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Ballots for the November 2nd election have already been printed, but the Florida Supreme Court will decide if Amendment 8, which is on those ballots, is misleading and whether votes will count or not. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, the court was highly skeptical of arguments trying to deep six the amendment.

Florida classrooms had to meet strict new limits this school year. Amendment 8 is the GOP-led legislature’s attempt to make it easier on schools by counting class size averages at the school level rather than individual classrooms.

Opponents of the amendment told the state’s high court that what voters will see is misleading, because it does not tell them it could reduce the amount of money going to schools.

“They’re being told you can put more kids in a class, they’re going to count them differently, but they’re not being told they’re losing money,” FEA attorney Ron Meyer said.

Justices asked tough questions of both sides.

“Where do we draw the line when we propose a constitutional amendment that takes away some constitutional right,” Justice Fred Lewis said.

Afterwards supporters of the amendment said the idea there would be less money was itself misleading.

“Again, this gives the local school districts the flexibility and it gives the legislature the flexibility on how to spend taxpayers’ money,” David Hart with the Florida Chamber of Commerce said. “It can absolutely still go to education.”

But the teachers opposing the amendment are sticking by their guns, saying 25 years of history prove them right.

“I have no faith that the Florida legislature is going to redirect that money into education,” Florida Education Association President Andy Ford said.”They’re going to use that money for something else. They always have.”

A narrow majority, just 52.4 percent, of Florida voters approved the class size amendment in 2002.

The high court is expected to rule quickly. Thursday is a regular release date for opinions, but the class size decision could come at any time.

People fed up with the new claims process are getting help from the state. The Department of Financial Services is taking claims straight to the head of BP’s 20 billion dollar fund. As Whitney Ray tells us, the mediation is giving new hope to people who say without a check from BP, they won’t make it through the winter.

Christopher Hoalt lost his waiting job at a seafood restaurant this summer after the BP oil spill cut business in half.

“I was down about 50 percent during our prime season, which is Memorial Day to Labor Day. Then I was laid off the day after Labor Day,” said Hoalt.

He filed a claim more than a month ago but is getting the runaround from the claims office.

Wednesday the Department of Financial Services held a workshop in Panama City to help people with their claims and take their stories straight to Ken Feinberg, the man in charge of a 20 billion dollar BP fund.

“There is a complete lack of communication by Fienberg’s office with many of the folks we’ve spoken with,” said Tami Torres with DFS.

But the process is improving. Claims are now being paid faster and proximity to the spill is no longer keeping Florida claims from being paid. That’s good news because there are thousands of Floridians who can’t hold out much longer.

With the tourism season here in the panhandle over, many claimants need the money to make it through to next spring. Charter boat Captain James Pic is waiting on his final check from BP. The spill cut his business by a third but he’s had little trouble getting BP to make good on its promise to pay legitimate claims.

“Every claim that I have filed they have paid me. I have had no issues with them whatsoever,” said Pic.

For those still struggling, the Department of Financial Services is offering a hand and promises to vouch for Floridians. And for help getting your claim processed go to www.myfloridacfo.com/FloridaClaimsHelp.

More than 30 thousand Floridians have submitted a claim against BP, yet about 13 thousand remain unpaid, causing stress, anger and resentment. As the uncertainty drags on, and unemployment high, Mike Vasilinda tells us, a new mental health hot line has just come on line to help victims of the oil spill.

From fishermen to real estate agents, to beach shop employees stressed out over the loss of income, a new hotline is open to help… not with collecting a claim, but reclaiming mental stability.

In this undisclosed location south of Tallahassee, operators handle a bevy of different hot lines.

Everything from helping with utility payments, to pregnancies, to AIDS.

This past weekend, a hotline to help oil spill victims deal with mental distress went online. Carrie Tyree had received a number of Deep Horizon related calls.

“What about my job those kinds of things,” said Tyree.

While the oil is gone. It’s impact is lasting. The oil spill distress hot line will be in place for 15 months, funded by a grant from BP. Director Randy Nicklaus says oil distress calls are just beginning to come in

“We’re treating this as a post disaster distress oil disaster help line, and we’re helping people with all kinds of family issues they might be experiencing, in addition to their economic issues,” said Nicklaus.

The hotline center handled 60 thousand calls last year…and expects that number to increase as the oil spill continues to take its toll. BP has funded ten million dollars for mental health outreach. Florida is receiving one hundred forty thousand dollars to operate the hot line. The number to call is 800-985-5990.

The battle for fewer students per classroom is raging as voters are being asked to soften class size restrictions. Amendment Eight would allow schools to meet class size standards based on the average number of students per class instead of a hard count in every room. As Whitney Ray tells us, the amendment is dividing school administrators.

Principal Rocky Hanna had to change some students’ schedules and shift some teachers around, but he made it to the magic number for high school classrooms.

The strictest phase of class size took effect in August, which means no more than 25 students per high school classroom, 22 in middle school and 18 in third grade and below. Hanna once supported Amendment Eight to loosen the restrictions, but now that he’s two months into the final phase of class size, he says smaller classes are workable.

“It took a lot of planning, but we were able to make it work, and if we were able to make it work then every other school in the state of Florida should be able to accomplish the same thing,” said Hanna.

But statewide the mandate is underfunded by 350 million dollars and some school administrators are considering extreme measures to meet the restrictions.

In some districts plans are being hatched to bus students between school zones to make class size work. Amendment Eight would give schools more flexibility to meet the mandate. Florida TaxWatch says it would also save a billion dollars a year.

“What this allows us to do is to spend that money, not on these facilities, not on bureaucracy, but take that money and pay for good teachers, good principals and good academic instruction,” said Dominic Calabro, CEO of TaxWatch.

But opponents of the amendment say there’s no guarantee the money would go back into the classroom, and the amendment is really about eliminating the legislature’s constitutional obligation to finance smaller classes.

The Florida Education Association will argue in front of the Supreme Court tomorrow in an attempt to get Amendment Eight kicked off the ballot. The FEA says the ballot language is flawed because it talks about classroom flexibility but doesn’t mention the legislature’s obligation to fund smaller classes.

The state university system will be considering a plan by the University of Florida to encourage incoming freshmen not to enroll in the fall, but wait until January. While only a pilot program, if successful, as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the plan could quickly become mandatory and spread to all of the state’s universities.

Freshman Christian Carr entered Florida A&M University in August. He says starting school in the fall has been the norm for his entire life, and he isn’t keen on changing.

“No, I wouldn’t do it,” Carr said. “I like the way the education process works now.”

But the University of Florida, beginning next fall, will encourage freshman like Christian to wait until January.  The school will likely offer incentives for waiting.

“It would only affect, right now, the students at the University of Florida, because the University of Florida is the one that has come forth with the proposal,” Board of Governor’s spokesperson Kelly Layman said.

The goal of the change is to better use buildings. FSU will graduate an average of 2,000 students in December, but enroll only 800 in January.

“There’s no reason why we can’t bring in 2,000, if we can limit them to spring and summer,” FSU Provost Larry Abele said. “Because we don’t have the space in the fall. So it’s a very good idea.”

Right now, the state doesn’t allow students to use their Bright Futures Scholarships during the summer, so if the state goes to a summer schedule, at least one law is going to need to be changed.

And if the UF pilot is successful, the state’s biggest schools will likely follow suit. So we asked Christian if there was no other way to get into the school of his choice except for starting in January. Would he feel differently?

“Well, then that’s a whole different story,” Carr said. “If that’s how you wanted to make your move into the university, I think you should take your chance.”

And UF is banking on many more like Christian thinking the same thing.

One problem still to be worked out in a Sping/Summer plan is where the money will come from to pay the professors. The Board of Governor’s will take up the pilot plan in November.

A new law aimed at fixing Florida’s mortgage fraud crisis could actually lead to more foreclosures. In an attempt to keep con artists and felons from writing home loans in Florida, a new state law is requiring all mortgage councilors to be certified by the state. And as Whitney Ray tell us, it’s putting nonprofit groups in a bind.

10-thousand felons were found writing home loans in Florida, by a 2008 investigation. Some of the felons wrote bad loans, contributing to the housing meltdown. A new state law to keep crooks out of the mortgage business went into effect Friday. The Florida Bankers Association calls it a good start.

“That will certainly help, but the riffraff will always find a way to get under the radar,” said Alex Sanchez, the president of the Florida Bankers Association.

The new law requires loan processors and loan modifiers to be certified by the state as loan originators. Registering with the state subjects lenders to a background check and makes the loans they write easier to track.

But the fix passed by the state legislature is making it harder for nonprofit groups helping people fighting foreclosure. Dozens of HUD Certified Mortgage Councilors are now being told to stop helping their clients. Flora Beal with the Office or Financial Regulation says those who ignore the warning will face stiff penalties.

“It is a felon in the 3rd degree if you are conducting loan modification or services for your clients,” said Beal.

It costs about a thousand bucks to get your certification and takes between three to six months to process. The Office or Financial Regulation says it will consider an exemption for some nonprofit mortgage councilors, but only on a case by case basis.

We contacted the governor’s office to see if there was anything he could do to help the nonprofit groups continue their work, but since the legislature passed the law, it will be up to them to fix it.

Firefighters are fighting cancer instead of fires today in Tallahassee.

Three pink fire trucks pulled into the capitol courtyard this morning to raise money and awareness for women fighting cancer. People who’ve had loved ones battle cancer signed the trucks before they headed to Pensacola. Tallahassee is just one of the stops on the “Pink Heals” road tour. The pink theme makes people think the tour is about breast cancer, but founder Dave Graybill says it’s about all forms of cancer facing women.

“A lady with skin cancer, uterus cancer, ovarian cancer, brain cancer any other types, she feels like she can’t the truck, because she doesn’t have breast cancer. That’s a shame. We are men marching on behalf of women by wearing her color because it’s the universal symbol of love and God put us here to wage war on and protect her,” said Graybill.

All donations stay in the city where they was raised. Money to fund the tour is raised through t-shirt sales. The shirts are sold at www. Pinkfiretrucks.org