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The Florida House gave tenative approval to its medical marijuana legislation Friday. 71 percent of voters approved it in November, but patients looking to smoke medicinal pot may be out of luck.

Compromise over marijuana is in the air at the Capitol. A restrictive house plan has gotten more patient friendly, says Senate Sponsor Rob Bradley.

“They’ve gotten rid of the ninety day waiting period. they’ve added edibles. They’ve added vaping. So I feel feel like the House is in a much better position than they were before” Bradley says.

Weeks ago, House sponsor Ray Rodrigues said almost everything was on the table.

“Aside from the issues of no smoking and no taxation.”

Neither the House or Senate plan now allows smoking medical marijuana.

“If the drafters of the amendment wanted to be explicit on that point, they would have been explicit on that point” says Bradley.

But authors of the amendment say smoking is referenced once, when it is prohibited in public, implying it is allowed, and through the definition of cannabis already in law. More importantly, drafter Ben Pollera says ask a hundred people.

“What they think of when they think of marijuana, they think of a green leafy thing that you smoke” Pollera told us by phone.

Pollera says lawsuits are likely if smoking isn’t in the final version

The biggest sticking point between the House and Senate is how many new licenses there will be, and who will get them.

Black Farmers are guaranteed a license in both the House and Senate. The Senate plan produces more licenses faster than the House, which lobbyist Ron Watson says is needed.

“To ingest more competition into the system. to drive down prices” says Watson.

Both sides will be working on a final comprise over the weekend.

For the first time since 2010, state lawmakers are increasing the odds a new gambling deal will emerge by the time they finish, and as Mike Vasilinda tells us, it could result in fewer greyhounds being raced, and more slots in counties that have approved them.

Greyhounds may not be racing much longer. Lawmakers are moving toward allowing dog tracks to stop racing greyhounds. Undecided is whether county voters where tracks are located must first vote. Either way. aAnimal rights activist Carey thief is elated.

“I’m confident that we’ll pass those referendums, but there will be a delay. More dogs will be injured. More dogs will die” says Thiel of Grey2K USA.

Gambling legislation is moving for the first time since 2010 because lawmakers fear a pending court ruling. Lobbyist Ron Book  says the so called Gretna case has lawmakers looking over their shoulder.

“That’s what in part is certainly pushing the House, the court decisions, and not wanting further expansion by judicial edict as opposed to conscious edict by the policy makers” says Book.

Lawmakers also want a quick decision because they also face pressure from a proposed citizen’s initiative that wold give any future gambling changes in the future to citizens.

Still on the table is whether 8 counties where voters approved slots will get them. The Senate, which proposed the idea is holding firm, but offered to reduce the number of machines to appease a reluctant house. Representative Jose Felix Diaz

“The Federal courts. they continue to take positions that expand gaming in Florida. And if we really want to curb gaming, it would some sense to expand a little.”

Naples Ft. Myers dog track operator Izzy Havenick is hopeful.

“It’s the hardest thing to run a business when any day things could change. You don’t know tomorrow what’s going to be legal, You don’t know two days down the road” says Havenick.

Lawmakers also want to come to a deal because they need the cash more games will bring, especially if they lost the case now coming from the Seminole tribe.

The legislation, as proposed, would also remove any legal questions about daily Fantasy sports games.

State lawmakers are closing in on the broad outlines of an 83 billion dollar state budget, but as Mike Vasilinda tells us, even small details could derail the progress long enough to push lawmakers into overtime.

The Senate gets it’s plan to build a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee. The House would get it’s cuts to Visit and Enterprise Florida, The House would also get a 200 million dollar plan for Charter Schools of Hope. In exchange for the Senates gets a boost to University funding. Early Wednesday, Senate Budget Chairman jack Latvala tweeted there was no deal until it was announced by the Senate President. The Majority Leader said discussions were on going.

“I wouldn’t classify anything as having fallen apart” says galvano. “And  at this point there is some tweaking going on on what I would call second and third tier issues.”

After the morning Senate Session, President Joe Negron wasn’t ready to announce a deal, but sounded optimistic.

“It’s down to just a few issues where we’re trying to clarify some language to the satisfaction of both the House and the Senate” Negron told reporters

On the House side, the Speaker was absent from the floor most of the morning. In an exclusive interview he appeared to pour water on the finality of the talks.
“It’s very very difficult. we’re a very conservative body, and its difficult dealing with a body that doesn’t hold our principles and our values” Corcoran told us.

And while lawmakers appear to be shutting down the Governor’s top priorities, he will in fact have the final say.

Under the deal, Visit Florida would be funded at 25 million, a third of this years total. Enterprise Florida would survive, with no money for incentives. Governor Rick Scott issued a statement from his trade mission in Argentina sayings “Lawmakers cannot be shortsighted at the expense of Florida families

Budget negotiators could begin going through a complete analysis of the differences as early as tonight. A budget must be on members desks by next Tuesday for an on time adjournment.

State Lawmakers are closer to a deal on gambling than anytime in the last seven years after the House made what both sides are calling a substantial deal. The House would allow voters in counties with dog tracks to decide if the tracks could stop racing dogs but keep operating card rooms. Grey 2k activist Cary Thiel says the move is a big step forward.

Sot: Carey Theil

Grey2K USA

“from the animal welfare perspective, we’re starting to have hope  that we’ll see finally some change. We’re seeing greyhounds dying in Florida every three days at these facilities. This is the beginning of a blueprint to fix that problem.”

The offer also give the Seminole Tribe more games such as baccarat, but if does not open to slots in the eight counties where voters have approved slots referendums. Naples-Ft. Myers Dog Track owner Isadore Havenick says the deal does’t go far enough.

Sot: Isadore Havenick

Naples – Ft. Myers Dog track

Magic Casino

“We had a referendum. We had a referendum in the general election and the residents of Lee County voted, over 63 percent in favor of us being able to offer a new product, and we just hope the legislature listens to the will of the people.”

The offer also included one new permit for gambling in south Florida. The Senate wants two new facilities.

State lawmakers have until a week from today to come up with a final budget in order to avoid costly overtime, and until today, there has been little real discussion about the two billion dollar difference between the House and Senate.

The State House has been promoting its version of the budget ideas with an in-house video guide.

“The House will not raise taxes” chimes the video.

But the problem is that the Senate doesn’t like a lot of the ideas. Like this one:

“We also added twenty five thousand dollars to the homestead exemption.”

With no agreement in sight,  Tuesday began with a worst case scenario.

“The one thing we’re not going to do is kick the can down the road” says House Budget Chair Carlos Trujillo

The House Appropriations Committee passed last years budget minus money for members projects.

“Could we get a budget done in the next ten days? Possibly. But if we don’t, if we don’t, this is our safety valve” Trujillo told committee members.

Democrats on the Committee are up in arms. Minority Leader Janet Cruz of Tampa was downright angry.

“We all just need to grow up. we need to sit at a table together and we need to do what the citizens of Florida and the fricking taxpayers have asked us to come here to do” says Cruz.

With Two billion dollars separates the chambers, the Speaker and Senate President finally began meeting face to face. Senate Majority Leader Bill Galvano remains optimistic.

“And so there’s continuing offers between the chambers, and we’ll take it from there” says galvano.

A decade ago, Special Sessions cost forty thousand dollars a day. Now there are new estimates from Cruz.

“It is seventy two thousand dollars a day.”

Q:”Is that the new number?”

“That’s my number.”

Q:”Okay, ho’d you come up with that?”

“Ah, we just tried to kinda figure out what lodging costs, what folks per diem is, and what it costs for staff.”

Passing a budget is the legislators only constitutional responsibility…but the constitutions says nothing about doing it on time.

Negotiations are occurring on two levels, total dollar amounts, and spending for policy items like charter schools, tax breaks, education funding and the environment, particularly building a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee.

Hundreds of police officers from across the state were in the State Capitol today to pay tribute to the officers who were lost last year. And as Mike Vasilinda tells us, pay tribute to those who survived.

The families of those being remembered filled a hundred seats or more. FDLE Deputy Commission Don Lardner promised the state would remember their fallen hero and those they left behind.

“To the families we also promise to you that we will never forget you. You are out hero. your sacrifice continues day in and day out” Lardner told the audience.

Ten new names were added to the memorial, Seven who dies this year, and three that were previously unknown.

Massachusetts State Trooper John Kotfila Sr. came to remember his son John, a  Hillsborough deputy who blocked a wrong way driver from killing two others wth his car. He died in a fiery crash.

“My son was a special individual and we didn’t know how many lives of pople he that he touched. I’ve had people come up to me, involving cases he’s been involved in three or four years ago, and tell me what a wonderful person he was and how caring he was” the Senior officer told us.

Stephen Oliver was near tears recalling his older brother Eric, a Nassau County Deputy, killed while chasing an illegal immigrant on foot.

“He was always looking out for everybody else, except for himself. You know, he wanted to do what was right.” says Stephen.

A 21 gun salute ended the ceremony.

2 florida officers have already died in the line of duty since the beginning of the year.  Both from Orlando.