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The Governor and Cabinet have voted to reappoint the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection.

The agency head wants to focus on clean water, clean air and is also putting a priority on addressing climate change.

Governor Ron DeSantis hit the ground running with his promise to improve the environment soon after taking office.

“We are recommending, over four years, $2.5 billion for water resources and Everglades projects,” said DeSantis.

In an Executive Order he tasked the Department of Environmental Protection with researching ways to prevent toxic algae blooms and clean Florida’s water ways.

The Governor and Cabinet approved the reappointment of Noah Valenstein to lead the agency, Tuesday morning.

The move had support from environmental groups like Audubon Florida.

“He really was a breath of fresh air when he took that position and I’m really optimistic about what he’ll be able to accomplish with an administration like this one that’s so focused on improving our wetlands and water quality,” said Executive Director of Audubon Florida Julie Wraithmell.

Originally chosen by Governor Rick Scott in 2017, Valenstein says there have been some notable changes under DeSantis.

“I’ll just say this, it’s been a busy month,” said Valenstien.

He’s also putting an emphasis on climate change, a phrase seldom used by state agencies under Rick Scott.

“Climate change is certainly a large issue that Florida faces and it’s something we’ve got some really talented staff working on,” said Valenstien.

Florida’s only Democratic Cabinet member, Commissioner of Agriculture Nikki Fried says she is encouraged by Valenstein’s focus on climate change and plans to create a stronger partnership between the two agencies.

Aliki Moncrief with the Florida Conservation Voters says new tone is encouraging, but hopes DEP also focuses on preventing climate change.

“That’s the side of the conversation that isn’t happening within the current administration and that we’re not hearing yet from Noah Valenstein,” said Moncrief.

However, Moncrief says there’s still time for that to change.

When Florida lawmakers return to the Capitol next week, one of their first items of business will be expanding school safety legislation developed after the Parkland shooting last year.

While arming teachers is getting a lot of attention, provisions in the bill seek to identify threats and stop them before they act.

Created by the FBI and Secret Service, threat assessment management believes that potential assailants show signs of their intentions long before they act, but no one connects the dots.

“Most shooters exhibit four to five of the indicators,” said FDLE Commissioner Rick Swearingen.

Directed by the Governor, Swearingen has studied every school shooting since Columbine.

“There’s a misconception that these people snap. They don’t snap. They decide,” said Swearingen. “In almost all of these instances its been proven that they planned these attacks days, weeks, even months ahead of time, so the further you can intercept them from that pathway to violence, the better chance you have of preventing a targeted violence attack.”
The hope is that threat assessment teams will connect the dots.

In hindsight, FDLE says the Parkland Shooter exhibited six or seven of the markers that should have identified him as a threat.

Swearingen says he believes if it had been in place prior to the Parkland shooting, it could have stopped Nikolas Cruz.

“I believe it could have been different, yes,” said Swearingen.

Under this year’s school safety legislation, threat assessments will get new attention.

“So we’re taking it to the next level, so that we can know, district by district how those threat assessments are being conducted,” said Senate President Bill Galvano.

Under the legislation, the Department of Education has until August 1st, just before school year starts, to come up with a standardized assessment tool for every school in the state.

The legislation also sets aside $161 million, for school safety for the next school year.

Three out of four Floridians are worried about violence at their local school according to a new poll conducted by a coalition of law enforcement, businesses, mental health professionals and educators.

The Institute for a Safer Florida is spearheaded by the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

“Big picture the institute will focus in four areas, safer work places, safer schools, mental health and of course public safety,” said Mark Wilson President of the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

Its goal is to cut down on workplace and school violence, which has taken the lives 85 Floridians in the last 32 months.

“We’ve got to get past reacting to a shooting and try to prevent them,” said Executive Director of Florida State University Schools Dr. Stacy Chambers.

The institute’s polling shows 94% of Floridians support more emergency training for school teachers and staff.

The group says its primary focus will be investigating and developing best practices for businesses and schools in the state.

However, there’s one area the group isn’t touching: gun control.

“That’s someone else’s argument and we are not going to get into that argument,” said Wilson. “We’re going to get into best practices, we’re going to get into mental health. That’s the conversation we think we can make a difference on.”

Instead, members hope better communication between businesses, schools, police and mental health can prevent the violence from ever occurring.

“You know if you see something say something,” said Sheriff Mark Hunter, President of the Florida Sheriffs Association. “I know that sounds real simplistic, but there’s a lot of truth to that and if we have people comfortable enough to say, ‘hey we saw this’ we may be able to prevent another episode.”

The group plans to advocate in support of Legislation that aims to increase public safety.

Part of its mission will include defending the school safety law passed last year in the wake of the Parkland Shooting.

Florida would become the 11th state to legalize recreational marijuana if a newly filed a bill for the upcoming legislative session becomes law.

The legislation sponsored by a freshman State Representative would allow adults over 21 to have two and a half ounces of marijuana, tax it at $50 an ounce, and allow individuals to grow up to six plants.

The bill, sponsored by a freshman State Representative faces an uphill battle.

Lawmakers are grappling with allowing smokable medical marijuana, which House Speaker Jose Oliva called a back door attempt at legalization.

“The discussion that is being had now by some people, basically, we want recreational marijuana,” said Oliva. “We want to call it medicine because if we call it medicine, then we have some cover.”

But the effort for full legalization is gaining steam.

A gallup poll late last year found that a majority of Democrats, Republicans and Independents all favored legalization. T

That’s the first time that’s happened.

Bungled attempts at medical marijuana in other states have lead to legalization.

Senate President Bill Galvano says it’s possible that’s the direction Florida is headed in as well.

“I think there are many of us who believe that, what we are going through now in the amendments and the implementation are just steps towards that ultimate goal,” said Galvano.

One obstacle is Governor Ron DeSantis.

“My thing is that I don’t think it’s good for teenagers and young people to be doing,” said DeSantis.

Advocates say it is only a matter of time.

“If we really want to keep it our of the hands of children, we certainly don’t do that when the only access anyone has is through the black market,” said Jodi James with the Florida Cannabis Action Network.

During the Gubernatorial campaign, Democrat Andrew Gillum argued legal marijuana could raise $1 billion a year for schools.
Of the ten states which have legalized marijuana, only Vermont did so through its state legislature.

The other nine were all by referendum.

The Choir from a Tallahassee High School spent Wednesday morning at the Historic State Capitol.

The group performed songs traditionally sung by African Americans as its contribution to Black History month.

Museum Director Tiffany Baker said it was a way to honor the contribution African Americans made to the state.

“Well, Black History Month is an important nation wide recognition of the contributions of African Americans to American History, and this is just one way for us to recognize that national month and participate,” said Baker. “And when we’re presented with such a great program that’s basically plug and play for us, we couldn’t say no.”

The choir has previously performed at the Historic Capitol for holiday events.

Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried says she wants lawmakers to pass the broadest full flower smokable legislation to protect patients.

Unlike the House plan ready for a vote as early as next week, she says the decision for a minor to be able to smoke the medicine should be left up to the doctor, not the legislature.

“Well, again, I go back to a doctor and patient relationship. And if the doctors feel that for a minor, that is the best form of medicine, and it’s no so much the smokable aspect of it, but being able to use the raw flower for juicing purposes, so I leave that up to a doctor patient relationship,” said Fried.

The Governor has asked lawmakers to send him a bill complying with the intent of the constitutional amendment, which a judge has ruled includes smokable marijuana by March 15th, or he will consider dropping the states appeal of the smoking decision.

The Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union has launched a new campaign urging lawmakers to properly fund tradition public schools.

The move comes in response to Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Senate’s plan to expanded vouchers for private schools.

“State funding for public school students ranks near the bottom,” FEA’s new ad for its Fund Our Future campaign begins.

The six figure television ad buy warns the state could face a teacher shortage of 10,200 by next year, if lawmakers fail to properly fund traditional public schools.

The campaign comes in response to Governor Ron DeSantis’ focus on pushing school choice

“Particularly for low income families,” said DeSantis. “You know, I would like them to be able to have the same opportunities that folks who are wealthier have.”

To the dismay of FEA, DeSantis has asked lawmakers to allocate tax dollars to help clear a waiting list for a private school scholarship program, known as the Tax Credit Scholarship.

“If they continue to take money out of the public schools track then they continue to hurt kids,” said FEA President Fedrick Ingram. “They continue to hurt classrooms.”

Despite an estimated $100 million price tag, the Governor pushed back when asked if it greatly expand vouchers.

“I would not term it as saying greatly expand. I mean we’re talking about 14,000 kids on a wait list,” said DeSantis.

Currently 100,000 students receive the scholarship.

A similar proposal to clear the wait list will be included in the Senate’s Education Package, but Senate President Bill Galvano says the legislation will be balanced.

“[A bill] That empowers families, but at the same time does not do so in spite of or in lieu of traditional public education,” said Galvano.

The Senate is expected to unveil it’s Education Package in its entirety sometime this week.

FEA’s ad campaign will run until March 11th Tampa, Orlando and Tallahassee, which means there’s a good chance lawmakers will see it during the first week of session.

922,000 households in the state are considered very low income, meaning they spend more than half of their salaries on housing.

That’s just one of many issues the Sadowski Housing Coalition says could be addressed by fully funding the state’s affordable housing trust fund.

Over the past four years lawmakers have swept more than $640,000 from the trust fund, but Governor Ron DeSantis has recommended a budget that leaves the funds untouched.

By allowing the $328 million for the fund to go towards housing Christopher Emmanuel with the Florida Chamber of Commerce says the state could generate 30,000 jobs and create $4 billion in economic output.

“This is a competitiveness issue, this is a business issue and this is important for not just the workers, but drawing in talent from across the country. Florida’s growing at over 900 people a day. We expect to have another 4.5 to 5 million people by 2030,” said Emmanuel. “We need programs like this. “

The Senate President has said he intends to work to fully fund the affordable housing trust fund, but the House has not yet made such a commitment.

Governor Ron DeSantis is reshaping state government at a pace unseen in decades in the State Capitol.

He’s rebuilding relationships with lawmakers and pulling back more than 200 appointments made by the previous governor.

In January, DeSantis axed 45 appointments.

Now he’s retracting 169 more.

“I think it’s important for us to be able to take afresh look at all this and make sure we have folks who are working hard to put things in the right direction,” said DeSantis.

All retracted appointments were subject to Senate Confirmation.

Nearly half of all the appointments being pulled were from college of state university boards.

DeSantis admits the reversal is creating some confusion.

“Some will say that when you have been put in, but not confirmed by the Senate, if the Governor pulls you back, you’re still there until someone new gets appointed. Others say you’re off,” said DeSantis.

That leaves the former appointees in limbo.

“So we want to send a signal that look, this is open, we want good people to apply,” said DeSantis.

With the appointment of a new top financial regulator Tuesday, the Governor and Cabinet have replaced all of the agency heads under their shared governance with the exception of the head of the Department of Law Enforcement.

DeSantis has also returned the Governor and Cabinet meetings to short no nonsense state business, like land purchases instead of ceremonial events.

Senate President Bill Galvano says there’s also a new leadership style.

“It feels much more collaborative than it did under the last administration,” said Galvano.

Two months into his administration, the new Governor is still on a honeymoon.

The legislative session, which starts March 5th will challenge the harmony, as policy and the budget clash.

A ten year old Winter Springs boy was honored by the Governor and Cabinet Tuesday for his efforts supporting police officers.

Zechariah Cartledge has vowed to run a mile for every police officer who dies in the line of duty.

He is the first recipient of the Attorney Generals “Back the Blue Award.”

So far he has run 26 miles this year and has invited Attorney General Ashley Moody to run with him.

“I wanted to do this because I just love what police officers do,” said Cartledge. “They sacrifice their lives protecting people they don’t even know, and the bravery they have is beyond level and lots of people could not do what they do, so this is the least I can do because they giveback so much to us and the community.”

“And I just told him I’m going to run with him one of these days and he told me I’m not allowed to run in this outfit,” said Moody.

Zechariah says he’s considering being a police officer, but doesn’t know if he’s brave enough to risk his life for people he doesn’t know.

He’s set his sights on being either a professional soccer player or an olympic runner.

When lawmakers start their annual session a week from Tuesday, they’ll be meeting under the watchful eye of a St. Petersburg man who for the last 12 years has been taking civics seriously.

The longtime capitol regular often makes waves holding lawmakers feet to the fire.

Brain Pitts has been called a gadfly.

It fits.

He’s one who upsets the status quo by posing upsetting or novel questions.

He’s often a thorn in lawmakers side.

“If nobody else does’t know what you’re doing, I do, and here it is,” said Pitts. “So if the public didn’t know, now you do know.”

Pitts took most of last session off, disgusted by sexual scandals, but this year he’s back.
“It was riff-raff,” said Pitts.

The Senate President says Pitts can bring value, then he parroted one of Pitts’ statements.

“And I do adhere by the rule that if the bill is long you know something’s wrong,” said Galvano.

“The best way to hide something is to put it in a long bill because most of the time they don’t read it,” said Pitts.

Lobbyists have tried to buy Pitts off either to speak for or against some bills, his answer: always no.

“You talk about ethics and morals sometimes, they actually want you to cross that line. So I says no,” said Pitts.

His efforts appear to be paying off.

“You’d be surprised how many bills are not agenda-ed because they know something is wrong with the bill,” said Pitts.

Pitts says he operates solely on donations to a 501(c)(3) named Justice-2-Jesus.

One man, taking civic involvement to a higher level.

Governor Ron DeSantis believes the state could lower healthcare costs by importing prescription drugs from Canada, but the proposal is drawing concerns from some top lawmakers and industry insiders.

Getting a handle on the state’s increasing healthcare costs is the top Legislative priority for House Speaker Jose Oliva.

“48% of our budget this year will be health care,” said Oliva. “The current trajectory is such, that it will take over half our budget in just two years.”

DeSantis says the lower price of Canadian drugs could reduce Medicaid and prison healthcare costs for the state.

A law passed by Congress in 2003 allows states to import medications from our Northern neighbor if they can prove it would lower costs, but any importing plan needs approval from the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

DeSantis’ plan would also allow wholesalers and pharmacists in the state to import prescriptions to lower costs for average Floridians.

But Senate President Bill Galvano worries that aspect wont sit well with the feds.

“Once you’re moving across from state to state or from other countries to our state it’s interstate commerce and that’s the province of the US Congress,” said Galvano.

Michael Jackson, Executive Vice President of the Florida Pharmacy Association says he worries about the quality of imported drugs.

“Have they undergone scrutiny by the food and drug administration? Are they safe? Do they meet all the standards for quality and effectiveness,” said Jackson.

In the 14 years the Federal law has been on the books not a single state has been given the green light to import Canadian drugs, though DeSantis says he has the backing of President Donald Trump.

A bill to enact the Governor’s proposal has been filed in the House. It would direct the Agency for Health Care Administration to submit a proposal to the Federal Government by July of 2020.

Human trafficking reportedly generates $32 billion dollars a year worldwide.

The crime is particularly prevalent in Florida.

Earlier this year, Tallahassee mother Celeste Chambers was found guilty and faces life in prison for trafficking her now 18-year-old daughter since she was only two years old.

In the first 6 months of 2018, there were 367 reported cases of human trafficking, giving Florida the third highest number in the nation.

A Legislative push led by Senator Lauren Book to address trafficking in the state is moving, but also faces opposition from some victim advocates.

“We can and we must do more,” said Book.

Book’s bill would create a registry for people who solicit prostitution and those who profit from selling others for sex.

Corporal Alan Wilkett is part of the Tampa Bay Regional Human Trafficking Task Force.

He says registries in other states have reduced the demand for prostitution.

“And reducing demand is critical in order to bring down human trafficking,” said Wilkett.

However, a group representing consensual sex workers says the punishment is too harsh.

“Creating another tool that puts people’s names on a list, just creates another barrier for them once they pay their debt to society,” said Jill McCracken with the Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP).

Christine Hanavan, also with SWOP, argues the Legislation doesn’t allow victims to decide when they’re ready to come forward.

That’s because the bill requires law enforcement and hotel workers undergo training to identify and report trafficking victims.

“A victim could be placed in greater danger by making a report against their will,” said Hanavan.

The hotel industry says the goal isn’t to take power away from victims.

Samantha Padgett with the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association argues it’s a way for the industry to fight back against traffickers.

“We look at this as prevention rather than just helping something after it’s already happened,” said Padgett.

The Legislation would require all hotel workers to receive training within six months of being hired, or by the start of 2021, which ever comes first.

Senator Book was receptive to the concerns brought up in the bill’s most recent committee stop, suggesting the Legislation might see some changes moving forward.

State senators got an earful today on the business of medical marijuana.

There are significant concerns over a lack of research, licenses and in-state growers.

It’s been nearly two year’s since lawmakers passed the law implementing medical marijuana.

Of the 185,000 active patients four out of ten are prescribed medical marijuana for chronic pain.

One out of five prescriptions are written for patients suffering from PTSD.

21 growers licenses should have been issued by now, but only 14 actually have.

Cannabis advocates say that’s hurting patients.

“Is the patient getting access to the best possible products for the best possible price? And until this program is fully evolved the answer to that is no,” said Jodi James with the Florida Cannabis Action Network.

Only four of the licenses are still held by Florida companies, most have been sold.

Growers licenses have sold for as much as $80 million, yet three license holders haven’t dispensed a single product.

“It’s largely out of state companies that are doing this,” said Senator Jeff Brandes. “There’s product shortages, there’s problems, there’s companies that aren’t growing, they’re hoarding their licenses. It’s not about patients. We need to make this about patients and wee need to make it about research.”

However there are problems on the research end as well.

No funding has reached Moffitt cancer center for eight proposed studies and Federal laws make any clinical trials nearly impossible.

“This board will not and is not able to do any sort of studies on any sort of product that is grown here in the state of Florida,” said Jamie Wilson Moffitt Cancer Center.

It’s not clear what if any legislative fixes may be proposed.

Some think the department of health could address the problems through rule making, but doh has mostly dragged its feet throughout implementation.

Balancing the rights of victims and their families involved in mass shootings and the public’s right to know proved a difficult task for lawmakers Thursday afternoon in the state Capitol.

Photos, video, and audio leading up to, during, or after a mass killing of three or more would be exempt from public records under new legislation.

“First of all, the potential commercialization of it getting into the wrong hands, but there is also some concern about this video and photographic evidence being used to train people to do similar acts,” said Senator Tom Lee.

The Southern Poverty Law says four words in the bill, all acts or events, would have kept video of cops hiding, not engaging, at Parkland from public view.

“It might show the perpetrator entering and how they got in. It might show the footage afterwards which would show how he or she got out. It shows what law enforcement response was,” said Scott McCoy with the SPLC.

“It was the ability to access those records, and then the reporting on them, that made a difference,” said Barbara Petersen with the First Amendment Foundation.

As it’s written, the legislation wouldn’t protect the victims from a shooting at a yoga studio in the State’s Capital City, because only two died.

“I say why not two? Why not one? My State Attorney in Jacksonville has brought a case where there’s this one person that was killed and bad people want pictures of a little girl who was murdered. And that’s wrong,” said Senator Aaron Bean.

So far, compromise has proved elusive, yet both sides say they are sympathetic to the other.

The legislation does allow a court to order records be made public, but in the Parkland case, media outlets spent a hundred thousand dollars in legal fees, something experts say could not be sustained for multiple cases.