Governor Ron DeSantis along with a group of Florida lawmakers kicked off the ’42 Hours for 42 Million’ advocacy walk at the state Capitol Tuesday morning.
For the next 42 hours lawmakers, victims advocates and survivors of child sexual abuse will walk on a treadmill in the capitol rotunda.
State Senator Lauren Book, a survivor of child sexual abuse says the 42 hours of walking commemorates the 42 million survivors of child sexual abuse in the US.
“Horrifically, every 98 seconds, someone in the US becomes a victim of sexual abuse. Which means that over the course of the time that we’re walking, 1,542 incidences of sexual violence will occur,” said Book.
The walk-a-thon takes place during National Sexual Assault Awareness Month and Child Abuse Prevention Month.
Book says 95% of child sexual abuse can be prevented through education and awareness.
197 Florida Firefighters who have made the ultimate sacrifice were honored Tuesday morning at the state Capitol.
The annual ceremony was held in front of the newly completed firefighters memorial on the Capitol grounds.
Chief Financial Officer and State Fire Marshal Jimmy Patronis led the ceremony, in which a bell is rung nine times.
“With each ring we mark the ending of a final call for a brave soul on these walls. The ones who lost there lives courageously and with honor. Today marks their last call, the one that brought them home,” said Patronis.
CFO Patronis is supporting a legislative push this year to expand workers comp for firefighters to include cancer treatment benefits.
Governor Ron DeSantis has appointed Florida’s First Lady Casey DeSantis as Chair of the Children and Youth Cabinet.
The First Lady says she’s excited to take on the new position and hopes to increase the visibility of recourses available to children and families.\
“There are great programs out there for these kids to turn their lives around. It’s just, do these people know that they exist? Do they know those resources are there? Do parents know this? If they find their child going down the wrong road, how do we communicate that message to them? So this is really an exiting opportunity,” said Casey DeSantis.
The First Lady says her priority will be to focus on children impacted by the opioid epidemic.
Florida ranks third in the nation for the number of reported cases of human trafficking.
One of the many efforts to reduce trafficking in the state would require prevention be taught in schools.
The bill has now cleared two committees in the House and gets its first hearing in the Senate on Tuesday.
The National Human Trafficking Hotline’s website says in 2018 nearly one out of four human trafficking cases in Florida involved a victim under 18.
Representative Patricia Williams says, the illicit industry often targets children.
“Children are our vulnerable part and they’re our future. If we don’t keep them safe, we won’t be safe,” said Williams.
Williams is sponsoring the bill that would require health classes taught in Florida schools, include human trafficking prevention and awareness.
Currently 22 or Florida’s 67 districts already have the requirement.
“This course would actually give information of how people actually come up and try to solicit them,” said Williams. “They’ll know the signs of what to look for. They’ll know when people are actually trying to coerce them into doing other things that they are not aware of.”
The Senate bill differs slightly.
It a provision that would require the Department of legal affairs to develop human trafficking awareness campaigns.
It also would establish a human trafficking reporting hotline.
Unlike the Senate, the House version also requires child sex abuse awareness and prevention be included in health courses.
Fely Curva with The Society of Health and Physical Educators says it’s an important piece of the puzzle, pointing to 130,000 cases of abuse last year alone.
“Which in reality accounts to approximately 18 counties’ total student enrollment combined. So this is a real issue,” said Curva.
Under the legislation, students could opt out of the human trafficking or sex abuse instruction with parental consent.
Exactly one year from Monday, the 2020 census process will begin.
Some Democratic lawmakers in the Florida Legislature want to make sure Florida’s count is as accurate as possible.
The legislators are pushing a bill that would establish a Complete Count Committee made up of state and local lawmakers.
The committee would be tasked with reaching out to marginalized communities, which in the past have been under counted.
Getting the number is important, according to Senator Bobby Powell, because population factors into how much Federal funding communities are eligible to receive for things like schools and hospitals.
“Nowhere are the stakes higher than here in the state of Florida. Our state is home to a variety of cultures and lifestyles, all of which require a unique outreach strategy designed to make sure we get the most efficient and effective count,” said Powell.
Democrats also argued against the inclusion of a citizenship question on the 2020 census, asserting it would discourage some undocumented immigrants from participating.
8,000 signed petitions were derived to the President of the Florida Senate’s Office Monday afternoon.
The petition, spearheaded by Moms Demand Action Against Gun Violence, asks the Florida Legislature to consider passing universal criminal background checks in the state.
While the proposal has been criticized by the NRA and Republicans as being over burdensome, Kate Kile with Moms Demand Action disagrees.
“Background checks are not intrusive. They are generally instant for 90% of the people who go through them. We don’t feel that it’s an onerous burden and we know that it’s proven to keep our communities safer,” said Kile.
The legislation has been filed, but not received a single committee hearing.
A battle of words is raging in the state Capitol over the restoration of felons rights. The conflict is over what constitutes completing one’s sentence and statements made by the sponsors of rights restoration amendment to the Florida Supreme Court. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, the battle comes down to the definition of paying all fees and fines.
The Senate Criminal Justice committee has approved legislation requiring felons to pay all of their fees, fines and restitution before getting their right to vote back.
The committee agree with Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg
“I believe that we must include, and this amendment does include restitution, fines, fees imposed as part of the sentence” Brandes told the committee.
Within hours, activists labeled the move a poll tax. Lawmakers responded by pointing they’re only doing what the man who wrote the ballot initiative, Legal expert Jon Mills,said to the Supreme Court in 2017.
“All matters. Anything that a judge puts in the sentence.”
So it would also include the full payment of any fines?” Asked Justice Ricky Polston.
“Yes sir“ replied Mills.
House sponsor James Grant (R-Tampa) says the legislature is taking Floridians for a Fair Democracy at their word.
“They explicitly and affirmatively said no it’s everything, quote, within the four corners of the document. Quote: fines and fees and probation, parole, restitution are all part of the sentence” Grant says.
But Legal scholar Mark Schlakman tells us that no matter what the group said where, its still not binding on lawmakers.
“The key is the language. And if you read the language strictly, it affords more discretion than the legislature is thus far taking” says the FSU law professor.
Desmond Meade was the driving force behind the ballot initiative. He calls the political maneuvering “heartbreaking”.
“There’s a partisan drum thats beating so loudlyIn their heads and it’s driving out the voices of the people, and that’s sad” says Meade. He plans to return to the Capitol next week to push lawmakers on the fee issue.
A study by the state parole board in 2011 found that felons whose rights were restored were far less likely to commit new crimes.
And legal experts also tell us that even if felons are not required to pay all fines and fees before getting their rights back, they would still owe the money and be legally obligated to pay it.
After a class size initiative, a workplace smoking ban, and high speed rail amendments were approved in 2002, lawmakers were successful in convincing voters to make it harder to pass amendments. Now after the passage of medical marijuana and felons rights, the legislature is again trying to make passing initiatives harder…much harder.
After a series of successful petition drives in 2002 lawmakers were successful in raising the threshold for approval from 50 to 60 percent. Scott McCoy of the Southern Poverty Law Center says when it comes to voters going around lawmakers, they become parochial.
“They don’t like it of course, because they want to only game in town when it comes to making Flordia Law” says McCoy.
When amendments kept passing, lawmakers shortened a petition’s unlimited lifespan to just two years.
“They’re trying to put roadblocks in that path and we have serious concerns about that” add McCoy
Now, after the passage of the controversial felons voting rights, and medical marijuana, A bill was filed and passed its only committee in the short span of thirty six hours.
Rep. Paul Renner of Palm Coast is the Chair of the Judiciary Committee.
“And it should be for Floridians to initiate that,” says Renner when it comes to petition drives.
The hastily filed legislation requires petition gatherers to only be Florida residents and registered with the state.
“Let’s make sure they’re actually Floridians, Not North Koreans or Russians, or Californians or people from Georgia” add Renner.
Aliki Moncrief ran the Successful land conservation amendment in 2014 and says paid petition gatherers is the only was to succeed with a tight time limit and a large state.
“There’s no way we would have been able to do that as Florida’s Water and Land Legacy if we weren’t able to call on professional signature gatherers” says Moncrief.
So we asked Rep Renner how petition drivers could flourish with only Floridians
“I would say to them, Florida has twenty one million people, they have twenty one million options.”
Because the changes being proposed this year are statutory, voters don’t really have a say, except to voice their opinion.
The legislation also says that those who gather petitions, can’t be paid by the petition….which is exactly how they are paid now.
The legislation also requires the ballot summary to contain the name of the sponsor, a cost estimate, and contribution information, all without lengthening the 75 word limit on ballot summaries.
After we reported that Sun Trust was closing the bank account of the Medical Marijuana Business Association earlier this week, which was criticized by the Commissioner of Agriculture as being wrong, the banking giant has reached out to association founder Jeff Sharkey, who says he and the bank are talking.
“As an association, you know, we receive funds from a number of different entities. Physicians groups, non profits. We’re not selling marijuana. I think their real concern is with licensees whoa re actually dealing with the product, plants. So, we’ve had some preliminary conversations and I appreciate them reaching out” says Sharkey.
Banks are reluctant to handle any accounts associated with marijuana because it is still illegal under federal law. While the two are talking, the association hasn’t stopped looking for another bank, yet.
After the suicide of two Parkland survivors in as many weeks followed by the death of one of the fathers of a Sandy Hook victim, Governor Ron Desantis and Firsts Lady Casey held a round table this afternoon at the Governor’s Mansion looking for answers.
“Mental health was obviously an issue before that, but I think when you see two suicides like that, you know, we want to bring in stakeholders snd see if there is something being missed. Obviously in the aftermath of Parkland, there was a lot attention on this. But yet we have this so we want to hear from folds and find out what the state can be doing more, what the local communities can be doing more, and try to fight it” says the Governor.
Last week, suicide prevention advocates were in the Capitol, urging the state to do more to prevent what has become the eighth leading cause of death in the state.
Photographs, video or audio from mass killings in Florida could soon be out of the sunshine.
Legislation approved by the State Senate today makes it a crime to release the material, and someone who does could spend up to five years in prison.
The legislation was once so broad the infamous video showing Broward Sheriff’s deputies not going into Marjorie Stoneman Douglass High School to stop a killer could not have been released.
The First Amendment Foundation objected.
“Law enforcement. One agency was accusing another agency. Why didn’t they engage the shooter sooner, more effectively. It was the ability to access those records and then the reporting on them that made a difference,” said Barbara Petersen with the First Amendment Foundation.
Because of the foundation’s efforts, lawmakers narrowed the public records exemption to just the actual killing of three people or more.
It leaves intact the right to see what lead up to the event.
“This removes the language about causation that we had before,” said State Senator Jose Javier Rodriguez.
Senate sponsor Tom Lee says the narrowing was a recognition.
“Government can not be responsible for policing itself. And the public has, under our laws here in the state of Florida and the United States has a right to access to information, so we don’t do these things lightly. What we are narrowing down are a lot of things that are causing people distress,” said Lee.
The legislation also seeks to keep private any existing video of a mass shooting.
If it becomes public, then video from Pulse or Stoneman Douglass could not be released.
The legislation makes the release a third degree felony if a records custodian released the photos or video, but nothing in the bill prohibits a victims family members from releasing the recording.
The bill does leave open the door for someone to go to court to get the video, but more often than not, the cost of going to court is prohibitive.
The Florida League of Mayors is complaining about legislative attempts to preempt local governments from passing ordinances on everything from banning plastic straws to regulating short term home rentals through online booking services such as AirBNB.
Hawthorne Mayor Matt Furrency is the group’s President.
“This is a local zoning issue. Each of our communities can decide how short term rentals fit within our communities. We’re not necessarily for them or against them, but we want the opportunity to work with the short term rentals and figure out where they go and how they fit in our communities,” said Furrency.
The mayors say the local governments know their areas best, and shouldn’t be prohibited from enacting restrictions local residents want.
More than a thousand senior citizens crowded into the courtyard at the state Capitol Wednesday.
There were booths about health care and even one senior dressed up as a prescription bottle.
Dave Bruns with AARP says the living bottle is to show support the Governor’s call to import cheaper drugs from Canada
“Were heard some really wrenching stories today from people who are shelling out $800-$1,000 a month for their prescription drugs. Right now Governor Governor DeSantis and the Legislature are considering a plan to let us import safe, affordable, FDA approved prescription drugs from overseas. It could save us 50%-70%, from the cost for our prescription drugs,” said Burns.
The drug plan is moving in the House, but faces opposition in the Senate.
The Interfaith Coalition for Reproductive Heath and Justice was in the state Capitol Wednesday, arguing against legislation requiring minors to get a parent’s approval before getting an abortion.
President Kate Lannamann says abortion is actually safer than childbirth, but no one is pushing parental permission for having a baby.
“The consequences of an abortion from medical terms is that it’s one of the safest procedures. Even safer than a colonoscopy, where the maternal mortality rate from child birth is much higher. So this would be forcing young people to bear children against their will, something as people of faith we can’t abide by,” said Lannamann.
The group is also concerned by a bill that would prohibit abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected…which is sometimes as early as six weeks.
The number one complaint of voters this past election, state Senators say, was the grouping of two or more different subjects in amendments from the Constitution Revision Commission.
Responding, the Senate voted unanimously to allow voters to require single subjects for CRC amendments on Wednesday.
Senator Darryl Rousson of St. Petersburg says the choice should be up to voters.
“For the people of the state of Florida to decide whether once and for all, bundling is truly for convenience, or for voter fatigue, for obfuscation or to carry a bad thing with good thing hoping that the bad thing passes,” said Rousson.
The House is also expected to approve the amendment, which voters would see on the 2020 ballot.
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