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If the general election were today Mitt Romney and President Obama would be neck and neck, according to a new poll. Quinnipiac Pollsters say both Romney and Obama would pull 45 percent of the vote in a head to head match up. If Newt Gingrich were the nominee, Obama would win 50 to 39 the poll predicts. Steve Schale, a Democratic strategist who helped Obama win Florida in 2008, says the primary is taking its toll on all the GOP candidates.

“The longer these guys push each other to the right, the longer they look like extremists. The longer they get personal with each other the better it is for Barack Obama as the economy continues to improve a little bit and people feel better about the direction of the country,” said Shale.

Some Republican strategists say the long primary makes the candidates stronger because they have more time to vet their ideas and hear from voters. The GOP candidates have their final Florida debate tonight in Jacksonville.

Hundreds of college students are asking lawmakers to fund higher education. The students traveled from all over Florida today to rally at the state capitol. Alex Castro is a sophomore from Florida International University. Castro, like many other Florida students, says the legislature is making it hard for them to pay for school.

“They are cutting Bright Futures and then they are raising tuition. So it’s a double negatives and it’s not going to help families and students,” said Castro.

Other students in the rally voiced their concerns over Florida’s new voting law. They say it is too restrictive and limits early voting as well as registration drivers. A congressional hearing will be held on the new law Friday in Tampa.

GOP Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum is about to wrap up his Florida campaign. He was in Tallahassee today at Florida State University. Santorum is currently in third place in Florida according to recent polls. He’s lacked the money to buy TV ads, so before the Tuesday primary, Santorum is heading west to being campaigning in cheaper states.

“This race is changing every few weeks. It’s going to change again and what we need to do is be out there sounding a very strong consistent message,” said Santorum.

Santorum, who won the Iowa caucus, says he’s not dropping out of the race regardless of how he finishes in Florida.

Animal rights activists won a victory in the state legislature today as agricultural powerhouses dropped a plan to make it a crime to videotape on farms. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, activists say the legislation could have kept animal abuse secret and put human consumers at risk.

The photographer who took these pictures could have been guilty of a misdemeanor under legislation that was moving through the state legislature. But after pressure from animal rights activists, big agriculture threw in the towel.

“It has caused a lot of consternation and clouded the rest of Rep. Albritton’s good bill,” Rep. Ray Pilon (R-Sarasota) said.

With that vote, the criminal penalty was pulled out of the bill, leaving provisions on storm water run off and others intact and without opposition.

It was undercover video’s like these that prompted the legislation

After public pressure, Cattlemen reversed themselves on Monday. Wednesday it was the poultry producers doing a turn around.

“The Humane Society of the United States came to an agreement on some federal legislation that would deal with the poultry industry, so that we’re not dealing with regulations for the poultry industry state by state,” Florida Poultry Association representative Nancy Spencer said.

Undercover operations are rare, but The Humane Society of the United States says that without the ability to conduct them, proving abuse would be near impossible.

“When investigations have been done, they’ve brought to light things that needed to be known and brought to light, so we hope we never see this bill again,” Laura Bevan with the Humane Society of the United States said.

Hundreds of people had written lawmakers protesting the criminal charges.

Florida’s presidential primary is Tuesday, but voter upset with the outcome will get another shot. The first ever nationwide online primary will be held in April. Everyone can vote regardless of their party affiliation and as Whitney Ray tells us, the winner will end up on the ballot in Florida.

Florida’s primary is a dead heat according to a Quinnipiac Poll released Wednesday.

“Mitt Romney has 36 percent, to 34 percent for Newt Gingrich,” said Pollster Peter Brown.

But if Floridians aren’t satisfied with the outcome, they’ll have another shot at it.

“Welcome to Americans Elect. For the first time the American people are choosing a leader who works for us, not just the parties and their special interests,” says the narrator in an Americans Elect promotional video.

Americans Elect will host is the first even online nationwide presidential primary in April.

The group qualified for the ballot in Florida and 13 other states. They plan to be on all the ballots by the general election in November.

“We the people are choosing the candidates and we the people are nominating a third choice for President,” the Narrator continues.

Americans Elect National Field Director Kellen Arno says most voters don’t feel like the two major parties have their best interests in mind.

“They are frustrated at both sides and so what we really felt is that, using technology, we could create a mechanism that, really I think, helped create a tool for them to feel directly represented,” said Arno.

Americans Elect was in Tallahassee Wednesday. They’re signing up delegates. Ben Stearns is just one of 450-thousand delegates nationwide.

“Everybody in the nation gets the same vote at the same time, one person, one vote. I think that is a big step towards affecting our process,” said Stearns.

Any registered US voter can nominate a candidate. The nominee is allowed to pick their own running mate, as long as he or she belongs to a different party. Americans Elect has collected nearly 2.4 million signatures. That’s more than half of the number of signatures needed to put a candidate on the ballot in all 50 states.

Pharmacists in Florida can give flu shots but other vaccinations are off limits.

Hundreds of pharmacists and pharmacy students were at the state capitol today rallying for the right to administer shingles and pneumonia vaccines. Legislation to give them the right is being sponsored by Representative Ana Logan. Her bill passed a House committee earlier today.

“A number of individuals that could be saved from a lifetime of shingles or cost and the adverse reaction to pneumonia is definitely important at this time,” said Logan.

Currently 40 states allow pharmacists to administer shingles shots and 45 allow them to give pneumonia vaccinations.

Hispanic students who came to Florida as teenagers are asking lawmakers for instate college tuition.

They were in the state capitol today supporting a bill that would allow anyone who attended three years in a Florida public school to pay instate tuition. Estaban Roncancio was brought to Florida by his parents when he was 14. He graduated from a Miami high school but had to sit out a year to earn money to cover out-of-state tuition to Miami-Dade College.

“I had to wait a whole year because I didn’t have any money to go to school. So I had to save money to be able to pay 5-thouand dollars a semester at community college,” said Estaban.

The instate college tuition bill has yet to receive a committee hearing.

Florida’s Commissioner of Agriculture was honored today for his efforts to end hunger.

The Second Harvest of the Big Bend presented the award during its annual Bowls of Hope event at the state capitol. Bowls of Hope is an ongoing effort to raise awareness of the state’s food needs. Rebecca Brislain, the Executive Director of the Florida Association of Food Banks, says the need has grown since the Great Recession struck Florida.

“There is abundance here in Florida and there is an opportunity for them to step up to the plate and help us find more fruits and vegetables to meet people’s needs,” said Brislain.

The Florida Association of Food Banks takes donations year round. They’re also collecting fresh fruits and vegetables farmers aren’t able to sell to grocers because of their shape or size.

Parents could fire teachers or ask a charter school company to take over their child’s school under legislation moving in Tallahassee. The Parent Empowerment Act would allow the changes if 51 percent of parents signed a petition and the state board of education approves. As Whitney Ray tells us, it would also allow parents to pull their kids out of a classroom if the teacher isn’t performing well.

To hold public schools accountable this group of lawmakers and education advocates wants parents to have more power.

“They really don’t think their involvement counts that much,” said former state senator Al Lawson.

The Parent Empowerment Act would allow parents to craft their own reform plan if their child’s school is failing. With enough signatures, parents could fire teachers and administrators or turn the school over to a charter company.

They could also pull their child from a classroom if the teacher has received low performance reviews and put them in a virtual classroom with a better teacher.

Senate Sponsor Lizbeth Benacquisto says the reforms would force schools to improve their product.

“The full intent of the bill is to get parents engaged and involved in the turn around process,” said Benacquisto.

Education groups around the state like the Florida PTA and Fund Education now say the goal isn’t to empower parents… it’s to shut down public schools.

Representative Marty Kiar hopes that’s not true, but says he can see how a charter school organization could use parent involvement to its advantage.

“I could definitely see some of these for-profit institutions run a campaign, do mail outs, do phone banking and basically run the campaign to get the signatures,” said Kiar.

Kiar voted no to the bill in Committee Tuesday, but says with a few tweaks he could change his mind. Many Democrats already support the bill. 51 percent of parents would have to sign off on the reform plan. It would then be submitted to the state board of education along with a reform plan from the school district. Then it would be up to the board to pick the which plan to implement.

The state is launching a year long effort to find jobs for returning soldiers. The National Guard estimates nearly one in five returning soldiers struggles finding work. Governor Rick Scott announced the state’s efforts to find jobs for vets during National Guard Day at the state capitol. Scott, a Navy Veteran, remembers how hard it was to make the transition when he came home in 1974.

“I remember how hard it was for people to get jobs. It was a similar time frame in our country when they were downsizing from the Vietnam War and people had a very difficult time getting jobs,” said Scott.

Part of the veteran employment plan includes a bill discussed in the Senate to give college credit for military service.

Lawmakers have a plan to save jobs at seven state prisons scheduled to close in July. Their plan: ask the feds or states with large inmate populations if they want rent space in the Florida prisons. The prisons are closing because Florida’s inmate population is down by 12-thousand inmates. Senate President Mike Haridopolos says he’s open to suggestions.

“If we can open up some of those prisons to other states or the federal government to get some of the resource from other people, all the better, so I’m open to those suggestions,” said Haridopolos.

The Department of Corrections is closing the prisons because the state’s inmate population has fallen by 12-thousand inmates.

Florida is considered a national leader in open government, but two recent court decisions draw that title into question. Local officials are required to meet in the open, they are not required to listen to the public. Yet. State lawmakers want to make sure you can speak your mind.

Father Nathan Monk thought he had a right to speak his piece to the Pensacola City Council. The date was December fifteenth 2011. He was there to criticize the council for throwing three people out of the meeting the week before.

“That was a sick and gross abuse of power.”
“Your time is up..sit down.” He was told by the chairman.
“No. I have a minute and twelve seconds left” he replied.
“I’m ruling you out of order” said the chair.
“Well, I am absolutely within order” responded Monk.

First one..then two and finally three officers approached the podium. Monk was nearly arrested, but stood his ground until his time expired.

One council member left the meeting in anger. “I will be outside” she chimed from the dais.

Turns out Monk had a legal right to be at the meeting, but not speak. At least two courts have said Yes, you can come to a meeting, but no, you don’t have a right to talk. The rulings baffle first amendment advocates.

“When I first read it, I was like What!” says Barbara Peterson, President of the First Amendment Foundation in Tallahassee. “How can you have a representational democracy and not let the citizens speak?” she asks.

Two bills are currently moving through the state legislature. Both would require local governments to listen. Sen. Joe Negron is the sponsor of the Senate legislation. “And I can’t think of anything more fundamental. To me its up there with the right to a jury trial, the right to vote. the right to speak is out first amendment right” says Negron

Even with the legislation local boards will be able to set limits on speech, but they will be required to hear citizens. The bill would let local governments allot time to citizens or groups of citizens and to consolidate the time for either side of an issue.

Cure Alzheimer’s Now is launching public relations effort for baby boomers at risk of the disease. Statistically one in 40 Floridians already has the disease and the state has twice as many cases as any other state. Cure Alzheimer’s is seeking three million dollars from state lawmakers to speed up promising research, which Dr. David Morgan of the Bird Institute at the University of South Florida says will lead to a way to prevent Alzheimer’s by the year 2020.

“We have been able to begin being able to recognize who is at risk of developing Alzheimer’s dementia before they even get the disease. Until recently we could not not even diagnose alzheimer’s disease positively until a brain came to autopsy” says Morgan.

Testing is currently underway to detect chemicals in a persons brain. At the same time, drugs are being developed to treat the chemical. So far no one is promising a cure for those with the disease, but there is hope it can be prevented with the right screening and drug therapy.

Once again Florida is at the center of presidential politics. There’s a GOP primary debate in Tampa tonight, one in Jacksonville Thursday, and still no clear frontrunner. Florida’s cabinet members are lining up behind Mitt Romney. Governor Rick Scott isn’t endorsing, but as Whitney Ray tells us, his image is being used in an attack ad.

This attack ad running in Florida all week features Mitt Romney.

“While Romney was a director of the Damon Corporation, the company was defrauding Medicare of millions,” says a narrator.

Toward the end of the 30 second TV spot, Romney turns into Governor Rick Scott.

“Corporate Greed. Medicare Fraud. Sound Familiar?”

The ad is sponsored by AFSME. The union is trying to draw a line from Romney to Governor Rick Scott. Scott isn’t endorsing. He offered this advice to all the candidates on Fox News Monday.

“Get around the state. Talk to people and tell them, why are you going to change the direction of this economy,” said Scott.

Florida’s three cabinet members endorsed Romney weeks ago.

“I firmly believe he is the candidate who can beat Barack Obama,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi.

“Romney has an extraordinary business background that I think best positions him to lead us out of this economic crisis,” said Adam Putnam, Commissioner of Agriculture.

Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam isn’t worried about Romney’s defeat in South Carolina or a new poll that shows him down nine points to Newt Gingrich.

“I worked with Speaker Gingrich when I was in Washington and I feel his troubled past, his record, his erratic temperament is ill-suited for the presidency,” said Putnam.

Putnam says having no clear frontrunner is proof moving the state’s primary forward was the right decision.
Early voting is underway. 250-thousand people have voted either early or absentee. Their voters are expected to favor Romney since Gingrich only began to surge during the past few days.

Opposition to two controversial privatization bills is growing.

This morning protestors held signs in front of the state capitol, less than a week after the bills passed their first committee stop. The bills privatize 18 South Florida prisons and remove the requirement that lawmakers justify privatization before outsourcing government jobs. Protestor Barbara DeVane says privatization hurts Florida’s economy.

“They are cutting, cutting, cutting because they don’t want to do the right thing and go for more revenue,” said DeVane.

The protestors belong to two groups; Fight Back Florida and Occupy Tallahassee. They say the legislature should close corporate tax loophole and end sales tax exemptions to save money instead of privatizing state functions.