Welcome to

More than 250 Florida birds have been released into the wild after almost losing their lives in the BP oil spill. Governor Charlie Crist helped release three this morning at a panhandle lake, but as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the survival rate for de-oiled birds is really low, and cleaning the birds may be more of a publicity stunt than an environmental benefit.

Three birds from Perdido Key, caught in the BP oil nest, washed and rehabilitated, are about to be released into clean water…200 miles from their home.

But the odds are against the animals. Experts believe only 10 percent of the birds who are cleaned and released will make it through an entire year. Still, the effort to save even the smallest number is massive.

“Right now we’ve got 20 boat crews out, ready to answer the call,” Nick Wiley with the Florid Wildlife Commission said. “We’ve got right now, last I heard, ready to ramp up 16 on the beach response teams that will have ATV’s and vehicles.”

The state has a hotline for people who spot oiled birds. The goal: have a crew on the scene within an hour of getting the report.

Once rescued, it will take a team of veterinarians, nurses, and biologist, plus 300 gallons of water and dish soap to clean one bird.

Survival once they’re released depends on how badly they were oiled and the species.

“I’m highly confident that these guys are going to go out there and survive,” Dr. Heidi Stout said.

Wildlife experts say the technology to save oiled birds has improved over the past decade. But survival still depends largely on the resiliency of the species and how badly they were hit by oil.

There’s a number to call if you see a bird or any other animal covered in oil.  The Oiled Wildlife Hotline number is 866-557-1401.  The state is promising to have rescue crews on the scene within one hour of receiving a call.

300 sea turtle eggs from panhandle beaches are in an 18-wheeler headed to Cape Canaveral and away from the oil. Today the first of 700 sea turtle nests were moved in an effort to keep the BP oil spill from killing the hatchlings. Wildlife experts are going to great lengths to protect the eggs during the trip, but As Whitney Ray tells us, less than half are expected to make it to the east coast alive.

It took a little over an hour to dig these sea turtle eggs out of the sand and place them one by one in Styrofoam coolers.

A team of wildlife experts worked diligently to keep the turtle embryos from breaking loose from their shells.

The delicate cargo was then loaded into this FedEx Truck, where it will be up to the drivers to take the eggs to the east coast and away from oil.

Moving the eggs is a gamble. Early estimates showed only one out of every five eggs surviving the seven hour trip. After a test run, wildlife experts now think as many as half could make it.

Joe Reedy, quality control coordinator for FedEx Shipping Technician Joe Reedy says the trick is keeping the truck at a constant temperature of 85 degrees and stabilizing the eggs so they don’t move too much.

“We have a temperature control mechanisms in place and air shock suspension as well has cushions under the pallets,” said Reedy.

The closest oil plum is still about 100 miles to the west and no oil is on this coast; which brings into question the wisdom of moving the eggs now.

But Wildlife Experts says there’s no telling where the oil will be in 10 days when the eggs are scheduled to hatch. FedEx will be moving sea turtle eggs through August. They baby turtles will hatch in an artificial nest at Cape Canaveral, and be released into the Atlantic at night, when fewer predators are lurking to eat the hatchlings.

Governor Charlie Crist is forcing lawmakers back to Tallahassee July 20th to pass a constitutional ban on oil drilling in state waters. The state senate has been on board for more than a month, but the House continues to hold out. As Whitney Ray tells us, with the deadline to get the ban on the November ballot fast approaching, the governor is tired of waiting for a consensus.

With an estimated 60-thousand barrels of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico everyday, the case against offshore drilling has never been better. Governor Charlie Crist wants to take that case to the people, announcing Thursday, he’ll force lawmakers back to Tallahassee in a special session to consider a constitutional ban on drilling in state waters. Lawmakers must act before August 4th for the measure to be on November ballot.

“I think the rightness of this is so clear, especially dealing with what we have experienced in the past 80 days or so in the Gulf of Mexico. This is an issue, I think, that is so important to the future of our state,” said Crist.

There is already a law banning drilling in Florida waters, but last year lawmakers tried to overturn it. That’s why Crist says a ban needs to be written into the constitution.

Crist, who broke with the Republican Party in early May, began considering a special session shortly thereafter. Republican leaders then began accusing Crist of playing politics with his office. Crist reached out to House leaders, his pleas weren’t received well.

“I called them,’ said Crist. “I’ve not gotten calls back from the House.”

If lawmakers approve the constitutional ban on drilling in state waters, the issue would then go on the November ballot, where 60 percent of voters would have to sign of on the deal.

The Special Session is scheduled from July 20th through the 23rd, but if lawmakers don’t approve the proposed constitutional amendment before August 4th, it will be too late to place it on the November ballot.

A Florida group is joining a national effort to take corruption out of politics by limiting how much money candidates can receive from one donor and where they can get those funds.

Progress Florida is heading up the Florida efforts for the Fair Elections legislation. They are launching this TV spot in Washington D.C. and Tallahassee in an attempt to convince Florida Congressman Allen Boyd to become a co-sponsor of the legislation. Progress Florida Political Director Damien Filer says taking big money out of the game will make lawmakers more accountable to their constituents.

“This changes our system so that instead of candidates for congressional office relying on major donations from huge corporations, like BP and Goldman Sachs for example, they can rely more on small dollar donations from their constituents,” said Filer.

Several recent polls show as many as 80 percent of Americans don’t trust their government and think Congress is corrupted by the big corporations that donate to their campaigns.

Three birds from Perdido Key, caught in the BP oil spill, washed, and rehabilitated were released into clean water 2-hundred miles from their home at Lake Talquin.

Governor Charlie Crist helped release the animals. The state has set up a hotline and is promising to respond to sightings of oiled animals within an hour of receiving a phone call. Crist says the effort to save the birds is massive and extremely important to Florida’s future.

“It’s awfully important I think that all of us realize how important wildlife is to Florida. I know Floridians care deeply about it. I’m a fisherman myself, and I care a lot about what we do with our wildlife and how we protect it and preserve it,” said Crist.

It takes more than a week to rehabilitate a bird covered in oil. Only half survive the cleaning, and experts say only 10 percent of those live a full year. People cleaning the animals say those are old statistics and advances in science have increased that rate of survival.

Arizona’s controversial immigration law is being challenged by the federal government in an attempt to keep other states from passing similar laws. Arizona’s attempt to bypass federal law and fight immigration at the state level is becoming a rallying cry in the GOP gubernatorial primary. As Whitney Ray tells us, both Bill McCollum and Rick Scott support the law and want the Obama administration to butt out of the state’s business.

The attacks started early in the Republican Primary for governor. Now immigration is at the center of the debate. Newcomer Rick Scott was the first to come out in support of Arizona’s new law allowing police officers to check the legal status of people thought to be in the state illegally.

“Rick Scott backs Arizona’s law. He’ll bring it to Florida, and let our police check if the people they arrest are here legally,” a female voiced stated in one of Scott’s first campaign ads.

That is if Scott is elected governor, and if the new law is a success. But the law may never have a chance to fail. It’s scheduled to take hold July 29th, but a federal lawsuit filed this week aims at stopping Arizona.

The suit claims the Federal government has sole authority to handle immigration issues, resurrecting a debate as old as this country: state’s rights versus federal law. Bill McCollum is chastising President Barack Obama for interfering.

“I think he will lose in court. I think states have the right to enforce their own laws,” said McCollum.

Rick Scott says he’s stronger on the immigration issue than McCollum.

“He’s basically trying to pander to a bunch of different groups, you know he is the attorney general. He’s responsible for enforcing the law in the state, and he ought to be doing that,” said Scott.

With the primary nearing, proving who is tougher on illegal immigration will likely be a fight that rages over the next month and a half.

Democratic candidate for governor, Alex Sink, released this statement in response to the Arizona law challenge:

“Like most Americans, I see an immigration system that is broken and needs to be fixed. The Federal government has not lived up to its responsibility to secure our borders and crack down on employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. The federal lawsuit against the Arizona law does not address the real problem – Washington should be a partner, helping fix our immigration problems and enforce our laws.”

Jim Greer’s attorney is threatening to call some of the biggest names in Florida politics to the stand to discuss their role and knowledge of a scheme to funnel campaign contributions to a consulting company Greer owned. Greer stepped down as chairman of the Republican Party of Florida shortly before news of his consulting company’s deal with the party came to light. One of the people Greer’s attorney is seeking a deposition from is Attorney General Bill McCollum. McCollum says he’s happy to write a deposition.

“It’s an ordinary course of discover, which you do in civil or criminal cases and people find out if I have any information to share that is of value to them,” said McCollum.

McCollum’s primary opponent for the Republican nomination in the governor’s race, Rick Scott, says McCollum should hire an outside council to prosecute Greer. Right now the Office of Statewide Prosecution is handling the case. The office answers to the Attorney General.

“We need to have an independent investigation and we need that transparency. We all need to know what happened. We hope nothing happened. We want to feel good about our political party. We want to feel good about the process, but the only way we are going to feel good about this is if there is an independent investigation and there’s clear transparency in what happened,” said Scott.

McCollum plans to keep the Office of Statewide Prosecution on the case.

Attorney General Bill McCollum is asking the federal government for more authority to fight Medicaid fraud. The state Agency for Health Care Administration joined McCollum’s call, asking for a waiver from the federal government to increase the state’s investigative authority. Tom Arnold, AHCA Secretary, says allowing Florida to view electronic Medicaid files will increase the state’s ability to catch people scamming the system.

“The key for us is more eyes on the target. In the managed care area we are going to continue to enforce our contract which we think are strong, but we need to have some additional resources in term of monitoring those,” said Arnold.

Last year the state busted 200 million dollars worth of Medicaid fraud. There’s an estimated two billion more out there.

Some state, business, and environmental leaders are calling on the legislature to meet in special session to make a commitment to renewable energy. The group wants 20 percent of the energy used in Florida to come from renewable sources by 2020, but as Whitney Ray tells us, there is little appetite to set that goal this summer.

Tuesday the city of Tallahassee rolled out 12 new buses that are more energy efficient than the current fleet.

“These clean diesel buses represent a combination of low sulfur fuel and advanced diesel engines and an advanced exhaust system,” said Tallahassee Mayor John Marks.

Tallahassee is just one of dozens of Florida cities trying to cut energy costs, while statewide efforts continue to stall.

Last week 120 business, environmental and state leaders pledged to stop using oil; the Clean Energy Congress then called for a special session to create more tax incentives for solar power, electric cars, and other alternative forms of energy.

Only four percent of the energy used in Florida comes from renewable resources. Susan Glickman, a co-sponsor of the Clean Energy Congress, wants the percentage of renewables used in Florida increased to 20 percent over the next decade.

“What we are doing is putting some sort of certainty on it. We need some sort of target to shoot for,” said Glickman.

But so far the call for a special session on renewables, along with half a dozen other summer session requests, has gone unfulfilled.

Tuesday Attorney General Bill McCollum toured a factory making oil free compressors for refrigerators and air conditioners. McCollum supports the push for alternative energy… but says there’s no need to rush.

“I think that is important to Florida’s growth. I think solar is important to Florida’s growth and I think you can see what you can do with innovation right here, but I don’t think you need a special session to do that,” said McCollum.

And while the state waits for a more progressive energy plan… an estimated 60-thousand barrels of oil a day continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico.

A previous effort to promote clean energy has been a bust. Florida’s Solar Rebate Program was such a hit, the state couldn’t keep up its end of the bargain. And 10-thousand people who put solar systems on their houses are still waiting for their checks.

Attorney General Bill McCollum is trying to regain the lead from Rick Scott, his Republican rival for governor. A recent polled showed Scott up 10 points.

Today McCollum previewed part of his business platform while touring Danfoss Turbocor. The Tallahassee company makes oil-free compressors for refrigerators and air conditioners and represents the kind of high-tech jobs, state leaders want more of in Florida. McCollum says if he’s elected governor, he’ll focus on improving the state’s education system to improve Florida’s workforce.

“We need to dramatically improve the public education system: from K – 12, through our state community colleges to our university system. Doesn’t mean we don’t already have a fine system, and your interest in being here with this magnetic lab and knowing the association of Florida State University, I’m sure you have already discovered that, but we do not have everything we need. We have a great deal more we have got to need,” said McCollum.

McCollum also says he’ll focus on tax cuts for high tech companies that move to Florida and make it easier for those companies to receive state and federal grants.

Florida Senator Bill Nelson is fighting to secure more resources to fight the BP oil spill.

Nelson helped wave a federal law to bring 18 more skimmers to the coast to suck oil out of the Gulf. The Democratic senator toured the state Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee Tuesday. Nelson is pleased with the state’s response, but says more can be done on the federal level to help people with economic losses resulting from the spill. He’s trying to create a federal tax break for people living in gulf coast communities hit by the oil.

“That 20 billion dollar trust fund is going to reimburse these people for their loss of income, but they need help right now. They need immediate relief and this is just one way we can help out,” said Nelson.

So far only 86 miles of Florida’s panhandle coast has see either oil or tar balls. Florida has 875 miles of coastline.

Panhandle beach businesses are hoping for a busy holiday weekend, and they may be depending on instate travel more than ever before. All but a few miles of beach in the western panhandle are clean, yet most out of state travelers are snubbing all of Florida because of the gulf oil spill. Visit Florida President Chris Thompson is hoping Floridians will take an instate vacation this extended weekend to help support those businesses.

“Before the oil situation had hit us, the trending was improving. The volume of visitors was starting to come back. The rate was still suffering a little bit, because over the last two years with the economy, a lot of business had to go out and buy the business. But even in the Month of May when we look at the latest travel numbers occupancy was up five percent and rate was down five percent, so we are anticipating it will be a good holiday weekend,” said Thompson.

Instate travel accounts for about 35 percent of Florida’s overall tourism business.

The state is asking BP for 50 million dollars to let travelers know most of Florida’s beaches are clean. The request comes as Visit Florida is spending the last of a 25 million dollar adverting grant. As Whitney Ray tells us, the pressure is on to get BP to cough up more cash so the state doesn’t have to pull its advertising.

On Visit Florida’s website early Friday morning, a live webcam showed oil and a clean up crew at Perdido Key. A hundred miles to the east in Panama City, the coast was clear.

Visit Florida has 40 webcams stationed across the state as part of its multi-million dollar campaign to let travelers know most of Florida’s beaches are clean.

BP is funding the media blitz with a 25 million dollar grant. The money runs out July 18th.

Wednesday Governor Charlie Crist sent this letter to BP asking for 50 million dollars for advertising. He followed up the letter by meeting with the pay Czar, in charges of a 20 billion dollar BP claims fund.

It will still be weeks before the state knows if BP is going to cough up the extra cash. Visit Florida, the state’s tourism agency, is on pins and needles in the mean time.

“There’s a lot of opportunity for us to be proactive and minimize the economic damages on the front end and then on the back end result in hopefully less claims for individuals and businesses,” said Chris Thompson, CEO of

Instate travelers Fred and Zina Peuckert have been watching news reports closely as they make plans for the 4th of July Holiday weekend. They’re going to Alligator Point, a beautiful beach with boom but no oil.

“We’ll get in the water as long as it is safe and everything and we have not reason to believe it isn’t at this point,” said Peuckert.

Panhandle beach businesses will need all the instate help they can get this holiday weekend, and after the smoke from the fireworks has cleared they’ll need help from BP more than ever.

The state should get news about the 50 million dollars around the same time the latest sales tax estimates are released, which will give the state a better picture of how the spill is affecting Florida’s economy.

Crews have spent the lat several days in a Panhandle warehouse, making preparations for the unprecedented move of as many as 70 thousand sea turtle eggs threatened by oil. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, biologists believe the move will give the turtles the best chance of survival.

Some sea turtle nests will begin being moved as early as next week, once they reach their 50th day.

In this Fish and Wildlife Service warehouse in Panama City, a crew from the Sea Turtle Conservancy is washing and drilling holes in styrofoam coolers that will be used to move the eggs.

“And because they’re eggs, reptile eggs, they do need air to survive,” Sea Turtle Conservancy marine biologist Dan Evans said. “And that’s why nests in the wild that are flooded multiple times don’t survive”

The intruding oil promises almost certain destruction to an entire generation of turtles if they are allowed to hatch and swim into the oil.

“They’re essentially seeking the same currents that are catching all the oil,” Gary Appleson with the Sea Turtle Conservancy said. “So they’re going to be immediately interacting with oil.”

Specially designed pallets will be loaded with the coolers.

Then transported 450 miles to Cape Canaveral.

While they are transporting the coolers, biologists also have to worry about controlling temperature and humidity.

Moving the nests comes with plenty of risk…but the risk outweighs any other options  says the Fish and Wildlife Service.

“It has never been done before,” Lorna Patrick with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said. “This is an extraordinary circumstance so we think that extraordinary measures are needed.”

Even under normal conditions few hatchlings survive predators and the elements, now they will also have to survive being moved.

The state is facing a budget crisis, with economists estimating next year’s deficit as high as six billion dollars. The new state spending plan for 2010-2011 took effect today. Recommendation from Florida TaxWatch helped lawmakers find two billion dollars to balance the new budget. But the tax watchdog isn’t taking a break from crunching the numbers and looking for loose change. TaxWatch President Dominic Calabro called state and business leaders to Tallahassee to begin working on next years spending plan at the 2011 – 2012 Government Cost Savings Task Force in Tallahassee.

“We want to protect those core functions, those critical services, and help needy Floridians, but cut overhead cut administration, cut inefficiency,” said Calabro.

AT&T Florida President and Florida TaxWatch Board Chairman Marshall Criser says big savings start with small items.

“It starts with pens and paperclips it builds its way up into programs and hopefully it makes it way into entire programs and the way they are operated. So I think there is nothing you can afford not to look at,” said Criser.

The taskforce will meet several more times and present its recommendations to legislative leaders during the 2011 legislative session.