Welcome to

In an effort to give the unemployed hope, lawmakers are moving a bill to rename the state’s unemployment program the re-employment assistance program. As Whitney Ray tells us, the bill’s sponsor says changing the name will change the psyche of Florida’s jobseekers.

With a unanimous vote, unemployment benefits in Florida came one step closer to extinction. But it’s not the money for jobseekers that is going away, just the name.

Representative Doug Holder is moving legislation to rename the state’s unemployment compensation program the Re-Employment Assistance Program. He says changing the name will change the outlook of the unemployed.

“I think that re-employment certainly is a more positive word,” said Holder.

The idea for the legislation came straight from Governor Rick Scott and supporters say switching the focus from unemployment to reemployment will have a positive impact. But not everyone is buying it.

“Changing the name doesn’t make a hill of beans of difference to the unemployed,” said Woodall.

Karen Woodall, the director of the Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy, isn’t opposed to the name change. She just wants to make sure the transition doesn’t keep people from claiming benefits.

The fear is someone who just lost their job will search the web for unemployment benefits and come up empty.

The state is already working to fix that problem. The bill’s sponsor says by the time the name is changed, an internet search for unemployment will direct seekers to the state’s re-employment website. There were talks of amending the bill to include a reduction of the state’s unemployment compensation tax, but as of now the tax reduction bill will have to stand on it’s own.

A battle of two ticket giants is heating up in Tallahassee.

TicketMaster wants more control over how paperless tickets are resold. StubHub wants customers to have the freedom to resell as they please. Today Greg Gunlach, a professor of marketing at the University of North Florida was in Tallahassee to support a bill that would ban companies from placing restriction on the resell of paperless tickets.

“The real issues surround the restrictions associated with paperless ticketing. The American Anti-Trust Institute, along with my research, focuses on those types of restrictions and how they limit competition, consumer choice and welfare in the market place,” said Gunlach.

Opponents of the bill say placing more controls on how paperless tickets are resold cuts down on scalping and counterfeiting

A bill to allow lawmakers to privatize any function of state government without justifying the move emerged this week in Tallahassee.

The bill comes after last year’s plan to privatize 18 state prisons was ruled unconstitutional. To legally privatize a government function under current law, a cost-benefits analysis must be conducted. Police Benevolent Association spokesman Matt Puckett says this bill eliminates the analysis.

“There is a deliberated process in place to make sure that before we privatize we have all the facts and we are making an informed decision. This guts that. There is no reason to do it. Nothing has changed. And we are adamantly opposed to that,” said Puckett.

The bill was introduced alongside a renewed effort to privatize the prisons lawmakers were unsuccessful in outsourcing last year.

Citizens Insurance is making more than a dozen changes, lowering coverages and increasing deductibles, to reduce risk. The company also announced today that the insurer of last resort will transfer 17 thousand policies to a private insurer in February, but as Mike Vasilinda tells us, higher rates may be the only thing that can keep the insurer solvent.

Citizens began 2012 with just under a million and a half policies.That is about twice the number of policies that should be expected for an insurer of last resort.

To make private insurance more attractive, deductibles are going up and insurance limits are going down. No longer will Citizens insure a home for more than a million dollars.

“The challenge of shrinking Citizens requires a dedicated and continuing effort to identify ways to reduce our exposure and policy count,” Scott Wallace, retiring Citizens chairman, said.

Legislation is being considered to lower the assessments that could be passed on to every Floridian if a major storm were to hit the state. Those assessments could cost average homeowners an extra 12 hundred dollars a year. But lowering them means paying more now.

The Citizens changes are almost certainly going to end up with higher bills in mailboxes, and the Governor who usually opposes raising costs, says this one is necessary.

“I have a house on the beach,” Governor Scott said. “I don’t believe that anyone should subsidize my property insurance. I made the decision to do that.”

In supporting higher Citizens rates, the Governor says its the classic case of pay me now or pay me later.

“We do want to make sure people can get insurance that people can afford,” Scott said.

In March, Citizens will also propose eliminating some coverages and requiring inspections on 30 year-old homes.

“I’d go back to my experience of working with supervisors in the past. They have the heavy burden of running the elections; it’s their responsibility. They are very talented, very resourceful, and I look forward to having a partnership with them, supporting them in anyway I can, and having a good election.”

The state is losing half a billion dollars a year to corporations moving their profits to subsidiary companies in other states with lower taxes. Another half a billion is escaping the state’s clutches through sales tax exemptions on more than a hundred items and services. As Whitney Ray tells us, efforts by Democrats are underway to close the loopholes and exemptions to help balance the state budget.

Surrounded by nurses, union members and small business owners, Senate Minority Leader Nan Rich explains how some businesses skirt Florida’s tax laws.

“Retailers escape their state tax obligations by transferring profits to certain types of subsidiaries set up in states that don’t tax certain types of income,” said Rich.

Democrats are pushing two bills that would allow the state to capture half a billion dollars a year being lost through corporate tax loopholes.

“For too long the corporations that benefit from the state have not paid their fair share and for too long ordinary people have been asked to bare too much of the burden,” said Rich.

The bill faces a tough battle in the Republican controlled House and Senate. Governor Rick Scott says no matter how you look at it, it’s a tax increase.

“That’s somebody’s money, and whether it comes from an individual or comes from a company, that takes money out of the economy,” said Scott.

Supporters of the bill say there’s another half a billion dollars being lost every year on items and services the state doesn’t tax. They include everything from bottled water to limousine rides. Representative Mark Pafford says the exemptions overwhelmingly benefit the rich.

“It’s a matter of reviewing more exemptions for skyboxes verses milk on a families table. It’s about fairness,” said Pafford.

The state is facing a two billion dollar budget shortfall. Eliminating the loopholes and exemptions would cut the deficit in half. Democrats didn’t name names at today’s news conference, but say mostly multi-state corporations use the loopholes and they put small Florida businesses at a disadvantage.

A four day bike tour ended at the state capitol today to raise awareness for cancer research. Four of the cyclists are cancer survivors.

The other bikers work at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. The center is hoping state lawmakers don’t cut research funding this session. Researcher Richard Lush says Moffitt needs the money to continue its search for a cure.

“One in every two American men and one out of every three American women are going to have a diagnosis of cancer in their lifetime. So you are looking at worst, one third of our population that are going to be affected by these diseases,” said Lush.

Moffitt will be competing with hundreds of other special interest groups this legislative session for a shrinking pie. The state budget is down two billion dollars.

State lawmakers are continuing their search for ways to improve STEM education. STEM is an acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Today the presidents of UCF and USF told the House Education Committee how to improve STEM at their schools. Last week the committee heard a plan to charge more for STEM degrees in order to hire better professors. USF president Judy Genshaft says it’s a decent idea as long as low income students aren’t priced out of those degrees.

“If they could make some accommodation for those students then that is fine with me. We just have to be careful for those who are on Pell Grants,” said Genshaft.

UCF’s president John Hitt told committee members one way to encourage more students to pursue STEM degrees is to make Bright Futures pay more to students taking those classes.

Just a few months after a judge threw out legislative plans to privatize 18 prisons in South Florida, the proposal is back in front of lawmakers. The Senate Rules Committee reviewed privatization legislation today. Governor Rick Scott says if lawmakers following the traditional legislative steps to privatize the prisons they have his support.

“If you can have somebody else do a portion of your job more efficiently or at a better price you ought to be looking at that, but I haven’t seen that bill,” said Scott.

Last year’s privatization plan was ruled unconstitutional in September because they were passed using proviso language in the 2011 state budget.

Governor Rick Scott has picked a replacement for Secretary of State Kurt Browning. Browning tendered his resignation last week. Today Scott named Ken Detzner to replace him. Detzner served as interim secretary of state in 2003. He’s a beer lobbyist but says he’s willing to look over Florida’s elections.
Detzner will take over Feb 17th, after the presidential primary.

State Senators began debating senate and congressional voting maps on the chamber floor today. The once a decade redistricting task is catching extra attention this year because of new constitutional amendments requiring the districts be draw without favoring the party in power. As Whitney Ray tells us, the maps are expected to draw court challenges after the legislature passes them.

District three on the current Senate district map stretches from Tallahassee to Citrus County. District 27 runs from the Atlantic to the Gulf. On the new senate map districts are more compact and fewer counties and cities are split in two.

The reason: in 2010, Florida voters cast ballots to end gerrymandering, the practice of drawing districts to ensure the party in power wins more elections.

“It’s obvious that amendment five made a difference,” said Senator John Thrasher.

Lawmakers must redraw the house, senate and congressional voting maps ever 10 years. The current senate map drawn in 2002 leaves only 22 counties whole. The new map keeps 36 counties intact.

The state House and Senate maps have to be reviewed by the Florida Supreme Court and it’s likely the congressional map will end up here as well. Democrat Maria Sachs says even though the maps look more compact, but that’s not necessarily the case.

“It’s going to end up in the courts and that is probably where it should be,” said Sachs.

Senate Redistricting Chairman Don Gatez says this has been the most transparent reapportionment process in the state’s history.

“June 6th was the first of 32 times this committee has invited proposals from these groups and from Floridians,” said Gaetz

A new report shows Florida’s 18 to 29 year olds vote less often, are less engaged in their communities and volunteer less than young adults in other states or other age groups in Florida. The study was published by the Florida Joint Center for Citizenship, the Lou Frey Institute of Politics and Government at the University of Central Florida, the Bob Graham Center for Public Service at the University of Florida. As Mike Vasilinda tells us a new voting law may make it harder to turn the situation around.

Florida’s millennial generation, those 18 to 29 are voting less than the same age group nationally and are less involved politically and in civic endeavors than young adults in other states or older age groups in Florida.

The Florida Civic Health Index is a study by Former US Senator Bob Graham’s Center for Public Service and the Lou Frey Institute of Politics, among others.

“We found that Florida was 46th out of the 50 states in terms of its indicators of good citizenship,” says Graham.

The Report shows that besides voting, political action among Florida’s young adults is almost non existent. Involvement by students at Florida State runs the gamut: We talked to five students with five very different responses:

“Just this weekend there was a show with a bake sale going on, bringing people together.
“for this girl with Leukemia. We made about nine hundred dollars this weekend.”
“Ah…do I have to answer the question.”
Do you volunteer, do anything else? “ah…no.”
“I join clubs.”

But New legislation under court challenge makes it harder to register to vote or work to register others. Bob Graham says the law won’t encourage millennial’s to get more involved. “I think that’s going in the wrong direction. And that bill, unfortunately, particularly will affect the 18 to 29 year olds,” says the former Governor and US Senator.

One bright spot in the Report: Race is not as significant in determining civic engagement among 18 to 29 year olds as it is in older age groups.

The four levels of involvement measured in the latest study include. registering to vote, voting, non electoral political engagement such as going to meetings or meeting with elected officials, joining a group, and volunteering in the community.

Restoring the Everglades and a summit on water policy was the focus of a lunch and afternoon panel that included US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Governor Rick Scott, legislative leaders and Former US Senator Bob Graham. Funding for restoration was cut dramatically last year and decision making sent to Tallahassee. Bob Graham says the focus for the day was public awareness of why the Everglades need to function.

“The Everglades took some heavy shots at the 2011 session. What we are trying to do today is educate people about the consequences of those, ask the legislators not to do any more damage, and to consider reversing some of the decisions” says Graham.

Graham and others also want to resume land purchases for water reclamation that were halted when the economy soured. The state is in the process of potentially selling some properties and using the money to buy more environmentally sensitive lands.

Nine people arrested last November for voter fraud in rural Madison county, 50 miles east of the state capitol, filed a lawsuit today alleging excessive force, intimidation, and false arrest. All nine are accused of altering absentee ballots in a school board race won buy a black woman over a white man. Attorney Benjamin Crump represents one of those arrested and says the arrests have nothing to do with voter fraud.

“The real fraud is in disenfranchising peoples right to vote and conducting investigations in which elderly women are harassed and intimidated with guns pointed at them, and coerced to provide statements. This doesn’t have anything to do with voter protection.  Again, I tell you, this is about voter suppression.”

Judy Crumitie is one of those facing four counts of voter fraud. “I was just trying to vote. Like Martin Luther King, and like the civil rights wanted us to do. But I was arrested by FDLE; they come into my house with a gun, and arrest me. I was scared. I didn’t know it was against the law to vote.”

The NAACP is involved in the case and points out that only absentee ballots for the black female candidate were scrutinized by law enforcement. They say votes for the white candidate should have also been examined.

Should college students who major in more expensive subjects like chemistry, engineering and technological fields pay higher tuition? It’s a question being asked of lawmakers by leading state university administrators. As Whitney Ray tells us, the idea is being considered as a way to help fund state schools losing public money.

STEM, an acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics, is the focus of the state’s plan to improve education and the workforce. The governor and business leaders want more students to pursue STEM degrees, but paying for those degrees may soon cost more.

FSU’s President Eric Barron has been telling lawmakers, charging STEM students more could raise money and the quality of higher education.

“I think this is a good market based argument without a cost to the state,” said Barron.

UF’s President is echoing Barron’s sentiments. The House Education Committee is taking heed.

“We’re not the only state going after STEM. There is going to be competition for people capable of teaching it, for graduate students participating in it,” said Committee Chairman Bill Proctor.

Under the plan science and engineering degrees would cost more than English and history degrees, mainly because the equipment is more expensive and hiring the top professors in those fields costs more.

We caught up with students at a Martin Luther King rally at the state capitol Monday. They say raising the cost of those courses would discourage students from pursuing those degrees in Florida.

“I think that really we should be rewarding people entering those types of professions because they have been dominated by non-Americans,” said Byron Morrison, a senior at FAMU.

The degree based tuition plan comes after four straight years of double digit tuition increases and a 17 percent drop in state funding for public universities. This week presidents of the remaining nine state universities will testify before house and senate committees about ways to improve higher education in Florida.

A few hundreds students, community leaders and elected officials marched to the state capitol today to celebrate Martin Luther King Day.

Participates carried banners and sang protest songs. Jeremy Speak marched and says today is a day to remember the sacrifices men and women have made for equal rights.

“Today’s march is a symbol of Dr. Martin Luther King and all he’s done for the African-American culture, minorities and just bringing about civil-equality to everybody,” said Speak.

Groups used the event to register voters. Organizers of the event say to keep the dream alive, minorities need to have there voices heard at the polls.