill Harry Potter,” said Stephen Colbert on his June 27th, 2011 Show.

Governor Rick Scott’s latest appearance on a national comedy show came Tuesday night, when comedian Jon Stewart began his program with this.

“Every now and again, a politician comes along that is just truly terrible and really deserving of more scorn than even we can dole out,” said Stewart on his June 11th, 2012 show.

Stewart went on to mock Scott’s efforts to remove illegal voters from the rolls.

“So a voter purge weighted against Hispanic voters, closing polls on a day when many African Americans vote. Nice Try Governor,” Stewart continued.

But it’s not just Stewart and Stephen Colbert mocking Scott. Jay Leno took a stab at the governor’s chief of staff last month and on a trip to Spain, Spanish comedians had a field day after Scott embarrassed their king.

The King had recently received bad press for an elephant hunting trip he took while the country’s economy tanked. He had put the scandal to rest until Scott’s visit.

But does the governor deserve the jokes, or are these cheap shots? The Chairman of the Florida Democrats says the attacks on Scott’s policies are valid.

“It’s funny to watch it, but the tragedy is, it’s not at all funny as a matter of policy for the state,” said Chairman Rod Smith.

A spokesman for the governor says Scott’s jobs agenda takes precedence over quote watching liberal-leaning comedy shows. As for jokes about Scott’s efforts to stop illegal voters from casting ballots, the governor’s spokesman Lane Wright said quote,

“So far, from that small sample, about 100 non citizens admitted they shouldn’t be on the rolls and have been removed. Of those 52 have actually voted in a past election. Over the past 10 years, five elections have been decided by less than 50 votes. So my question to anyone who disagrees would be, just how many non-citizen votes are you willing to ignore in our election process? How many illegal votes are you comfortable with,” asked Wright.

This was supposed to be the year fair districts resulted in a competitive election for the Florida legislature, but almost one-third of the House and Senate were elected before the first vote was ever cast. That’s because 50 House and Senate members have no or only token opposition. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, mistakes were made.

Two Republicans will square off in Senate District 22 in south Pinellas County. Obama won the district in 2008, yet Democrats failed to even field a candidate. Strategists say a mistake was made.

“Should the Democrats have had a candidate in that seat? Absolutely,” Democratic consultant Screven Watson said.

Democrats also abandoned House district 83 on the east coast despite Obama winning the district as well.

What Democrats lack is a central, coordinated effort between the House, the Senate, and the party; and because of that, operatives on both sides of the aisle, say that Democrats are missing opportunities.

Republican Lawyer-Lobbyist Pete Dunbar counts eight races where Democrats missed the boat.

“What helps a party win is good candidate recruitment, and to drop the ball and not be engaged in recruitment in areas where you know demographically you have a chance to win, to me is a pretty big failure,” Dunbar said.

Democrats say they have less cash than Republicans, and they argue they are spending their money wisely, trying to chip away at a Republican supermajority before trying to build their own.

“It was really hard to encourage folks to expend time and money on a district that they were unsure of until late, and ultimately, unsure if it will even be the district the next time they run,” Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith said.

In the end, 28 House members face no opposition, and ten Senators go unchallenged or face only token opponents.

Ironically, while Democrats left some winnable seats unchallenged, they did file challengers in some districts with powerful incumbents and a sizable majority of voters, all in an effort to get the incumbent to spend a lot of money.

As the high profile sex abuse trial of a long-time Penn State football coach makes national headlines this week, Mike Vasilinda tells us state lawmakers are trying to make sure Florida universities don’t sweep abuses under the rug by imposing large fines for schools that don’t report abuses.

The Penn State scandal brought down a legendary coach, the University president, and more.

There’s no indication whatsoever that any big-time athletic program here in Florida has ignored abuses like those that occurred at Penn State. But state lawmakers aren’t taking any chances.

House Bill 1355 signed by the Governor imposes a one million dollar fine on schools that look the other way. The legislation was pushed by a father-daughter duo.

“That sends a message that we’re not going to let a Penn State, a Syracuse, a Citadel circumstance happen here,” Ron Book said.

Daughter Lauren Book was abused for years by her Nanny. She’s turned that experience into a crusade–criss-crossing the state for children.”

“My hope is that when somebody suspects an abuse, that they make a report; that they make a report and that children are kept safe; and that once that report is made, it triggers an investigation so that children are not left in peril,” Lauren Book said.

The legislation is expected to increase the number of calls to the child abuse hot line by 40 thousand a year. The increase is due to an expansion of who is required to report.

Previously, the hot line only took calls about care givers who were suspected of hurting their charges. Now it will take calls about anyone.

The new requirements and penalties take effect October First. The Department and Children and Families was given money to hire forty additional call specialists to handle the increased number of reports.

There’s a lawsuit free-for-all forming in Florida over the state’s effort to keep illegal voters from casting ballots. At the center of the controversy is a Department of Homeland Security database. As Whitney Ray tells us, the state is suing for access, while the feds are preparing a suit to stop Florida from removing illegal voters.

A campaign to prevent illegally registered voters from casting ballots in Florida is pitting the state against the feds. The state is suing for access to the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration database known as SAVE. Secretary of State Ken Detzner says the database would help clean up Florida’s voting rolls quickly.

“This is the one single database in Washington that can help us absolutely validate non-citizenship,” said Detzner.

Detzner says DHS is required by law to allow the state to access the database for voter registration purposes.

He references a 2011 assessment conducted by DHS which says SAVE is for “…any legal purpose such as background investigations and voter registration.”

The state began negotiating for use of the database last year, but with no luck. Finally it tired of waiting and in May, launched its voter purge efforts using a list of names from the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles.

But that list was flawed and dozens of natural born citizens, some of them war heroes, were caught in the fray. Rob Smith, the Chairman of the Florida Democrats, says the governor’s efforts are politically motivated.

“He is trying to gin up his base again, get the Tea Party excited. He’s taking on the federal government. It’s a state’s rights issue,” said Smith.

While Democrats and Republicans and the state and feds battle over what to do next, the purge has been put on hold, because Florida’s Supervisors of Elections refuse to ask anymore voters if they’re legally registered.

A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security says DHS doesn’t comment on pending litigation, but though email, DHS has told the state it wants more information about the voters in question. The Chairman of the Florida Democrats says, the state isn’t being giving access to the database because of security concerns.

Big changes may be in the future for Florida’s 12 public universities. The Florida’s Blue Ribbon Task Force on Higher Education Reform, held its first in-person meeting today in Tallahassee. The task force was formed by the governor to lower the cost of college and push more students in to high tech and science related programs. Board of Governor’s Chancellor Frank Brogan says there’s a lot of interest in improving the system.

“Right now the issue of higher education in Florida is the hottest topic in town and I think that goes well not only for the state university system eventually but also the state of Florida,” said Brogan.

The board of governor’s will meet next week to discuss tuition increases. Florida universities can requests increases up to 15 percent a year. UF has requested a nine percent tuition increase. Brogan doesn’t expect any schools to increase the maximum 15 percent.

“I can tell you that if universities are walking in to next week’s meeting in Orlando simply expecting to get a 15 percent differential increase, they need to think again.” said Brogan.

The task force studying the state’s controversial Stand Your Ground Law meets for the second time on Tuesday. It will meet in Seminole County outside Orlando, the same county in which a neighborhood watch volunteer is charged with shooting an unarmed black teenager. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, thousands of people are letting the state know what they think.

The 17-member Stand Your Ground Task Force is going to Ground Zero. It will meet Tuesday in Longwood, 12 miles from the gated subdivision where Trayvon Martin died. Lt. governor Jennifer Carrol says the location is not a coincidence.

“The situation with Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman occurred there,” Lt. Gov. Carroll said. “It’s a matter of healing too, because I don’t believe that the citizens have had an opportunity to really voice their opinion.”

Since the task force’s initial meeting on May 1st, a web site has received more than 1700 emails. Most are pro gun.

A Pensacola man assets that Stand your ground is a “god given right.” Lois Nichols of Port St. Lucie says no change is needed, while a Jacksonville man says the legislation is stopping thugs from vicious attacks.

Of the 25 messages available online Friday, only one, from a Manatee County woman, suggested the law needed fixing and that the concealed carry law needed to be eliminated.

The Lieutenant Governor is one of four task force members who voted for the initial legislation. She says the final task force recommendation will be based on hard data, now being collected by the College of Law at the University of Florida.

“So we’ll be able to get statistical data back to the task force to show whether we have fairness,” Carroll said.

The Task Force’s recommendation isn’t expected until early next year.,

The task force’s official name is the Task Force on Citizen Safety and Protection. You can access their web site at this link, where you can find out about future meetings and send your own opinion if you so choose. http://www.flgov.com/citizensafety/

Three Florida Supreme Court Justices are under investigation for using court staff to notarize political paperwork. As Whitney Ray tells us, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation could end with the justices in the defendants seats.

In danger of missing a deadline to have their names on the 2012 ballot, these three Florida Supreme Court justices took a bold step. They placed their hearing on-hold, and over the next hour finished their qualifying paperwork using court staff to help complete and notarize the documents. They beat the noon deadline, but in the process raised concerns over how they did it.

Days later Representative Scott Plakon wrote this letter to Governor Rick Scott calling for an investigation. Thursday the Florida Department of Law Enforcement decided to pursue the case.

“After review the allegations, FDLE made the decision to open an investigation,” said FDLE Spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger.

In a phone interview with Plakon Friday, he told me, he just wants the justices to follow the same rules as everyone else.

“Someone should take a look at it because I think most Floridians would agree that no one should be above the law, even if you are a Supreme Court Justice,” said Plakon.

At the heart of the investigation is whether or not the justices broke the law when they used court staff, paid with your taxpayer money, to carryout their personal, political business. It’s not without precedent. All the justices on the 2010 ballot used court employees to notarize their merit retention paperwork.

If FDLE does find wrong doing, the justices will likely face misdemeanor charges. A spokesperson for one of the justices says court employees are used regularly to notarize important documents. She looks for the FDLE investigation to be wrapped up quickly and the justices to prevail.

Florida A & M Universities Board of Trustee’s, by an eight to four vote, said they have no confidence in the School’s President. But, as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the vote is a message to the President that he could be fired soon if problems aren’t solved quickly.

100 non students on a state paid band trip, false audits, “sexual assaults of minors at the FAMU developmental research school,” and a drum major who died from hazing, all looked to trustees like a university without leadership.

“I am deeply troubled by what appears to be a serious lack of oversight and serious gaps in communication,” FAMU Trustee Belinda Reed Shannon said.

“Not knowing is, in fact, an indication of poor management,” Trustee Narayan Persaud said.

The vote was two to one against the President

“Eight yes votes, and 4 no votes.”

The vote means that the president gets to keep his job, but he’s been told, this is your last chance.

“I hear you loudly and clearly,” University president Dr. James Ammons said. “I understand that there are some measures that I have to take as president of this University to fix things, and I’m going to fix them.”

Reaction afterwards was mixed.

“I think if Dr. Ammons cannot make significant changes in the way that he leads this university, I think it will lead to his removal,” Trustee William Jennings said.

Trustees have their next face-to-face meeting in September. Any action before then is unlikely, unless new problems are discovered.

It’s a category where you don’t want to finish first, but tonight a watchdog group is ranking Florida number one in government corruption. As Whitney Ray tells us, Integrity Florida says laws need to be changed to keep the state’s politicians honest.

They were elected to office, given power by the people and trusted not abuse their authority, but in the past decade more than 780 Florida politicians have been convicted on federal corruption charges.

Tuesday, Integrity Florida released a report ranking the state first in the nation for public corruption, blaming weak laws for the rampant abuse of power.

“It’s essentially like having speeding limits but no officers on the beat to catch speeders when they break the law,” said Dan Krassner, President of Integrity Florida

The report comes as the Florida Commission on Ethics prepares to draft its 2013 legislative agenda. Integrity Florida hopes to play a major role in their plans.

The nonprofit government watchdog is offering several suggestions. Including a hotline where callers can remain anonymous and giving the ethics commission the authority to launch its own investigations.

The ideas have been suggested before, but the group hopes the report brings a renewed sense of urgency to the state legislature.

“I think the time is right for some real political leadership,” said Ben Wilcox Research Director with Integrity Florida.

The report suggests corruption knows no bounds, black, white, male or female, all have been caught ripping of Florida taxpayers.

Reporter: is the corruption you found more pervasive in either of the major political parties?
Dan: corruption is a nonpartisan issue.

Another fix for Florida’s corruption problem is more transparency. Integrity Florida wants elected officials to disclose all their finances online for public viewing. Integrity Florida also wants the maximum civil penalty for ethics laws violations increased from 10-thousand dollars to 25-thousand.

The Florida League of Woman Voters is preparing to re-launch its voter registration efforts. The league stopped signing up new voters last year after Florida new election laws put a 48 hour deadline in place for third party registration groups to turn in voter applications. Marion Wills with the Florida League of Woman Voters says the deadline was too tight for their volunteers.

“When you are working with somebody you are paying to do this, you can enforce that. When you are working with volunteers it’s a whole different story,” said Wills.

Last week a federal judge through out the 48 hour provision. Now third party registration groups have 10 days to turn in voter applications. The League of Woman Voters will be signing up volunteers over the next few days and will begin registration drives next week.