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A controversial plan to stop the release of 911 calls is being dropped after a public outcry.  House Speaker Larry Cretul today said he would not push the legislation for a well connected constituent, and as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the decision comes as public records advocates celebrate the state’s tradition of openness.

Mounting pressure from the public and media against a plan to exempt 911 calls from public records has the powerful house speaker backing down.

“Oh, it’s gotten way out of hand,” House Speaker Larry Cretul (R-Ocala) said. “It’s gotten way too noisy. So don’t be surprised if we kind of slow that thing down or even not take it up this year.”

The 911 legislation is one of a dozen or more exemptions proposed each and every year. Barbara Peterson of the First Amendment Foundation says keeping records and meetings open is what democracy is all about.

“How are they doing it?  Why they’re doing it,” Peterson said. “How they’re spending our money. Where are they getting the money from?  What purpose are they using our money for?”

But records aren’t always easy to get. A security guard and a clerk at City Hall in Tallahassee tried to stop us from filming on camera, which made the point we came to make.

A year-old study shows that when the public requested records, the clerk on the other end didn’t know what to do about half the time.

In addition to not knowing what is public, many clerks ask too much. Michelle Bono says many governments make sure employees are trained.

“You don’t have to give us your name,” Michelle Bono with the City of Tallahassee said. “Just tell us what you want, give us the reasonable specificity.”

Legislation is pending that would require every elected and appointed officials to be trained in open government and public records law.

Yesterday was the start of Government in the Sunshine week, a celebration of transparency in the governmental process.

The homeless population grew 11 percent last year, but money for emergency shelters could be cut to help fill a three billion dollar budget hole. As Whitney Ray tells us, in all, homeless programs could lose 67 million state and federal dollars.

This homeless shelter was designed to house 140 people. Today more than 240 call The Shelter home.

“It’s overly crowded. There’s no beds,” said a woman we spoke with who has been living at the Shelter for over a year. She didn’t want us to use her name. She says people are trying to get back on their feet, but they can’t find work.

“We don’t have jobs, basically because nobody has jobs. They have been trying to go to the labor pool, but they don’t send anybody out,” she said.

And for the homeless, what little they have could soon be taken away. State Senators are considering cutting two million dollars from the Department of Children and Families Office of Homelessness.

And 65 million federal stimulus dollars have run dry. Health and Human Services lobbyist Karen Woodall says the funding drop could leave thousands in the cold.

“Cutting any money to serve the homeless population is not a good idea… and I think the challenge to the legislature, there are other areas to cut funding,” said Woodall.

Woodall says lawmakers could save 24 million dollars by eliminating subsidies for pro sports teams. Other places to find money include eliminating tax exemptions on bottled water and collecting the internet sales taxes.

A one day count in 2009 found 58-thousand homeless people living in the state. New homeless statics will be out by the end of the month.

Libraries across Florida are bracing for a 100 percent cut in state funding this year. If the decision sticks, libraries in smaller communities could be forced to close. And as Mike Vasilinda tells us, advocates are calling the cuts pound foolish.

We met Rita Johnson on her way into the Library to return some books and check out more. “I love the library” she says, so we asked her “Some would say the internet has replaced the library?” Her response: “No…just like they say the internet is replacing newspapers, no”.

But some libraries could be forced to cut their hours, their services and even their doors if a planned 8 million dollar plus state aid to libraries grant is eliminated.  Sarah Carroll from the Florida Association of Counties says the state could lose even more”. “And because we use that eight point four million dollars to draw down federal funds, for a total of twenty one point two million dollars. So this eight point four has a greater impact”, say Carroll.

On this day, there were a lot reasons to be in the library. “I’m writing a letter to a friend” is what a new arrival in town told us. “Oh, I just needed to print out some papers” said a young woman. Sung Ho was in town for an interview at FSU.  “I’m a tourist and I came here for a university interview, and I wanted to research the film school”, which he was doing online.  “I’m on the internet man, looking for jobs and things” was a response of more than one person.
The most recent statistics, and they are two yerass old, suggest that 85 million people a year visit a library in Florida. If lawmakers continue on the path of no money for libraries, Sarah Carrol says those in rural counties will likely close because “some counties, this is all the funding they actually receive”.

Lawmakers suggested the cuts in the final hours of the session last year, then backed down when a backlash hit. One difference between this year and last which does not bode well for library funding is that the budget is even tighter.

The price you pay for property insurance could soon go up ten percent. Legislation to give insurers more authority over rate increases comes amid news that a handful of insurance companies in Florida could fail. As Whitney Ray tells us, some state lawmakers say insurance reform is needed to keep companies writing policies.

The legislation would allow insurance companies to raise rates up to 10 percent a year, reduce discounts for storm proofing homes… and require policyholders to prove they’re using insurance payouts on repairs.

“If you got 20-thousand dollars, they would probably give you 10, then come out and inspect it, and if the work is being done, fund the next piece and if the work is being done, go ahead and pay the final,” said State Senator Mike Bennett.

Industry experts say the legislation is needed because Florida’s insurance rates are too low, and a major storm could bankrupt some of the state’s biggest companies.

“Without storms in the last four or five years, we have probably had six or seven companies go out of business in Florida that are in the home owners business,” said Tim Meenan, an insurance regulatory lawyer.

Consumer advocates say the legislation would make it harder for people to repair their homes after a disaster… and discourage upgrades.

“It seems that we have been telling consumer that they need to fortify their homes, strengthen them, and less the risk for the insurance companies. Now the insurance companies are saying they are still hurting. It doesn’t make sense,” said Brad Ashwell with Florida PIRG.

The insurance reform bill passed its first committee stop Wednesday. But even if both chambers pass the legislation, they’ll still have to get it past Governor Charlie Crist. Crist vetoed similar legislation last year

College students could soon have the option to raise their own tuition and use the extra cash for renewable energy. State legislation would allow students at public universities to vote for up to a dollar per credit hour tuition increase. If approved, students would then be allowed to choose what kind of renewable energy the money would be used to purchase. Senator Lee Constantine is sponsoring the bill.

“It’s great for the students because they are getting involved in the process and they’re helping and those extra dollars will go back in to the classroom, it’s great for the citizens of Florida because we are saving taxpayers’ dollars,” said Constantine

Jomar Floyd, a FAMU student, is helping push the renewable energy legislation.

“We can reduce our bills and take those same funds and reinvest, so instead of spending millions of dollars on energy bills, let’s cut down on the bills and reinvest in our universities,” said Floyd.

If the legislation passes and every public universities votes to raise the full amount… then schools could bring in 7.5 million dollars a year for renewable energy.

Florida has the second highest number of cancer patients in the nation, but only one National Cancer Institute. That research institute is in Tampa. The Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami has a good shot at becoming the state’s second NCI-Designated Cancer Center, but it needs more money from the state. Representative Anitere Flores is trying to find state dollars for the cause.

“This is something that would not only benefit patients in South Florida, but quiet frankly would benefit patients through out the state of Florida,” said Flores.

If the center receives the NCI-designation it would receive more federal grants for research, but getting money from the state to help secure the title at a time when lawmakers are cutting billions from the budget will be a challenge.

Florida’s unemployment rate is the highest it’s been since 1975. The rate rose to 11.9 percent today, with more than 1,100,000 people looking for jobs. As Whitney Ray tells us, the news comes as the governor is touring the state praising a legislative freeze on the unemployment tax hike.

January’s unemployment rate ties a 35 year high. Never before have 1.1 million Floridians been out of work. But the jobless numbers could have been higher If governor Charlie Crist hadn’t signed legislation freezing an unemployment tax hike. Wednesday he celebrated the freeze.

“This would have had a horrendous negative impact on businesses throughout the state,” said Crist.

The tax would have increased from eight dollars an employee to more than 100. Now it will go up to just 25 bucks. Cynthia Lorenzo, the Director of the Agency for Workforce Innovation, says many business owners planned to layoff employees to pay the tax.

“As a result of this legislation 15-thousand jobs will be saved. Bolstering business and saving jobs is exactly what we need to be doing.”

But efforts haven’t stopped the state’s job crisis. The state is out of money to pay jobseekers, and while the increase is being delayed the state will borrow more than 2 billion dollars from the federal government to pay unemployment claims.

It’s a loan businesses will have to pay back when the freeze ends.

“I think we’ll worry about that two years from now, what we have to worry about currently is what happens to the people today,” said

The tax delay is expected to save businesses a billion dollars over the next two years. Lawmakers hope the savings will be spent creating more jobs.

There is some good news to report on the job market tonight. The federal government is sending 200 million dollars to the state. The money will be given to businesses who hire Floridians living way below the poverty level. It’s expected to create 25-thousand jobs by year’s end.

House leadership is rushing legislation through the process that would exempt 911 calls from public records requests.

The legislation passed its only committee stop this morning after the Republican House Speaker stacked the vote. Representative Scott Randolph, a Democrat, voted against the legislation.

“Clearly the speaker’s office put enough emphasis on this bill that they wanted to ensure its passage by using a special rule to bring in an extra person from leadership,” said Randolph.

Speaker Larry Cretul reportedly promised the president of the Florida Farm Bureau he would pass the legislation. The president has sought a ban on the release of 911 tapes, after Orlando TV stations replayed calls made on behalf of his 16 –year old son, who allegedly overdosed on prescription drugs and alcohol last year.

State lawmakers hope to resolve a gaming deal sooner than later, so they’ll know whether or not they can use money from the deal to build the budget. Dennis Jones, the chairman of the Senate’s Regulated Industries committee says he’s working closely with his counter part in the House to get the gaming compact moving.

“We are going to try to move the issue up toward the center of the session not towards the end, and I’m hopeful we can come to an agreement this year, but again it’s simply a balancing act to make sure that one industry doesn’t trump the other,” said Jones

The original gaming compact gave exclusive rights to blackjack and other games to the Seminole Tribe. Lawmakers are trying to work out a deal that extends the deal to all Florida casinos.

The fighting continues to rage in the US Senate campaign, with more finger pointing and even some name calling. Today Governor Charlie Crist took shots at former House Speaker Marco Rubio. Crist called Rubio on the carpet for securing more than 200 million state dollars for his district during his time as speaker… accusing his opponent of pork-barrel spending.

“Sounds like a Porkus Rubio to me. That’s a lot of pork and that’s a lot of money and you know that’s why it’s nice to be able to, when you’re elected governor, to have a veto pen,” said Crist.

Crist vetoed millions in spending earmarked for Rubio’s district. Crist’s attacks come as Rubio releases his first TV ad.

The troubled Dozier School for Boys in the Florida Panhandle has survived a hundred years of scandals, but as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the school’s time may be finally running out.

The Dozier School is Florida’s home for the worst of the worst juvenile offenders, and maybe managers too. Problems date back to the early 1900’s when fire killed inmates in a locked dorm. More recently a group of inmates known as the White House Boys alleged beatings and death.

“I want somebody to pay the price for the brutality,” 1964 Dozier School resident Patrick Hallinan said.

There have been six superintendents in 8 years. Now the state senator in charge of the school’s budget is issuing an ultimatum.

“The message has been strongly sent to the Department of Juvenile Justice that they need to clean that place up, they need to do it immediately, or we will immediately shut it down,” Senator Victor Crist (R-Tampa) said.

Even Governor Charlie Crist thinks the school’s time may have passed.

“I want to make sure we do the right thing instead of just what sounds good for the day,” Governor Crist said. “So, I think the legislature is smart to give it a thorough review.”

One question is what to do with the 100-plus offenders. State Prison is an option.

That state has even considered privatizing the Dozier school. But nobody was interested, because nobody wants to deal with managing the worst of the worst.

Victor Crist says some institution is likely to remain on the site.

“It could be reopened as a Department of Corrections facility,” Senator Crist said. “Because it does employ over 200 people in that small town.”

But in the end, finding a new home for the worst, coupled with a troubling economy, may be enough to give the trouble school yet another lease on life.

The state spends about 10 million dollars a year to run the school…or about 100 thousand dollars for each of the institutions troubled inhabitants.

The race for Governor is heating up over who is or isn’t fighting fraud in the Medicaid program. CFO Alex Sink is suggesting her likely GOP opponent, Attorney General Bill McCollum, isn’t doing his job. McCollum says he is.

“Well, it’s estimated that we have as much as three billion dollars in Medicaid fraud, right here in Florida,” CFO Sink said. “And it’s about time that the Attorney General step up and do his job and go after this fraud.”

“I just reported $198 million in recoveries just this past year,” McCollum said. “That’s the record high number of dollar amounts that have been recovered and we’ve had steady increasing convictions, so those kinds of reports were highly inaccurate.”

Governor Charlie Crist had tough words for his US Senate opponent today. Crist is calling into question why the former House Speaker had the Republican Party pay for his car insurance when his minivan was damaged at a political event. He is also wondering if the IRS should be looking into the spending.

“The issue is whether or not the people can trust the speaker to spend their money wisely. I mean, clearly, they can’t,” Crist said. “I mean, who goes to a Republican party event, says they get their minivan dinged up, and then they have the party pay for their insurance. Doesn’t everybody carry insurance? You know, whether it was Breyman Motors or the Speaker himself, why does he have the party pay for his insurance? They don’t pay for mine.”

Reporter: Should Rubio have reported this stuff on his personal income taxes?

“Look, I’m not a tax lawyer so I’ll leave that to others to decide, but it strikes me as odd,” he said. “You know he says he repaid $16,000, then another $3,000 for the flights. You know, I don’t understand, number one, how you pay for that when you say your net worth is only eight grand, and where you’re getting the money to do it, number two. And if you had that money that was for your personal benefit, then I think the IRS would want to know about that.”

New polls show the Governor falling further behind among GOP primary voters.

It’s open season on Burmese Pythons. Starting this week anyone with a Florida hunting license and 26 dollars can register with the state to kill the snakes. As Whitney Ray tells us, the war to rid the state of non-native reptiles is being fought on two fronts: in the wild, and at the state capitol.

Since last August a team of about a dozen hunters began tracking down Burmese pythons, recording their age, size and location… then killing the reptiles. Now, anyone with a hunting license, a management land permit and a gun can join the fight.

“We hope they can bag as many as they can see,” said FWC Spokesman Tony Young.

Florida Fish and Wildlife is opening up three state managed lands in South Florida to eager hunters. So far more than 60 have shown interest. The snake meat is too toxic to eat, but FWC Spokesman Tony Young says the hunters can cash in on their kill.

“Just like alligator and crocodile products, python skin and hide makes very good products like that; boots, belts, wallets, shoes,” said Young.

The hunt began Monday and this might be the best time to hunt snakes because the cooler weather is bringing the pythons out of hiding and into the open to warm their bodies in the sun. The hunt lasts until April 17th but state senator Eleanor Sobel says with thousands of snakes threatening the ecosystem more needs to be done.

“Hunting is one tool in the tool box, but we really need to turn off the spicket,” said Sobel.

Sobel is sponsoring legislation to ban buying selling or owning Burmese pythons and five other reptiles the state has identified as reptiles of concern.

If the legislation passes the ban would go into effect July 1st. People who bought and registered one of the reptiles of concern before then would be allowed to keep their pets.

Quick Facts: Reptiles of Concern
• Indian or Burmese python
• Reticulated python
• Amethystine or Scrub python
• Green anaconda
• Nile monitor lizard

Quick Facts: Hunting Rules
Hunt lasts through April 17th.
Hunters can only kill snakes on the three South Florida wildlife managed lands, from 30 minutes before sunrise until 30 minutes after sunset.
Snakes must be killed.
All kills have to be reporter to the FWC with in 36 hours.
For more information: For More information on the hunt go to www.myfwc.com/roc or call 866-392-4286

Every year in Florida insurance companies lose 100’s of millions of dollars to fraudulent sinkhole claims. Legislation to cut down on insurance fraud would help companies curb their losses by limiting the amount of money they’re on the hook for, but as Whitney Ray tells us, the idea isn’t very popular, because it could leave people with real claims hurting.

Mandatory sinkhole coverage was eliminated in 2008, because many people couldn’t afford it and some people where scamming the system.

“Many people were not getting the sinkholes fixed. They would just take the money and run. Many of them bragged about going to North Carolina and buying property up there,” said State Senator Mike Fasano.

Earlier this year sinkholes damaged dozens of Florida homes. Estimated insurance claims exceed 200-million dollars. Industry expert Bob Lotane says some of those claims will likely turn out to be false.

“A lot of people, often with the encouragement of trial lawyers or public adjusters, are filing claims that prove to be fraudulent,” said Lotane.

And every claim filed has to be investigated. Each sinkhole claim costs insurance companies about 10-thousand dollars because they have to hire a geologist to investigate.

Legislation helping insurance companies make up for losses by capping pay outs at 25 percent has been filed… Although now the sponsor says he’ll remove the cap from the bill. Lotane says legislation to fix the sinkhole fraud problem will likely appear before the end of session.

“A lot of these bills are starting point. Sometimes they don’t even pass and often they pass in a far different form,” said Lotane.

Under the plan, someone with 50-thousand dollars in damage would get just over 12 thousand dollars. The plan would only effect policies with extra coverage that pays for cracks and foundation problems caused by sinkholes. Homes that are swallowed up by sinkholes are cover under policies with basic coverage.