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Black state lawmakers gathered at the capitol today to proclaim changes to Florida’s election laws won’t keep them from voting.

The new law shortens the number of early voting days from 14 to 8 and eliminates one Sunday from the voting period. In 2008 Souls to the Polls campaigns took thousand of black voters from church to the ballot box. Senator Arthenia Joyner says even though there are few days to vote, black Floridians won’t be discouraged.

“We are aware of the fact that there is a premeditated design by some folks to suppress the vote in the black community and consequently we are not going to let that happen,” said Joyner.

The black leaders are hoping to win court challenges against the new election law, but say regardless of what happens, the black vote will remain a factor in Florida.

Governor Rick Scott is meeting with military leaders in DC today. This comes amid a growing concern that some Florida bases could be shut down due to federal budget cuts. We caught up with Lt. Governor Jennifer Carroll at the Florida Defense Task Force today. She says she and Scott are working an aggressive plan to make sure bases in Florida remain open.

“This is his first time meeting with the services and making sure they see who the governor of the state of Florida is. It’s an introductory thing, and it’s building that relationship we will need if we end up going down the road for another BRAC,” said Carroll.

BRAC is an acronym often used by the military which means Base Realignment and Closure. The military is considering closing some bases when the new federal budget year begins October 1st. Carroll doesn’t expect any Florida bases to be shut down.

A Senate Committee is giving the go ahead to a plan to provide tax breaks to taxi companies that buy equipment to make their cabs more wheelchairs accessible. The bill originally called for all cab companies to make a certain percentage of their fleet accessible to people with disabilities. It was scaled back to incentivize instead of punish cab drivers. State Senator Andy Gardiner says the bill is better now.

“Sales tax credit for companies that actually purchase these vehicles is a good, good thing. That is how you incentives,” said Gardiner.

The bill also requires the state to conduct a study to see how many people are unable to catch a cab, because the vehicles don’t meet their needs.

The Florida Supreme Court will decided if police can continue to ticket drivers with loud stereos. Right now an officer can pull a driver over if their music is “plainly audible” 25 feet from their car. As Whitney Ray tells us, a Pinellas County attorney is challenging a ticket he received in 2007 in front of the state’s highest court.

State law says music is too loud if it’s “plainly audible” from 25 feet away. In 2007, Pinellas County Attorney Richard Catalona was caught with his stereo turned up. He challenged the ticket and won.

“The problem is it means whatever the officer says it means. When you get laws like that you’ve got a major problem,” said Catalona.

Catalona’s case made it all the way to the Florida Supreme Court, where Thursday he stood 25 feet from the justices and asked.

“Am I plainly audible now?”

The state augured the law is meant to protect drivers who may not here emergency sirens if their music is too loud.

“What the legislature has done is draw a statute and try to draw lines based upon what would be unsafe, what level of noise inside the car would be unsafe,” said Timothy Osterhaus, attorney for the state.

The justices listened to the case for 45 minutes. If they side with Catalona look for roadways to get even louder. The law exempts political speech or business ads from the 25 feet rule if the speakers playing the messages are on the outside of the vehicle. The court could issue a ruling anytime or not at all.

Florida may soon have a 12th public university.

A senate committee today gave the go ahead to language in the state budget to split the USF Lakeland campus in half and give Florida Polytechnic independent status. State Senator Steve Oelrich is on the committee that approved the language today. Oelrich doesn’t like that the senate wants to create an entire new university with budget language. The issue is next scheduled to be heard in Senator JD Alexander’s committee. Alexander is the champion of the issue. Today we asked Alexander about the issue moving forward. He told us he has nothing to say about it.

About 9-thousand drivers blow by school bus stop signs every year in Florida.

Their carelessness puts children’s lives at risk. State Senator Oscar Braynon has a plan to cut down on the number of stop sign runners. Braynon filed a bill that would allow school districts to place cameras on the outside of buses to catch stop sign runners. He says 10 kids die every year in bus stop sign crashes.

“If we could just save one of those then I think this legislation is worth doing because all we are talking about is putting a camera on side of the bus to monitor people running stops signs, something you shouldn’t be doing anyway,” said Braynon.

Republicans in the House who oppose red light cameras, also oppose the bus camera bill. They have concerns about people’s privacy.

It’s been almost a year since the state launched a drug strike force to shut down pill mills. Since then nearly half a million pills have been seized by police. But the battle isn’t over. FDLE is drafting its 2012 pill crackdown plan in Orlando this week. State Senator Mike Fasano sponsored the pill mill legislation giving police more tools to shut down bad doctors. Fasano is glad his bill in getting drugs off the streets, but is waiting to see if it’s cutting down on Florida’s average of seven overdose deaths a day.

“Our goal has always been, with the legislation we’ve passed, with the prescription drug monitoring program, is to save lives,” said Fasano.

Since Fasano passed his bill which bans health clinics to operate pharmacies, applications for pharmacies have skyrocketed. FDLE says that’s where it will focus efforts in 2012 to stop prescription drug abuse.

Hundreds of teenage girls are being forced into prostitution right here in Florida. Their pimps work mostly undetected, because state laws are inadequate to stop human trafficking. This could soon change. As Whitney Ray tells us, lawmakers are pushing bills to allow the state to lock up human traffickers for life and protect victims who get caught selling sex.

Breaking the silence and throwing her weight behind reform efforts… Attorney General Pam Bondi spoke out Wednesday for the victims of human trafficking.

“We are unified in our resolve to make Florida a zero tolerance state for sex trafficking and human servitude,” said Bondi.

Hundreds of teenage girls are sold into slavery, right here in Florida.

They’re often lured away from home over the internet by older men who promise a better life, but once they get them away from their parents, their lives become a living hell.

A former sex slave shares her story via a video on stophumantrafficking.org.

“If you say something I am going to kill you. That is what he would tell me. He would get a knife and put it to my neck and say he was going to kill me,” she said.

The practice is more common in Miami, Tampa and Orlando, but FSU human rights expert Terry Coonan says more than a 100 sex slaves were rescued in Tallahassee.

“They kept them in a gated neighborhood and they actually trafficked them out at night. It was a delivery service,” Coonan said.

Police want to do more, but state laws are inadequate to deal with the problem. Legislation making human trafficking for sex or labor a first degree felony is moving through the process. There’s also a bill to create safe harbors for the victims.

“If that girl goes into jail, she’s not going to be rehabilitated. The person that’s bailing her out is going to be the person who got her into the mess to begin with,” said Senator Anitere Flores.

By protecting the victims, the bill’s sponsor says the state can catch more human traffickers, and with the increased penalties, possible lock them up for life. The legislation would also require anyone convicted of human trafficking to register as a sex offender, if they ever used force or cohesion to force someone into prostitution.

A planned flash mob stormed Governor Rick Scott’s office today… take a look.

The group Rick Makes Me Sick is made up of liberals and health care workers who say cuts to Florida’s Medicaid program will hurt all Floridians. Victor Sanchez traveled from Orlando to sing off-key in the governor’s office, so his message could be heard.

“We are worried about health care. We don’t want Rick Scott to privatize Medicaid, that’s what he wants to do. So we are here this morning to deliver a simple message that we are sick of him. We don’t want him to privatize any Medicaid,” said Sanchez.

Scott’s budget recommends cutting nearly 400 million state dollars from Medicaid, but it boosts education spending by a billion dollars. The group wants to see both health care and education funded at higher levels.

Legislation to give illegal immigrants instate tuition rates has Hispanic students rallying at the state capitol.

Today several students brought to Florida while they were toddlers and later graduated from Florida schools held signs outside the Senate chamber. Evelyn Rivera moved here from Columbia when she was three. She graduated high school in 2007. She can’t afford to take more than a couple of classes a semester.

“I should have finished my undergrad in 2011, but because of having to save up money and only being able to take three classes at a time, or one class at a time, I’ve just got to the point were I’m a sophomore,” said Rivera.

The students are facing an uphill battle. A similar bill that would have provided instate tuition to US citizens whose parents are illegal died in a senate committee last week. The students are vowing to stick it out till the end of session.

Fifteen prison chaplains from South Florida are asking the legislature to move forward with privatization plans.

The chaplains delivered letters to the House Speaker and Senate President today. Claudio Perez, president of South Florida Jail Ministries says privatizing the prisons will give faith groups more freedom to implement religious programs.

“The faith community is excited because everyone realizes it’s an important part of the rehabilitation of an inmate. That’s why our mission statement says restore inmates and families to psychological, social, physical and spiritual health,” said Perez.

Perez argues, competition will give private prisons more motivation to rehabilitate inmates. Opponents say private prisons will have less of a motive to rehabilitate inmates because inmates are customers and they’ll want them to keep coming back.

The man who volunteered support and legal representation to the Barahona twins is at the state capitol this week.

Valentine’s Day will mark one year since Nubia and Victor Barahona were brutally beaten and tortured, police say by their step dad. Nubia died, Victor is recovering. Paul Neumann, was the Guardian Ad Litem for both the children, but was take off their case months before Nubia died. He says the Guardian Ad Litem program needs more funding to help prevent another tragedy.

“There’s not nearly enough representation for all these kids. At one time there was, now it’s closer to half of all kids are represented,” said Neumann.

Guardian Ad Litems provide legal representation to Florida’s foster kids. The program has seen major cuts over the past few years. This year’s budgets leave funding at the current levels, but Neumann says the need has grown. Neumann is once again Victor’s guardian. He says the 10 year old has made a swift recovery.

Florida could soon become just the sixth state in the nation to encourage drug users to help overdose victims by promising not to prosecute them. The Florida Senate passed the legislation 38 to 0 this morning and as Mike Vasilinda tells us, sponsors hope the 9-1-1 Good Samaritan Act will save lives.

Two thousand four hundred twenty people died in Florida from accidental drug overdoses in 2010.

Now state lawmakers want to encourage those witnessing, or even doing drugs with someone who is overdosing to pick up the phone. The 9-1-1 Good Samaritan Act would prohibit police from charging someone with drug possession if the illicit substances were discovered in the course of responding to an overdose.

“What this tries to do is to prevent a panicky witness, who may be already under the influence, from picking up this person who is in need of medical assistance and getting him to the hospital,” bill sponsor Sen. Maria Sachs (D-Broward) said.

Police support the change. They say it will shift the emphasis of destroying a stash first to making a call for help.

“If anything, if it doesn’t encourage them to call 911, it will speed up the time they will take to call 911, because they are not disposing of their drugs,” Orange County Deputy Sheriff Capt. Mike Fewless said.

Sponsors are quick to point out this isn’t a get out of jail free card for drug dealers, but a free pass for Good Samaritans making the good call.

There are no statistics on arrests made at the scene of an overdose. House sponsor Mack Bernard says the law will make it easier for people to do the right thing.

“Would you prefer that somewhat had called 911, or that they left them in a bathtub to die?” Bernard said.

The number of drug overdose deaths is almost identical to the number of deaths on the highway.

New Mexico was the first state to pass the 9-1-1 Good Samaritan law in 2007. Since then, Alaska, Connecticut, New York and Washington State have enacted similar legislation.

A gap in Florida law is making it difficult for 17-year-olds who no longer live at home to live independently. They are called unaccompanied youth, and have either left home voluntarily or have been removed by the state. Because of their age, transferring custody to foster parents to help make decisions is difficult. Now legislation suggested by a former unaccompanied youth and brought to Tampa Representative Rick Glorioso is primed to pass. Sergio Valazquez says without the change, easing into adult hood will be more difficult for some kids.

“Being an unaccompanied youth, your parents are not going to pay, so the only way to afford college is financial aid,” youth advocate Sergio Velazquez said. “Other problems we face, signing a lease. Such a simple thing, you know, signing a lease for an apartment, setting up a base so you can live and sleep at night, is impossible because you do not have parental consent, a co-signer, so it’s all on you.”

The legislation was suggested as part of Rep. Glorioso’s annual “it ought to be a law” competition.

State lawmakers could vote to keep people from using food stamps to buy junk food. A bill to add candy, Coke and cookies to the list of items food stamps won’t cover has passed a senate committee. As Whitney Ray tells us, the bill is raising questions about how entitlements are being used.

An entire shelf in Ed and Joan Thomas’s discount grocery store is dedicated to sweets. Almost half the store’s customers pay with food stamps and sometimes the chips and candy bars end up in their shopping baskets.

“Candy bars, you can get them most of the time six for a dollar; gum 50 cents a pack,” said Joan.

This shelf could soon be off limits to people paying with food stamps. State Senator Ronda Storms is sponsoring legislation that would add junk food to the list of items not covered by the entitlement benefit.

“In these times when we are making all these cuts at the state level, the local level, the federal government. We are cutting back everywhere. Really, is it a high priority for us to buy people potato chips?” asks Storms.

Representative Mark Pafford calls the bill heavy handed.

“It’s certainly government going way too far in private family matters,” said Pafford.

The bill would also keep people who receive cash assistance on state issued debit cards from using those cards in liquor stores, strip clubs, and casinos.

Joan agrees the entitlement shouldn’t be used on gambling or boozing, but says for many of her customers buying a piece of candy for their children, goes a long way.

“When you have children how do you explain to them that you can’t have this candy because I can’t buy it with this,” said Joan.

Last year three million Floridians claimed five billion dollars in food stamps, which means the bill could face a lot of opposition as it goes through the process. Jello, Ice cream, pretzels, popcorn, popsicles, potato chips, donuts and cupcakes are just a few of the items that would be banned. But the junk food element of the bill may have to be eliminated in order to garner support to pass the measure.