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After months of looking for a candidate to run for the State Chief Financial Officer, Democrats have found their woman. Former state Representative Loranne Ausley is now the Democrat’s choice to run for CFO.  She leaves a race for the state Senate.

“I didn’t run for the Senate to be a senator,” Ausley said.  “I ran to serve the people of Florida. And when you take a step back and look at what the office of the CFO does, it impacts real people’s lives in very real lives. I feel like this is the right place for me, at the right time.”

The move has one of her former Senate opponents praising her.

“We certainly wish her well,” Senate District 6 candidate Bill Montford said. “Loranne is a good friend, she is a capable politician, she’s a good person. She would be an excellent CFO. Certainly we’re glad, I am, that she’s made that decision because it takes a lot of people off the spot. It’s hard to run against your friends. Curtis is a friend, Loranne is a friend. So it makes it much, much more pleasant. Not only for me, but for Curtis too. It just makes it an opportunity for Curtis and I to discuss the issues and move forward. We wish her well. She’ll do well. She’s a good campaigner. She has statewide name recognition. She’ll have a good support system. We wish her well.”

Two others besides Montford remain in the race, including for state Representative Curtis Richardson.

After a Tampa middle schooler was raped in a locker room last year, state Senator Ronda Storms is grilling the Dept. of Education over a lack of statewide policy on supervising locker room conduct. Storms has been pushing the DOE to provide her with information from all 67 school districts. She says if necessary, coaches need to move their desks into locker rooms to make sure kids are safe.

“So we need to make sure that instances like that are not happening, of course,” Storms said. “But we also need to make sure that kids aren’t doing things like sexting each other, like taking pictures of each other. If you don’t have any adult supervision in there, kids could be taking pictures of each other undressing and putting it on the internet. We have an obligation to make sure that our children are protected.”

Storms is unhappy Education officials have not been responsive to her requests for information.

Florida is losing an estimated two billion dollars every year because some online stores don’t collect state sales tax. Legislation has been filed to make it easier for sellers to know what to tax and for buyers to know what they owe. As Whitney Ray tells us, the problem is most online shoppers don’t even know they owe it.

Amanda Grout spends hundreds of dollars online buying books and clothes. She pays the vendor, but doesn’t pay the state on purchases made from stores without a location in Florida.

“I’m not going to go out of my way to go fill out all these forms mail them in to pay more money. The only way I would do it is if they set it up on EBay or the website and forced me to do it,” said Amanda.

Right now online shoppers have to visit the Department of Revenues website, download a tax form, list the items purchased, do the math, and mail in a check. State lawmakers want to make paying the tax easier.

“This is not only the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do,” said Representative Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda, the House sponsor of the legislation.

Bipartisan legislation is being introduced to align Florida’s tax code with the tax codes of 44 other states. By redefining taxable items experts say it would be easier for online shops to know what to collect.

“We believe Florida will begin to collect several million dollars, maybe 10’s of millions, 20, possible 30 million dollars on an annual basis and rising,” said Dominic Calabro, the President of Florida TaxWatch.

Paying the tax would still be voluntary, although getting a plan in place could persuade Congress to adopt legislation forcing online stores to collect.

The online sales tax is owned four times a year. The due day coincides with the end of each fiscal quarter. The link to the DR15MO form is http://dor.myflorida.com/dor/forms/2009/dr15mo.pdf

Florida is getting better marks from the American Lung Association for its efforts to curb smoking. The association released its annual report card today, grading states in four areas including air quality and funding for smoking cessation programs. Florida received two ‘F’s, a ‘C,’ and a ‘B’. Brenda Olsen, the CEO of the association’s Florida branch, says the state moved up a letter grade in the tax category by increasing the tobacco tax by a dollar last year.

“That brings us up to a C in the cigarette excise tax. Right now we are at the national average and we have already seen a reduction in consumption in cigarettes as a result of that tax,” said Olsen.

Olsen says the state could raise its grade by increasing efforts and funding to help state workers quiet smoking.

1.7 million Floridians may soon be paying more for electricity. The Florida Public Service Commission will vote on a 48 million dollar rate increase for Progress Energy later today. The company says the increase is needed to keep up with the growing demand. As Whitney Ray tells us, the demand has never been greater.

Roslyn Linnen is trying to stay warm on a budget. She keeps her thermostat at 68 degrees in the day and at night.

“I turn it off and put a lot of blankets on and wear a flannel and my robe,” said Roslyn.

Roslyn joined a dozen other AARP members at the Florida Public Service Commission Monday to protest Progress Energy’s rate hike request. Progress Energy says it needs more money to keep up with the needs of the growing population.

The cold weather is increasing the demand for electricity. Last week the demand was so high that Progress Energy set a new record for usage.

The company reported isolated outages. Power was intentionally cut at 14 schools to save energy. Progress Energy says without more money to update equipment, outages could become more common and the company may also have to resort to more power saving measures like rolling brownouts.

“If we don’t have adequate funding in the future we may not be able to provide our customers the same quality of service and so you could end up seeing some more of those issues,” said Progress Energy Spokesman Tim Leljedal.

Issues they say need to be prepared for now if their customers are going to have a brighter future. If the increase is approved it would go into effect in March. The average monthly increase per customer will be calculated on January 28th

Parents could get a small break this summer when shopping for back-to-school supplies.

Legislative leaders joined Governor Charlie Crist today to introduce a bill to bring reinstitute the back-to-school sales tax holiday. The tax break was killed two years ago because of economic troubles and a budget shortfall. Crist says bringing back the break will help boost sales around the state.

“The studies indicate that when you reduce the tax burden on people, you entice them to come in and to shop more. So, it’s going to help small businesses across the state as well as families across Florida as it reduces taxes at the same time,” said Crist.

If the tax holiday is passed then this summer parents will save on pen, pencils, paper and other back to school items like clothes.

State lawmakers want to know if the Department of Emergency Management is prepared to handle a terrorist attack. Earlier this month the head of the department stepped down under accusations of sexism and poor job performance. State Senator Dave Aronberg, the chairman of the Senate Military Affairs and Domestic Security Committee, sent a letter to the new interim director of the department asking if there was any reason to be alarmed.

“We’ve seen what happened with FEMA at the Federal level, with an emergency agency that wasn’t up to par. Floridians deserve better and we’re just going to make sure that this agency is ready to go forward in the year 2010. After the terrorist attempt over the skies of the United States, we know that people are still gunning for us and the emergency management agency in Florida needs to be on the ball and needs to be just as prepared today as it was under Craig Fugate,” said Aronberg.

The Department of Emergency Management is welcoming the concerns and is currently reviewing the ten questions in Aronberg’s letter and isn’t ready to respond.

Gamblers in Florida now have a new way to win. The Florida Lottery just released a new scratch off game for a chance at 200-thousand dollars a year for life. As Capitol Correspondent Whitney Ray tells us, the odds of winning are better than most, but the price of the ticket is steep.

The Lucky 200-thousand Dollars for Life scratch off ticket promises a hefty yearly salary to a fortunate few. Launched Tuesday, this Tallahassee store has already sold 50.

“They want to live that big money for life,” said Clerk Ed Medley.

The odds of winning the top prize are about one in three million. Smaller cash awards and free tickets are more common, with one in three cards producing a winner.

But the price tag on this new scratch off game is weeding out folks who normally play the lottery but can’t afford the 20 bucks.

Jhemar Williams likes the idea of a yearly payoff.

“200K a year, that’s great. Ten years I’d be rich,” said Jhemar.

But says hard times will keep him from buying.

“I would get them if I had the money to,” he added.

Jhemar’s not alone; a lot gamblers are cutting back. Overall lotto sales are down by three hundred million dollars. Still the Florida lottery has high hopes for its newest 20 dollar ticket.

“Our 20 dollar scratch-off games are actually our most successful believe it or not. They are our top sellers.”

One advantage of scratch off tickets is they produce instant winners. Thursday, a Sarasota woman became a millionaire, playing the Merry Millionaire scratch off game.

While Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio duke it out, the Democratic front runner for US Senate, Kendrick Meek, has been quietly gaining support.

Meek sat down with reporters in the capital press corps this morning. He says hard work has helped him overcome adversity throughout his life and now he plans to take that message to voters. Meek says he has not plans of conceding the heavily Republican Panhandle and even took a few shots at Governor Charlie Crist.

“There’s more to leadership than releasing sea turtles and showing up in front of fire stations on 9/11 and saying we love firefighters. We all love firefighters. We all appreciate sea turtles. I think the record will speak for itself and my message to Florida is that I’m going to work every day,” said Meek.

In an effort to prove his work ethic Meek is qualifying for the ballot the old fashioned way. Instead of buying his way onto the ballot, Meek is gathering signatures. He has to get 112-thousand.

Embattled former House Speaker Ray Sansom has lost failed in his attempt to keep his voluntary Grand Jury testimony secret from House investigators. A legislative committee will begin hearings later this month to decide if Sansom can finish out his term, and as Mike Vasilinda tells us, investigators needed the testimony because Sansom has said he won’t appear.

In addition to criminal charges, former House Speaker Ray Sansom faces censure or even expulsion for sending 25 million dollars to Northwest Florida College for a leadership institute, and then taking an unadvertised 110 thousand job to run it. He is also accused of sending another 6 million to build a hangar for a contributor at the Destin airport. The former speaker is refusing to testify before a house panel January 25th, so the special counsel was in court seeking the release of his grand jury testimony.

“The House does, in fact, have a particular need for the grand jury testimony,” special counsel Melanie Hines said.

Sansom’s lawyer fought the release.

“There’s not precedent for it,” Steve Dobson, Ray Sansom’s attorney, said. “There’s no law for it.”

Judge Terry Lewis wasted little time deciding the House prosecutors could have the testimony.

Why did you not want that testimony released?

“Because I really believe that, under the law, grand jury testimony should remain a secret,” Dobson said.

We are told that Sansom spent about 30 minutes before the grand jury. Now, the judges ruling won’t make the record public right now, but we will learn  more about what he said at a Legislative hearing on January 25th.

Even if the former speaker is acquitted in the criminal case, his house colleagues can expel him for causing the public to lose confidence in the integrity of the legislature.

2009 was the deadliest year in state history for manatees. 429 were found dead in Florida waterways, about a hundred were victims of careless boaters. 2010 is also getting off to a shaky start for the mammals. As Whitney Ray tells us, the cold weather has manatees fighting for their lives.

Manatees are making a comeback in Florida. A quick counting expedition early last year found 38-hundred in the state, a record high. There are even large herds being found in the Panhandle.

But along with the record high numbers comes a spike in deaths. Last year 429 manatees died in Florida waterways. Boaters claimed a hundred lives while the cold weather is being blamed for 56 deaths.

This week’s freezing temperatures have put thousands of manatees in a fight for their lives. When manatees find a warm spot they hunker down for hours. Wildlife experts are asking people to stay away from manatees they see lingering.

“Even if they are leaving to go out and get a little food they are going to be coming back because it will be cold through next week. So please do whatever people can do to stay away and be quiet and leave them alone,” said Carol Knox, a biological administrator with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation.

And for gawkers not willing to mind their own business, wildlife officers will be on hand to write citations or arrest anyone breaking the law. Patrols in areas with large populations of manatees will be beefed up throughout January. Wildlife officers are taking a zero tolerance approach to speeding.

An unexpected exodus from private schools is leaving public schools with more students, but less money.

The student surprise is costing schools 14 dollars for each new student. More than 12-thousand students left private schools and enrolled in public schools this academic year. School funding for next year’s budget will have to account for the cost of teaching the students. Governor Charlie Crist is optimistic that money will be found to make up the difference.

“I think we are going to be in good shape. I just came out of a meeting with our budget director and this was the issue we were talking about, to continue to be able to fund education. And it looks like right now, keep your fingers crossed, but it looks like now we will be able to continue to that,” said Crist.

Crist will release his budget proposal at the end of the month. The state legislature will begin working on the state’s spending plan in March during the 2010 legislative session.

Embattled former House Speaker Ray Sansom will be in court again Friday in Tallahassee, where he will likely be arraigned on two new charges, Conspiracy to commit grand theft, and grand theft itself. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, the House of Representatives will also argue for the release of his Grand Jury testimony to be used against him in a legislative disciplinary hearing.

The Special Prosecutor for the House of Representatives is seeking the release of former Speaker Ray Sansom’s grand jury testimony. In a filing, she said it’s needed to pursue disciplinary charges that could include expulsion.

Because Sansom’s lawyers have already said they will invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to testify, House lawyers want his Grand Jury testimony to go forward with an evidentiary hearing later this month.

Sansom is also likely to be arraigned on two new charges filed this week: Conspiracy to commit grand theft, and grand theft itself. The charges were filed after an official misconduct charge was thrown out.

“Official Misconduct is a very weak statute in the sense that it has to be a falsification of a document,” states attorney Willie Meggs said. “And of course our trial court judge has ruled that the appropriations act can’t be falsified.”

The charges stem from a legislative appropriation allegedly engineered by Sansom to build an aircraft hangar for a friend disguised as a college building at the Destin airport. Meggs says the conduct was just plain wrong.

“We can’t do a lot of things, but we can find money to build an aircraft hangar for a college that doesn’t have any airplanes,” Meggs said. “That’s wrong.”

The House committee pursuing disciplinary charges is set to meet January 25th.

Even if Sansom is found not guilty of the criminal charges, he could still face censure or expulsion from the Legislature for embarrassing the House and undermining confidence in the institution.

Businesses across Florida are bracing for five hundred and even one thousand percent increases in the cost of their unemployment compensation taxes. Notices of the hike went out in December, and as Mike Vasilinda tells us, a small business association says the jump in taxes could hurt an economic recovery.

Florida ran out of money to pay unemployment claims in August. Since then it has been borrowing from the federal government and owes about a billion dollars. Forms like this one went out in late December informing businesses they would have to pay more for unemployment compensation. The minimum rate for employees is going from just over 8 dollars to just over a hundred dollars per employees.  Randy Martin calculates his bill will go up from 41 hundred last year, to over 21 thousand this year.

“I realize there is a tax because the state has gone bust,” Martin said.  “However, my tax has gone up 545 percent. I think that is a bit exorbitant.”

In 2009, unemployment taxes were paid on the first 7 thousand dollars of wages. In 2010, it will be on the first 85 hundred.

The tax is due March 1st, but it isn’t late until April 30th. Small business lobbyists are pushing lawmakers to delay the increases this year.

“We need that money so that we can go back to some of those employees we had to lay off last year and say, please come back in 2010,” Bill Herrle with the National Federation of Independent Businesses said. “It’s a real jobs killer.”

Martin says he will delay purchasing new vehicles and other items to avoid layoffs, but he says the tax payment is going to hurt.

“it’s affecting our profit margin by 20 percent,” Martin said.

Meanwhile, Florida continues to borrow about 300 million dollars a month to pay unemployment claims.

Florida’s unemployment rate continues to climb and isn’t expected to level out until April.

Statewide, 2500 National Guardsmen are being deployed for a year long tour in Iraq and Kuwait, marking the largest Florida National Guard deployment since World War II.  In Tallahassee, 100 guardsmen participated in their activation ceremony this afternoon. Jennifer Miller’s husband Rick is one of the men headed for Iraq. She says she isn’t looking forward to the next year.

“Reality is actually starting to hit, that he’s actually leaving, that he’s going to be gone for all this time,” Miller said.  “I’m proud of him, but I’m worried. I’m worried with kids.”

The guardsmen will receive additional training at Fort Hood, Texas before being deployed in Iraq. Their mission will be base and convoy security.