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State Senator Bill Galvano of Bradenton was officially designated President of the Florida Senate for 2018 through 2020. The 51 year old Galvano is a problem solver, who successfully negotiated a gambling deal with the Seminole tribe and fought for better funding for  colleges and universities. he also negotiated the resignation of a former member earlier this year after he was accused of making racial remarks. Galvano says deals all start with understanding.

“I try to be as empathetic as I can, and if you try to understand the issue from the other perspective. and often times, when people just starting talking together and looking at an issue together, starting at the 30 thousand foot level and getting into the weeds you seem to be able to get somewhere” says the next Senate President.

Colleagues who praised Galvano say he is a policy workhorse who’s willing to take no deal instead of a bad deal.

There will be no investigation into the Governor’s deletion of voice mail messages from nursing homes before and during Irma. Hours after a group representing retired Floridians called for a criminal probe, Mike Vasilinda tells us the top prosecutor in the State Capitol says the records didn’t need to be preserved.

More than 50 times, nursing home operators, including the home where 14 eventually died, got this message when they called the Governor’s cell phone seeking help during Hurricane Irma.

“Your call has been forwarded to an automated voice message system.

The Voicemails, according to the Governor’s office were transcribed for action, then deleted. Just before noon Tuesday, the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans, through Attorney mark Herron, called for an investigation.

“We will never know what was said. It is I would think, it is inappropriate to destroy that message because it is transmitting knowledge” Herron told reporters.

Scott’s office had said he acted lawfully because the records were transitory and of no future value.

Hours after the Alliance asked for an investigation, State Attorney Jack Campbell said there would be none.

“Here, it appears clear they were noted, delegated out, and just as the Governor’s office has suggested, were then deleted, so conceivably, others voice messages could come in. So I don;’t believe there is any violation of Florida law and as such, no need for a criminal investigation” says Campbell.

The principle behind the alliance, Barbara Devane is a well know advocate for mostly Democratic issues. Before the decision, we asked if her call to investigate was politically motivated.

“You’re not trying to embarrass the Governor?

“No. I’m just trying to get some answers and some protections.”

The nursing home deaths are expected to be a political hot potato if the Governor decides to run or the US Senate next year.

Scott’s potential run for the US Senate against Democrat Bill Nelson so widely expected, no other known GOP candidate has gotten into the fray.

Last week we told you the next Governor of Florida will have to own his own plane or the state will have to buy them one, after Rick Scott sold the planes after taking office. Scott has been traveling on his person jet for almost seven years. Now, Carlos Trujillo, the Chairman of the House Appropriations committee says the plane will likely be in this coming years budget.

“I think it’s important for the Governor to have access to his constituency, So I think some of the more remote places in Florida, they are difficult to get to. Florida is a very large state, so I think its important to have access to some of the more remote places around the state” says Trujillo.

The chairman says he will look at options to lease or buy a jet for the next Governor. Scott did not answer directly when asked if he would veto the appropriation if its in the 2018-19 state budget.

Video of kids being egged on to fight by officers in juvenile detention facilities, guards beating kids with brooms and flashlights is causing a concern in the state Capitol. Florida spends over 200 million a year locking kids up. Money FSU researcher Deborrah Brodsky says is not well spent.

“So, we’re spending 200 million dollars a year on residential facilities in Florida. And we are getting 45-46 percent recidivism one year out. Kids are going back into the system. that to me shows abysmal failure” says Brodsky, who is the Director of the Project on Accountable Justice at FSU.

Last week, the Governor said he has confidence in the Juvenile Justice Secretary. lawmakers will hold more hearing on juvenile justice later this week.

Bob Hurst has been playing the trumpet for more than 50 years. He found himself homeless  a little over a year ago, so he packed up his instrument and hitched a ride to the state Capitol,  where as Mike Vasilinda tells us, he’s making friends and playing music.

Bob Hurst started playing the trumpet at age six

Now 61, Bob was living in Tampa, but working in Miami as an electrical subcontractor on a three month gig. When payday came, he got stiffed, then tossed out of his apartment. That was 14 months ago.

“I’ve never been like this before” Bob told us. “ But, in my opinion, it’s not what happens to you, the events that happen to you, it’s how you respond to them.”

Now, five, six or seven days a week he can be found playing music on the streets of the State Capitol.

“I get to see people out here. I like it.”

That’s where he met the former president of FSU. Others bring him lunch.

“She’s told me she hears me playing all the time. She appreciates me.

What he doesn’t do is ask for anything. Somedays there is as little as three dollars in his cup.

“But I’m not doing it for the money. I’m doing it for the community and for myself.”

Like many homeless, drinking has been a factor.

“I used to drink a lot, yeah. Now I drink very little.”

But never drugs.

“Most the guys I knew that were Jazz musicians, a lot of them were heroin addicts and it kinda scared me.”

When he isn’t playing, Bob is reading…often the bible.

Bob turns 62 in April, and he’s hoping his Social Security will be enough to cover rent.

Bob also plays the blues…but he sure doesn’t have them.

“If I was a school board member I’d be mad as heck too and I’d want to know why aren’t they being held to the same standards,” said McCall.

“What we’ve got to make sure is that we have the funding that they need in different areas to ensure that all of the students, all of the students no matter the zip-code are going to get the education that they need and deserve,” said Messina.

Unrest at college campuses over speakers is nothing new. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, Florida State University has struggled with controversy over so called hate speech, and thrived.

In 1999, then FSU President Sandy D’Alemberte had his own freedom of speech problems.

FSU Professor Glayde Whitney had written a glowing tribute to Former KKK grand wizard David Duke.

Students were livid.

“So, Can Florida State University afford to have students paying tuition to be mis-educated by this man” asked a student at a 1999 town hall meeting on campus.

D’Alemberte defended Whitney’s First Amendment rights.

Q:”Why was that important”?

“We;;, you know, academic freedom. I thought he was absolutely wrong. but darn it I did not want to stifle anybody. I did not want to take away his privileges” D’Alemberte says today.

Spencer has his supporters. A YouTube video has been generating more than a thousand views an hour since it was posted Wednesday.

“Basically, anytime the left doesn’t like someone they’ll find a way to make their words hate speech” chimes the announcer in the eight minute video.

D’Alemberte thinks the University of Florida played into Richard Spencer’s hands by first blocking his speech.

“I think they way it’s been handled has given him a hell of a lot more exposure than he should have gotten. I think UF was wrong in the first instance to turn him down.”

And D’Alemberte says we can all learn by listening to different view points.

“And you really need to get the pressure off, and one of the ways you do that  is by allowing speech.”

Even if we don’t agree with it.

While the FSU professor did keep his job, he was not allowed to teach classes required for graduation.

The misuse of state airplanes was an issue in the 2010 Governors Race, and because of it, as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the next governor faces a quandary when it comes to traveling the state.

As a virtual unknown, Rick Scott campaigned in 2010 on getting rid of the state planes.

“I’ll put an end to petty spending projects and I’ll sell the state airplane” Scott says in one TV spot.

Scott kept his word. Two days after taking office he put the planes on the market.

“It’s a campaign promise I made, I’m going to live up to them” Scott told reporters before boarding his jet.

Fabulously  wealthy, Scott has been been flying on his own jet ever since. Now, unless the legislature takes action when it meets in January, the next Governor won’t have a plane on which to travel the state.

Q:”What’s the next Governor going to do about a plane”? we asked Scott after Tuesdays Cabinet meeting.

“My goal is the next Governor is going to focus how thy can get more jobs in the state” was his response as he went to his go to talking point.

There are five serious candidates in the Governor’s race. None own their own plane. Only one potential candidate…John Morgan can afford to fly on his own jet.  He won’t make a decision until spring, but in a recent TV spot he sounded more like a candidate than every before.

“I grew up poor, but the taste of desperation helps me do my job today” Morgan says in a TV spot for his law firm that is more of a bio piece on him than a commercial.

Key lawmakers, including the House Speaker, who himself may run for Governor are aware of the dilemma, and they may even fund a plan this coming session. But rumors of a veto abound.

Scott won’t say.

”I’m going to propose a budget and the legislature is going to come back to me with a budget and I’ll review it at that time” Scott says.

And in 2011 the Governor was asked how other state leaders were supposed to travel without a plane.

“They can drive or fly” he responded back then.

But flying commercial or driving aren’t likely good options for the next governor.

None of the five announced candidates would comment for this story on the record. Several state agencies still own planes, mostly for law enforcement missions. Those planes, including a King Air, could be drafted for short term use by the next Governor.

Thousands of medical marijuana patients are caught in a catch 22. They have been recommended for treatment, but as Mike Vasilinda tells us. they can’t start receiving medication until they receive an ID card from the state, which has been delayed because of short staffing.

Lauren Drake’s parents, both in their 70’s, have been recommended for medical marijuana. Getting the recommendation has been far easier than getting the medicine.

“It took 50 days for an approval. They still haven’t received their cards” says Drake.

Christian Bax, the Director of Medical Marijuana Use in Florida told lawmakers the ID card delay was running 30 days.

Others. like Lauren, says the wait can be two or even three months.

Jeff Sharkey of the Medical marijuana Business Assn says part of the problem is short staffing.

“You know, if you’re sick, it’s a long wait” says Sharkey.

Lauren’s problem gets more complicated:

“My mother doesn’t know what to go down and get from the one dispensary that we have in our location. My father is not capable of going. I don’t know how, at this point, to go and get the caregiver card so that I can go” says the caregiver.

Lauren can’t get a caregivers card because the state has yet to issue rules for getting them. She says the state isn’t focusing on patients.

“Why couldn’t my parents walk out and immediately go to the local dispensary and get medicine. I don’t understand what the holdup was” she says.

The delay is shortening the time between patients visits to their doctor, increasing their costs.

When patients get a recommendation for medical marijuana, it’s good for nine months. But here’s the problem: the clock starts ticking the day that recommendation is made, not when the card is issued.

The department is in the process of hiring a private vendor to issue ID cards. But the wait could get worse before it gets better.

This afternoon, the Department of Health said it now had 44,164 patients and 1,066 doctors. The department has issued 21,873 cards to date. The department also says their email can serve as a temporary card, but one Ft. Myers patient told us by phone his dispensary would not accept his email.