Welcome to

More than on hundred thousand absentee ballots have been discarded in recent years because the signature doesn’t match the one on file. Today a state House panel unanimously approved a fix sponsored by House minority leader Janet Cruz that will allow voters to be notified if there is a problem with their mail in ballot.

“But the saddest part is that people walk away, essentially not knowing that their ballot is discarded and not counted” says Cruz. “Now, with this bill, the onus is on the supervisor of election to notice that voter that their voter, that there is a discrepancy with they signature, and it gives them a chance to cure. they can go down, show their ID and prove that they are the owner of that ballot.”

 

Teens would no longer be able to buy cigarettes under legislation filed int eh state Capitol. State Senator Daryl Rouson has filed legislation to move the age up to 21. He says it will keep younger and younger kids from getting the habit.

“And we know the the greatest pathway of young teenagers obtaining cigarettes is are other teenagers, 15, 17, 18 yeas old, and we want to stop that because they don’t understand the effect of nicotine the effect of impurities that are in tobacco smoke. Its effecting their health” says Rouson.

Rouson himself is a former smoker who understands the addiction.

Reproductive rights and the rights of immigrants are the issues that mobilized more than a hundred women from across the state to head to the State Capitol today, Where they demanded they voices be heard.

Pamela Gomez boarded a bus in Tampa in the pre dawn hours to bring the reality of her challenges as a latino woman  to the state capitol.

“It’s important for our human dignity that we are respected as a community, as contributing members of society.” saysGomez. “That we are not political scapegoats of policies that tell us that we are less human.”

Buses from Miami and Orlando came as well, bringing an estimated 150 people, singing “ what side are you on my people”.

They came on a day timed to show the state and nation what a day without women would be like, and to argue that women, like Shania Carr are not being treated as equals.

“And we do not get as much respect or power as men do” Carr proclaimed from the Capitol Steps. So we asked and you said your are not respected as a woman?”

“Yes”

“What do you mean?”

“We get judged on our appearances and stuff, and men feel like we should dress a certain way and we should be submissive to them when we shouldn’t’” Carr told us.

In addition to immigration and health care. Abortion legislation is a major concern for the women Charo Valero of the Latino Advocacy Network told the crowd abortion rights are under attack and that they must demand access.1“This means open access to safe, legal, affordable abortion” says Valero.

And while the women made plenty of noise here, their voices are not being heard inside the Capitol.

Two abortion bills are moving. So is a bill with harsh penalties for undocumented immigrants. Pamela Gomez told us she knows they have an uphill battle.

“Yes, but we will remind them we are here to stay. That our families are people who put food on their table. says Gomez.

The group claims it helped kill 9 anti immigrant, anti refugee bills last year.

The women boarded buses homeat mid afternoon today, but vowed they would continue to make their voices heard.

Every police officer who comes in contact with the public would be required to wear an operating body camera under legislation introduced in the State Capitol. Sponsor Al Jacquet argues police have fewer encounters go wrong when wearing a camera and that the legislation is designed to protect police.

“So that person you pull over sees the officer with a camera, they are going to be less likely to assault that officer. They are going to be less likely to make a false complaint on that officer” says the sponsor.

Q: And every officer stopping someone would have one in the state of Florida?”

“Yes, because ever officer’s life is important in the state of Florida.”

The legislation is yet to be analyzed by staff, who will be tasked with deciding how much the camera would cost if fully implemented.

Lawmakers continue to say they are hearing frustrated parents fed up with too much testing. Legislation filed this week by Democrats and Republicans would move the state assessment test to the last 20 days of the school year, and would allow districts to use a nationally recognized test such as the Iowa basic, or the ACT.  Senator David Simmons says not only are the current costs of test too high, but they are taking too much time from learning.

“Twenty days a year out of the school year being spent, wasted, on students being idle, teachers being idle, and facilities being idle as a result of taking time to test because of so much testing” says Simmons.

Simmons called the proposal a “return to sanity”, and while not likely to pass in its entirety, testing change has significant support this session, which ends May 5th.

Florida’s lawmakers began their annual 60 say session this morning with an unusual amount of acrimony between the Governor and House Speaker over efforts to end business incentives. The speaker drew lines in the sand while the Governor poked back.

The opening day tradition of Floral arrangements didn’t disguise the underlying tension in the House Chamber. At the center of it, jobs incentives. House Speaker Richard Corcoran drew a line in the sand, saying the House would not back down on its efforts to end what he calls corporate welfare.

“Know this, that we will stand up and we will fight for the taxpayers” said Corcoran.

Corcoran also made it clear the House would not go along with the Governor’s plan to fund schools with rising property taxes.

We will not”

“Let the Governor be received.”

The tension has been so strong, all eyes were on Rick Scott to see if he would shake the Speakers hand.

He did.

Then Scott made his case for corporate subsidies, without singling out those who voted against him, as he did in their home districts.

“An unfortunately, mistakes are made sometimes, but you just don’t give up and shut down, take your ball and go home. You figure out what the problem is an dyou fix it. Let’s remember, we’re talking about people’s jobs” Scott told lawmakers,

The consensus after the speech? the Governor was wise not to pick a fight.

Sen. Tom Lee (R-Tampa) said he was worried before the speech but relieved afterwards. “Given what I thought where this could have gone, I thought the Governor did a great job of simply laying out his case in a positive sense” said Lee

And with 59 days left to negotiate, an on time ending for this bitter debate is still possible, but many consider doubtful.

Even the Speaker made the unusual suggestion today that lawmakers could go into overtime when he said “Even a special session isn’t a disaster; it’s just a longer, more complicated conversation.”

Governor Rick Scott used his State of the State address to point out jobs gains and call for more tax cuts, saying there have been 55 tax cuts totaling more than five billion dollars since he took office, but afterwards, activists held what they called the “Awake the State” news conference. Rich templin of the AFL-CIo says things are not rosy for most families in Florida.

“We’re at the bottom of K-12 spending. we’re at the bottom of higher education spending. Public schools, teachers’ dn students are saddled with policies  driven by ideology and policies to privatize education, not by sound educational principles.  We’re at the the bottom of health care access. at the bottom for health care access for children. Mental health programs are woefully underfunded” Templin told the crowd.

the activists also took aim at the Governor’s support for restrictions on reproductive freedom and support for big sugar and utility companies.

 

On the eve of Florida’s annual legislative session, A decades old tough on crime policy is raising concerns about cost and fairness. A new coalition launched today features liberal and conservative groups, and business leaders and lawyers. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, the coalitions goal is to keep people out of prison while keeping us safe.

Florida’s prison population hovers around 100 thousand, costing taxpayers 2.3 billion each year. But Now, legislation to end prison sentences for non violent drug offenders has been given unanimous approval from the Senate Criminal Justice Committee where Sen. Daryl rouson convinced members his idea would be a money saver.

“Its more expensive to incarcerate someone than to give them treatment. So when someone is arrested for minor drug possession, Not sales. Not trafficking, Not intent to deliver, but possession, addicts, it makes sense to give them treatment” says Rouson.

There are 118 minimum mandatory laws on the books. but many experts, like Natalie Kato of the  Campaign for Criminal Justice Reform believe they have outlived their usefulness.

“Somebody who had a number of prescription pills, maybe even for their own use, could ultimately be serving a ten or fifteen year sentence” says Kato.

Sal Nuzzo works the conservatives James Madison Institute.

“If something is in statute that is not serving its intended purposes, in either protecting the public or diverting tax dollars we should be looking at reforming that” says Nuzzo.

Put another way, the new theory is, just because we’re mad at you for breaking the rules, doesn’t mean we can afford to lock you up and throw away the key.

“Bad folks need to be put away” says Rouson.  “And some bad folks need to be put away for a long time. But in other instances, we need to besmear about the administration of justice” says Rouson.

The legislation is a small step, reducing the need for a thousand prison beds at a saving projected to be at least 130 million over 5 years.

While prison costs are expected to go down, the staff analysis for the bill suggests costs for the Office of Offender rehabilitation could go up by as much as 50 thousand dollars a year to handle an increased caseload.

 

Supporters or a constitutional amendment drive to allow former felons who have served their time to have their voting rights automatically restored got a hearing at the Supreme Court today. The Group has collected 76 thousand petitions without paying for a single signature. Organizer Desmond Meade says the issue is fairness.

‘You know, once a person has served their time, paid their debt to society, that they should be given the opportunity to have their voices heard” says Meade. “Especially if you are talking they are paying taxes as well. when you look across the country, what you see is over 9ninety, ninety five percent of the country agrees with this, but Florida is the outlier.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office did not oppose the amendment, although Bondi made it harder for felons to vote shortly after she took office. Meade says  a Parole Commission study of former felons found offenders repeated offenses in about a 11 percent of the time when their rights had been restores, but reoffended a third of the time when voting rights were withheld.

Donald Trump carried Florida by about 113,000 votes. WAs we know, pollsters badly miscalculated who was voting and who wasn’t. One of the people they missed was a 56 year old restaurant owner in the panhandle, who has become a fan of Donald Trump’s.

Pam Buchanan sat out 9 Presidential elections before voting for Donald Trump.

“I’m Happy. I’m Happy.

And until Tuesday, the 56 year old had never watched a State of the Union address,

“And yes, going with that pipeline. American Steel. American employees. I’m happy to hear that.”

But when the President mentioned ordinary people, it captured her heart.

“..is a rare disease survivor. Megan Crowley” said the President, recognizing a Florida woman

“Those made me cry” said Pam. “I was happy to hear that he was interested in helping like that also, and he talked talked about the people and us. He didn’t keep saying I or me.”

And after watching, Pam was sure of one thing.

“If he’s not your President, you need to pack up and leave the United States because you are going to be benefiting from somebody you say is not yours, and that ain’t right.”

Even Pam concedes Trump’s first month was a bit rocky, but after watching the State of the Union.
“I do not feel I made a mistake at all”.

Pam took this restaurant over from her grandmother, but it was her grandfather who inspired her to vote for Trump.

“Somebody that means what they say, and they’re going to do what they say.”

And if Trump continues doing what he says he will do, Pam Buchanan will be a supporter of his for life.

Q:”I presume you are ready to vote for his re-election?”

“Oh, you betcha!”  (Laughter)

Pam will celebrate her 8th year in business soon, and says her new found political activity has not scared any of her customers away, even though she lives in one of the most Democratic areas of the state.

When someone buys a new or used home, 200 dollars is collected for every one hundred thousand dollars of value to help fund low income housing. Florida Affordable Housing Coalition CEO Jamie Ross says 292 million is available this year to help nearly a million Floridians who are paying more than half their income in rent. But here’s the problem. State lawmakers often take half or more of the fund each year to spend on projects other than housing.

“Florida has approximately 34 thousand people who are living in homeless shelters, and on the streets. This includes 2, 902 Veterans and 6,140 children” says Ross.

The group estimates that more than 28 thousand jobs would be created if all of the money designated for low income housing actually went to its mission. The Governor’s recommended budget calls for taking almost 200 million of the cash for other purposes.

 

Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum has become the first credible Democrat to file to run for Governor, but the field is likely to get crowded before the race even begins.

Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum filed his paperwork late Tuesday,  then released this video in the pre dawn hours Wednesday.

“I can’t wait to move forward a vision in this state that puts people to work at every rung of the income level. That’s what I want to do for the state of Florida” Gillum said in the video.

The filing came hours before the Tallahassee mayor found himself apologizing. He had used city software to send out political emails for the Clinton Campaign. The action brought fire from the Leon County Republican Party Chair Evan Power.
“He’s running for Governor a lot like he was Mayor of Tallahassee. Unprepared and unready to face the challenges” says Power, who was critical of the mayors management of lengthy power outages during Hurricane Hermine.

Gillum declined to meet with the Capitol Press Corps, his spokesman saying the video speaks for itself, an unusual move for an aspiring candidate.

The field is likely to be crowded. Lawyer John Morgan sounded very gubernatorial candidate when he visited the Capital on February 2nd.

“Tell everybody what you think. An either that picks up steam, or falls off the rail.” Morgan added it didn’t matter if he made the race or not, saying his life would not change dramatically either way.

Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn is being courted to run. Statements suggest he is unsure.

But One term Congresswoman Gwen Graham has left little doubt she will run for the office once held by her father.

“And I am really really excited about the future, And I am really excited about the future of a state that I love” Graham told supporters during her final news conference in office last December.

Miami Beach Mayor Phillip Levine is also considered likely to join the race.

“How best to serve my community and my state?” Levine asks in a video.

Three republicans are also teeing.  Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, State Senator Jack Latvala, House Speaker Richard Corcoran.

If elected, Gillum would be the first African American ever elected Governor in his own right. A political advisor to Attorney General Pam Bondi says she is not currently thinking about a race in 2018.

Should it be harder to amend our state constitution? Many lawmakers have never been happy with the process that allows citizens to go around them and approve measures such as class size or medical marijuana.

Governor Rubin Askew was the first to use the initiative process after the constitution was modernized in 1968.> Askew was frustrated with legislative inaction on financial disclosure requirement.

“They wouldn’t do it, so I went out on the stump” Askew told us in 2001.

Following medical marijuana’s passage, Sen. Dennis Baxley wants to make it harder for voters to approve constitutional changes…He wants to go from 60 percent to a two thirds vote.

“It’s not meant for all these things we see getting injected in there in terms of appropriations and policies. there are legislative issues that should be passed by representative government” Baxley says of the amendment process.

After the class size, high speed rail, and anti smoking amendments passed

in 2002 lawmakers asked voters to raise the approval threshold to 60 percent. Damien Filer ran the class size campaign.

Q“And indeed, they made it harder to amendment the constitution afterwards?”

“They did, In fact they made it harder than anywhere else in the United States to amend the constitution. we’re the only state in the country that has a sixty percent plus one threshold.”

Filer says there is nothing easy about amending the constitution. Indeed, most proposals never make it to a vote.

And amending the Constitution is about to get harder, even without legislative action.

Because nearly a million more people voted in November then four years ago, the number of required petitions will increase by just over 75,000…making getting on the ballot all the more difficult and costly.

If the effort fails during the legislative session, the Constitution Revision Commission begins meeting later this year. If either approves higher approval percentages, voters will still have the final say.

Seven growers are currently licensed to grow, distribute and sell medical marijuana in Florida. But after six million people approved amendment 2 in November, lawmakers must decide if those the current system will meet the needs of thousands of new patients and plenty of people are saying they won’t.

Afflicted with ALS, Cathy Jordan has advocated for medical marijuana for almost 30 years.

“Im 67. I was supposed to be dead at 41” says Cathy with a twinkle in her eye.

Now the group she founded, the Cannabis Action Network is poised to be a player in enacting voters wishes when they approved medical marijuana last November.  Jodi James says law makers have tough choices.

“And I think the decisions that are going to be made over the next 60 days are gonna decide if patients can live and stay in Florida,  or whether they are going o have to move or die” says James.

Currently, 7 growers are licenses to cultivate, distribute and sell medical marijuana at retail. They’ve hired lobbyists to beat back free market  legislation thats  filed by state Senator Jeff Brandes

“The cartel system that we have today is not sustainable. And ultimately it will produce an increase in the black market if you simply have a cartel  with high prices and a monopoly” says Brandes.

Michael Visher was a pot pioneer in Colorado. He and partners are pitching jobs and more jobs by opening the market.

“So you give mom and pop an opportunity to open a store that employs five to ten people and you open up a hundred or two hundred of these businesses throughout the state; now you’ve created significant financial impact” says the pot entrepreneur.

And the fight isn;t just over who can see medical marijuana, but what they can sell.

Most of Florida’s law enforcement is opposing smokeable marijuana. They also want prohibitions on candies and other edibles. But many patients feel the promise of amendment two will go up in smoke if come up with too many regulations.

Under the amendment approved by voters, the state has until September, 9 months after the amendment took effect, to have rules in place. If it fails, individual citizens can go to court to force their access to medical marijuana.”

As the Florida legislature gets ready to start its annual session a week from Tuesday, there is a bitter divide between the House Speaker and the Governor over funding the state’s  tourism and business marketing arms. The latest chapter is dueling videos.

Rick Scott is making the incentives fight personal.

“and one of them is your state rep, right here” he told an audience in Panama City.

After 9 GOP House members voted to strip Visit and Enterprise Florida of funding, Scott went to their districts to pressure their constituents.

“How could anybody saw we are going to turn our backs on jobs” he asked.

House Speaker Richard Corcoran responded with a video criticizing the incentives.

“Executive salaries went from eight hundred thousand five hundred dollars to to one point four million over the past six years” says a news report,

Now the Governor is responding in kind.

“If we quit marketing this state, we’re in big trouble” said business owner Rick Case in the video.

Asked about the personal attack, the House Speaker says he won’t punch back.

“If Governor Scott poked me in the Chest, I would take it, um, ten out of ten times. He’s been avery good man to me and my family” the Speaker told reporters.

The first sign of compromise came this past week when the House voted to keep Visit Florida, but they still want to scrap a job incentives program.

A powerful House committee is suggesting giving visit florida 25 million..a third of what was spent last year. The compromise was due in large part to pressure from people like  Carol Dover. She’s the CEO of the restaurant and Lodging association.

“I spent years on the Visit Florida board when we were at 25 million, and we could not the ceiling of 82, 84, 85 million tourists. We now have additional funding. Where are we. We’re at 112 million visitors” says Dover.

And any level of funding is guaranteed to come with a catch: increased oversight.

The House Speaker calls the debate over incentives spirited and while tense, useful and important.