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State officials say state law forbids them from talking about Sanford Shooter George Zimmerman’s concealed weapons permit. Information about concealed weapons was taken out of the public domain in 2006, so we don’t know who has a concealed weapon, but as Mike Vasilinda tells us, we do know a lot of people are carrying weapons in Florida.

One in every 20 Floridians has a valid concealed weapons permit. Sanford shooter George Zimmerman still has his. State law is very specific about when the permits can be suspended or revoked.

“If you’re charged with a felony crime, and the department is notified, we can certainly move to have the license suspended,” Sterling Ivey with the Florida Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services. “Once a conviction takes place, we can revoke that individual’s license.”

This past year, state lawmakers lowered the cost of a concealed permit by fifteen dollars. They now cost 70 dollars. Applicants must also pass a gun safety course. The Brady Project to prevent gun violence says concealed carry permits are too easy to get in Florida.

“You know, this man George Zimmerman, is a living example of that,” Brady Project President Dan Gross said. “This is a guy who had an arrest record, this is a guy who had a violent past. This is a guy who in numerous other states would never be offered a permit to carry a loaded, hidden, handgun.”

The NRA declined to appear on camera for this story. But they argue that statistics show only law abiding citizens get and keep a permit. State figures show 98 percent of all applicants receive a carry permit.

Since 1987, more than 2 million concealed weapons permits have been issued in Florida, and of those permits just three of every thousand have been revoked.

The Brady project counters that just one concealed permit in the wrong hands is an injustice.

In addition to lowering the license fee, lawmakers also reduced the renewal fee by ten dollars. Concealed weapons permits now cost about eight and a half dollars a year.

If lawmakers don’t act by Friday, Florida’s unemployment tax will more than double. The tax is going from 71 dollars an employee to more than 170. As Whitney Ray tells us, efforts are underway to reduce the increase, but lawmakers will have to act fast or they’ll run out of time.

Good food and great services are the ingredients for success for Brian Rowe and his BBQ business. Piggy’s BBQ employees 35 workers. The restaurant has added catering and a food truck, but the rising price of food and fuel presents a huge challenge.

“It hurts our bottom-line. I’m not going to do a price increase to our customers,” said Rowe.

It could get worse. Piggy’s is about to be hit with a 35-hundred dollar increase in state unemployment taxes. The tax is skyrocketing from 71 dollars to more than 170 per employee.

“It’s kind of a double whammy there. When you have all these increases that are affecting us, ultimately you will have to increase the prices or drop your staff and have fewer staff,” said Rowe.

And if lawmakers don’t act by Friday there will be an 817 million dollar increase to all business owners statewide. Legislation to cut the increase in half is being heard late in session. State Senator Ellyn Bogdanoff says the bill will make it across the finish line.

“I don not anticipate Sine Dieing before this thing passes. This is a priority of the governor and we have been working diligently to get it through,” said Bogdanoff.

The increase is needed to pay back the federal government. In 2009, the state ran out of cash to pay unemployment claims. Florida borrowed 2.6 billion dollars from Uncle Sam to keep the money flowing and now the bill has come due with interest.

Critics of the bill say delaying the increase will only prolong payment to the federal government, and since they are charging interest, in the long run businesses will end up paying more.

There are 1.5 million Citizens Property Insurance Customers and a thousand more are added each day. Citizens doesn�t have near enough money to pay claims if a major storm hits Florida. As Whitney Ray tells us, when the 2012 legislative session begins next week lawmakers will consider several bills to lessen the state�s risk.

It�s been a record six straight years since a hurricane hit Florida and insurance experts fear the state is due for a storm. Private Insurance organizations teamed up for a news conference Wednesday to talk about problems the state faces because Citizens is growing by a thousand policies a day.

�We do support anything that lessens the impact and decreases the amount of policies going into Citizens,� said Donovan Brown with Property Casualty Insurers.

Several bills would lessen the state�s risk by enticing more private insurers to write policies in Florida and forcing some citizens� customers onto surplus lines.

Surplus line companies are less regulated and more expensive than Citizens. The bill would allow customers forced in to surplus companies to opt back into Citizens.

�It would be the same take out process used today for admitted carriers,� said Don Brown with Reinsurers Association of America.

If a major storm destroys Citizens properties, private insurers would have 30 days to pay millions of dollars in Citizens assessments. There is a bill to reduce the amount of the assessments and give insurers more time to come up with the cash.

�So it�s not the shock to the bank account of the company, the immediate shock. They would get to collect it then remit it,� said Don Brown.

Industry Experts says the plan isn�t perfect, but it�s a start. The industry doesn�t expect a bill with massive changes to the insurance market this session because lawmakers will be busy with redistricting and the budget.

Florida escaped another hurricane season unscathed. The 2011 season ended at midnight last night, marking six consecutive hurricane free years in Florida. So property insurance rates should be dropping� right? Wrong!!! As Whitney Ray tells us, not only are rates rising, but policyholders are still paying for the damage from the 2004, 2005 hurricane seasons.

In 2004 and 2005, eight hurricanes ripped through Florida causing more than 55 billion dollars in damage.

Stephanie Wilson was in her late teens and living in Tallahassee when the chaos began.

�A lot of like trees and debris were on some of the back roads. Not the main roads,� said Wilson.

Tallahassee was spared and so was Stephanie�s family and home. But now, six years later, she�s paying for the damage.

�I don�t think it�s fair,� said Wilson.

Because Citizens Property Insurance didn�t have enough money to cover its losses, so the state ordered emergency assessments on all policyholders. Stephanie pays about 10 bucks a year in assessments on her car policy.

The average assessment on a policy for a 150-thousand dollar house runs between 20 and 30 dollars a year. The payments are due through 2017, but they could get higher if another storm hits.

A category four or five in a large city could raise assessments to 450 dollars a year. To avoid that scenario insurance experts say drastic changes to Citizens have to be made.

�We have to get our policymakers to make the hard choices and change the laws, otherwise it�s just a ticking time bomb and it�s going to blow up eventually,� said NAIFA Spokesman Bob Lotane.

Plans to shed 75-hundred of Citizens most expensive policies are in the works, but it may not be enough to significantly lower the risk to all Florida policyholders. The governor and state cabinet will hear the plans to drop the most expensive Citizens policies at next Tuesday�s cabinet meeting. Citizens denied our request for an interview to discuss the proposed changes.

Some Citizens Property Insurance customers may soon be dealing with a two-thousand percent increase in their sinkhole coverage. To put that in perspective� if your sinkhole policy costs 150 dollars a year right now� a two-thousand percent increase� would raise it to 3-thouand dollars. And that doesn�t include the rest of your policy. As Whitney Ray tells us, industry experts say the increase is needed because Citizens rates were kept artificially low for the past five years.

This is not the average sinkhole claim. This is a small crack in a foundation or wall. Sinkhole claims have skyrocketed in the last eight years. Citizens paid out 270 million in claims last year and only collected 30 million.

�In insurance your goal is to collect the premium you need to cover those loses and expenses for the term of the rate and in sinkhole that is not occurring,� said Citizens spokeswoman, Christine Ashburn.

Wednesday the Citizens Property Insurance Board will vote on a four hundred percent increase, but that�s just a statewide average. In five counties it would go up 2-thousand percent.

Pinellas is one of those counties facing a two-thousand percent increase. But the average sinkhole policy there cost just three dollars. Multiply three by two-thousand percent and the rate would increase 60 dollars.

In Hillsborough the increase is much higher. The average rate is 156 dollars. The new rate would be 36-hundred dollars a year.

Bob Lotane with the Florida Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors says the proposed increases are so high because Citizens rates have been suppressed for too long.

�It�s been 10 percent for a few years now, and meanwhile we�ve had an explosion of sinkhole claims,� said Lotane.

But State Senator Mike Fasano blames this 48 page bill. It lifts regulations and the 10 percent cap on sinkhole rate increase for Citizens.

�Senate Bill 408 was the beginning of stopping anyone from ever having sinkhole coverage in the state of Florida which would be an economic disaster,� said Fasano.

If the board approves the new rates, they would be given to the Office of Insurance Regulation for final approval. Citizens is the only company writing sinkhole coverage in many parts of the state. The coverage is optional, although most banks require the insurance for barrowers living in high risk areas. So for them it�s pay for the coverage or lose your mortgage.

The Florida Senate spent most of the morning arguing over whether insurance companies should be required to offer sink hole coverage. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, the debate is far from over, but if the majority of the Senate gets its way, thousands of homeowners could be forced into the insurer of last resort.

If your house falls into a sinkhole, it is considered catastrophic ground cover collapse under insurance legislation steaming through the state Senate, and it would be covered. But insurance companies would not have to offer coverage from cracks that develop because of shifting ground. State Senator Mike Fasano spent most of Wednesday morning trying to convince the Senate to require coverage of both cracks and collapse.

�You will have people who want to buy a home in this state, that will not be able to get sinkhole coverage,� Fasano said. �Therefore, they will not be able to get sinkhole coverage.�

Sinkhole losses have sky rocketed in recent years. Sponsor Garrett Richter says many of the claims are fraudulent.

�Policyholders are receiving checks, large checks for small cracks,� Richter said. �They�re taking these checks, they�re not repairing the property. They�re taking these checks, they�re paying their mortgage off, they�re buying a boat.�

Fasano lost the fight, for now.

Right now, the House still wants to require sinkhole coverage, so let the negotiations begin.

Richter believes insurance companies will offer the sink hole coverage, even if it is not required. We asked what would happen if he was wrong.

�If I�m wrong? Then there is an insurer of last resort, as designed,� Richter said.

If the Senate wins out and only catastrophic collapse ends up being required, thousands of homeowners could be forced into state run Citizens, or non-regulated out-of-state companies as early as June.

Mental health advocates and economists say spending cuts in the senate�s budget plan would cost the state more in the long run. The Florida Senate wants to cut 210-million dollars from mental health and substance abuse programs. As Whitney Ray tells us, economists say those cuts would force the state to spend more on prisons, hospitals and emergency services.

140-thousand Floridians suffering from addiction, anxiety and other mental illnesses would lose services under spending cuts in the Senate�s budget. The Senate wants to cut 210-million from mental health and substance abuse programs.

Bob Sharpe, the president of the Florida Council for Community Mental Health, says those cuts will force the state to spend more down the road.

�Spend more for corrections, jail admissions; health care the child welfare system, more people will be homeless,� said Sharpe.

Rob Weissert, the Vice President of Research at Florida TaxWatch, says cutting programs that help former felons beat addiction increases the chances those who are denied treatment will end up back in prison.

�Addressing these issues up front can not only save money, but really can reduce future crimes, so it�s a very positive way that the state can focus resources to actually reduce the overall costs and enhance public safety,� said Weissert.

The state house holds mental health and substance abuse programs harmless in its budget. For the next two weeks they�ll be negotiating with the senate to keep those cuts from going through and if the governor has his way, he�ll side with the house. Governor Rick Scott says funding the programs is a priority.

�We�ve got to make sure we spend the money as wisely as possible, so when we put our budget together, we tried to allocate the dollars because that�s part of your job as governor to try to allocate the dollars to the biggest issues you have,� said Scott.

Monday the House and Senate start the budget negotiations. If the Senate moves to restore the cuts, something else will have to go. Mental health and drug abuse advocates say along with the loss of services, there will be a loss of jobs. They estimate 5-thousand people will be laid off if the Senate gets its way.

One in five Floridians is Hispanic according to the 2010 census statistics released this week. The figure may not bode well for immigration reform legislation; opponents believe would encourage racial profiling. As Whitney Ray tells us, some Hispanic Republicans say they�ll vote Democrat if the GOP led legislature passes the immigration reform bill.

250 Latinos, some legal, some not, were at the state capitol Thursday, angry over an Arizona inspired immigration measure they say would encourage racial profiling.

The immigration debate rages as the latest census numbers show the Hispanic population soaring. Now 22 percent of Floridians are Hispanic; up from 16 percent after the last census. And as Hispanics register to vote, few are registering as Republicans.

With one in three Hispanics registering as an independent their vote is up for grabs, and they are using their support or opposition as leverage in the immigration debate. Opponents say lawmakers better take heed.

�The decisions they are making now are going to have serious ramifications for the future of the state and the future of their politics,� said Subash Patel, an organizer with We are Florida a group organized against the bill.

Filipe Matos, who delivered petitions to the Senate President running for Congress, sees the growing numbers of Hispanics as a political bargaining chip.

�If he doesn�t stand with the Latino community, we will not stand with him in 2012,� said Filipe.

But not all Florida Hispanics side with Filipe. The immigration reform bill is being sponsored by Senator Anitere Flores a Cuban-American� and many in the Hispanic caucus have her back.

Republicans lost Hispanic voters between 08 and 10� while 96-thousand Hispanics registered Democrat.

Today marks the end of the Atlantic Hurricane Season and another year without a hurricane hitting Florida. It�s been five hurricane-free years now, so what does this mean for property insurance rate? As Capitol Correspondent Whitney Ray tells, industry experts and some lawmakers say rates are still too low to prepare companies for a major storm.

The Atlantic Hurricane Season is over and for the fifth straight year Florida emergency managers can breathe a sigh of relief.

�For the first time in recorded history this is now five years in a row that a hurricane has not hit Florida or struck the East Coast of the United States,� said Dave Halstead the Director of the Department of Emergency Management.

That means for half a decade Florida insurance companies haven�t had to pay massive claims, but it�s not all rosy. Industry Expert Bob Lotane says rates are still too low to adequately prepare insurers for a major storm hitting a large city.

�The insurance commissioner himself has testified to the cabinet that a majority of companies are not reserving money at the rate that they need to, to be ready for a hurricane,� said Lotane.

Lawmakers want to make it easier for insurance companies to raise rates up to 10 percent a year. Legislation loosing regulations on the industry landed on Governor Charlie Crist�s desk twice in the past two years and both times he vetoed the bills. Crist has faith the war on insurance rates he started will continue.

�I certainly hope for the people and myself that they continue to go down,� said Crist.

But 2011 is likely to be different. A new governor and a GOP supermajority in the House and Senate could mean the legislation sails through the process, and insurance companies will no longer have to ask the state when they want an increase. The legislation is already in the works and is expected to begin the committee process when lawmakers come back to Tallahassee next week.