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Money from a foreclosure settlement with the nation’s largest banks may not be used to help people who’ve lost their homes. This session state lawmakers are deciding how to use 400 million dollars of the settlement money. State Senator Darren Soto says about half the money lawmakers are planning to distribute won’t help the victims of the foreclosure crisis.

“It’s going primarily to general affordable housing programs, domestic violence issue and other things which are worthy goals, but these aren’t the folks who were affected by foreclosure,” said Soto.

Soto is asking budget chiefs in the House and the Senate to take a second look at how the money is being allocated in their spending plans.

Legislation to speed up executions in Florida is now speeding through the process. The bill would reduce the number of years inmates spend on death row by speeding up appeals and letting the governor and legislature review judges. As Whitney Ray tells us, there are more than 400 people currently on death row. Many will spend more than 20 years waiting to die.

Sentenced to die. Florida’s death row inmates spend an average of 13 years behind bars before they’re executed. Of the 406 inmates on death row, 155 have been there longer than 20 years.

“It should not take decades to deliver due process in these cases,” said Representative Matt Gaetz.

Legislation to speed up executions is now speeding through the Florida Legislature. The bill would streamline the appeals process and force judges to make quicker decisions.

“When there is an appeal of a post conviction motion the Supreme Court ought to be able to rule on that within 180 days. Now we sometimes have years pass before we get rulings,” said Gaetz.

The house and senate versions of the death row reform bill passed committees this week. Democrats say the reforms need further vetting.

“This product I think Ray Charles could see that it is defective right now. That it is not complete right now. Yeah Ray Charles,” said House Democrat Darryl Rouson.

“I love Ray Charles but if Ray Charles were to classify my product that I brought before the committee today as defective I would hope that he would be able to identify one defective piece of the product, not just merely classify it as defective,” said Rouson.

The legislation would also set up an oversight system for judges who don’t rule quickly in death cases. The judges would have to answer to the House Speaker, Senate President and the Governor.

Earlier this year a House Committee heard a bill that would have outlaw capital punishment in Florida. It was quickly voted down.

A bill to ban internet cafes is headed to the governor’s desk and it could be signed as early as next week banning the sweepstakes games immediately. As Whitney Ray tells us, the bill passed the full senate this afternoon over objections about unintended consequences of the legislation.

Just three weeks after investigators shutdown 51 internet cafes, state lawmakers passed a bill to outlaw all the sweepstakes businesses.

Caught in the controversy is Former Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll, who did consulting work for the alleged charity running the closed cafes.

“We saw millions and millions of dollars being embezzled by this stuff and we saw even the fall of the Lt. Governor as a result of this,” said Senator Darren Soto.

Lawmakers acted fast. Just two days after bust a bill to shut down the remaining one thousand cafes passed its first committee. Thursday afternoon it made its final appearance in the Florida Senate.

“Events obviously brought us to where we are today,” said Senator John Thrasher.

And as the debate raged on, question arose about the unintended consequences of the ban. Opponents are concerned about children’s games, adult arcades and even vending machines.

“Internet cafés are not senior amusement centers,” said Senator Maria Sachs.

Most of the opposition came from South Florida Democrats. They worry the ban is too broad and it will shut down adult arcades frequented by seniors.

“I’ve had numerous seniors coming into my office crying to me about changing our lifestyle. This, to me, should not be included in the bill,” said Senator Joseph Abruzzo.

The majority couldn’t be swayed. Now the bill is headed to the governor’s desk.

Internet cafes will be illegal the moment Governor Rick Scott signs the bill. Lawmakers say they already are outlawed; the legislation simply clarifies existing law. The bills’ sponsor says the ban won’t impact children’s arcades or adult arcades that are currently following the rules.

If someone in Florida steals your social security number or banking information right now it’s only a crime if prosecutors can prove intent to use the information. As Whitney Ray tells us, police in Florida are being forced to let fraudsters go because intent can be hard to prove.

A strange item to bring to school; a bag full of debit cards and different IDs.

“A six year old came to school during show-and-tell with a Ziploc baggie full of 52 debit cards and 52 different names,” said Captain Robert Ura with Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.

Thursday Ura told lawmakers the parents of the kid weren’t breaking the law.

“We were not able to charge the parents because as the law stands now the mere possession of 52 debt cards is not illegal. We have to show intent.”

The captain was testifying in support of a bill to criminalize the possession of other people’s IDs, banking numbers and tax information without consent.

If the bill becomes law a person caught with the personal information of up to four people could be charged with a misdemeanor. If they have five or more IDs, then they could be charged with a felony.

The bill makes exceptions for employers, parents and anyone else who has a right to have the information.

“This gives law enforcement the tools that they desperately need to stop identity theft in Florida,” said the bill’s sponsor, Representative Larry Ahern.

Ahern filed the legislation after a police chief showed him thousands of IDs discovered on shady characters.

“Beyond surprised, shocked, when he told me and showed me things, pictures of all the IDs they had found on people either during a traffic stop or drug bust,” said Ahern.

The bill quickly passed a House committee Thursday morning. An hour later a senate committee OKed the bill. The bill took off in the Senate after the sponsor watched a news report about the problems facing police dealing with ID thieves. As of today it’s passed a committee in both chambers and is on a fast track to reach the floor before the end of session.

Governor Rick Scott grabbed a spoon and helped dish out a Paella lunch for thousands of people at the state capitol today.

For the last 28 years, Miami Dade County businesses have funded the lunchtime event to draw attention to the culture of Miami Dade. The Paella was the brainchild of Chef Bijan, who runs Bijan’s on the Miami River.

 “There’s almost a thousand pound of chicken and seafood in it. Plus another 300 pound of rice, and then you got like twenty ounces of saffron” says Bijan.

 Cooking began early this morning. Visitors were also treated to a zippy cup of cafe cubano.     

A Bradenton couple, arrested last month for growing marijuana for medical reasons has learned the charges were dropped.

The arrest came the same day a poll showed overwhelming support for legalizing medical marijuana. In a memo, prosecutors say they were assured Cathy Jordan has  Lou Gherigs disease and that marijuana is the only thing that relieves her symptoms, so she and husband Bob qualify for what is called a medical necessity in Florida. Bob Jordan says the couple has been vindicated.

“We were doing this for sixteen years and you know now finally it went through the legal system and they’re saying that we’re right all along. I’ve been saying that there is no pharmaceutical can do what the plant does.”

The couple said they planned on applying for a permit to grow marijuana. A provision of the medical necessity law says “the evil sought to be avoided was more heinous than the  unlawful act perpetrated to avoid it”.

The charter school movement in Florida is growing. Today at the state capital 12-hundred charter school parents, students and teachers marched to the state capital. As Whitney Ray tells us, they want to make sure the movement keeps growing.

School Choice Day began three blocks from the state capitol. With a unified front, 12-hundred charter school students and advocates marched up hill chanting all the way. They traveled from all across the state to attend the rally.

The students marched past the Florida Department of Education and on to the capitol to ask lawmaker for more money for charter schools. What they found at the capitol, were state law and policymakers singing their praises.

“In may ways I don’t’ see this as school choice day, I see this as school children day, school families day,” said Florid Commissioner of Education Tony Bennett.

Governor Rick Scott is an advocate for charter school expansion. Scott says the competition brought by the more than 500 charters in the state is improving education.

“We know that competition and choice make things better and the more choice we have the better our education system is going to be,” said Scott.

Charter schools receive state money to education students just like traditional public schools, but they don’t get tax dollars for construction. This year that could change.

“We need equitable funding. We need parents to have a seat at the table through parent empowerment,” said Wendy Howard, Director of FACE.

The crowd also supports the parent trigger bill. The controversial legislation would make it easier for traditional public schools to become charter schools.

Jugglers, a stilt walker and the Florida State University Band were all part of FSU Day at the State Capitol today. The eleventh annual event is designed to showcase all that is good at the University, and to highlight its needs. President Eric Barron says he wants legislation to give the school tuition flexibility, and he says the University is in dire need of maintenance funds since their funding source is drying up.

 “The funds for doing maintenance and building have completely dried up. And It’s based on a tax on landlines. Landlines are declining so we’ve got this very important physical plant that’s going to decay if we don’t have ways in which we can keep it up.”

 Under the pre-eminence bill being sought by FSU, the school could charge more tuition for some high demand degrees and use the money to distinguish itself in certain fields. The legislation passed last year but was vetoed by the Governor.

Legislation to ban internet cafes passed its final committee stop and could be voted on by the Florida Senate later this week. As Whitney Ray tells us the bill was approved in a room full of seniors who say the ban would ruin their social lives.

Swept up in the internet café scandal, hundreds of seniors who say banning the sweepstakes businesses would tear apart their communities.

“These are the seniors that fought and saved your country,” said Gal Fontaine.

Tuesday morning senior after senior stepped to the mike to testify against a bill to ban internet cafes. Not because they support sweepstakes gaming, but out of fear the ban is too broad and adult arcades would be caught up in the mix.

Adult arcades aren’t internet cafes. They’re much cheaper. Users claim they are skill games. Seniors say the arcades are more like social clubs than casinos.

“I go there by myself and I meet people. I talk. I have a custard. I have a hot coco,” said Anita Silverman from Delray Beach.

After more than an hour of testimony the Senate Rules Committee passed the ban. The vote made some seniors so mad they threatened to leave the state.

But the bill’s sponsor says the arcade patrons have nothing to fear. He says his legislation simply clarifies existing law and if the arcades aren’t breaking the law now then they are in the clear.

“I think they are still going to be able to go to their arcades. The business people who have been operating those are going to have to look at what they’ve been doing,” said State Senator John Thrasher.

Concerns were also raised about how the ban would impact children’s arcades, but an attorney for the senate testified those games are in the clear. The bill could be read on the Senate Floor Thursday and voted on by Friday. The internet café ban has already passed the Florida House.

A small victory this week for gay and lesbian couples across Florida. After weeks of waiting in limbo, legislation creating a statewide domestic partnership registry passed its first committee stop. Senator Eleanor Sobel sponsored the bill.

“I think we made history. I’ve carried the domestic partnership bill for four years, this would have been my fifth year and we finally had a real life discussion on how important this bill is to the people of Florida.” Said Sobel.

The victory is likely to be short lived. It passed the committee five to four, but it may not be heard again this session. Many in the GOP controlled legislature believe the registry would pave the way to same sex marriage in Florida.

Drug deaths nationwide are on the rise, but not in Florida. The state is bucking the trend through targeted police work and a prescription drug monitoring database. But as Whitney Ray tells us, more needs to be done to keep the state moving in the right direction.

Not long ago Florida was known as the Pill Mill Capitol of the World. Drug dealers from across the Southeast would drive to Florida to score piles of pills.

Now the state is on the fast track to shed the title. A new Center for Disease Control study shows drug deaths nationwide up three percent, but in Florida drug deaths are down. A fact Governor Rick Scott is boasting about.

“We have had a dramatic impact by arresting individuals involved in the illegal selling of legal drugs,” said Scott.

Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi created the Statewide Drug Enforcement Strike Force in 2011.

Since then more than 4-thousand people have been arrested in connection to pill mills. 73 were doctors. The strike force has seized more than 850-thousand pills and shutdown 250 clinics.

“We still have a long way to go. We still have a lot of people who are addicted to these narcotics,” said Representative Mike Fasano.

Fasano left his mark on Florida’s pill mill war. As a state senator, Fasano passed legislation creating a prescription drug monitoring database.

“Every pharmacist in the state has to use it when they add the information to that database,” said Fasano.

But getting doctors to use the database has proven challenging. Less than two percent right now in Florida are actually logging on and checking out their patients. There’s legislation that is moving in the House that would change that.

“We have a piece of legislation that would require every doctor that writes out a narcotic prescription to use that prescription drug monitoring program. The bill only has one more committee before it goes to the floor,” said Fasano.

As the state continues its war on pills, people in legitimate pain say they’re being treated like criminals. Some say they can’t get the medication they need.

We asked Governor Rick Scott about those folks who say they’re being lumped in with drug dealers and addicts. Scott says he’s open to listening to their concerns.