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million concealed weapons permits have been issued in Florida, and of those permits just three of every thousand have been revoked.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

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.

Four percent of the people seeing a doctor or emergency clinic in Florida are complaining of flu like symptoms. Dr. Julia Gill with the Florida Department of Health says the visits are about double the number of what would be expected this early in the flu season. �For folks who haven�t had �their flu shots should make sure they get their shots. And also to make sure you pay attention to the regular day-to-day things you can do to prevent and kind of illness including influenza. And those are to wash your hands often and to be careful what you are touching…and then touching your eyes, your nose, your face”, says Gill.

South Florida seems to be showing the heaviest number of flu cases. To check locally go to www.doh.state.fl.us/chdsitelist.htm

Plans to create thousands of jobs in Florida by pumping money into movies, tourism, and space are in the works in Tallahassee. Governor Charlie Crist is calling for 300 million dollars in state spending and incentive programs. As Whitney Ray tells us, the spending and tax breaks could create jobs if state lawmakers don�t need the money for schools, roads, and hospitals.

For decades Florida has been familiar ground for Flipper and other film stars. The industry created a 29 billion dollar economic impact in 2007, employing more than a hundred thousand people.

Governor Charlie Crist is pushing 15 million dollars worth of tax incentives to attract jobs and tourist.

�We get a six to one return on that investment. In addition to that we get Florida advertised all over the globe,� said Crist.

The governor�s budget recommendations call for 32 million dollars in space spending, 15 million for public research, and 100 million to harpoon high-tech business. The Florida Chamber of Commerce says the investments would create better jobs.

�Those are the type of jobs we want. They are high wage, high-tech jobs and what we want to go to the next economy,� said Gabe Sheheane with the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

State lawmakers who are charged with crafting the budget are likely to take one look at the governor�s recommendations and start from scratch.

Senate President Jeff Atwater says Crist�s proposals depend too heavily on money from a failed gambling compact.

�We are going to deal with the facts as we see them and the facts as we see them are we have less revenue,� said Atwater.

It�s unlikely all of the governor�s budget recommendations will survive once lawmakers begin making tough decision to fill a three billion dollar shortfall. But if they do, experts say thousands of jobs will be saved and created.

The unemployment rate for veterans in Florida is two percent higher than the state average.

Veterans face challenges most of us will never understand. Some vets enlist in the military right out of high school and when they try to enter the workforce many of them lag behind in experience and education. Governor Charlie Crist held a roundtable discussion this morning to find out how the state can help.

�We want to make sure that veterans throughout the state of Florida have the opportunity to have gainful employment when they are done with their service to our country is something that is very important to our administration and you know what is happening at the Agency for Workforce Innovation, through employflorida.com and these other networking opportunities these wonderful, patriotic Americans have a greater opportunity to have employment when they are done with their service overseas,� said Crist.

Many veterans don�t know about help offered by the state to jobseekers. Crist is asking the state Department of Veteran�s Affairs to send letters to returning troops informing them of the state�s online job bank and help through AWI.

A lack of funding for Florida�s tri-rail system is threatening to knock future rail projects off track.

State lawmakers are rushing to make a deal to secure federal dollars to build a commuter train from Deland through Orlando. A lack of funding for Tri-rail, which services Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Palm Beach, is causing a hiccup in the plan. Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Stephanie Kopelousos says besides the money the all the pieces are in place.

�When you look at the projects around the country, and you look at ones that are truly shovel-ready, when it comes to high-speed rail we are one of the few corridors. We own 92% of the property. We truly can get that project moving sooner rather than later. That’s what I’ve heard out of Washington, they want a project that they can get shovels moving and get some action immediately. I think Florida is not the only place, but one of the only places that can get a new high-speed rail system up and going,� said Kopelousos.

The federal government plans to award money this winter to states ready to move forward with rail projects, which means the clock is ticking for lawmakers who will have to find millions of dollars for Tri-rail. Governor Charlie Crist says he�s optimistic lawmakers will reach a deal in time to claim those federal dollars.

On Saturday, President Barack Obama issued an emergency swine flu declaration which focuses on preparation. Here in Florida, hospitals are anticipating an increased number of swine flu cases and are applauding the president�s action. As Whitney Ray tells us, the declaration will allow hospitals to treat more patients if the pandemic gets worse.

By the end of flu season experts predict as many as one in four Floridians will have fought a battle with the H1N1 virus. Matthew Bennett doesn�t like the odds. He and his wife are in the priority group for the first round of vaccinations.

�We have a little eight week old at home so the doctor said to get it,� said Matthew.

The Florida Department of Health is already running low on the H1N1 vaccine, but is expecting more soon.

�We are currently experiencing a shortage in terms of what we would have originally expected from the CDC at this time. However, we are not concerned. We still anticipate those who are interested in getting the vaccine will be able to do so,� said Smith.

President Barack Obama signed an emergency declaration this weekend to prepare hospitals in case of a surge of new cases.

The declaration allows hospitals to ignore some government regulations, allowing staff to treat patients more quickly. The Agency for Health Care Administration says hospitals and nursing homes would be allowed to waive the rules on a case by case basis.

�It would allow them to increase the number of beds they can offer. For hospitals it may allow them to set up an emergency site within a certain location in the hospital to allow greater service to patients,� said Molly McKinstry, the Bureau Chief for the AHCA Bureau of Long Term Care Services.

In Florida about a thousand H1N1 patients have been hospitalized; 131 lost their battle with the virus.