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The Pro Life Susan B. Anthony List staged a protest in front of US Senator Bill Nelson’s office in the State Capitol. Some two dozen, mostly women protestors, held signs decrying Nelson’s support of Planned parenthood funding. Jill Stanek, the National Campaign Chair for the organization said because of Nelson’s votes, the US is one of only seven nations that allow later term abortions in some cases.

“It puts us in the same camp as China and North Korea. Senator Nelson wants us to stay in this campaign. His shameful extremism has no place in Florida, or in Washington, and we will defeat him on elections day, right? Stanek told the crowd.

In a statement, Nelson says “While I am personally opposed to abortion and believe it should be rare, I support a women’s right to make decisions about her health with her doctor, without interference from the government.”

The rally was held in front of a Federal Courthouse where judges have overruled several state attempts to restrict abortions in Florida. 

Florida’s Governor and Cabinet will hold a rare meeting later tonight sitting as the Executive Clemency Board. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, the meeting comes just hours before the Board faces a Thursday deadline set by a Federal Court Judge.

On March 28th, Federal Judge Mark Walker Declared Florida’s Clemency process unconstitutional because if left too much up to the Governor and Board members. 

“I move to grant restoration of civil rights” Scott said in one case. He has the ultimate say, because without his vote, no one gets their rights back.

Desmond Meade, the organizer behind a November rights restoration ballot question has previously told us the process takes far too long. 

“And once they apply, what we’ve seen is a processing time upwards of ten years.”

The Judge set April 26 as the deadline for the Board to submit a new plan. 

A week later, the state appealed, asking a higher Federal court to stay the order. 

The Clemency Board has virtually nothing in the weeks since it asked a higher Federal Court to stay the judge’s order. Now they risk being in contempt.

The Board set a meeting for 9:30 Wednesday night. Now Veteran clemency watcher Mark Schlakman says the Board is scrambling.

“It suggests they didn’t take the court seriously” Schlakman told us Wednesday.

Asked about the meeting Wednesday morning in Tampa , Governor Rick Scott had only this to say: “Well, we’ll be reviewing that tonight. We’ll be reviewing exactly what the courts have decided and we’ll make a decision on how we go forward.”

Under the plan the current Governor and Cabinet adopted in 2011, about 5 thousand former felons got their rights back…that compared to more than 155 thousand who were processed by the previous administration in half the time.

Tonights meeting, unless it is cancelled because the Federal Court issues a stay before it starts, will be held via phone. The public is invited to speak to an empty Dias in the State Capitol.

As two Gilchrist Sheriff’s Deputies were laid to rest after being ambushed at lunch last week, Mike Vasilinda tells us, training for future law enforcement officers continued as scheduled at the largest law enforcement academy in the Southeast.

Flags were at half staff in honor of the slain deputies at the Florida Public Safety Institute 25 miles west of the State Capitol

But at the academy, it was training as usual.

This defensive tactics class teaches officers to gain compliance from suspects

using pressure points of pain.

The fact two officers were laid to rest as they trained was not lost on the class.

Jonathan McCall is a Tallahassee Police Recruit. “It makes you reflect on the…on the seriousness of the job, but that’s where we come in here and get the training that we did” he told us.

Many recruits like Jonathan have military backgrounds. They know the pay is low, the danger high. Still, they want to serve.

“I just finished a 25 year career in the military and so I wanted to serve in a different capacity at my community level” recruit Alexander Perea told us.

Recruits here will spend anywhere from eight hundred to a thousand hours learning their trade.

The Highway Patrol trains recruits for seven months here. Together, 60 state and federal agencies train at the 1500 acre academy.

Florida Public Safety Institute Director E.E. Eunice says “We replicate the real world as much as possible.”

By the time these cadets leave, they will have the skills to be a cop. Whether they have the temperament to withstand the dangers is something they will find out on their own once they’re on the street. 

Over the course of their seven month training, the Highway Patrol will spend about 7500 dollars per recruit feeding and housing new hires. Recruits themselves earn just over 3100 dollars a month while in training. 

Two Gilchrist sheriff’s deputies, gunned down as they ate lunch last week will be laid to rest tomorrow. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, the deaths, along with two more deputies fired upon this weekend, has law enforcement on edge.

In Collier county, a deputy responding to an alarm early Monday morning was shot at as he arrived on scene. A suspect is in custody.

In Marion County, a deputy trying to clear a gathering crowd at two am Saturday took cover behind his squad car as shots rang out. Marion County Sheriff Bobby Woods posted pictures of the car on Facebook and wrote: enough is enough…all my people are on edge.

Police Benevolent Association executive Director Matt Puckett says the same is true across Florida and the nation.

“It’s certainly dangerous other there right now. It seems more dangerous.”

Q:”Is this hurting recruiting?”

“Yes. That a big problem on why we are not filling the ranks right now. The danger and the lack of manpower.”

The Florida Highway Patrol has seen a thousand troopers leave since 2010.

“The academy was a tough one, but I made it through” chimes a newly minted trooper in an FHP recruitment video.

The PBA says a second disturbing trend is emerging. People quitting training before they finish.

“They are just making a conscious choice to say, even though I’m near the end, I’m done. I’m not going to complete this” says Executive Director Puckett.

Second Judicial Circuit State Attorney Jack Campbell grew up in a law enforcement family. He says threats aren’t new, but the violence is concerning.

“We need to recognize that killing somebody because of who they are or what they do is totally anti-American” Campbell told us.

The FHP did not respond to A request about hiring and their vacancy rate. 

The Patrol also declined to make recruits at its training academy available. 

At the height of the debate over gun control, Tampa State Representative Ross Spano took some heat over his efforts to pass a resolution declaring pornography a problem instead of focusing on guns, but as Mike Vasilinda tells us many believe pornography is a growing problem.

Vikas Kapoor is serving a 27 year prison sentence after being convicted on more than two dozen counts of having child porn on his computer. 

“There are certain pictures that I can’t unsee.”

Ron Watson was the jury foreman.

“We’re talking about pornography with three, four, five year old children” Watson told us.

While Watson resents being forced to watch disgusting images as part of his civic duty, porn is now easier than ever to find.

New studies suggest, that because of this, 70 percent of our teens are actually stumbling across porn as they search the internet. 

“The average age that you first view pornography is eight years old for kids now” says State Representative Ross Spano.

Unable to pass a bill to educate kids about the dangers, Spano championed a House resolution this year. He’s hoping to shine a spotlight on the problems porn creates.

“It’s causing eating problems, its causing children to be sexually active before they should be” says Spano.

In his final interview before he was executed, One of Florida’s most notorious serial killers, Ted Bundy, blamed his killings on pornographic fantasies.

“I’ve met a lot men motivated to commit violence, just like me, and without an exception, every one of them was deeply involved with pornography, without question” Bundy told interviewer and anti porn crusader James Dobson on the night before he was executed.

The interview was discounted at the time of Bundy’s death as a scapegoat, but the idea that it could be addictive is gaining more and more traction among professionals. 

The resolution was meant to be a place to start a conversation about pornography, but Spano is leaving the State House this year, so someone else will have to start the conversation.

First Lady Barbara Bush was a frequent visitor to Florida’s Capitol City. She came to support her son before and after he was elected Governor, to campaign for him, and as Mike Vasilinda tells us, was a major influence in Jeb Bush’s efforts to improve students  reading  skills.

In April 1992, more than six years before Jeb Bush was first elected Florida’s Governor, Barbara Bush came to Sealey Elementary School. Her purpose: Donate a penny in an effort to teach students about large numbers. 

“We decided to collect a million pennies” says then gifted students teacher Cheryl Cliett”

So they asked Barbara Bush to come.

“She not only put in the last penny, she put in one penny more to start us on our next million” recalls Special Needs Teacher Lea Reeves

But one of the first things the First Lady did was demonstrate she knew where the cameras were located, bringing a laugh from the crowd as she re-arranged where her student host was standing.

The First Lady had been invited by teachers Cheryl Cliett and Lea Reeves.

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”What do you remember about Barbara Bush, something you didn’t know before you met her?” Wee asked.

“I think how kind she was and how much she loved children” responded Cliett.

“The whole program was just kids doing it and Barbara was just so natural with everybody” recalled Reeves.

The First Lady spent 45 minutes that day at the School, telling students and teachers “You have absolutely confirmed what I have always felt in my heart.  Little things do count. Not just coins. But little acts of kindness, little pieces of knowledge, and individual people.”

She would be back in the Capitol for her son’s first inauguration, his second, and sometimes just to visit.

And of those people who worked for Jeb Bush, not one doubts that his mother had a major influence in his push to improve reading scores in Florida.

And because Barbara Bush was Jeb’s mother, her impact on Flordia goes far beyond the times she visited.