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State lawmakers are reviewing a new gaming deal to expand gambling at Seminole casinos. The new deal would bring in 7 billion dollars for education over the next 20 years. As Whitney Ray tells us, schools have hit the jackpot but they won’t collect unless lawmakers, upset over what was left out of the deal, give the go ahead.

Whether or not lawmakers will approve the new gaming deal is anybody’s guess. Lawmakers wanted Black Jack limited to four casinos. The governor agreed to seven. Lawmakers wanted the gaming deal to last just 15 years. The governor agreed to 20. Lawmakers wanted the option to expand gambling elsewhere in Florida. The governor gave the tribe exclusivity.

That could be a problem because state lawmakers still have to sign off on the deal. The state legislature is expected to hold a special session in October. Governor Charlie Crist said if lawmakers don’t accept the deal the state could lose billions.

“My concern, if we don’t, that the legislature doesn’t, is that the federal government will allow them to do it anyway and we won’t get a dime of the money,” said Crist.

But if the legislature does approve the deal Florida schools will get seven billion dollars over the course of the agreement.

“In this state we are well below the national average and we’ve experienced cuts four times over the last couple of years so we need to recapture money best we can,” said FEA Spokesman Mark Pudlow.

Crist and the Seminole Tribe are betting on the boost to education funding to gain legislative approval.

One in every 123 Florida men has HIV or AIDS, according to a new study by the Florida Department of Health.

Among African American men the ratio is much higher. One in 44 Black men has the virus. Florida has the third highest HIV-AIDS population in the country. Ronald Henderson with the Department of Health helped write the study. Henderson said men need to better protect themselves against STDs.

“Men have to take responsibility for their sexual actions, their sexual health. And we, as men, generally don’t take responsibility for our health in general. So we need to look at men and require them to go to the doctors and go get annual physical examinations, including HIV tests,” said Henderson.

To check out the report go to http://www.wemakethechange.com/documents/ManUpReport2009.pdf

Governor Charlie Crist, who is expected to call a special session on gambling for October, says oil drilling may be brought into the discussion.

Legislation to give the state cabinet the authority to approve oil drilling off the coast of Florida failed in the legislature last year. The House passed the bill, but the Senate never took it up. Crist said the legislation wasn’t given enough attention.

“Obviously it would have to be something that would be introduced by the legislature. So, you know, they sort of have first base authority, if you will, as in regards to that. But, I think it dovetails off of some of the discussion that we had at the end of session last year, which was, at the time, I thought, a little hasty,” said Crist.

No bill has been proposed yet, but state legislation to allow drilling off the coast of Florida is in the works.

The state’s pension fund is making a rebound after losing nearly 20 percent of its values last year.

The fund that pays benefits to retired government employees fell to 83 billion dollars last year. Now there’s 106 billion dollars in the investment fund. The state’s catastrophe fund is also improving. Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink said if a hurricane struck tomorrow the state could borrow billions of dollars to help pick up the pieces.

“The markets have improved, so if we had to go out and bond, the expectation is six months ago, we thought we could only get three billion dollars in the market. Today, they think that we could get as much as eight billion dollars. So, that’s all good news about reducing the peoples’ exposure to the impact of big hurricane,” said Sink.

The financial updates came after Sink called for more transparency and oversight of the state’s investments. Today was the first of several meeting to be held four times a year.