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FAMU students will be asked to sign a pledge tonight to end hazing. The pledge is part of a mandatory meeting scheduled for 6:30, to address a culture of hazing that may have lead to the death of FAMU drum major Robert Champion. As Whitney Ray tells us, students willing to speak on camera today think this forum will make a difference and could help change campus culture.

Since the death of FAMU Drum Major Robert Champion, students have noticed a change on campus.

“There is a weird vibe to FAMU, and I felt it. I talked to other students and they felt the same way. The vibe has definitely changed,” said FAMU Junior Jamie Shute.

“It’s sad and FAMU has a lot on its plate right now,” said Carl Pierre.

The band director has been fired and four students have been suspended while police continue to investigate what role hazing played in Champion’s death.

Many students are keeping their lips closed about hazing. This sophomore, agreed to be interviewed then walked away in the middle of our first question.

“I’ll be right back.”

A mandatory forum was called by FAMU’s Student Government for Monday night.

This is where the anti-hazing forum will be held, but there aren’t enough seats in the stadium for every FAMU student, so the student government is asking for at least one member of ever on campus organization to attend.

Governor Rick Scott didn’t give a direct answer when we asked if he is satisfied with the actions the school is taking.

“I’ve had kids go off to college and I expect them to come back, alive with an education where they can go get a job. I don’t expect something like this to happen,” said Scott.

The student government association can’t punish students who don’t go, but there will be sanctions on organization that don’t send at least one member. Tune in at 11:00 for a full report on tonight’s anti-hazing forum.

BP could be fined billions of dollars for the 2010 oil spill that hurt gulf coast businesses. Tonight there’s friction over how that money should be spent. A Congressional Hearing on the Restore Act is scheduled for Wednesday. The act would require 80 cents of every dollar to be spent restoring the coast. Jackie Roberts with the Environmental Defense Fund says spending the money on gulf coast restoration would create jobs in Florida.

“It’s BP penalties that will actually be reinvested in ecosystem restoration in the region. There are about 60 firms in Florida. Places like Jacksonville, Tampa, Tallahassee that are involved in this industry,” said Jackie Roberts.

The fines are expected to bring in between five and 21 billion dollars. Some members of congress want to use the money to pay off debt. But supporters of gulf coast restoration point to a new Duke University study that says ever million dollars spent on restoration would create 20 jobs.

Florida law on drug possession is on trial tomorrow at the Florida Supreme Court. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, the case is on an extraordinarily fast track in the state judicial system and the outcome of dozens of cases is at stake.

21-year-old Luke Atkins was threatening suicide on June 11th of this year. His mother called police. Deputies disarmed the youth, then found a small amount of marijuana in his pocket. Adkins has become the unlikely poster child for a court case on the fast track.

At issue is a 2002 Florida law that says being in possession of drugs is a crime, whether you knew you had the drugs or not. Legal scholars say the law ignores basic constitutional rights.

“The person could be arrested, prosecuted, and put in jail for the rest of their life for believing they were doing a friend a favor,” Randal Marshall with the Florida ACLU said.

The legal term in the case is mens rea…or evil mind. The legal principle says you must have intended to violate the law. All 20 of the state’s prosecutors, including 26 year veteran Willie Meggs, are fighting to keep the law, less intent, on the books.

“Well certainly if you have in your sock or in your trouser pocket contraband, to wit, drugs, then you know you have those things there, so knowledge will be inferred,” Meggs said.

More than 40 criminal cases are gone if the Florida Supreme Court says the law is unconstitutional.

Meggs says in 26 years, he’s never prosecuted someone who lacked the intent to commit a crime. But lawyers fighting the law say depending on the government’s good will isn’t enough when basic constitutional rights are at stake.

The importance of the case is evident in the time line. Arrested in mid June, Adkins case was thrown out of court in September. Three months later it is before the states highest court.

Frustrated with the job hunt, and the lack of career opportunities, more Floridians are opening their own businesses. The fastest growing startup businesses in Florida are food trucks. As Whitney Ray tells us, the industry grew by 10 percent last year.

Red velvet waffles and fried chicken are a winning combination for these FAMU graduates turned entrepreneurs. But this is no ordinary kitchen and they aren’t ordinary cooks.

“I have a degree in public relations and a masters in marketing,” said Kianta Key.

“I’m in the Army so after I graduated I went to engineering school,” said Jonathan Sellers.

The idea for the Cravings Food truck was born at the height of the recession after Kianta Key and Jonathan Sellers finished their degrees and were job hunting.

“I graduated in 2009, it was kind of like the zenith of the recession,” said Key.

“Sometimes the most innovative ideas come up when there are no options left,” said Sellers.

They scraped together money Jonathan saved for a house and raided Kianta’s graduate school fund. And now 15 months into their business venture, they’ve created a band of loyal followers. This crowd gathered long before they opened the serving window on the truck.”

Cravings is just one of a growing number of food truck businesses in Florida. There are about 3-thousand statewide, up 10 percent from a year ago. The Department of Business and Professional Regulation is tracking the surge in licensing applications.

“Although we want these businesses to develop we want to make sure they play by the rules and know the rules,” said DBPR Secretary Ken Lawson.

Business has grown so much that, next Friday, food trucks from around the state will drive to Tallahassee to participate in Florida’s first ever Mobile Food Vendor Fair. Mobile food vendors now make up six percent of all the Food Service Licenses issued by DBPR. The department is required to check the safety and sanitation of the trucks before issuing their owner a license.

A national leader in the Missionary Baptist Church is calling for a national task force to end hazing at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The call comes two weeks after the hazing related death of FAMU drum major Robert Champion. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, Governor Rick Scott, when asked, did not offer support to FAMU President James Ammons.

Paster O. Jermaine Simmons confides that he was hazed a dozen years ago because he was not strong enough to resist.

“Not one time did I call home and say, Daddy, they’re hazing me,” Simmons said/ “Because I wanted to fit in! There’s a negative stigma, unfortunately, on individuals who were not hazed, who were not initiated the “right” way.”

Now, Simmons and other Black Pastors say they must reach the young in their congregations to give them the strength to say no.

“Our people understand that hazing must stop, and it must stop now and forever,” Rev. R.B. Holmes, pastor of Bethel Church, said.

Historically Black College Presidents from Georgia, South Carolina, Jacksonville and Miami will work to unveil an anti hazing educational plan by Martin Luther King’s birthday in January.

At the state capitol, Governor Rick Scott says he is anxious to hear from the Florida Board of Governors about anti hazing plans across the state.

“No one anticipates going off, sending their child off to school and having any pressure like this,” Scott said.

But when asked if he supported the efforts for FAMU President James Ammons in the wake of Drum Major Robert Champion’s death, Scott declined to answer.

FAMU Trustees meet for the first time since the drum major’s death next week in Orlando. But nowhere in this lengthy agenda is there a mention of Robert Champion.

The board has a closed door session with attorneys where the case could come up. Robert Champion’s death could also be discussed during a report by the University President.

FAMU students are being called to a mandatory meeting Monday evening to talk about the hazing death. They will be urged to sign anti hazing pledges.

“Drive sober or get pulled over” is the motto of Florida law enforcement this holiday season. The Highway Patrol said at a news conference today it will hold DUI checkpoints and have roving teams of officers looking for drunk drivers. Also at the news conference was Tracey Chance, whose sister Kelley was killed earlier this year by a drunk driver. Chance says no one has a right to drive under the influence.

“As individuals, we need to look deep inside ourselves, at our values and morals, and really put them to work when we choose to drink,” Chance said “We have to say, my life and someone else’s life is too valuable to take a chance.”

The FHP says one in three deaths is a result of drunk or drugged driving. During the 2010 holiday season, 56 people died on Florida roads, 20 of which were drug or alcohol related.

Florida escaped another hurricane season unscathed. The 2011 season ended at midnight last night, marking six consecutive hurricane free years in Florida. So property insurance rates should be dropping… right? Wrong!!! As Whitney Ray tells us, not only are rates rising, but policyholders are still paying for the damage from the 2004, 2005 hurricane seasons.

In 2004 and 2005, eight hurricanes ripped through Florida causing more than 55 billion dollars in damage.

Stephanie Wilson was in her late teens and living in Tallahassee when the chaos began.

“A lot of like trees and debris were on some of the back roads. Not the main roads,” said Wilson.

Tallahassee was spared and so was Stephanie’s family and home. But now, six years later, she’s paying for the damage.

“I don’t think it’s fair,” said Wilson.

Because Citizens Property Insurance didn’t have enough money to cover its losses, so the state ordered emergency assessments on all policyholders. Stephanie pays about 10 bucks a year in assessments on her car policy.

The average assessment on a policy for a 150-thousand dollar house runs between 20 and 30 dollars a year. The payments are due through 2017, but they could get higher if another storm hits.

A category four or five in a large city could raise assessments to 450 dollars a year. To avoid that scenario insurance experts say drastic changes to Citizens have to be made.

“We have to get our policymakers to make the hard choices and change the laws, otherwise it’s just a ticking time bomb and it’s going to blow up eventually,” said NAIFA Spokesman Bob Lotane.

Plans to shed 75-hundred of Citizens most expensive policies are in the works, but it may not be enough to significantly lower the risk to all Florida policyholders. The governor and state cabinet will hear the plans to drop the most expensive Citizens policies at next Tuesday’s cabinet meeting. Citizens denied our request for an interview to discuss the proposed changes.

A group of environmentalists is suing the state and asking everyone else to take a slime tour.

Earthjustice filed a lawsuit against the Florida Department of Environmental Protection today claiming not enough is being done to protect waterways. Part of their evidence can be found online through an interactive map the group is calling a slime tour. The map shows pictures of green rivers throughout the state. David Guest, the group’s attorney says the pictures help tell the story.

“Functionally what you have here is, we have toxic slime outbreaks and green colored water all over the state,” said Guest.

The slime tour can be found at http://goo.gl/N7kVI.

Four Florida A&M Students have been suspended as a result of the hazing death of drum major Robert Champion. Champion was buried Wednesday near Atlanta. Today, the 9-1-1 call surrounding his death was released and at least two other  band members have said they were hazed.

Authorities have released the chilling 9-1-1 call made the day FAMU Drum Major Robert Champion Died in Orlando following an alleged hazing incident. the voice on the tape appears to be band director Julian White: “He’s not even…he’s responding a little…he’s not responding…we thought he was breathing, he was making noises. I don’t even know if he’s breathing now,” the voice says. the call lasted several minutes.

A letter from University President James Ammons to trustees says he has expelled four students in conjunction with the incident. Students on campus were surprised but many refused comment.

Tallahassee police have released A heavily redacted report showing FAMU band member Bria Hunter identified two attackers in a hazing that left her thigh fractured.

The alleged hazing began in this apartment complex in mid September. It was reported to police twelve days before Robert Champion died.

Hunters parents told WXIA in Atlanta what band director Julian White said..had there been swift action by university officials…“Robert Champion may well be alive now,” says White.

And another set of parents in West Palm beach told WPTV that their daughter was injured in a 2007 band hazing incident that was reported. “She had three fractures and she was stomped,” says former band parent Vonda Carson.

Finally, Governor Rick Scott is asking all University Presidents to reevaluate their anti hazing policies. “Let’s look at their hazing policies. Let’s make sure. We don’t want anything like this to happen,” Scott told reporters in Orlando.

A campus wide meeting on hazing is tentatively scheduled at FAMU next week.

In addition to asking each University to review its hazing policies, the Governor is also asking Chancellor Frank Brogan to determine if the actions taken by FAMU have been appropriate.