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Republican Rick Scott is eluding editorial boards and dodging debates in an attempt to control his message to voters. Scott hasn’t meet with one newspaper editorial board during the general election and, as Whitney Ray tells us, he only met with one board of editors during his primary run.

Since Rick Scott burst onto Florida’s political scene, his strategy has been clear, spend millions of his own dollars telling voters what to think about him. Journalists have had little access to the Republican nominee for governor. A political ad from the Republican primary shows him dodging reporters.

Thursday a debate sponsored by the League of Women voters had to be cancelled because Scott wouldn’t show up.

“Neither PBS nor the League can have open chair debates where one of the candidates doesn’t show up so we had no choice but to cancel,” said Marilynn Wills a league spokeswoman.

And he’s also snubbing the centuries old tradition of meeting with newspaper editorial boards. An offer to sit with the editors of the Tallahassee Democrat and other Florida newspapers still stands, instead Scott is buying up TV time across the state to control his message.

Scott has spent more than 50 million of his own money buying TV. Democrat National Committeeman Jon Ausman says Scott’s strategy keeps voters in the dark.

“It’s a very common strategy for Republican to avoid talking to the press because they don’t want their ideas fully explored because once you do that you start to see the illogic behind them,” said Ausman.

We called Scott’s campaign for a comment on this story, were told to email our questions. Scott’s campaign responded by highlighting his participation in a Univision debate last week and pointing to the more than a hundred reporters who have asked him question over the last four months on the campaign trail as proof he’s not avoiding the media.

Scott’s campaign adds this statement:

“The governor’s race attracts a lot of attention across the state. To date, the campaign has received far more invitations to participate in events, debates and forums than we could possibly ever attend.”

Bettina Inclan,
Press Office
Rick Scott for Governor

The strife among Florida Democrats is reaching a fever pitch, as they decide who to support in the US Senate Race. The clock is ticking because early voting begins Monday. Polls show Independent Charlie Crist losing and Democrat Kendrick Meek losing worse. Democratic National Committeeman Jon Ausman says if one drops out the other can beat heavy favorite Marco Rubio.

“One of them is going to have to be the adult and say I’m going to support the other guy and move on. Otherwise they are both going to lose come November 2nd and we are only like 16, 17 days away,” said Ausman.

Ausman is calling Former Democratic governor and US Senator Bob Graham to broker a deal between the two this weekend. No word if a meeting of the three will happen.

Yesterday we told you about a glitch in the state’s voter database that was corrupting address information that the state said was fixed. But after they gave the all clear at two o’clock yesterday, more problems arose. Nicolas Martinez, a tech-guy at the Leon County Supervisors of Elections office, was up late last night dealing with corrupted voter information.

“We’ve seen issues as late as 11:39 last night so I ran queries again this more, because I wanted to check and see. The state is telling us the system is up and operable, but to make sure the corruption issue had been dealt with,” said Martinez.

A spokeswoman for the Division of Elections says the problem is with a data company that assists a few Florida counties with voter registration. She says the vendor and the counties supervisors of elections are working to fix the problem.

Florida’s lawsuit against parts of the new health care law will go forward. A federal judge made a preliminary ruling this afternoon on a motion dismiss the lawsuit brought by Florida’s Attorney General and the Attorneys General of 19 other states. The judge ruled the suit, which challenges the constitutionality of a provision forcing people to buy health coverage, will go forward as scheduled. Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum was encouraged by the news. He sent out a statement saying quote:

“This ruling confirms the significance of this lawsuit protecting against the federal health care act’s intrusions on individual liberty and limited government.”

The trail is set for December 16th.

Voters looking for more insight into the candidates for governor and US Senate are out of luck.

Two debates scheduled for tonight were cancelled after three candidates refused to commit to showing up. The League of Women Voters says it couldn’t get commitments from gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott as well as US Senate candidates Marco Rubio and Charlie Crist. The debates were scheduled to air tonight on PBS. Marilynn Wills with the league says since the debates are off they can’t declare any winners, but unfortunately the voters are the losers.

“This is a disservice to the voting population. They’re disadvantaged, I mean they’re really not getting any answers to any questions because candidates are just showing up at forums where they can just speak for three minutes and sit down. They’re really not answering any questions,” said Wills.

Besides skipping debates, Republican for Governor Rick Scott is also skipping newspaper editorial board meetings.

Problems with the state’s voter database are keeping dozens of absentee ballots from being mailed. The problems arose earlier this week after the state preformed routine maintenance on the database. As Whitney Ray tells us, the state says the problems have been fixed, but some supervisors of elections are still having doubts.

This box contains 300 absentee ballots ready to mail, but they were almost delayed after a computer glitch shutdown the state’s voter database Tuesday and most of Wednesday.

“When a little window of time opened up yesterday afternoon, we raced to do everything,” said Heather Conley.

The problem began after scheduled maintenance created a glitch corrupting some voters address information. Leon County Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho says the system is still spotty.

“We have to have excellent address to do this process right without threatening individuals with potential disenfranchisement,” said Sancho.

Sancho says the problem needs to be fixed by Friday so poll workers can test the system before early voting begins.

And if there still are problems with they database Monday, when people show up to cast their ballot it may be hard for poll workers to access their voting information. The Florida Division of Elections says that as of 2:00 Thursday the problem was fixed.

“When we found that there were some data issues, we found them, we addressed them, they’ve been corrected and everybody should be running at 100 percent right now,” said Jennifer Davis, a spokeswoman with the Division.

So far the situation has only slowed down the distribution of 100 absentee ballots and the delay isn’t significant enough to keep those ballots from returning before Nov 2nd, but with Florida’s history of disenfranchising voters, solving the problem early is crucial. Voters have until November 2nd to turn in their absentee ballots, so a one or two day delay shouldn’t stop those votes from coming in.

Controversy continues to surround the building of a 48 million dollar courthouse for the 1st District Court of Appeal. Now we’re learning the company that gave the state the land to build the courthouse, had a case in front of the 1st DCA at the time of the building negotiations. As Whitney Ray tells us, the company won its appeal, but that victory may be helping to tarnish the image of the court, which is already in hot water over the construction of its posh new building.

Cracked walls and crumbling driveways are all too common in this small panhandle town. This neighborhood looks like its falling into a sinkhole, but residents say its no act of God.

Their houses were built on a landfill that once belonged to the St. Joe Company. More than a decade after many residents, like Cynthia Alexander, bought homes on the property, their houses began to sink.

“We thought we were buying our lifetime dream and we look up and everything is just falling down around us,” said Cynthia.

This video is from 2008, when we first meet the Millview families. Four years earlier a trial court ruled to allow the homeowners to pursue a class action lawsuit against St. Joe, then in 2005, the First District Court of Appeal overturned the decision.

At the same time the court heard the case, negotiations were underway to build this 48 million dollar building for the 1st DCA…. On land given to the state by St. Joe. The timing of the deal is raising question about the Millview case.

None of the attorneys involved will talk about the land deal, because if they say something against the court they could receive a judicial reprimand.

The judge most involved in the building of the courthouse Paul Hawkes was also on the panel that ruled in favor of St. Joe. We requested an interview with Judge Hawkes. We are still waiting for his response.

Earlier this year St. Joe Company settled with the homeowners. The details of the settlement have been kept secret. As for the 2005 decision by the 1st DCA, St. Joe says the decision was based on sound legal grounds.

Attorney General Bill McCollum is joining the call of 48 other Attorneys General asking lenders to stop questionable practices.

An investigation showed five major Banks were having staff sign court documents without reviewing the facts and without a notary public on hand. The practice is called “robo-signing.” General McCollum says the problem runs deep in these lenders methods of operation.

“They realize that they have a systemic problem. This process and this type of procedure has been going on extensively in their organizations. They may be worried about litigation. They may be worried about it continuing. They may be worried about buying some time out to be able to correct the problems, said McCollum. ”

The five banks have put a freeze on foreclosure to fix the problem. McCollum and other attorneys general are asking the banks to fix the problems with out the because it’s slowing down the housing recovery.

A 49 million dollar appeals court building under construction in Tallahassee is the subject of a scathing audit by Chief Financial Officer and Gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink’s office. The audit, started after a news paper story detailed overspending and luxuries such as granite counter tops and 60 inch flat screen TV’s found 17 items where oversight was neglected. Sink today refused 190 thousand dollars in payments for art. “What stands out to me is the appalling lack of leadership by the responsible parties, throughout this entire process”, says Sink. “The fact no one was standing up to say what about the taxpayer. DMS was essentially bullied by some of the judges, until they literally just turned over their authority for the project to some of the judges of the First DCA”.

The audit detailed two trips by judges, one of them on a private jet chartered by the contractor to view a courthouse in Michigan. Sink is calling on the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to seek an investigation by the Judicial Qualifications Commission, which has the power to recommend discipline or even the removal of a judge.

Democrat Alex Sink has gained ground against Republican Rick Scott in the race for Governor since October first. The Quinnipiac poll of likely voters has the race as a dead heat, 44 for Sink to Scott’s 45%, but as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the race could hinge on who the public believes did better in private business.

Quinnipiac says Sink is up one percent since October first, while Scott is down four points.

“The difference is independents. Independents we’re leaning to Mr. Scott in the last poll. Now, they seem to be leaning more to Ms Sink,” said Peter Brown, Quinnipiac Pollster.

Pollster Peter Brown says the race may come down to who voters believe did a better job in private business.

“Almost nine out of ten Florida likely voters say that they think how someone behaved in business is very or somewhat important,” said Brown.

The poll numbers may also explain why Sink launched this two minute ad about Scott’s business dealings.

“A whistle blower revealed that Scott’s company was cooking the books. Refusing to cooperate, Rick Scott gave a deposition in which he invoked the Fifth Amendment 75 times,” the ad states.

The poll numbers did not surprise Sink, who in her day job as CFO, rejected 190 thousand dollars in lavish spending on a Tallahassee courthouse dubbed the Taj Mahal.

“This is imported African Mahogany. There are twenty miles of this mahogany in this building,” said Scott.

The poll also suggests that your perception of the economy on the day you vote could turn the race. If you think its getting better, you are likely to support Sink. But right now those numbers are in the minority.

“More people think the economy is getting worse than think the economy is getting better,” said Brown.

The poll says 86 percent have made up their mind, but that 13 percent, equally split between Sink and Scott, might change their minds. Attorney General Bill McCollum, who lost the GOP primary to Rick Scott still has not endorsed Scott, but today said he is moving closer to voting for the former health care executive.

Republican Marco Rubio has a clear path to victory as long as Independent Charlie Crist and Democrat Kendrick Meek continue to split votes. Most voter polls show Rubio in the 40s, Crist in the 30s and Meek below 20 percent. So who is the spoiler? As Whitney Ray tells us, it depends on who you ask.

Since declaring himself Independent in May, Governor Charlie Crist has picked up key endorsements and donations from Democratic power brokers. But according to voter polls he still lacks the support needed to win a three way race against Republican Marco Rubio and Democrat Kendrick Meek.

Most voter polls show Rubio with 40 percent support, Crist with 30 and Meek right around 20. Which means Rubio has an easy path to victory even though more than half the voters polled say they’re going to cast a ballot against him.

Asked Tuesday if a vote for Meek was really a vote for Rubio, Crist responded;

“It looks like it, yeah. Regrettably, that would be the case,” said Crist.

But Meek says Crist is the spoiler. Pollsters say it’s all about perspective.

“From Mr. Meek’s point of view one assumes he believes a vote for Governor Crist is a vote for Rubio, which I guess means everybody is voting for Mr. Rubio,” said Peter Brown, Pollster for Quinnipiac.

Meek points to the support he’s picking up from the President and other high ranking Democrats as the reason why he’s staying put. Crist points to his ability to get support from both parties. But as long as the finger pointer continues Rubio is the real winner.

A new Quinnipiac polls of likely voters will be released tomorrow showing the latest numbers in the US Senate race.

Florida is a safer state than it was a year ago according to a mid-year crime report.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement report shows crime dropping five percent during the first six months of this year, when compared to statistics from January to June last year. While the overall volume of crime has dropped, FDLE Commissioner Gerald Bailey says there’s been a slight uptick in murders.

“There were 17 more murders during this six month period than there were in the first six months of 2009, reflecting a 3.6 percent increase in the volume of murders in our state. But overall and the message I want to convey to you today is that violent crime is down 10.7 percent and nonviolent crime is down 3.8 percent,” said Bailey.

It’s a fairly common belief that bad economic times lead to higher crime rates, but today’s statistics seem contrary to those beliefs. Also many of the law enforcement officers we spoke with today say there’s no hard evidence linking the economy and high crime rates.

A major obstacle keeping victims of domestic abuse from leaving their abusers is financial dependence.

The Agency for Workforce Innovation is launching a pilot program geared toward helping women and children escape domestic abuse though employment. Initial efforts will be focused on Manatee and Sarasota Counties. AWI Director Cynthia Lorenzo says the goal is to make victims financially secure.

“This new program will help them get new and better jobs so they can better connect with employment opportunities, maintain self-sufficiency, and keep them and their families safe and away from abuse,” said Lorenzo.

The program costs half a million dollars, if it’s successful, the state will consider expanding it to all 67 counties.

This November, voters will decide the fate of two constitutional amendments designed to keep politicians from drawing their own districts without guidelines. Some incumbents say it will lessen minority representation, but as Mike Vasilinda tells us, a jig saw puzzle of districts are common across the state.

Congressional District 11 starts in north Tampa, runs south to Bradenton, and even includes south St. Petersburg. District 16 is a claw-shaped district and includes Jupiter and Wellington but runs all the way to the West coast. District 4 starts in Jacksonville and ends in eastern Tallahassee, which is where we met Maria Patel.

Reporter: “Have you ever met your congressman?”
Patel: “No.”
Reporter: “Do you know who he is?”
Patel: “No.”

Marie’s house here is 162 miles from her congressman’s office in Jacksonville, 105 miles from his office in Lake City. Yet she is just 6 miles from the state capital.

“Maybe he doesn’t know what’s going on in Tallahassee,” Patel said.

Voters will decide on two amendments in November over whether to restrict politicians ability to draw districts. Fair Districts Florida just launched a tv spot to encourage a yes vote.

“Year after year politicians get reelected, protected by district lines they’ve drawn up in back room deals.”

But opponents, including two sitting congress people and the former secretary of state, are fighting back.

“The proposed amendments are not realistic,” former Secretary of State Kurt Browning said. “They are contradictory as well as untested.”

But Carole Fiore, who lives in District 4, says she’d like her congressman closer than a hundred and sixty miles.

“We don’t really have somebody that understands our community, our area,” Fiore said.

The amendments require a 60 percent vote for approval.

The NAACP is in favor of the two amendments, but a former Executive Director,
Benjamin Chavis, today said he was opposed to Amendments 5 and 6.

This week school districts throughout the state will finalize their class size counts. The Department of Education will then use the data to determine which schools to penalize for violating the class size amendment. As Whitney Ray tells us, some districts are using unconventional methods to avoid penalties under the strictest phase of the class size amendment administrators have had to meet.

There were three empty seats in Sylvia Crews’ 3rd period math class Monday morning. Since the final phase of class size took hold this August, it’s been easier to keep track of attendance. The strict rule of no more than 25 students per high school classroom means there’s no need for more than 25 chairs.

“It makes it a lot easier that there are only 25 people in the room. You can get a lot of business taken care of very quickly. We are able to get more independent and individual help,” said Crews.

This week Florida’s 67 school districts will take final counts in every Florida classroom and turn the information over to the Department of Education. DOE will then use the data to see which schools are in violation of the class size amendment.

But with the state’s overall education budget down 350 million dollars, some schools are cutting corners to fall under the class size cap. In Washington County teachers are being asked to skip their planning periods. In Palm Beach a plan to bus students between school zones in being hatched.

Leon High School Principal Rocky Hanna found money to hire extra teachers and is using online classes to makes sure he meets the count.

“I don’t have one single core class over 25 and I’m very proud of that fact. It was just hard work,” said Hanna.

Supporters of a constitutional amendment to loosen the class size restrictions say a yes vote will help schools meet standards. Opponents say if education was properly funded, schools would never be in this mess.

If amendment 8 passes, fewer schools may be charged penalties based on this week’s count. Right now each class is counted individually, but 8 would allow districts to use school wide class averages to meet the standards