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Commissioner of Agriculture and GOP candidate for Governor Adam Putnam is under fire tonight after an employee overlooked disqualifying information for more than 300 concealed weapons applicants and issued permits to them anyway. But as Mike Vasilinda tells us, even with the permits, another background check would have kept the person from getting a gun.

Information on people buying a gun in Florida is run through three databases. Gun dealer Mark Folmar says a concealed carry permit does eliminate a waiting period, but not background checks.

“They would have to pass a criminal background check before we could give than a gun, even if they had a concealed weapons permit” says Folmar.

For more than a year and employee at the Department of Agriculture overlooked disqualifying information. New background checks were run on 365 people. 291 were disqualified and had their permits revoked.

“The person responsible was fired, and the Department says safeguards are in place.”

The NRA sent out a weekend alert, explaining the problem to its membership.

“One point eight million license holders had doubt cast upon them, and we needed to clear the record” says former NRA President Marion Hammer.

In a rare Saturday news conference, Putnam said the original story was wrong.

“The headlines and the stories that say there were no background checks for a year is inaccurate and misleading.”

But Mom’s Demand Action Spokesperson Kate Kile says the problem is an agency too eager to push permits out the door.

“What we believe is that there should be an abundance of caution, and we should look through every piece of information that’s relevant” says Kile.

Following the Parkland shooting, Putnam dropped plans to expedite concealed carry permits when background checks were inconclusive.

Two Democratic State Senators, one who represents Orlando where the  Pulse night club shooting took place, and the other Parkland, today called for an investigation into the permit mishap.  In recent years, the state has lowered the cost of a concealed carry permit and made it easier for people to apply by allowing local tax collectors to handle the paperwork.

A circuit court judge has once again told the state to make medical marijuana available to patients in a smokeable form, and this time, as Mike Vasilinda tells us, she set a deadline for Monday of next week.

30 year ALS survivor Cathy Jordan told the court that smoking marijuana is the only reason she haas survived after being told she had three to five years to live.

“It just makes my live a lot more bearable” 

A second patient, Diana Dobson, testified smokable marijuana was twice as effective as other delivery methods.

“I have used all forms of Cannabis” she said under oath.

Circuit Judge Karen Geivers said both women would face irreparable harm if her order allowing smokeable medical marijuana remained on hold.

Jeff Sharkey of the Medical Marijuana Business Association says the judge put patients first.

“If your doctor says this is what works for you and you have a significant medical condition like cancer, like ALS, you should be able to do that if it helps.”

Attorney John Morgan, who filed the suit on behalf of the two women, has been relentless in his calling for the Governor to drop his appeal. Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Andrew Gillum is making the same ask.

Sot: Andrew Gillum

“He’s dragging his feet and preventing badly needed health care from getting to people who need it most in the form that they choose it” says Gillum. 

The judge gave the state until Monday, June 11th to come up with a plan to make smokeable marijuana available to patients.”

Unless the Governor decides to drop the case, the next likely step for the state to seek a stay of the newest ruling, just as it did with the original order.

In court, the state told the judge it would take sixty days or more to develop rules for dispensing  smokeable medical marijuana…and it argued it would likely take suppliers at least that long to bring the product to market.

A fifth candidate has entered the Democratic Primary for Governor, and like our current Governor, as Mike Vasilinda tells us, he has the personal resources to finance the campaign himself. 

Palm Beach Billionaire Jeff Green became an official candidate Monday. But unlike most campaigns…Green has been stealth. No announcement, no statements, yet.

“Good afternoon. This is my wife” he said as he introduced himself in 2010.

Green ran in and lost the Democratic Primary for the US Senate in 2010.

“I’m a jobs creator. An outsider who’s not taking any special interest money. My whole life I worked in the private sector, created thousands of jobs. I understand how to get results” Greene told reporters on the eve of the primary.

Greene made a fortune betting on the housing collapse. As unemployment soared, It made him an easy target. The entire Democratic establishment was against him.

A campaign ad from a group called “Florida’s not for Sale” took him to task.

“He made hundreds of millions on Wall Street, betting we couldn’t pay our mortgages, profiting on suffering.”

Jon Ausman advised Greene in 2010.

“He actually carried the majority of the counties.  Thirty four out of sixty seven in Florida. He got killed in the larger counties.”

Rick Scott spent more than 70 million of his own money to get to the Governor’s Office. With three billion in the bank , Greene had said if he became a candidate, he’d spend what ever it takes. Now he’s a candidate.

Rick Scott spent more than 70 million of his own money to get here. With more than three billion in the bank Green said before becoming a candidate he would spend whatever necessary if he got in the race. Now he is. 

Ausman said he was hard to get to know.

Q:“What was he like one one one?”

“It’s hard for him to go one one one, frankly, he’s shy.”

And his fortune makes him an instant contender in what so far has been a lackluster race.

In 2010, Green was criticized for celebrity parties on his 135 foot yacht. He has since established a school in Palm Beach County and has pledged to donate his wealth to charity after his death.

The legality of medical marijuana patients using smokable medicine remains in legal limbo tonight after a hearing in the State Capitol. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, the state wants smokable marijuana put on hold after a judges ruling, while supporters want patients to get smokable marijuana as soon as possible.

Circuit Judge Karen Geivers ruled ten days ago that smokable medical                    marijuana was permitted by the constitution and isn’t prohibited by the law the governor signed. The decision was automatically put on hold when the state appealed.

“All rise”

Monday, lawyers were back in court arguing the stay should be lifted and smokable marijuana should be available as quickly as possible.

Jon Mills is the Amendment 2 author. “There is a high prevalence in the state of Florida and risk to those with debilitating medical conditions who are denied access.”             

The state pushed back, with Senior Assistant attorney General Karen Brodeen arguing allowing smokable pot would send the wrong message.

“People will read it different ways and subjectively say, now I can smoke marijuana because I have of these triggering conditions. Even though they never went to a doctor.”

And the lawyers for Amendment two say the states fear that everyone will start lighting up if the ban is lifted just isn’t reasonable.

“That could seen as blowing smoke. But you can’t…you have to have a certification”Mills said afterward.

Attorney John Morgan who bankrolled the marijuana initiative immediately took to twitter to urge people to call the Governor.

“Smoking marijuana for medical purposes is vital for our veterans” Morgan said in a recorded video aimed at Governor Rick Scott.

And a final decision could be a year or more away if the case is appealed to the State Supreme Court. The big question. Will smoking be allowed during the appeal.”

The judge did say she would delay implementing her order for a week so that state lawyers could prepare an appeal if the judge rules against them.

Florida’s 695 Nursing homes and 3,101 Assisted Living Facilities are required under a new law to install permanent generators capable of cooling for 96 hours or come up with a temporary solution by June 1st.

The new generator law was put in place after a dozen elderly residents died of heat stroke in a south florida nursing home after it lost power in Hurricane Irma.

Now, hurricane season is underway and a state agency shows the vast majority of nursing homes and assisted living facilities in the state have not installed generators.

Numbers released by the Agency for Health Care Administration a week before the deadline showed 74% weren’t in compliance.

“I do think the numbers do seem very low,” said Shaddrick Haston, CEO of the Florida Assisted Living Association. “However, I believe that there are a lot of facilities that are currently in compliance or that they’re waiting for additional information to come back.”

 

139 facilities had installed permanent generators and 691 facilities were granted an extension.

Kristen Knapp with the Florida Healthcare Association says facilities given an extension have to have other protections in place.

“You know if they have zoning challenges or equipment on order they do have the ability to have a mobile generator moved in,” said Knapp.

Facilities say there are numerous challenges which have made it difficult to come into compliance.

“We’re seeing some of our members have to install tanks,” said Haston. “We’re seeing some of our members have the generators on back order.”

AHCA says it’s received hundreds of submissions from facilities since its last report.

It will be releasing new numbers Friday.

Any facilities still out of compliance will receive a notice of violation and then the possibility of fines or other penalties.

While AHCA only plans to release consolidated numbers once a week, the public can check on the status of individual facilities at www.floridahealthfinder.gov.

That information is updated daily.

Graphic greyhound racing accidents and living conditions are the subject of a new TV ad soon to be released in Florida.

It’s part of a new ad campaign backed by a seven figure purchase by Protect Dogs- Yes on 13.

The goal… show the public the negative side of greyhound racing before they vote on whether to ban it in November.

“This video shines a light on the cruelty,” said Kate MacFall with the Protect Dogs- Yes on 13 campaign.

Jack Cory, a lobbyist for the Florida Greyhound Association says the images in the ad do not represent the industry as a whole.

“We exercise the dogs all week, we give them all the proper food, we give them the proper care. We especially give them the proper love,” said Cory.

Pro greyhound racing advocates say if people truly want to protect animals, they should focus their attention on animal shelters and not racing.

“115,000 animals are intentionally murdered in the State of Florida every year,” said Cory.

But Greyhound rescuer Sonia Stratemann says greyhound injuries and deaths are more common than the industry wants to admit.

“The State of Florida only requires recording of the deaths of the dogs at the track, so the dogs that I get in are not recorded,” said Stratemenn. “Nobody knows, there’s no recording of any of that.”

The campaign predicts  once Floridians see the ad… the passage of amendment 13 is all but guaranteed.

“Florida voters care about dogs, love dogs and will vote yes on amendment 13,” said MacFall.

Protect Dogs- Yes on 13 officially kicks off its campaign Monday.

The campaign says this ad will be the first of many voters will see before November.

Pro Racing advocates have filed a lawsuit to have amendment 13 removed from the ballot arguing its language is misleading to voters.

A hearing for the case has yet to be scheduled.

Following a meeting with U-S Senator Marco Rubio, who has called elections supervisors “overconfident”, Florida election officials say they have security in place to prevent foreign actors from tampering with this years election. And as Mike Vasilinda tells us, they are asking the federal Government to share what it knows. 

In 2016, suspected Russians hackers got into into a Tallahassee company. It provides support to the majority of the states Elections Supervisors. At least five suspicious emails were intercepted before they were opened in county supervisors offices.

Mark Early was one of the Supervisors meeting with US Senator Marco Rubio 

“We don’t think we want a repeat of 2016 where there was information out there that could have been helpful to us, but we can’t get our hands on that data to make good decisions on how to handle any threats we may not know about, so we are doing our best” says the 32 year veteran elections official.

Supervisor told Rubio they were prepared

Q:”Are supervisors overconfident?” We asked Ron Labasky, who represents the Florida State Association of Elections Supervisors.

“Absolutely not” he responded. We are confident we are doing everything absolutely possible to insure we are secure.”

The dilemma for Elections Supervisors they don’t know what they don’t know and the Federal Government isn’t sharing what they know.

In a statement Rubio said he would push federal officials to share more about Russian sponsored attacks in 2016.”

On a second front, the state has applied from 19 million in Federal funds for increased security. It initially said it would not request the money for this election. Supervisor Early says it could go for backup servers and more.

“Better training…and some things I don’t want to get into.”

The main message from Supervisors: Voting machines are not on line so nobody can mess with your vote…but what no one is promising is that someone won’t play havoc with on line voter databases.

Once the state receives the nineteen million in Federal dollars, a special committee of the legislature will have to approve spending it, and then supervisors will have to submit detailed plans on how they will use it.