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Grandparents denied visitation with their grandchildren could petition a court for access under unique circumstances. The legislation is the result of lobbying by Yvonne Stewart of Orlando. Her daughter Michelle went missing three and a half years ago, and she is being denied visitation by the children’s father

“Because I’m a grandparent and I didn’t know when Michelle went missing that we didn’t have any rights in the state of Florida, so I want to be able to see my daughters children.  I want to make sure that they’re ok.  They need to know that we’re here. We have 50 family members….50! on this side and he won’t let me see them, and its wrong. He is the primary and only suspect in her disappearance” said Stewart.

Sponsor Joe Abruzzo says the legislation doesn’t apply to every case.

“The parents are a felon and the other parent is deceased, missing, or in a vegetated state they will have the right so it’s not for every grandparents but if both parents are alive out there and have a family but under specific circumstances that will allow that right.”

Courts have previously ruled parents have the absolute right to determine who can see their children.

Each year in Florida, police seize millions in cash and property believed to have been used in illegal activity, often without filing any charges. The money is then used to buy equipment or other police gear. Today legislation that cleared a Senate Committee at the State Capitol says police can still seize property, but the money has to go to a charity or victims, not police equipment. Justin Pearson of the Institute for Justice says the current system is unfair.

“The fact that the owner has done nothing wrong and has never been accused of a crime not alone arrested or convicted. Nobody should lose their property or their money without being convicted of a crime. It’s an outrage!

Both liberal land conservative think tanks support the legislation. Police do not.

Legislation is moving through the Capitol allowing adoption agencies to deny adoptions to gay couples based on religious freedom. A broader bill in Indiana has created a national outcry. Today, Governor Rick Scott was asked if he feared a similar outcome in Florida. His response not directly on point.

“We have a great state. We’re probably the best melting pot in the world. 250 languages are spoken here. We’ll have over 100 million tourists here. 250,000 people moved here last year and it looks like we’ll have even more people moving here.  This is a state that people want to move to. We are doing the right thing in our state”

The measure received tentative approval in the state House today. It could be voted upon for the final time tomorrow.

13 Florida Police agencies are already using body cameras…9 more are in the pilot stage of adopting them, but each agency is setting its own guidelines, which lawmakers hope to change.

At their best, body cameras show what an officer is seeing and it eliminates questions about a case. And while more than a dozen agencies are using them in Florida, there are no statewide guidelines on who, how, or when they can be worn.

Legislation approved by he Senate Criminal Justice Committee hopes to provide those answers. Among the issues discussed: What happens to the accidental video shot during a coffee break. John Rivera of the Police Benevolent Association says the policy is unclear.

“The cafe latte here..we’re going to do it this way. I can’t tell you that here today.”

A strange coalition of police who packed the room, civil rights advocates, and even public defenders like the legislation. Bob Dillinger is thePublic Defender for the 6th Circuit which includes Pasco and Pinellas counties. “We wanted a consistent policy on these body cameras because of the privacy issues that are in front of all of us.”

Pasco County says  people are already protected by policies it has in place. Jeremiah Hawkes is the Pasco County Sheriff’s Legal Advisor. Q:”How long are the videos kept?”

“It depends on what type of video it is. If its for a misdemeanor, w’e’ll keep it for whatever the statute of limitations is for a misdemeanor, so two years.  For certain felonies, we’ll keep it longer. If its related to a homicide or sex case we’ll keep it indefinitely.”

The guidelines legislation is one of two bills dealing with this new technology…a second is much more troubling for civil rights advocates.

The second bill gives almost compete control of who sees what and when to police says the ACLU’s Michelle Richardson. “Even is someone is shot and killed by a police officer, the so called privacy considerations are going to trump the publics right to know.”

While civil rights advocates worry about cover ups with the second piece of legislation, Police are supporting both bills.

Following last weeks arrest of two correctional officers and a former officer, state Corrections Secretary Julie Jones was asked about the incident at a confirmation hearing today in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee. Jones told Senators there was no indication the two arrested had ties to the KKK. Afterwards Jones told reporters the KKK connection was likely an isolated case.

“There’s no indication there are other KKK members in that facility or any other facility. But that’s going to be up to FDLE to follow though with the IG’s office to complete that investigation” says Jones.

Q:”Is there any indication that there’s any other investigation by the FBI in other facilities?”

“No, I have no indication of that.”

Jones was overwhelming confirmed by the committee. She says the most challenging aspect of managing the prison system is the individual nature of each prison, which she says mirrors a small town.

Drivers who hurt bicyclists, motorcyclists, or pedestrians could face tougher penalties under legislation approved by a Senate Committee at the state Capitol today. The legislation redefines the term vulnerable users and adds penalties and court appearances when a driver of a car hurts a vu;nearby user. Trish Kelly traveled from Naples to speak for the legislation because her husband is still suffering after being hit by a car last year.

“And the police officer only issued an unlawful passing citation and the man only paid a $170 dollar fine and went on his way. And my husband  is still in severe pain. Its a year later. He went from state champ to crippled up and no justice was served” says Kelly.

Hurting a second vulnerable user with five years becomes a misdemeanor under the legislation and could carry up to a year in jail.

Legislation to regulate the use of drones got sidetracked by a Senate Committee today over privacy concerns. Sponsor Garrett Richter of Naples outlined how drones could help farmers, but he got hit with questions about crimes being created if drones taking pictures of a house inadvertently took pictures of the house next door. The Senate Committee decided to table the drone bill for a week while Richter worked on answers to their questions.

“The legislature can’t stop technology. It can’t stop advances in technology. So what it can do is figure how to responsible regulate it, so the goals of the citizens of Florida and elected officials are met in a responsible manner” says Richter, who was caught by surprise by the objections.

Under the legislation, someone who captured images prohibited by the bill could prove the pictures were destroyed to avoid prosecution.

Environmentalists are still pushing the legislature to spend Amendment One money in different ways, and recruited some star power to get their message out. As Matt Galka tells us, lawmakers were surrounded by parrot heads today as Jimmy Buffett lobbied for water restoration.

Lead parrot head Jimmy Buffett played for about 30 minutes for rally-ers in the Capitol Courtyard.  Buffett was trying to get lawmakers to change their tune about land buying.

“Governor, legislature, do the right thing here. We want to some buy some precious latitude south of the Everglades,” said the singer during his performance.

The state has a deal in place with U.S. Sugar that would allow Florida to purchase more than 46,000 acres of land which could help restore Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades.  Eric Rollings said the cause was important enough to travel to the Capitol from Orange County.

“It’s critical, it’s critical, we are putting so much strain, we had 97.3 million visitors last year, which is great. We have 20 million residents and they keep on coming,” he said.

The Everglades Foundation says there’s no reason to go back on the deal now.

“We have to keep as much water on the peninsula, Everglades restoration is about doing that, those that try to say we don’t need more land – that’s narrow minded,” said Everglades Foundation CEO Eric Eikenberg.

Environmental groups have been crying foul over legislature Amendment 1 plans. Audubon Florida says buying the Glades land would get them back on track.

“Everglades cultural area was right there in the constitutional amendment the voters voted for,” said Eric Draper with Audubon Florida.

The deal with U.S. Sugar expires in October. The legislature hasn’t given any indication that they’d be willing to spend the more than $350 million dollars for the land buy.

Imagine yourself reaching the age of 93, you are still healthy and you have wealth, only to become a prisoner of the legal system in your own home. It is a scenario being played out in hundreds if not thousands of Florida homes.

The story of Ernestine Franks of Pensacola is compelling. At age 90, her sons couldn’t agree on where she should live…at home or with one of the brothers in New Orleans. A lawyer suggested a guardianship. Son Doug says that when the family nightmare began.

“My mom has the money. Did have the money. She pays nine hundred dollars, a hundred dollars an hour to see her children” says one of three siblings.

Private Guardians are for profit businesses. No one regulates them. Nancy Detert wants to change that.

“They’re in charge of your money, your assets, your health care, your family. So basically, they can take you prisoner and we don’t even have a complaint department” says the Republican Senator.

Last week Franks testified before his third legislative committee, telling lawmakers “What’s happened is this second group has been exploited financially and also isolated.”

After the testimony, the sons were denied an Easter visit to their now 93 year old mother. The email claims the sons conduct is brazen and harmful. We asked Detert what the Franks can do.

Q:”What does Mr. Franks do to see his mother without having to pay?”

A:”It’s impossible”

One of the problems is that no independent authority is checking what is true or not true.

Legislation on the move here at the Capitol would regulate all guardians…public and private. And it would set up a way for people to file complaints so people like Doug Franks don’t have to publish pamphlets about their case.

Franks and others who testified say the proposed law is a step in the right direction, but just a small step.

No professional private guardians testified against the legislative changes last week. The number of private guardians has gone from 23 in 2003 to 450 in 2015.

The debate over whether or not to expand the Medicaid program in Florida, something supporters say could help nearly one million people, has already made headlines, but as Matt Galka tells us, the Florida House and Senate have already drawn their lines in the sand and now the Governor is picking sides.

Governor Rick Scott was urging lawmakers to accept federal money and expand Medicaid in Florida just two years ago.

“I cannot in good conscience deny the uninsured access to care,” said Gov. Rick Scott in March of 2013.

On Monday it was a different story. The Governor put out a statement reversing course.  He cited that with the federal LIP program – which provides money to hospitals treating low income patients – ending, it would be tough for Florida to rely on the feds to fund expansion. Athena Smith Ford with Florida CHAIN says it’s a road block.

“It would be more encouraging, certainly, to see this just get done right away, but we’ve always known that this was going to be a campaign,” she said.

The Governor’s statement puts him on the same page with the Florida House. The House and Senate are at odds over expanding the program.  The Senate is backing a proposal that would expand Medicaid but require recipients to have jobs or pay premiums. House Speaker in waiting Richard Corcoran summed up the House’s stance last week.

“Here’s my message to the Senate. They want us to come dance? We’re not dancing. We’re not dancing this session, we’re not dancing next session, we’re not dancing next summer. We’re not dancing,” said Rep. Corcoran.

Senate President Andy Gardiner released his own statement Monday.  He said that his chamber will continue pushing for expansion – but without Federal money of some kind – all parts of the budget would be impacted. A bad sign for tax cuts, which is one of the Governor’s top priorities.

The LIP funding program expires in June, and both members in the House and Senate say some sort of agreement or compromise needs to be made soon in order for session to end on time on May 1^st.

Sharing private images to hurt someone, a tactic known as revenge porn, gets a lot of eyebrow raises when mentioned, but as Matt Galka tells us, one girl is telling lawmakers the crime is real and has devastating consequences.

Florida State senior Carly Hellstrom says the past year can be summed up in one word.

“Hell,” she said.

Hellstrom was a victim of revenge porn. She sent a racy picture of herself to an ex-boyfriend four years ago that he posted online last year.

“I kind of went through my waves of emotion. I was sad and depressed and I kind of had to get a little angry and figured that I wasn’t going to let this ruin my life and I had to turn this around,” said Hellstrom.

She says it’s the first thing that came up when you Googled her name and had hundreds of thousands of views. It’s gone now, but she still wants to see a law on the books protecting people in her situation.

“When I just got out of high school I didn’t know the consequences, and I 100% will say that it’s a mistake and my fault, but I don’t think I deserved it and I don’t think anybody does, and I don’t think that if you do something like that you should be punished for it and that’s where the law needs to come in and protect us,” she said.

Hellstrom’s story is grabbing the attention of lawmakers and two bills are now moving through the legislature.

Rep. Tom Goodson (R-Titusville) sponsors the House version of a bill that would make revenge porn a crime

“I believe very much in the first amendment and freedom of expression, I do not believe in harassing someone, or hurting someone all because you fell out of love,” he said.

While Hellstrom says the act needs to be a felony, the two bills moving in the Capitol would make first offenses a misdemeanor. Subsequent revenge porn charges could turn into felonies. Both the House and Senate bills each have one more committee to clear before they can be considered for a floor vote.

An investigation that included the FBI and Homeland Security leads to the break-up of a plot from K-K-K members to kill a black Florida inmate. As Matt Galka tells us, the three men arrested all were current or former employees of the State Department of Corrections.

Three men, two current Department of Corrections employees and one former DOC employee, allegedly planned to carry out a murder plot according to the Attorney General’s Office.  All three have ties to the white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan, and the target was set to be an African-American inmate.

Thomas Driver and David Moran were working for the department in Lake Butler. Charles Newcomb was let go in January of 2013.

Senator Arthenia Joyner says it’s another mark against the department currently dealing with a crisis when it comes to inmate treatment.

“It’s unfortunate, it just seems like there’s a pattern, and that is the troubling thing, a pattern one way or the other,” said Sen. Joyner (D-Tampa).

The Department of Correction declined an on-camera interview, but released a statement condemning the actions.

The arrest warrant states the plot stems from a fight between the inmate and Driver. Driver claims the inmate had a disease and tried to pass it on to him.  Earlier this year, two of the suspects drove to the inmates house with syringes of insulin and a handgun and were prepared to carry out the plot.

The case is set to be prosecuted in Columbia County.

The arrest warrant states that an informant showed the three suspects a fake photo showing the inmate shot to death.  Using evidence from recorded conversations, the FBI then moved to arrest the men on Thursday.

36-year-old Ruba Khandaqji has been charged in Osceola County with threatening to kill Governor Rick Scott. She first made the threat on a recorded line., telling authorities that she is trapped in this country and wants to be deported.

“Please tell the Governor that she is hiring a hit man and he will kill..he will do that” said Khandaqji, knowing she was being recorded.

Gretl Plessing of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement says she repeated the threat to deputies when they showed up on her doorstep.

“Agents with the Osceola Sheriff’s office went to arrest her yesterday evening and she told them she planned to hire a hit man to kill the Governor, so she is charged with two counts of a threat and resisting arrest with non violence” says Plessinger.

Khandagji also sent an email in February that did not contain a threat, but put her on police radar.

In an emotionally charged hearing, state lawmakers approved legislation allowing private adoption agencies to site religious freedom to deny adoptions to some would be parents. As Mike Vasilinda tells us opponents fear the provision would be used to discriminate against gay adoptions.

Daniel Nurse is a gay adoptive father of three. He was near tears, fearing the legislation would legalize discriminate against people like he and his partner.

“We adopted these three children and we faced the same biased racisms that are outlined in this bill when we went to adopt” said Nurse.

Carlos Smith liked the idea to religious freedom laws in Indiana and Arkansas.

“This threatens Florida’s tourism based economy” warned Smith.

Both Baptist and Catholic organizations championed the idea, with Bill Bunkley from Florida Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission saying the discrimination is already happening.“This is the way we have been doing things the last five or more plus years” Bunkley told the committee.Rep. Dave Kerner tried to water the bill down but failed.

“Basically saying we want discrimination to occur in the state of Florida against gay people. That is precisely what is going on in Indiana. This is going to be a fire storm in the state of Florida.”

After overwhelming approval by the committee, we spoke with Anthony Siegrise of Clearwater He was adopted by gay parents when he was 13.

Q: “And you had no problem with it”

“No, I had no qualm whatsoever.”

Q:”How’s it working out?”

“It’s worked fine. I get good grades in school, I have lots of friends.”

The sponsor readily admits that this legislation is in direct response to the state legalizing gay adoptions, and that was mandated by the court.

Sponsor Jason Brodeur also concedes the law would allow discrimination against straight couples living together.

“That individual private organization may opt to do that, and what they would do is refer them to one of the other 81 agencies.”

Even supporters worry legalizing discrimination could be unconstitutional.”

Florida’s constitution also bans state money being sent to religious organizations, and many of the privately operated adoption agencies are under contract with the Department of Children and Families.

Legislation allowing concealed carry on college campuses cleared its third House Committee today over the objection of FSU Professor Michael Butler.

“I feel a deep loyalty to FSU, but I can’t imagine working, teaching where I don’t feel safe.  And carry a gun will not make me fee safe. The day that I believe I should carry a gun into the classroom is the day that I should hang it up” Butler told committee members.

But sponsor Greg Stube of Sarasota outlined the requirements for people to be able to carry concealed weapons.  He called the fears unfounded.

“Gun free zones didn’t stop the shooter at Virginia Tech, They didn’t stop the shooter at Strozier Library, they didn’t stop the shooter at Sandy Hook. It only stops the law abiding citizens ability to defend themselves. That’s it. It doesn’t stop criminals from coming on to the campus and doing what they want on campus” says Stube.

The legislation now goes to the House Floor.