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Florida Law Enforcement officers have a new tool to help them spot PTSD in themselves and co-workers. The goal of the on line delivery program developed at Florida State is to help officers understand why  and when they are feeling abnormal stress and as Mike Vasilinda tells us, how to manage what they are feeling.

Few of us go to work and the first assignment is dealing with a dead body

But for cops, dead bodies, physical threats, and constant danger are the job.

Carrie Pettus-Davis is the founder of the FSU Institute for Justice Research and Development, and was instrumental in developing the training program Resiliency Behind the Badge.

“Rates of depression and trauma in law enforcement officers is five times higher than the general population” said Pettus-Davis during a virtual news conference. 

Unveiled Thursday, the three hour course seeks to help officers recognize PTSD in themselves and fellow cops. Walton County Sherif Michael Adkinson believes the program will save taxpayers.

“You want to mitigate use of force and you want better customer service for the citizens that we serve, the thing you have to do is provide healthier officers” says Adkinson. 

Another goal of the online program is to help officers understand why after multiple incidents, they can’t shake their anxiousness.

A portion of the training program, Resiliency Behind the Badge, explains why it might be hard to return to normal:

“After a period of extremely stressful experiences, or even one experience, your brain’s emergency response system may not reset, and allow yours body and brain to fully calm back down.”

House Speaker Chris Sprowls told this story on how one officer coped with the possibility he wasn’t going home that night.

“He walked up to the car and placed his thumb on the back of the car, on the bumper. And I asked him, why did you do that? What were you doing with your thumb on the car? And he said, it something happened to me, I wanted to be easily identifiable that this was the car that I had stopped” relayed Sprowls.

The program and went live today and will be free for Florida’s 34 thousand sworn sheriff’s employees.

The Sheriffs Association says the new program is expected to save tax payer money now going to medical care for physical and mental ailments caused by PTSD.

Florida’s Executive Clemency Board today granted a full pardon to a man who was convicted back in 1994. Other cases it heard at its quarterly meeting go back even further, but as Mike Vasilinda tells us, those seeking the states mercy may soon find an easier path to normalcy.

On July First this year, there were 24, 400 people waiting for a hearing before the Clemency Board. Wednesday’s agenda had just 82 cases.

Which is why this announcement from the Governor comes as good news.

“But if we can crank out some of this stuff without having to have people come here, then I think that would be good and allow us to do more” DeSantis told fellow board members are he proposed a rule change.

The Governor then read 20 names. “So the cases I just read are denied.”

After than, the board approved relief for 11 others.

“Im grateful for your time today. Said applicant Michael Ross. He came asking for firearm authority after a 1994 marijuana conviction. He left with a full pardon instead.

Ross first applied for mercy twelve years ago.

It’s been a lot of wait, but now I feel the weights been lifted off of me. I’m very blessed and thankful” said the newly pardoned man.

Daniel Tatak of Bonita Springs came asking for a pardon after a 1996 drug conviction. He got it.

“So it’s taken twelve years for a full pardon.”

“How do you feel” we asked.

“I feel great” said Daniel. “You know, it does take a long time but these are things  that I was warned about before I committed them.”

The rule change will likely be voted upon at the Bards next meeting in March.

The coming change is music to the ears of Nikki Fried, who has fought for new rules since before being elected.

“So starting to see movement on the rules changes is going to be a big benefit to our state.”

The rules making clemency more difficult were first approved in 2011.

Amendment four giving non violent felons the right to vote was passed in 2018 over frustrations and delays getting before the Clemency Board.

The video of law enforcement serving of a search warrant at the home of a former sate data scientist last week has been viewed tens of thousands of times. Today, as Mike Vasilinda tells us,  the Commissioner of the Department of Law Enforcement defended his agents actions.

The Department of Law Enforcement says its agents waited for more than 20 minutes before Rebekah Jones, suspected of sending an unauthorized message on a state platform, opened the door for police to serve a search warrant. On body cam video she is heard to say “He just pointed a gun at my children”.

On twitter she has called them Gestapo, and attacked their motives. 

Today, FDLE Commissioner Rick Swearingen pushed back, saying “Nowhere in anyone of those videos did you see an agent pointing a gun at a child’s head.”

Now the Department of Law Enforcement is saying it is standard procedure for guns to be drawn every time a search warrant is served.

“During that 23 minutes, every hard drive in that apartment could have been wiped” says Swearingen. “They could have been arming themselves. They could have been barricading themselves.”

Fand Swearingen says Jones has a history of attacking police, citing a 2015 incident when she refused to leave her office at Louisiana State after being dismissed.

“When he advised her she was under arrest, she resisted. She kicked him in the groin.”

And Jones continues to fight a 2019 misdemeanor stalking charge over an encounter with a former lover.

The Governor today praising the way agents acted. “I mean, when they are smeared unfairly, that’;s not something that we want.”

Only Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who oversees FDLE as a cabinet member has doubts.

“And when there are children in the home, the highest level of concern needed to have been addressed” says Fried.

FDLE would not comment on the specifics of the case or what they have found on the computers they seized, saying only the investigation is on going.

Jones did not return our text or call seeking a response.

The Governor and Cabinet today chose Pete Antonacci from a field of six to run the states Division of Administrative Hearings. The agency settles disputes between people and state agencies in a quasi judicial hearing. Antonacci has served in the highest levels of state government for decades.

“And I spent over eight years of my life representing the State of Florida in criminal cases. I had another part of my career where I spent a lot of time in this building and learned how agencies work and interact with our Cabinet and each other. I served int he private sector. I spent almost fifteen years of my life representing clients” Antonacci told the Governor and Cabinet before being selected.

Only Democrat Nikki Fried voted no, saying Antonacci has been a political appointee since 2012, arguing the best choice was one of the judges who applied that has served in the agency.

Florida cast its twenty nine electoral voters for President Donald Trump this afternoon in the State Capitol. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, it was a bittersweet moment for many of them.

Florida’s 29 electors come from all parts of state.

“28 electors are present. One elector is not present” chimed the reading clerk shortly after the two pm start and roll call.

The absent elector, Senate President Wilton Simpson tested positive Sunday. State Senator Jeff Brandes was elected to take his place.

“Obviously shocked” was Brandes’ reaction.  “Our prayers are with him, as he’s kinda going through this right now. I spoken with him today and he’s in good spirits.”

Each of the Electors here hand picked by the Republican Party of Florida.

“I was a surrogate for President Trump in the Jacksonville area” says state Representative and Elector Jason Fischer. “I was an RNC delegate for the President.” 

Fischer is proud to be one of the people making history today as he described his fellow electors.

“Some elected. Some people are grassroots activists, and some people who have been active in the party for a very long time” says Fischer.

And for many of the twenty-nine Trump supporters, todays vote was bittersweet.

Dr. Roy Hinman is an Elector from St. Augustine

“Well, as they say up North, it ain’t over till the fat lady sings. I think that was Yogi Berra,, so I don’t think the fat lady has sung up to this point” says Hinman.

Each elector signed and certified their vote as required by the Constitution.

”Thank you for performing your constitutional duty today” said Secretary of State Laurel Lee after the votes were cast.

State GOP Chair Joe Gruters says even if the Presidents challenges fall short, he will still be a national force.

“Whether or not he starts preparing for the 2024 cycle. I think there’s as lot of people around the state that will continue to support him” says the GOP Chair.

The vote is now forwarded to the congress, that votes to accept or reject on January sixth.Only once in the nations history, 1824, has the US House chosen a President after no candidate got a majority. It elected John Quincy Adams over Henry Clay.

As many as 10,000 Florida teachers and principles are believed to have passed their certification exams using materials the federal government alleges were stolen from the state.

The Ft. Myers couple behind the prep course that used the materials face lengthy prison terms.

Kathleen and Jeremy Jasper face 108 counts of wire fraud and three counts of stealing trade secrets, in this case, the contents of the teacher certification exam and the executive leadership exam.

As the couple entered the court, we asked if they believed they had committed a crime.

“We’re not going to talk to you,” said Jeremy Jasper.

Once inside the courthouse they surrendered their passports.

“The defendants in this case are accused of breaching the conditions of taking the test,” said Assistant US Attorney Justin keen.

Keen, the lead prosecutor in the case, said the couple would take the exams multiple times.

“And they are accused of harvesting the exam questions. Basically memorizing the test questions and then brain dumping them,” said Keen.

The couple then sold what they learned through their company, Nava ED.

As many as 10,000 certified teachers and principles may have taken the courses.

“It isn’t simply that trade secrets that were stolen, which is a crime, but it’s the secondary direct impact it has on potentially compromising the integrity of the process by which the state of Florida tests, evaluates and certifies its teachers and principles,” said Lawrence Keefe, US Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.

After the Department of Education became suspicious, the couple was barred from taking the certification exam.

The indictment says an unspecified number of school districts, colleges and universities encouraged applicants to use NavaED.

Attorney Tom Finley who is representing the Jaspers, said the couple is innocent.

“A lot of those questions are already on the FDOE website, so how can they be trade secrets,” said Finley.

Combined, the coupe face centuries, not decades, in prison and millions in fines.

As the case moves forward, the couple is forbidden from using the materials in question, but may continue to operate their business to provide prep courses not related to teacher certification exams.

There is new video in the case of the former state COVID-19 data scientist.

This time from the State.

The Department of Law Enforcement is pushing back against claims that agents pointed their guns at children during the execution of a search warrant Monday morning.

In a video released late Monday by the former state Covid data scientist, Rebekah Jones, police can be seen pointing their guns up her stairwell after Jones told them her husband and children were upstairs.

“And pointing guns at my kids who were coming down the stairs,” said Jones.

Now the state is pushing back, releasing body cam footage from Tallahassee Police.

FDLE said it shows agents were more than patient, waiting 20 minutes for Jones to open the door.

A statement from FDLE Commissioner Rick Swerengen doesn’t deny guns were pointed at others but does say: “Agents afforded Ms. Jones ample time to come to the door and resolve this matter in a civil and professional manner. As this video will demonstrate, any risk or danger to Ms. Jones or her family was the result of her actions.”

In our Tuesday interview, we asked why it took her so long.

“They knocked on the door. They messaged my lawyer to say the police are here. And they told me to go downstairs, do what they said. I was in my nightgown, so I think I ended up putting on my husband’s sweat pants,” said Jones.

Since then, the case has taken a number of turns.

On Wednesday, prosecutors in Tallahassee withdrew a plea agreement Jones had negotiated in a 2019 stalking case.

She first used an expletive to describe why, then told us this.

“It’s just another hit to try and interrupt my life,” said Jones.

Florida Democrats also weighed in on the raid on her house.

“The raid prompted the resignation of a member of the Judicial Nominating Commission who sharply criticized the underlying warrant,” said State Senator Lori Berman.

Meanwhile, Jones’ legal defense GoFundMe account has topped $200,000.

When fired in May, Jones also created a GoFundMe account.

It totals more than a quarter million dollars, bringing the total she has raised to over a half million dollars.

The home of a data scientist fired by the state for insubordination earlier this year was raided Monday by the Florida Department ofLaw Enforcement. 

Florida’s Democratic Party Chair is not running for re-election after a disastrous 2020 election. The state party lost seats in the legislature and congress. And as Mike Vasilinda tells us,  her re-election would have been problematic.

Democrats expected to go from seventeen to 19 seats in the state Senate Instead, they lost a coveted south Florida seat. Sen. Darryl Rouson is a Democrat from St. Petersburg and says 

“So it just means we have to work a little harder.”

It was worse in the House, where Democrats lost three incumbents and two targeted open seats. Orlando Democratic Representative Anna Eskamani says Dems need to change strategy.

“We’ll have to be more aggressive in committee, where we have more numbers. We’re going to have to ask tough questions” says Eskamani.

And then there were the two congressional seats in South Florida  that it lost.

Democrats have been calling for new leadership since the party took an 8 hundred thousand dollar Payroll Protection loan that became fodder for Republican commercials.

Now, party Chair Terri Rizzo, who has been in the job three years, sent this memo saying she would not seek re-election in January.

Eskamani knew the resignation was coming and adds “And I hope the executive director does the same.”

Eskamani was one of the first to speak out against the PPP loan and one of the first to call for new leadership.

“And this needs to set a new standard where we are going to focus on everyday people. The incoming leadership cannot be bought and sold by the consultant class” she says.

Former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and national committee woman Nikki Barnes have declared they are running. But Eskamani says others may jump in. She has questions.

“What’s their organizing model? How do they interpret power?”

In the end, Eskamani says the party must change how it operates…from relying heavily on consultants to being silenced by taking corporate cash, Other wise, it will be more of the same with a different face.  

Democrats lost legislative seats despite more than 15 million last minute dollars in out of state money used to help democratic legislative candidates.

The Florida Chamber says it has been told by the State that unemployment taxes will go up next year by almost two hundred percent, but as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the state is so far mum on the increase.

On March first, Florida’s trust fund for paying unemployment claims sat at just over four billion. At the end of November, it was down more than 75 percent to just under a billion. 

To replenish the fund, Carolyn Johnson, the Director of Business, Economic Development & Innovation Policy at the Florida Chamber says the state has told it minimum rates will increase by almost 200 percent.

“This is coupled with businesses hurting due to the pandemic” says Johnson.

Employers with the best record will see the tax go from seven dollars an employee to twenty dollars and thirty cents.

Johnson also says “Every employer that’s not at the minimum or maximum will have a rate based based off the number of layoffs over the last three years”

The Chamber says it was given the new rates by the Department of Revenue, but the Department hasn’t officially released anything and did not respond to email and phone requests. 

The January hike is a far cry from the great recession when the lowest rate skyrocketed by more than a hundred dollars per employee.

But the chamber says it is still a big hit to businesses.

“If  you’re an employer with a hundred employees, you’re seeing a thirteen hundred dollar tax increase that you might not have expected coming January one” says Johnson. 

The Chamber says layoffs because of the pandemic will not count against an employers record because an executive order exempted them. The increase comes as businesses must also cope with a higher minimum wage starting September first next year.

Florida’s higher than usual unemployment is reaping one benefit for businesses. With fewer people working, and more working from home, workers compensation costs for businesses is going down. The state has approved a six point six percent decrease next year.  First. Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis says it is one more reason Florida is a good place to operate a business.

“As we’ve seen with automobile insurance, fewer claims lead to the carriers rolling out discounts back to the policy holders so this is the same thing. I run risk management for the state and out risk management department has seen fewer workers comp claims because fewer people are working in their typical occupations and they are tele-working, so again, fewer hazards of the job” says Patronis.

The decrease applies to new and all policypolicies in effect on January first.

A hearing tonight by the Michigan Senate Oversight committee will hear testimony on election irregularities. Some GOP members still want legislatures in contested states to order their electors to vote for President Trump, and as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the same thing nearly happened here in Florida during the 2000 recount.

It was a rare sight 20 years ago. The State House introduced a resolution.

“A con concurrent resolution appointing electors for President and Vice President of the United States” read the title.

The Florida House was doing what governor Ron DeSantis has been urging other legislatures to do: ordering electors to vote for a specific candidate.”

Rep. Dudley Goodlet (R-Ft. Myers) was the rules chair and lead the charge.

“This power is conferred upon the legislatures of the states by the Constitution of the United States” Goodlet told colleagues on the House floor.

At the time, Democrats, including newly elected Dan Gelber of Miami, argued the effort was an attempt to steal the election.

“We will be disenfranchising every single voter” predicted gelber.

The House approved the resolution along party lines, 79 to 41.

But the Senate took a much more cautious approach, delaying a vote until it was absolutely necessary to preserve the state’s electoral vote. John McKay was the President at the time.

“I was very concerned Florida’s actions might be used in the future as justification to certify votes for one Presidential candidate or another” McKay told us by phone.

And what nearly happened here 20 years ago likely would have set a precedent for today’s legislatures in contested states.

Dan Gelber is now the Mayor of Miami Beach.

“Had the Senate acted, I think it would be something thats would not be just  bad precedent, but there would always be an urge, from one side or the other,  to impose its will over the will of the voters” says Gelber today.

And The window for any state legislatures to vote is narrowing. Electors meet December 14th in every Capitol across the Country. 

The Florida Senate never took a vote in 2000, but it would have if it was needed to make the states electors votes count.

It’s been more than seven years since Florida Universities raised tuition. And this year lawmakers face a pandemic induced 2 point 7 billion decline in revenue, which, as Mike Vasilinda tells us, has lawmakers putting tuition hikes back on the table.

At six thousand three hundred and seventy dollars a year, University tuition in Florida, before fees,  is the second in lowest in the nation. Only Wyoming charges less. 

“And so our product by any scale comparable is a fraction, in most cases, of other states, and its something we’ll have to look at” says newly sworn in Senate President Wilton Simpson (R-Pasco County).

Flordia lawmakers face the toughest budget balancing act they’ve seen in a decade. Senate President Simpson is an advocate for foster kids, and says lawmakers will have to make difficult choices.

“When you start putting priorities together, I’m going to have a higher priority to make sure we’re taking care of those must vulnerable children, and and we haven’t raised tuition in ten years” says Simpson.

When he was governor, Rick Scott refused to reappoint university trustees who had voted for fee hikes. Now as US Senator, he’s weighing in again.

In a speech to the conservative Heritage Foundation, Scott says he will soon file federal legislation penalizing states that hike tuition.

Under his proposal, Scott says “All federal funding will be cut off if tuition or fees are increased.”

At he other end of the legislature, House Speaker Chris Sprowls says not all degrees should cost the same.

“If they can get on line and engage in higher in higher education as a way to help them find a job, then lets make that as easy as possible for them” says Sprowls (R-Clearwater).

In the end, any tuition hike would have to get the okay from the governor, and Ron DeSantis has said in the past:

”I don’t want to tax anyone more.”

But that was before the pandemic.

So far, United Faculty of Florida, the union representing professors hasn’t taken a position on supporting a tuition hike. 

In a surprising ruling, the Florida Supreme Court has refused the states efforts to reinstate the death penalty for two convicted murders, and as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the decision will mean at least 100 other murderers facing death will get another chance at life in prison.

In 2016, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that anyone sentenced to death by a less than unanimous jury after 2002 was entitled to a new sentence. Then earlier this year, it back tracked saying only some parts of a jury decision must be unanimous.

FIU law professor Hanna Gorman says the defense community was worried.

“There was a new court. The composition changed and changed significantly, and what that meant to Flordia death penalty jurisprudence, is that we were seeing a number of decisions that were increasingly concerning” said Gorman, who works on criminal justice issues.

Following that January ruling, the state moved to send two murderers back to death row on their old death sentence. But in a ruling that surprised many, the court said no.

Pete Mills is the Chair of the Florida Public Defenders Death Penalty Steering Committee. “We did not anticipate this ruling. We expected the court would something else” says Mills.

This decision leaves one hundred convicted killers awaiting a new sentence. 

“There will be various outcomes” says Public Defender Mills. “There will be retrials for re-sentencing. The state and defense will cut plea agreements in some of the cases, and the state might simply decide not to go forward.”

And even though the court has backtracked on unanimity, it is still the law in Florida until lawmakers change it says Human Rights Attorney Mark Schlakman. 

“The ultimate determination and emphasis should be justice” says Schlakman.

The ruling will force the families of the victims in  those one hundred cases to relive their anguish.

And If the state doesn’t want to seek the death penalty again, those convicted will remain in prison for life with no chance of parole. Since 2016, about 50 death row prisoners have been re-sentenced.