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You may be off the hook if you’re holding a red light camera ticket. Matt Galka tells us about two cases that could be the beginning of the end for the controversial program.

A ruling out of South Florida on Red Light cameras could be a major road block for the program in the state.

An appeals court ruled that the city of Hollywood can’t allow third-party vendors who are for-profit to issue traffic citations.

American Traffic Solutions, an Arizona based company, handles the citations in Hollywood and in a majority of Florida cities. Tallahassee Traffic manager Allen Secreast says other cities now have to see how it could effect them.

“We’re at the stage now where we are evaluating the ruling in the city of Hollywood to see how it applies to us,” said Secreast.

Attorney Bill Sharpe is in the middle of a separate case involving the cameras.  His clients in Brooksville – a town of about 8,000 that collects nearly $3 million dollars in red light camera revenue – are trying to put an amendment on the ballot that would allow voters to get rid of the program.

“The money… a third of the money goes to the city, but a lot of the money goes toward the red light camera companies, that’s who’s really fighting this stuff,” said Sharpe.

The city is suing to keep the amendment off.

“There’s not any studies, conclusive studies, that red light camera companies keep the roads safe. So I don’t know why they’re so afraid of letting these people vote,” Sharpe said.

A judge will be ruling on that case by the end of the month – and the referendum could be placed on the ballot in November.

Both cases will only apply to the respective cities the ruling is issued, but the rulings give an outline for other cities to follow if and when they have to determine their own cases.

Add another national headline grabbing political mess to Florida’s list. As Matt Galka tells us, an electric fan has made great fodder for mainstream comedians.

Stuff has definitely hit the fan in Florida.

It’s the gubernatorial gaffe that has put much more attention on the Governor’s race. Governor Rick Scott didn’t show up on stage for seven minutes thanks to Democrat Charlie Crist’s fan.  Comedians were gifted new material for one of their favorite targets.

Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report and The Daily Show tore the state apart thanks to the incident. Governor Scott has been a favorite target of Jon Stewart and co. in the past.

What seems like such a petty issue overshadowed the debate and may change who’s in the Governor’s mansion come 2015.

The rules stated that no electronics, including fans were allowed for the debate. But Crist’s team handwrote on their agreement that “debate hosts will address any temperature issues if necessary.

Debate organizers say the fan violated rules. Each party gives their own version.

“Charlie Crist was allowed to bring the fan on, he was wired on the stage for a fan both at Charlie’s podium and Rick Scott’s,” said Crist’s spokesman Kevin Cate.

“Essentially, Charlie again, was pitching a fit, because he was trying to break the rules, which he did,” said Republican Party of Florida Chair Leslie Dougher.

The answers don’t exactly blow you away.

Both candidates have used the fan as a launching point for a last stretch fundraising campaign leading up to November’s election.

Florida’s 2^nd Gubernatorial debate has gone viral, but not thanks any of the candidates stances on the issues. Matt Galka brings us the fallout of what can only be described as #FanGate.

They started out with sketch comedy rather than debating the economy. Rick Scott didn’t show up to the podium for seven minutes thanks to a disagreement over opponent Charlie Crist’s fan.

The delay gave Crist his own platform and caused the incident to go viral.

Political scientist Caroll Weissert said it’s one of the strangest things she’s ever seen.

“Bizarre, it was a bizarre move, yea.  I think it elevated the debate from one that maybe the citizens of Florida watched, to one that maybe people will be watching all over the country, and not in a good way,” said Weissert, a professor at Florida State.

The fan is never far from Charlie Crist because, he doesn’t like to sweat. Now it’s the G.O.P who may be sweating the situation. Insiders are trying to distance themselves from the The Republican Party of Florida says the Governor never refused to take the stage, they were told Crist was in an emergency meeting about the device.

Four years ago, a Democrat gaffe that showed Alex Sink looking at a cell phone during a debate with Scott helped propel the current Governor to a win. 20 years ago, Lawton Chiles used an odd phrase to help seal his victory over Jeb Bush.

This could be a turning point in 2014’s election, but we’ll know in less than three weeks whether that’s just hot air.

The rules did specifically state no electronics, including fans, were to be used. The temperature around debate time on stage was 66 degrees, according to the organization that put it on.

If you are a patient using medical marijuana, do you want it grown by the most qualified grower, or the luckiest.? That’s the argument being played out in a hearing room at the state Capitol.

The rule adopted by the state to license growers of medical marijuana calls for five nurseries to be selected by a lottery. All have to have at least 30 years experience, but experience at what is one of the questions being asked in this administrative challenge. Ruskin Grower Robert Tornello testified that experiences could vary widely, affecting the quality of the final product. “These guys have tomato fields and farms where they’re just growing plants out there. They don’t have green house facilities, or they may not actually have  experience growing anything to the level food would require as far as safety issues” says Tornello.

The challenge was brought by a large grower and Louis Rotundo from the Florida Medical Cannabis Association. “if you have measurable criteria, you don’t need a lottery. That’s our point” says Rotundo.

The Department of Health’s General Counsel stood by the lottery during hours of testimony. Afterwards we asked if ”Everyone will be qualified will go into the lottery, no one not qualified will go into the lottery?” Her response: “That’s correct. The rule speaks for itself.”

The argument being made against selecting a marijuana grower based on the lottery is that you’’ll end up with the luckiest grower, not the best.

Steve Turner represents Costa Farms. “Government should not select minimally qualified, they should select, and I think the legislature contemplated they would select the best, the most superior qualified person” says Turner.

Each challenge threatens to delay the licensing and potentially the delivery of low TCH marijuana to qualified patients.

The administrative judge could order the state back to the drawing board…or could approve the plan for a lottery…which would likely lead to more legal action.

Enrollment is now open for families that want to get started on plan to put their kids through college. As Matt Galka tells us, the Florida Prepaid prices are historically low.

More than 100,000 students attend Florida colleges thanks to Florida Prepaid.  The college funding program allows families to pay monthly and save up for a child before they head off to college.  The recession allowed colleges to raise tuition up to 15 percent a year. Prices doubled, but that changed Wednesday.

“For example, last year at this time if you had enrolled in the four year university plan, you would have been looking for a newborn at 350 dollars a month.  This year you’re looking at only 173,” said Florida Prepaid Spokesperson Shannon Colavecchio.

Open enrollment is officially underway for the new reduced price plans.  Legislation cut tuition hikes earlier this year.

The plans for the most part only cover tuition, students will have to cover other expenses like transportation and books.

Financial consultant Greg Parsons says another plan, called the 529, might be a better option.

“If child number 1 doesn’t go to college, then it can be passed on to child number 2. Child number 2 doesn’t go to college, passed on to number 3. If none of them go to college, then the parents can use the money to go back to school if they want to,” said Parsons.

While prices were skyrocketing, financial planners strayed from recommending prepaid options. Enrollment dropped from 40,000 families a year to 12,000.

“We are hoping that these prices really will bring some families back to Florida Prepaid. Maybe they saw the prices rise in recent years, coincided with when they were starting families, and they might have looked at their budgets and they said “you know what, we just can’t do that right now,” said Colavecchio.

People who purchase a plan before 2015 will have an enrollment fee waived. Payments won’t begin until April. For the families that have already paid, more than 200 million dollars is being refunded to reflect the changes in tuition cost.

Accusations of cover-ups, bullying, and prisoners being murdered have come down on Florida’s Department of Corrections. The man trying to weather the storm; DOC Secretary Mike Crews.

“It’s unfortunate, but we do have a few that have put us in this situation we’re in now,” he said.

Crews has had the top job for nearly two years.  Another death case gained national attention last week, with prominent civil rights attorneys representing the family of a woman who claimed to be threatened by guards, and then turned up dead.

“Do you trust that same institution to now do a fair investigation?” asked attorney Ben Crump.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is currently looking into more than 100 suspicious deaths at Florida prisons. The Secretary says he understands why people sound the alarm.

“If you are a family member that has someone incarcerated with us that has supposedly been subjected to this, yes, I’m going to be concerned, too. What I want those individuals to understand, though, is this. If they have concerns, they need to voice them to us,” said Crews.

An ombudsman will now be used to work with mentally ill inmates. Nearly 20 percent of Florida prisoners have been diagnosed with a mental health condition.

“It’s the first of it’s kind in the country, and this will hopefully not only give the inmates a better level to be able to respond to when they have concerns and when they have issues they want to discuss,” said Crews.

The DOC says more than 2700 staffers have already been retrained on crisis management.  The secretary traveled to every stat facility over the past two months, while the department fired more than 40 employees.

The American Civil Liberties Union along with other human rights advocates have called for a federal investigation into the abuse claims against the Department.

Attorney General Pam Bondi is asking a lower court to send the gay marriage question directly to the state’s highest court. The move is an about face for the states chief legal officer, and the move is drawing criticism from the gay rights community.

Attorney General Pam Bondi hasn’t said publicly if she’s for or against gay marriage, but she’s been adamant about how gay rights cases should be handled. On August 18th, she was confident the case would be decided in Washington. “The US Supreme Court. They need to decided this case. They are going to decide this case, hopefully sooner than later. So, we’ll have finality.”

But after the nation’s highest court turned down appeals, Bondi has filed paper work with a Florida appellate court, saying gay marriage is a matter of great public importance. She wants the case to go directly to Florida’s Supreme Court.

Gay rights activists say the latest filing is just one more delaying tactic, trying to get the Attorney General past the November election. Her office declined comment, leaving a void for gay rights activists to fill. Jim Van Riper is the President of Equality Florida. He says “It’s really time for her to stop wasting taxpayer money, and let it go. It’s time to drop the appeals.”

Democrat George Sheldon has also been chiding Bondi for months to drop appeals…saying the writing is on the wall. “So, if you were Attorney General, what would you do?” we asked. His response:  “I would immediately stop, I would drop the appeals, I would ask the courts in Florida to lift the stays on the decisions for the courts that have already ruled, and, ah, move on.”

The appellate court is not obligated to bump the case up without a hearing and the State Supreme Court is not obligated to take the case without a lower court conflict.

4.8 million voters approved he Marriage Protection Amendment in 2008. It was placed on the ballot through an initiative petition.

Four time Emmy winner and wildlife expert Jim Fowler is cutting a TV commercial in support of Amendment one on this November’s ballot. The initiative would guarantee that a portion of an existing tax would preserve land and water resources in Florida. The former host of Wild Kingdom and Animal Planet says there is a connection between the health of wildlife and the health of humans. “One of the reasons I’m backing amendment one is because how we treat the earth and the existence of open space, wildlife and wilderness is one of the few things that guarantees we have a quality of life for humans” says Fowler.

Recent studies suggest that the number of animals on earth has declined by forty percent in the last 40 years.

Two high profile stories in Florida both raise questions about if the state is doing enough for mental health services. As Matt Galka tells us, candidates in next month’s election tried to come up with answers for mental health advocates.

A chilling 911 call from Bell, Florida revealed a glimpse into the mental state of a murderous grandfather. The Department of Children and Families said they couldn’t have prevented the tragedy that saw six children killed.

Mounting reports from inside prisons in the state show a mistreatment of mentally ill inmates. Notably, the scalding death of an inmate at Dade Correctional after he was burned alive in a hot shower.

On Monday, a mental health panel grilled state office candidates about the status of mental health services in Florida. Donna Duncan says the state has sat on its hands for too long

“We wait and spend money after the fact rather than being proactive and spending it up front, which would decrease our end finances,” said Donna Duncan, the chairwoman for the Big Bend Mental Health Coalition.

Advocates say now is a good time to start investing in mental health, because the state has extra money.

George Sheldon used to run DCF.  He says budget cuts certainly haven’t helped the agency.

“Too many times we miss the warning signs, and I think Bell, Fl is an example of that.  What concerns me about what’s happened to DCF in the last three years,” said Sheldon.

Former Corrections secretary Walt McNeil says changes in prisoner treatment has to start with how some inmates serve time.

“How do we divert some of the persons who are going into the prison system, away from the prison system on the front end,” said McNeil.

McNeil was sitting in for Charlie Crist on the candidate panel, Sheldon is going up against Pam Bondi for her position as Attorney General.

The Governor and Attorney General couldn’t make the panel.  DCF and DOC have implemented sweeping changes to policies in the last month. DCF has reassigned staff to better handle certain domestic cases, and in a complete opposite move, Corrections let go of some guards involved in prisoner mistreatment cases.

A 61 year old grandmother who was hit with a taser in the back by a Tallahassee Police officer has had charges of resisting arrest dropped. The State Attorney says the whole incident was unnecessary.

61 year old Viola Young is seen in this cell phone video slipping her hand away from a Tallahassee Police Officer and turning away. She fell like a load of bricks after being hit by a taser.

She and three others, including her daughter, were charged with resisting arrest. State Attorney Willie Meggs has dropped the charges and says they should never have ever been filed. “That whole event just did not need to take place. It was just an unnecessary event” says Meggs.

No one answered at the home Monday. Police reports say the incident started when people were walking in the street.

Within the last six months, there have been more than 200 reported crimes, all within a quarter mile of this address.

But crime ridden or not, the State attorney says the initial premise of stopping the three was bogus. “When the officer drove by, the folks got out of the roadway. After he passed by, they stepped back into the…the stepped to the side of the road.

8 new police officers were sworn in Monday. In keynote remarks, Chief Michael DeLeo called for professionalism without mentioning the case by name. “Our values mandate that our decisions are based on what we should do, not what we can do” the Chief told the new hires.

We asked if the Chief had a reaction to the charges being dropped. The response: “I can’t make any comment on that case right now. It’s an open internal investigation.”

Officer Terry Mahan remains on administrative leave.

Through an email exchange with the grandmothers attorney, she declined to be interviewed…for now.”

Caught on camera. Security guards contracted by the state harassed a blind woman and her service dog earlier this month. Matt Galka brings us to the protest that was sparked by the incident.

This video shows legally blind Tiffany Baylor trying to enter the Museum of Florida History with her service dog.  The two guards stationed at the entrance appear to confront Baylor and her the dog.

The video has outraged members of the blind community, including Marion Gwizdala, the president of the National Association of Guide Dog Users.

“This is happening all over the state of florida, not just in state buildings, but also in restaurants, in hospitals, in taxi cabs, and in hotels. People are being denied access,” said Gwizdala.

Baylor, who works with the state’s Department of Education Blind Services Division, did not return our calls for comment or show up at the rally outside of the building.  The guards are contracted out by the Department of Management Services from U.S. Security Associates. Both have issued apology statements.

State and federal law allow guide dogs to go pretty much everywhere people can, including the building she had trouble getting in to.

Disability advocate J.R. Harding says it shouldn’t have been a problem.

“Service animals provide a critical role in the independence and freedom of people with disabilities, they are protected under the Americans with Disabilities act,” said Harding.

Call it poor timing – but the incident comes at the start of Disability Awareness month. The exhibit Baylor was going to see? A brail quilt.

The company that contracts out the guards says they’ve implemented additional training. The Secretary of State’s office, which is housed in the same building, declined comment but confirmed the secretary called Baylor to apologize.

State law enforcement agents are now reviewing more than 100 deaths within the state prison system. The cases were turned over to FDLE in August. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, the investigations cap what has been a very rough year for the embattled department.

Last fall, two inmates serving life sentences were able to walk out of Franklin Correctional using forged documents. They were quickly captured, but the escape forced the Department of Correction to change its policy of releasing inmates on a judges order. DOC Secretary Michael Crews assured lawmakers last November the problem was being fixed.  November 6, 2013 “To put in place measures that will significantly limit this from every happening again.”

Then came the case of Darren Rainey, a mentally ill inmate. The investigation into his scalding death at the hands of guards was stonewalled for two years. The Warden at Miami Dade was fired.

Next came the gassing death of Randall Jordan-Aparo. Four investigators sought whistleblower protections after they discovered problems with Jordan-Aparo’s death investigation.  Steve Andrews is the whistleblowers attorney  “And it took a lot of guts and bravery on their part to come forward” says Andrews.

Earlier this week an interview we had scheduled with an inmate was cancelled after he sought protective custody.  A text from our go between sites fear and intimidation.

Also this week, civil rights lawyers called for a federal investigation into the death of Latandra Ellington…she was in protective custody.

The high profile deaths have prompted Corrections to turn 108 death investigations

over to the state Department of Law enforcement. Spokesperson Gretl Plessinger says

“The number can change daily.”

Since January, more than 240 inmates have died while in the states custody. The majority have been ruled natural causes.

Do you feel like your cell phone bill is just way too high? As Matt Galka explains, Florida is dubbed as a tax haven, but not when it comes to mobile phone taxes.

Here in Florida, a new study says we are getting taxed on our mobile devices almost more than any other state.

“What we pay is about the twice the percentage on your cell phone tax than we do on sales tax, the highest sales tax in the state is 7.5 percent, in some places as low as 6, communications services tax averages about 14 percent, and can reach about 16 percent,” said Robert Weissert with Florida TaxWatch.

Florida TaxWatch says that it’s out of the ordinary for Floridians to get hit with high taxes, but the state’s communication tax system is complicated, and outdated.

There have been proposals to cut the taxes, but they’ve gotten hung up in the legislature

Cell phones get hit with a state, local and federal tax.  Pay as you go phones are usually exempt from the fees.  The revenue helps pay for critical services like police and fire dispatch.

The Governor has proposed cutting fees if re-elected. But the Florida Association of Counties says the whole system needs an update first.

“I think we’d like to see everything straightened out, we want to continue to empower our communities so that they can serve our citizens, but we definitely understand that there’s a need to simplify this process,” said Cragin Mosteller, an F.A.C. spokeswoman.

An estimated 40 percent of adults have ditched the land line for just wireless.

Oregon had the best cell phone tax rates with customers paying a little under 2 percent extra on their mobile phone bills. Floridians are paying nearly 15 percent more.

Another Florida prison inmate has died and the Department is being called out by high profile attorneys. As Matt Galka tells us, critics are condemning the hush-hush culture of the Department of Corrections.

This brutal video showing Florida prison guards beating 14 year old Martin Lee Anderson to death outraged the country.  The same attorneys who forced the release of the tape and got the state to settle for $5 million are now taking on another inmate death.

36 year old Latandra Ellington was found dead at Lowell Correctional in Ocala on October 1^st.

“Her aunt gets on the phone with a prison official and they say “we’re going to make sure she’s protected, 18 hours later she’s dead,” said attorney Ben Crump.

She had sent letters to her aunt about a week earlier saying she feared for her life, and an officer had threatened to beat her. An independent autopsy appears to show she was roughed up.

“Abdominal hemmhoraging from his examination that had to have been caused by kicking or punching,” said attorney Daryl Parks.

The Department didn’t answer specific questions about the letter, instead they released a statement.

DOC says they took Ellington’s concerns seriously and now the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating.  The concern from the attorneys is the prison culture.  They asked the federal department of justice to intervene because they’re worried about evidence disappearing. The NAACP is alos involved.

“We’ve heard about it, we’ve seen it, and they are constantly dying, dying, dying, you speak to the culture,” said Dale Landry with the NAACP.

George Malinkrodt used to work in the same Florida prison where an inmate was burned alive in a shower.  He says the prison guards can work around cameras and work around the system.

“So many of my cases were sabotaged by guards, and no one would do anything about it,” said Mallinkrodt.

Ellington had been serving time for filing fake tax returns. She had seven months left on her sentence. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is now investigating more than 100 prison deaths, including Latandra Ellington’s.

A rare sense of humor was on display at the Florida Supreme Court today, and  it came during the case of a juror who was sent to jail for being drunk.

It was just after 12 noon when we med Noel Plank sitting on his front porch.

“I’m okay. Just sitting her chilling, having a beer on my day off.”

At about the same time of day18 months ago, Noel Plank showed up for jury duty.  “I was still able to walk, I wasn’t stuttering, wasn’t slurring my words or nothing. I was walking a straight line. Ands I didn’t cause no harm to nobody” says Plank.

He left in handcuffs, sentenced to 30 days for disrupting jury selection.

“He was drunk apparently asked Supreme Court Justice Barbara Pariente.

Now Florida’s Supreme Court is being asked if someone can be sent to jail without first having a lawyer. The case brought plenty of chuckles to usually reserved justices. It began when Chief Justice Jorge Labarga mentioned  “I don’t recall seeing a contempt case since I’ve been here” to which Justice Fred Lewis responded “We lock them up without lawyers, right?.” Labarga kept the banter going, saying “And they are still in custody and we haven’t heard from them since.”

While humor abounded….the case is as serious as high court cases can get.

Justices made it clear they don’t want to take away any authority of a judge to control the courtroom.

Plank’s lawyer, Colleen Mullen, says if he can go to jail without a lawyer, anybody can. “Anybody can be held in contempt, but I’m arguing that they should not be thrown in jail without the right to an attorney.”

As for Noel Plank…he just wants to be left alone telling us “I love critters. In fact, I got all the critters in the world coming through my yard.”

Noel Plank still has a drivers license…and that means he’s still eligible for jury duty.