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A panel of 15 FSU faculty, staff, students and alumni has voted to relocate a statute of a former slave owner who played a a role in providing the land for the University.  As Mike Vasilinda tells us, the panel is also recommending renaming two buildings.

The statue of Frances Epps, A grandson of Thomas Jefferson,  sits prominently to the right of Wescott Hall…the main administration building for Florida State.  Jefferson’s grandson helped gain the land the school sits on. A plaque inaccurately calls him the founder of the University.

“There is no one founder for Florida State University. He was on a couple of committee’s” says Students for a Democratic Society spokesman Maddie Hendrick. 

Now, a 15 member panel is recommending the Epps statue be moved , and the building behind the statue named for Epps be renamed.  The Students for a Democratic Society pushed for the change.

“He was particularly especially brutal, especially racist, especially pro slavery” says Hendrick.

In October 2016 a vote to get rid of Frances’s Epps statue failed. Miserably. Seventy-thirty.”

The panel is also recommending the FSU law school, named for former Florida Chief Justice BK Roberts, also be renamed. Roberts was instrumental in keeping Virgil Hawkins,  a black man from attending the law school at the University of Florida.   

FSU Alum Andre Gordon see’s both sides.

“A lot of the land here, was probably…probably had slaves on it. So I don’t know, are we going to remove everything” Asks Gordon.

Renaming the law school would require a vote of the legislature. The fate of the statute and Epps Hall are now in the hands of FSU President John Thrasher. He’s promised a decision sometime this summer.

Nearly 63 Hundred FSU students, about 11 percent of the student body, voted to keep the statue during the October 2016 referendum. New information on the lack of Epps role in founding the University has recently come to light.

A new poll of Democratic primary voters suggests two former congressmen, one a  Democrat, the other a Republican running on the same ticket would immediately become front runners in what has so far been a lackluster Democratic primary for Governor. But as Mike Vasilinda tells us, there could be legal problems.

A poll of 750 likely Democratic voters is embracing a potential bi partisan ticket headed by former Democratic Congressman Patrick Murphy with former Republican Congressman David Jolly as his running mate. Pollster Keith Frederick says the results make it clear voters are angry with the current system.

“Voters in America today are quite fed up with the political system, and this is another manifestation of that” says Frederick.

Front runner Phil Levin dropped from 20 to 17 percent in the poll. That’s after spending 8 million on TV.

“It means he has rented his lead. He hasn’t solidified it” Frederick told us.

Democrats Gwen Graham, Andrew Gillum, and Chris King all fell further behind in the race.

“Under State law, candidates sign an oath they’ve been a member of the same party for the last year. Now, some are suggesting that would make illegal for a Democrat and a Republican to run together under one party’s flag ship. And Mark Herron, one of the state’s best election law lawyers says he doesn’t know the answer to that.”

Q:”This has never been done before?”

“Not to my knowledge in the state of Florida” Herron told us.

Q:”and, is it legal?”

“Well, the question is I do not know the answer to that question.”

Q”Sounds like it’s ripe for a challenge if it happens?”

“It’s gonna be an adventure if it happens, yes.”

Murphy and Jolly have until June 22 to qualify for the race. If they do, Florida politics will be entering uncharted waters.

Even with Murphy and Jolly in the race, 41 percent of likely Democratic voters are undecided, leaving room for almost any of the candidates to win.

Florida’s utility regulators have been grilling the states electric utilities and their biggest users over hurricane readiness for the last two days. The debate today, as Mike Vasilinda tells us, was over whether it was more cost effective to do a better job of trimming trees or bury lines underground to prevent outages.

Millions lost power when Hurricane Irma blanketed the entire state last fall. Now, both Duke Energy and FPL say they learned lessons from the storm.

Valerie Petterson is a Duke Energy Spokesperson.

“We’ve made some changes and upgrades and enhancements to our technology. We’re adding more people to respond to customers” Patterson told us during a break at the Public Service Commission. 

(We)“Modified our website. Improved it. rebuilt..reconfigured it in a way that’s going to be able to handle the traffic” said FPL’s Mark Bubriski.

The states major power users are asking regulators to make the utilities do more.

One of the questions raised at the commission, Are the utilities moving fast enough to replace old wooden poles with strong concrete structures?

Jon Moyle represents the Florida Industrial Power Users Group.

“Even though the wood is only twenty percent of the system, TECO, if I’m reading this correctly, had all the problems on the wooden transmission poles” Moyle told commissioners.

The Industrial users also want the companies to spend more trimming trees. But Duke Energy says tree trimming wasn’t the issue during Irma.

“A lot of the damage we saw from trees were from trees outside the rights of way” Duke’s Patterson told us.

Instead of trimming trees, Florida Retail Federation attorney Schef Wright says customers would be better off if power lines were underground.

“If we get a direct hit, they will more than pay for everything in one storm. And if you get two, you’ve rally saved a lot of money” says Wright.

Staff Recommendations to regulators are due by June 19th, nearly three weeks after hurricane season starts.

Because recommendations won’t be voted on until after Hurricane season starts, and big changes won’t be in place until sometime next year.

Wednesday we reported that no students at Montford Middle School participated in the scheduled walkout in support of the 2nd amendment.

Spending for political ads in Flordia has already topped thirteen million ($13,000,000.00) in the race to be Florida’s next Governor and U-S Senator. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, such early spending was used to be considered foolish, but not necessarily so in todays world of self funders.  

Rick Scott is already up with his third TV spot, including one in Spanish, in his race for the U-S Senate.

“I approve this message because it’s time to make Washington get to work” chimed Scott as he echoed a familiar theme from his term as Governor.

So far, Scott has spent five million on TV. The Republican Governor’s Association has dropped another 6 million to reserve time  through the election.

Democratic Consultant Kevin Cate says it is classic Scott.

“Rick Scott is spending because this is formula for winning. Even when he beat Charlie Crist, he had a higher un-favorability rating” says Cate.

At the end of the 2014 election, it looked like Rick Scott might actually lose to former Governor Charlie Crist…until he started spending two million dollars a day on TV.

“We have been all over the state of Florida.” The other big early spender is Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Philip Levine.

Between his political action committee and his campaign, Levine has spend more than 8 million introducing himself; including over four million from his own pocket. His latest ad is a collection of TV reports on the race.

”He’s running for Governor and has a plan on how to make that happen” said TV Anchor Evan Donovan of WFLA, Tampa, which was taken off air by the Levine Campaign.

GOP Consultant Mac Stipanovich says such early spending used to be a waste of money.

“You probably get twenty cents on the dollar in terms of value at the ballot box” says the GOP veteran.

But for self funders like Levine who have nearly unlimited resources…

‘But you raise a dollar, so now you have a dollar twenty” adds Stipanovich.

After TV, the biggest expense for campaigns so far..campaign consultants.

GOP Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, who wants to be Governor has raised 20 million. His main opponent. Congressman Ron DeSantis has gotten so much free time on Fox news, Putnam was forced to begin spending over a half million on television commercials that began running just over a week ago.

House Speaker Richard Corcoran, who is expected but has not yet entered the GOP Primary for Governor spent nearly three million this spring, with virtually no improvement in his name recognition, backing up the idea that early spending isn’t always a good idea.

A lawsuit accusing the Florida Legislature of failing to adequately fund Florida schools will get a new hearing.

Citizens for Strong Schools v. Florida State Board of Education was first filed 9 years ago.

Previous rulings have sided in favor of the state, but education advocates will now get a chance to take their arguments to the state’s highest court.

“What this particular case is about is what does high quality mean,” said Executive Director of the Florida School Boards Association Andrea Messina. “And equally as important, is the state delivering on that constitutional mandate?”

The suit argues the Florida Legislature has failed to provide a “high quality” public education system.

“This year’s Legislative session was a perfect example of that with only 47 cents being added per student. Not even enough for the cost of a postage stamp,” said Luke Flynt with the Florida Education Association.

They also say students have been negatively impacted by policies like requiring state testing and grading schools on an A to F scale.

“We know that no child should be judged on just one test given on one day,” said Flynt.

In the two previous rulings that sided with the state. Judges said the lawsuit dealt with “political questions” that should be left up to lawmakers to decide.

But education advocates say properly funding education is anything but political.

“We believe that there is some room for the court to determine what quality looks like and what quality should be expected by the citizens of Florida,” said Messina.

The lack of funding has been compounded by the new school safety Legislation, which requires districts to have at least one resource officer in every school.

Citizens for Strong Schools has until May 21st to file their initial brief, although no date has been set for oral arguments.

At least two counties are considering increasing sales taxes to help pay for the officers.

The Florida Department of Corrections is giving 33 substance abuse treatment providers throughout the state an ultimatum.

Accept drastic cuts ranging from 40 to 90% in their contracts or have their contracts terminated completely.

And providers have only been given 48 hours to make the decision.

The Department cited a $24.9 million budget cut in this year’s allocations as the reasoning for reducing the contracts, which provide substance abuse services to prisoners and parolees.

The Department says it needs to take the money that would have gone to providers and use it for other healthcare needs.

The Florida Drug and Alcohol Abuse Association says the cuts stand to impact more than 50,000 prisoners and parolees who receive treatment through the programs.

The cuts come as 16 Floridian are dying every day from opioid abuse.

“In the institutions we’re looking at somewhere between 30 and 60% of the substance abuse treatment will go away. Which means 70% of the people that come to prison have a substance abuse problem. It means 70% less will get treatment,” said Mark Fontaine with the Florida Drug and Alcohol Abuse Association.

Providers have to decide whether to accept the cuts by 5 pm Thursday or have their contract terminated.