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BP is on the defense as the company goes to trial over damage it caused to the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

The trial is expected to last months or even years and will likely result in the oil giant paying billions in damages. We asked Governor Rick Scott if Florida deserves some of that money.

“I’m optimistic that we will eventually get a settlement. When people get to trial they generally move a little faster. So hopefully we will get the right type of settlement and it will be good for our state,” said Scott.

Talks of a settlement are underway. Reports of a 16 billion dollar package that sends a majority of the money to Gulf Coast restoration projects are beginning to surface.

For 12 years Florida retailers have been pushing legislation they call eFairness. Their mission, require online stores to collect the same six cent state sales tax they’re required to charge customers. As Whitney Ray tells us, the movement is gaining momentum and could become law this summer.

There’s a war underway pitting Florida retailers against online stores outside of the state. Each side has its weapons; at the stores you can cash and carry. Online you can avoid the state’s sales tax.

“It’s been a lingering problem. It’s only gotten bigger and bigger,” said Lobbyist Randy Miller at a committee meeting earlier this month.

For 12 years Florida retailers have been asking state lawmakers to make online shops collect the tax. This year their eFairness legislation is gaining momentum.

“The Florida Chamber fully supports this eFairness bill,” said David Hart with the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

Several bills have been filed. One has already passed a senate committee.

“It really does seem like the stars have aligned on this issue,” Florida Retail Federation Spokesman John Fleming said.

Fleming says what’s different this year from years past is the Senate President, House Speaker and Governor Rick Scott are all open to an eFairness bill.

“The governor has said he could ultimately sign a bill if it were presented to him as a revenue neutral bill and I think that’s ultimately what he’s going to get on his desk,” said Fleming.

Revenue neutral means for every dollar of online sales tax collected a dollar of another tax would have to be cut.

Lawmakers are considering several measures to make the bill revenue neutral. One way is to eliminate the sales tax on manufacturing equipment. Another plan in the works would offer a sales tax holiday to shoppers statewide to offset the money generated by the online tax.

The Governor’s Task Force on Citizens Safety is coming to the defense of Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law.

The task force was formed after the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. The man who shot the unarmed teen is using the Stand Your Ground law as his defense. The task force issued its final report today. Former NRA President Marion Hammer says it confirms what she’s known all along, Floridians have the right to defend themselves.

“Overwhelmingly the conclusion is the law is working fine. It doesn’t need to be repealed or undone and it’s a good law,” said Hammer.

The report does suggest making changes to Florida’s 10-20-Life gun crime law. It also calls for rules for neighborhood watch groups should be reexamined.

State lawmakers want to bring the Clean Indoor Air Act outdoors. A bill to allow smoking bans at parks and beaches passed a senate committee today. As Whitney Ray tells us, if the bill becomes law cities and counties would have more authority over where people smoke.

Tykena Buckner is taking a break from her busy life. She brought a friend’s daughter to this park near the state capitol to feed the ducks, and enjoy some fresh air.

“I generally try to come out here just to relax,” said Tykena.

Tykena says smokers have never bothered her at this park, but she does worry about kids breathing secondhand smoke and litter.

“I know just like I wouldn’t want to go to a restaurant and be around secondhand smoke I wouldn’t want to necessarily want it at a park,” said Tykena.

And I didn’t have to look very long at this park to find the signs of smokers. Whoever this butt belongs too, they stopped just a few feet from the trashcan and threw it on the ground.

Litter is just one reasons state lawmakers are hearing a bill to allow local governments to ban smoking at parks and beaches. The legislation passed a senate committee Thursday with little opposition.

Before it passed it was amended by Senator John Thrasher. His amendment lessens the penalties for smokers and requires police to give them several warnings.

“We are not out there to have a cigarette police or a smoking police. You know that’s not what we are about. This is about the health and welfare of the people of the State of Florida,” said Thrasher.

While the bill is gaining momentum one concern remains, no one can say for sure how the changes would affect restaurants that allow outdoor smoking. If the bill passes and a smoking ban at parks and beaches is enacted, people caught violating it could face a 100 dollar fine.

State lawmakers will file a bill to change how power companies spend money they collect to build nuclear plants.

Today at the state capitol a team of four Tampa Bay senators told reporters they think power companies should refund customers if they collect money to build a nuclear plant but never do. Senator Wilton Simpson says things were different in 2006 when the law to allow companies to charge upfront cost for future nuclear passed.

“Things have changed and now as we see a nuclear plant being shut down and we see one maybe not being built, we are very concerned as to the cost to the consumer,” said Simpson.

A spokesperson for Florida Power and Light says FP&L spends 90 percent of it’s nuclear money on repairing current plants. The remaining money helps pay for nuclear licensing fees for new plants which can cost millions of dollars and take years to obtain.

Mental health and public safety are two of the biggest issues state lawmakers will face this upcoming legislative session. As Whitney Ray tells us, today a house committee passed a bill to allow nurse practitioners to test potentially dangerous patients.

A bag bulging with binders, Stand Whittaker hauled it in front of lawmakers Wednesday to prove nurse practitioners are not the problem but they can be the solution.

The big binder is full of evidence claiming nurse practitioners can take on more responsibility. The smaller binder.

“That’s the number of studies that say we are unsafe,” said Whittaker.

Whittaker is a nurse practitioners. He’s supporting a bill by Representative Daphne Campbell to give nurses the authority to perform involuntary mental health checks on potentially dangerous patients.

“They are very well trained to act on patients who want to committee suicide or homicide,” said Campbell.

The way the law is written now, if a nurse practitioner thinks a patient is a threat they have to get a doctor or a cop to perform a mental health exam. That can take hours, and Whittaker has learned the hard way, there’s no time to waste.

“I actually had somebody come to me and tell me,’ look you know my wife’s leaving me, I’ve lost my business, my daughter is ill and sick and I’m broke and I don’t know what to do and the only thing I can’t think to do is kill myself,’” said Whittaker.

He called the cops.

“The police officer said well basically I don’t think he’s suicidal. Then that individual left. Later that evening he managed to committee suicide,” said Whittaker.

The bill made it all the way through the House last year but died after the senate refused to take it up. This year it’s already made it through two house votes and session has yet to begin. If a patient is deemed a threat after the involuntary mental health exam is given, then a judge can order the patient to be held in a hospital or put under surveillance for 72 hours.

The first of what will likely be hundreds of college students visited the state capitol today. As Whitney Ray tells us, they’re fed up with tuition increases and Bright Future cuts.

They woke up early, college students on a bus to Tallahassee to make a difference.

The group of University of South Florida students included freshmen and upper classmen, scholarship students and those working part time to pay tuition. Jean Cocco is a junior. He works, takes out loans and uses Bright Futures to pay for school.

“Where are we going to draw the line? Where am I going to have to say well, ‘is it worth it?’ That’s what I hear a lot of students ask, ‘is it worth it,’” said Cocco.

Janine Kiray is a senior who was promised a full ride, but cuts to Bright Futures and tuition hikes have forced her family to take out loans.

“Us students we don’t have much money and it’s very difficult sometimes to go to school and have a job,” said Kiray.

About 70 students traveled to the state capitol Tuesday. They’re the first of many who will make the trip to Tallahassee over the next few weeks to influence lawmakers.

Wednesday University of North Florida students will be here. The visits are part of a multi-university effort to get an extra 118 million dollars for higher education. State lawmakers are listening

“I’d like to see us restore full funding to education,” said State Senator Geraldine Thompson.

There’s a lot at stake for Chloe Little. She’s a freshman. Without the extra state funding her tuition could go up every year until she graduates.

“I am part of many students who could possible not be able to attend next semester depending on how dramatically it increases,” said Little.

The group split up and met with half a dozen lawmakers. The goal is to reach every member before session ends. The visit is part of the Aim Higher campaign. Students from Florida’s 11 public universities are participating. The campaign was launched after presidents from the universities vowed not to raise tuition if state lawmakers would restore cuts and pump an extra 118 million dollars in to the university system.

Legislation is in the works to keep former felons out of jail.

Today at the state capitol, lawmakers joined the Florida Smart Justice Alliance to discuss ways to reduce the recidivism rate. Right now about a third of every inmate released from prison will committee a new crime. State Senator Thad Altman says to cut the rate of re-offenders changes need to be made.

“It’s no secret that our criminal justice system is pretty much a revolving door. Something has to be done. I believe this is a giant step forward. We are beginning the step of creating a correctional reentry treatment facility,” said Altman.

Using empty state prisons to teach inmates job and life skills during the last three years of their sentences is just one idea being put in to legislation. Other ideas include issuing state IDs to people leaving prison and to enhancing the state’s work release program.

State lawmakers want to protect pregnant women in the work place.

Federal law already protects pregnant workers from on the job discrimination, but state lawmakers think Florida needs its own law. State Senator Geraldine Thompson has filed a bill to officially ban discrimination against pregnant workers and give investigators more time to review a discrimination case.

“Currently they have a requirement that they complete and close a case in 180 days. This bill would extend the time to resolution to 240 days,” said Thompson.

At the news conference at the state capitol today there was a woman who claims she was fired after getting pregnant. She says if Florida had a state law against pregnancy discrimination she would have better grounds to challenge her dismissal.

Many death row inmates in Florida will die of natural causes not by an executioner’s needle. As Whitney Ray tells us, the recent death of one inmate is fueling debate on both sides of the capital punishment argument.

Sentenced to death, Tommy Wyatt probably thought his life would end strapped to a table, but the 49 year old died before he could feel the stinging needle or the fatal drugs.

Ann Howard with the Florida Department of Corrections says it’s not uncommon for a condemned man to die before his sentence is carried out.

“All over the state we do have inmates die. It’s not just death row.
With almost 100-thousand inmates that shouldn’t surprise anybody, that is going to happen,” Howard said.

Since the death penalty was reinstated 74 people have been executed in Florida. Close to 40 have died before their death warrants were signed. The Florida Catholic Conference says their deaths prove justice can be served without executions.

“It’s severe punishment to remain on death row for the remainder of your life and that again goes to speak to what we are saying that you can be punished by staying in prison for the rest of your life verses being executed,” Conference Spokesperson Sheila Hopkins said.

But supporters of the death penalty say the fact that people are dying before the state can kill them means the system’s broken. They want to see more executions.
The state kills about two inmates a year. The average wait time for an execution is 13 years.

“If we are not going to get rid of it, let’s at least fix it so we don’t have this blight on our justice system where we have people hanging around 25 or 30 years without any end in sight,” said State Representative Matt Gaetz before a committee hearing on February 7th.

Earlier this month state lawmakers rejected a bill to end capitol punishment. With the repeal bill dead, the focus shifts to how the process can be improved.

One death penalty reform idea with a chance of passing this session is the unanimous jury bill. Right now Florida is the only state in the union where someone can be sentenced to die with a jury vote of seven to five.

They couldn’t make the trip to Tallahassee so instead they signed a petition. More than 10-thousand Floridians have signed a letter asking state lawmakers to except federal money to expand Medicaid. The Medicaid expansion was made optional through the Affordable Care Act. It would allow an extra one million Floridians to claim the entitlement. Tori Rosenberg a supporter of the expansion says expanding Medicaid would save the state money by providing preventative health care.

“And in turn we’ll save a lot of money because it will be preventative. So people that wait that don’t have insurance, don’t got to the doctor, they don’t go to the hospital until the last minute when they do go, that’s when the costs come out really high,” said Rosenberg.

If Florida chooses to expand Medicaid then the federal government would pay the bulk of the bill for 10 years. Lawmakers worry who would pay after that.

State says “Never Mind”

A new state law that went on the books sent panic across Canada this week and created fear among Florida tourism officials. No one noticed a new requirement that foreign drivers must have an International Drivers Permit issued by their home country beginning January First. Once the panic started, the state quickly backed down.

Florida has been front page news and a lead television story across Canada and the UK since Wednesday. One tourism official told Canadian TV on Thursday:

“They haven’t told anybody about this. We know for a fact they didn’t tell the car rental agencies in Florida about this.”

The concern. Not having one of these. An International Driving Permit. All foreign drivers  in Florida were required to have one starting January first to help police understand a foreign language. Seems Lawmakers never considered English is the language of most of Canada and the UK.

Just over three million Canadians come to Florida every year. That’s almost one of every ten residents. Now is the most popular time to travel. Thousands were here before the law took effect.

Because so many Canadians are snow birds, even Disney started asking questions. The Panic that started Wednesday morning has been solved.

Kirsten Olsen-Doolan is the Highway Safety Spokesperson. She told us the law is on hold “while we figure out the language of it, they won’t be enforcing it. Folks just need to have a valid license from their country in order to drive in Florida.”

The state has talked with the Sheriffs and Police Chiefs Associations. All have agreed to defer enforcement.

Some visitors are asking about their auto insurance. The Office of Insurance Regulation says it is reviewing the matter.  Until they have a better answer, the state is offering this advice to our Canadian visitors. “If they want to feel safe about it, they need to call their carrier” says Highway Safety Spokesperson Olsen-Doolan.

Canadian officials are quoted as saying they will seek a total repeal of the law. Tourism officials will likely join them. In deferring enforcement of the law, the state says it is basing the deferral of the law on the fact it may violate an international treaty with Canada. State Insurance officials don’t expect to be able to answer our question about coverage before Monday.

Battle lines are being drawn once again over a bill giving parents the ability to take over their child’s failing school. As Whitney Ray tells us, the parent trigger bill shattered loyalties last session ultimately dying on a tie vote.

A rule of politics, count the votes before your bill hits the floor. Late in the legislative session last year, despite a GOP supermajority, the votes were too close to count.

The bill in question… The Parent Empowerment Act, known as the parent trigger bill by opponents. It would allow parents to petition their kids failing school to turn it in to a charter school.

“If we’ve got a bill called the Parent Empowerment Bill, then why is the PTA against the bill?” asked State Senator Nancy Detert on the chamber floor last March.

The legislation died on a split vote. Now it’s back for another round. A new bill similar to last year’s legislation was filed here at the state capitol this week. It’s already gaining attention.

Republican Representative Jimmy Patronis says the bill encourages parent participation.

“Anytime you can empower the parent to be more involved in their child’s development, it’s a positive thing,” said Patronis.

House Democrat Mark Danish, a middle school science teacher, says the bill has nothing to do with parents.

“People look at, oh it’s going to help with the bad schools, but what it’s going to do is it’s going to turn it over to private companies to take over a school and it’s going to turn it into a profit making venture,” said Danish.

The bill may gain some traction from a Hollywood drama, released over the summer. Won’t Back Down tells the story of two moms who fight administrators to improve their children’s school.

If the bill passes, then schools receiving two consecutive F scores would be targeted. Fifty percent of parents at the school would then need to sign a petition asking the State Board of Education to turn over the keys to a charter school company.

A state house committee is giving the green light to a bill to repeal red light cameras. As Whitney Ray tells us, the debate pits privacy against safety.

Cameras are everywhere, on the sides of school buses, above businesses and at busy intersections. But it’s these cameras, the ones set up to catch red-light runners, that are sparking debate at the state capitol.

“If it is an issue of safety we are willing to disregard our entire constitutional fundamental principals,” said State Representative Carlos Trujillo.

Thursday, for two hours, state lawmakers argued the merits of red-light cameras. The debate pitted police against a retired state trooper, Republicans against their own party and brought two former fire fighters from each side of the isle together.

“I spent 26 years on the ground as a firefighter, cutting people out of horrible, horrible T-bone accidents,” said House Democrat Mike Clelland.

“I have spooned people out of cars as a result of T-bone accidents,” said Republican Representative Ed Hooper.

The bill in question would ban the cameras in Florida. It narrowly passed. After the debate I asked the committee chairman what’s at stake.

Reporter: Is this an issue of safety versus freedom?
Patronis: To a certain degree yeah I think so.

The fear is, in the near future there will be no more privacy because everything will be recorded. But supporters of the devices say they don’t mind giving up their privacy or yours if they can save just one life.

“I will say that any number of red light cameras is worth saving one life,” said Representative Alan Williams, a Democrat.

Opponents of the cameras, who aren’t afraid of big brother, oppose the repeal bill for financial reasons. They call the cameras a money trap.

“It’s not for safety it’s only for money revenues,” said Democrat Daphne Campbell.

The tickets cost drivers 158 dollars a piece. Last year 51 million dollars in fines were paid.

Florida’s voting problems were thrust into the worldwide spotlight last night during the President’s State of the Union Address. As Whitney Ray tells us, just hours after a 102 year old Miami woman was honored for waiting three hours to vote, state lawmakers in Florida moved on a bill to fix Florida’s voting problems.

She waited patiently as the president spoke; a virtue that served the 102 year well while trying to vote last November.

“She was told the wait to vote might be six hours. As time ticked by, her concern was not with her tired body or aching feet, but whether folks like her would get to have their say,” The President said.

Desline Victor was honored during the President’s State of the Union Address for her dedication to the voting process.

“The crowd erupted in cheers when she was finally able to put on a sticker that read ‘I voted,’” The President added.

A long ballot and a cut in early voting days are to blame for Desiline’s wait. The problems were created by a change in state law.

Just hours after the president’s speech, a house committee here at the state capitol passed a reform bill. It would allow elections supervisors to restore early voting to 14 days on a county-by-county basis.

The Florida Senate also has an elections bill. In a one-on-one interview with Senate President Don Gaetz I asked how his chamber plans to fix the voting problems.

“Most counties in Florida had a flawless election and some just keep on having flawed elections,” said Gaetz.

Gaetz says there isn’t a one size fits all fix.

“Not everybody has the same problems. Early voting problems in Miami-Dade are very, very different than early voting problems in Holmes County,” said Gaetz.

With both chambers pushing election reform and the governor changing his tune on early voting, Florida’s next election will likely look a lot different.

The bill passed by the House Ethics and Elections Subcommittee today would also limit ballot questions to 75 words.