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Florida is doing virtually nothing to encourage cleaning up leaking septic tanks, which contribute to the states water woes.

10 years ago lawmakers required inspections, but then got cold feet.

There are over 2.8 million septic tanks in Florida and The Department Of Health said 10 percent, or at least 280,000, are leaking.

In 2018, fewer than 20,000 were repaired.

“It’s antique technology that needs to go,” said Leon Soil and Water Conservation Commissioner Bill Howell.

Howell said new technology now on the market for about $2,000 could turn septic tanks into mini-wastewater treatment plants.

“And it’s got bacteria in it and you pump air into it and the bacteria actually eats what’s in the septic tank. Digests it completely,” said Howell.

The impact of doing nothing can be seen in Wakulla County at its first class spring.
This boat used to do 30 or 40 weeks of tours a year.

The last time they had a glass bottom tour was two years ago.

In 2010, lawmakers passed a springs protection bill that required septic tanks be inspected every five years.

A year later, after thousands of complaints about the cost of the inspections, lawmakers killed the plan.

Former State Senator Lee Constantine was the bill’s sponsor

“We would have been five years, minimum, closer to a solution, and by 2020 we would have inspected every single tank in the state of Florida,” said Constantine.

Septic tanks are the second biggest polluter of our water, behind agriculture.

The state’s Chief Science Officer has said that some septic tanks would need to be modernized to become complete mini-wastewater treatment systems.

After the discovery of 27 possible new graves at the former Dozier School for Boys in Mariana, state and local leaders have agreed on a plan to excavate the grounds.

Members of the group “The White House Boys,” who formerly attended the school, said they hope the new investigation brings the 100 plus year saga of Dozier to a close.

Early Thursday morning, three members of the White House Boys tended to the graves of 40 young boys found at the Dozier School for Boys in 2013.

They did so with the knowledge more bodies may still be on the school grounds just an hour away from the Tallahassee cemetery where those already discovered are now buried.

“I don’t believe they found them all yet, and nobody else does,” said Roy Conerly, who attended Dozier from 1961-1962. “We’ve already found more than they said were there, there’s no records, they don’t even know who’s who.”

The White House Boys, now in their 60’s and 70’s, said more than 100 boys still have not been accounted for at the school, which is infamous for reports of physical and sexual abuse

“One of these boys here was about six years old and the only thing that boy had amongst the remains was a marble,” said James ‘Harley’ DeNyke, who attended Dozier 1964-1966. “And all of us White House Boys, we carry a marble signifying that boy’s possession.”

27 anomalies, believed to be graves, were identified at the school in April during a routine environmental clean up.

The state announced Thursday afternoon that it had given the green light to start excavating the sites as early as mid-July.

From start to finish, the excavation and reinterment of first 40 boys found at Dozier took about seven years.

The White House Boys hope this time things move faster, and so far, indications are good.

“Maybe this will be a beginning to an end for all of us boys that have lived with this for our whole lives practically,” said Charles Fudge, who attended Dozier 1960-1961. “When they take an abused 12 year old, you don’t forget it. I’ll be 72 this year and I’ll live with that every day.”

A timely conclusion isn’t guaranteed though.

Once the initial dig is completed, there will also be LIDAR scans of the school grounds, the results of which could lead to a full excavation of the school grounds.

Then there’s the question of relocating any remains that may be found.

A debate is raging between state economists over how much money Florida schools might lose if the lottery is required to put warning labels on their products and advertisements.

In an unprecedented move, the state’s Revenue Estimating Impact Conference was unable to agree on a number.

All lottery tickets and advertisements in the state could come with one of two warning labels under a bill awaiting the Governor’s signature.

Either, “WARNING: LOTTERY GAMES MAY BE ADDICTIVE’ or ‘PLAY RESPONSIBLY’.

“Psychiatrists now actually do recognize gambling as an addiction,” said Associate Professor of Neuroscience at Florida State University Gregg Stanwood.

If signed, the Florida Lottery predicts it would lose a minimum of 2.5 percent of its customers.

“You’re stigmatizing them as someone who may have an addictive problem of gambling,” said Jake Felder, Director of Legislative Affairs at the Florida Lottery.

Any loss in revenue could impact education funding in the state.

Florida schools receive more than a billion dollars a year from lottery sales.

Between lost customers, fewer advertisements and the possibility of Muti-state games like Powerball and MegaMillions pulling out of the state, the lottery estimates warning labels would cost education funding between $79 and $232 million a year.

But Stanwood is skeptical warning labels would impact those already addicted.

“There’s loss of control, the person is engaging in doing this even though there’s negative consequences for themselves or for their families,” said Stanwood.

Economists representing the House, Senate and Office of Economic and Demographic Research felt the same.

EDR Coordinator Amy Baker countered the impact would be closer to $25 million,

“If you do have addictive behavior and you’re currently buying tickets, these messages are not going to defer, or change your behavior at all,” said Baker.

But the Governor’s Office sided with the lottery and refused to compromise.

The Governor has already expressed concerns with the bill.

His predecessor vetoed a similar bill in 2017.

The Revenue Estimating Impact Conference says it intends to revisit the lottery warning bill next week in hopes of reaching a compromise on the potential economic impact.

Florida prisons are in the middle of a multi-year staffing crisis.

Morale is low over forced overtime to cover shifts, but the Governor has signed a bill to allow 18-year-olds to become correctional officers.

Correctional officer vacancies run as high as 30 percent in some prisons.

There were 2,000 vacancies at the beginning of 2019.

New numbers provided Wednesday show there are now 2,380 vacant positions; a 19 percent increase in just six months.

The remaining 10,000 officers are being ordered to work 12 and 16 hour shifts six or seven days a week.

Correctional officers start at just over $33,000 a year and there hasn’t been a raise in two years.

To increase the applicant pool, Rep. Spencer Roach sponsored legislation to lower the minimum age to become a CO from 19 to 18.

“What we are seeing is that those folks who are 18-years-old, and may have an interest in working for the department, they don’t want to wait that extra year to start working, so they are going into the military, which they can do at 18,” said Roach.

20-year corrections veteran Tim Butler, fired in part for blowing the whistle on wrongdoing, called the lower age a recipe for disaster.

“18-years-old you haven’t had enough time to think,” said Butler. “You haven’t had enough time to find out what’s going on with these guys. These guys here manipulate them quick.”

The PBA, which represents corrections officers, reluctantly agreed to hiring 18-year-olds.

”I guess we are at the point where we have no other choice but to put them into the prison,” said Baiardi.

But even the union says it’s just a stop-gap measure.

“The problem is that the pay isn’t good and currently they are forcing correctional officers to work on their days off because they are so short,” said Baiardi.

Officers who refuse to work overtime face suspensions, making the staffing situation even harder on those who can’t afford to leave.

Lawmakers hope there will be less of a need for overtime, when the new law takes effect on July 1st.

After spending seven hours answering questions suspended Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel’s fate is now in the hands of a Special Master and the full Florida Senate.

Israel was asked about what went wrong at during the response to the Parkland shooting, training requirements, and how decisions at the Broward County Sheriffs office are made.

Afterwards, the former sheriff told reporters he is neither negligent or incompetent, which Governor Ron DeSantis called Israel in his suspension order.

“For a governor to be able to use words like negligence and incompetence and suspend an elected official, rather than allow that official to be removed by the voters in that specific county is very serious, to me its almost un-American,” said Israel. “It’s something you hear about happening in other countries, and I certainly will be working very hard to reclaim my job, and finish term, and I will be running for sheriff of Broward County again.”

The Governor’s office will submit its case for upholding the suspension on August 12th.

The Sherrif will respond a week later, on August 19th.

A report from the Special Master will go to the Senate President around Labor Day.

A Tallahassee area restaurant owner, who passed on nine Presidential elections before registering to vote so she could cast a ballot for Donald Trump, said she will vote to reelect the President, but her unquestioning support for the President is waning.

Pam Buchanan is one of 112,911 Floridians who surprised pollsters in 2016 and voted for Donald Trump.

No one saw her coming, that’s because no one before Trump had ever motivated her to register and vote.

“He had a backbone. He wasn’t going to let people push him around,” said Buchanan.

The sign outside Kendalls Cafe, named for Pam’s grandmother, proudly proclaims the American ownership.

Inside between flipping pancakes, Pam sat down to take about the President.

“I’m still going to back him,” said Buchanan.

Her voice filled with reluctance, she said she is fed up with the rhetoric coming out of Washington.

“I never ever thought that somebody would be degrading somebody in his position as bad as they are,” said Buchanan. “And then him doing the same thing. You know, they’re all just being immature kids right now.”

And even though she is upset with the tone of today’s politics, she has never once considered not voting for the President again.

“I think he’s still doing good. He’s still got a lot of them scared. He’s doing a lot of what he said he was going to do,” said Buchanan.

Tallahassee is one of the bluest areas of Florida, yet Pam said her unabashed support for the President hasn’t hurt her business one bit.

And that may be because of Pam’s house rules.

“I don’t allow politics or religion,” said Buchanan.

But that might be easier said than done in the weeks and months ahead.

Pam supports the Presidents push to keep immigrants out of the country, but she’s not keen on building a wall.

She’s luke warm on tariffs because she said she often buys goods made in China.

Suspended Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel began making his case for reinstatement Tuesday morning.

The Governor removed Israel from office for what he called incompetence and neglect of duty over his response to the Parkland shooting, but Israel’s legal team is calling the removal a political stunt.

Suspending Israel was one of Governor Ron DeSantis’ first actions after taking office in January.

But it’s up to the Senate to uphold the suspension.

Arguing their case before a Special Master, the Governor’s lawyers argued negligence and incompetence on Sheriff Israel’s part lead to more deaths during the Parkland shooting.

“Scott Israel failed to properly train and prepare his deputies for real life, active shooter situations,” said Nicholas Primrose the attorney representing the Governor’s office.

But Israel’s attorneys Benedict Kuehne and Stuart Kaplan argued the Sheriff ordered more training for active shooter situations than is required under law.

“This is sad, to have politicized the lived of children,” said Kuehne.

DeSantis has been vocal in calling on the Senate to uphold the suspension.

“It’s important that the senators go on record and let people know, ya know, whether they think people like Sheriff Israel are behaving in ways that are appropriate,” said DeSantis.

The Senate President said the Senate will make its decision independent of the Governor’s desires.

Israel’s attorneys hope that’s the case, but say there are signs politics may bleed over into a decision.

They cite the decision by the Special Master to go ahead with the final hearing before Israel’s legal team could obtain documents related to the arrest of Scot Petersen, the former SRO at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

“Because are they concerned that once all this information becomes public, would that show that there was a rush to judgement here and that the removal was improper,” said Kaplan.

Once the final hearing concludes, the special master will make his recommendation to the Senate.

A final decision from the Senate could come as early as Fall 2019 when the Legislature begins committee meetings.

A man and woman accused of murdering FSU law professor Dan Markel in a murder for hire plot are set to go to trial on September 23rd.

Sigfredo Garcia and Katherine Magbanua have been implicated in the plot by a third defendant who cut a deal with prosecutors.

The family of the dead man have been implicated but not charged in the plot.

Ex-wife Wendi Adelson has been ordered to allow a deposition by the defense.

Help is on the way to Florida’s 67 Supervisors of Elections ahead of the 2020 election cycle.

Last year, they collectively had to return more than a million dollars meant to enhance election security back to the state, but the Governor has announced they’ll get a second chance to spend the cash, with some extra.

On May 22, the Governor Ron DeSantis ordered the Secretary of State to come up with a plan to ensure the state and counties’ election systems were secure.

The Governor said Monday that the plan is moving forward.

“The plan will first asses the security of Florida’s elections systems and identify any vulnerabilities,” said DeSantis. “If vulnerabilities are identified the will be addressed.”

Last year, $19.2 million was made available to the state’s Supervisors of Elections to enhance election security, but not all of the money was spent.

$1.4 million had to be returned to the state, but DeSantis said he’s making $2.3 million in unexpended funds available for security enhancements.

“To ensure the safest most up to date modifications are made to our infrastructure,” said DeSantis.

The announcement came after it was revealed two Florida counties’ election systems were hacked in 2016.

Secretary of State Laurel Lee said the state is committed to preventing future hacks.

“The Department of State will ensure that no county stands alone against foreign threats to Florida’s elections,” said Lee.

The money will go to back to the counties that were unable to spend their share in 2018.

One of the reasons the cash went unspent was because the state put overburdensome requirements on how it could be spent.

DeSantis said that won’t happen this time around.

“I don’t want to grind this process to a halt because you’ve got to dot a hundred different I’s and cross a hundred different T’s,” said DeSantis.

The $2.3 million will be added to another $2.8 million appropriated by the Legislature, giving supervisors another $5.1 million to share on security.

The Governor says he’ll ask for additional funds in his 2020 Budget Request if any vulnerabilities are identified throughout the review.

On the eve of President Trump announcing his re-election plans in Florida, there’s a push to convince more Jewish voters to vote Republican.

The Governor’s recent trip to Israel could start tipping the balance towards the GOP and help the President’s re-election campaign.

Becoming Governor was a race Ron Desantis won by just over 32,000 votes.

In Florida, Jewish voters are about 5 percent of the electorate.

A 2018 CNN exit poll found 19 percent of jews voted Republican.

That’s more than double DeSantis’s victory margin.

So will the Governor’s trip to Israel pay future political dividends?

Pres. Zionist Organization of America Mort Klein said it will.

“Governor DeSantis, as a Congressman, was the greatest friend supporting US Israel relationships in the United States,” said Klein. “Republicans have become much stronger supporters of US, Israeli relations than Democrats. That wasn’t true 20 or 30 years ago.”

State Representative Fine, the only Jewish Republican in the State Legislature agreed, Democrats tend to fall behind in their support for Israel.

“In many corners of the other side, being an antisemite is seen as some sort of a badge of honor, and that’s not okay,” said Fine.

While waiting for the Governor at the Western Wall in Jerusalem we met two Miami men, Yechiel Cinert and Joseph Leuchter.

Both were Jewish voted for DeSantis.

“The Republican Party has morphed into you know, this Pro-Israel party, right, even more so that the Democratic Party, which I think, you know, hasn’t fallen on deaf ears,” said Cinert.

“Also there’s a latent, there’s antisemitic elements in the Democratic Party,” said Leuchter.

Big elections in Flordia are decided by less than one percent.

So any movement in Jewish voters can have a big impact.

“I have a lot of Republicans come to me and say, my gosh, how can any Jews vote or vote for a Democrat given Israel, but I think that’s very simplistic to view Jewish voters that way,” said DeSantis.

It’s not an accident the President begins his reelection campaign in the biggest swing state where its Governor is Israel’s best friend.

Florida Jews make up about 3.5 percent of Florida’s population, but account for about 5 percent of all registered voters in the state.

Governor Ron DeSantis will be in Orlando Tuesday for President Trump’s re-election campaign kickoff, but he told reporters Monday that he’ll be doing his job as Governor rather than being a Trump surrogate on the stump every day of the campaign.

“I’m probably not going to be that involved. I mean, I’ll go to this, and if the President needs me, but as for every single day, following this news or that news of the Democrats, I mean. I got a job to do so I’m going to be focusing on that. But I do appreciate you know, what the President has done to help Floridians. Particularly the one’s that have been in need in Northwest Florida,” said DeSantis.

DeSantis was endorsed early in the 2018 campaign by President Trump and it immediately gave him frontrunner status.

Florida Democrats say Florida has abandoned our immigrant community with a bill signed into law today penalizing elected officials who don’t cooperate with immigration officials. The lone statewide elected Democrat, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, calls the legislation divisive.”

“Obviously I was a staunch opponent to the bill. I am disappointed its getting signed into law today.  I think all it does is make people scared and divide our state at a time when we should be coming together” says Fried. 

The legislation fulfills a campaign promise by the Governor. It was one of the sharpest contrasts between the two men running for Governor last November. Democrat Andrew Gillum vowed to make Florida a sanctuary state. He lost by 32,463 votes.

Hemp could soon be a 20 billion dollar industry in Florida, but it depends on the Governor signing legislation he received today legalizing industrial hemp, and the state’s Agriculture Commissioner wants you to encourage the Governor to sign the legislation.

Hemp is marijuana’s second cousin…made illegal in 1957. But perhaps no longer in Florida. Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried wants you help to make that happen.

“The bill was actually sent to the Governor this morning, so if anyone has an ear of the Governor, encourage him to sign the hemp bill” Fried told the Capitol Tiger Bay Club.

Fried sees hemp as a possible savior for panhandle families who lost a 20 yer old crop of pine trees during Hurricane Michael.

“It is going to be something thats going to replace all of our styrofoam, our plastic, out paper. Hemp creeps. It is gong to be what I call an industrial revolution across our state  and the country, and it’s all biodegradable” says Fried. 

Elected as an advocate for Medical marijuana, Fried says big changes are needed before patients will really benefit.

“Stronger competition means it becomes more affordable. Getting them out of the black market and into our licensed dispensaries.and we need to fight for health care for medical marijuana patients.”

Asked if marijuana would ever be legal in Flordia, the Commissioner said its going to take time.

“And I do see that happening as more and more states legalize it and get into the marijuana space, you’re going to see more movement in DC.”

11 States have already legalized recreational marijauana. An initiative trying to get on the 2020 ballot would to add Flordia to that list faces an uphill battle. 

The legislation requires hemp and CBD products meet testing standards for food safety. Fried says consumers should be careful buying the products until the state has developed testing standards.

Governor Ron DeSantis has signed into law a ban on Sanctuary Cities in the state. The legislation was one of the most controversial of the 2019 legislative session, but as Jake Stofan tells us you wouldn’t know it based on the large crowd that gathered to support the signing in Okaloosa County.

More than 300 people packed into to the Okaloosa County Commission room to watch the Governor sign one of the most controversial bills of the year into law.

“Sanctuary cities, they try to defy federal law” says the Governor.

The new law prohibits local governments in Florida from adopting sanctuary policies, and requires local law enforcement to hold illegal immigrants that have been arrested for 48 hours, to give Federal Immigration Officials an opportunity to retrieve them.

Senate Sponsor Joe Gruters (R) Sarasota says the legislation is about the rule of law.

“This is not about immigration. This is about making sure that we cooperate with with Federal Immigration Authorities.”

Only a handful of protesters showed up. Among them Aliza Sager of Fort Walton Beach.

She argues the new law will deter illegal immigrants who have been victims of crime themselves from going to police, for fear of deportation.

“If you have a problem, your immigration status should not prevent you from going to the police” says Sager.

The Governor and conservative lawmakers push back against opponents concerns, arguing undocumented immigrants have nothing to fear, as long as they haven’t committed a crime.

“These are people that have been in the community illegally, committing crimes, and then the Federal Government is asking for our assistance” explains the Governor.

House Sponsor Cord Byrd (R) Jacksonville, says the law allows the Governor to suspend locally elected officials who pass any policies that may hinders Federal immigration law.

“We’re not telling an elected official that they can’t speak about certain things,  but when they transition that speech and put it into action as a public official, that’s where they’re violating the law.”

The law officially takes affect July 1st.

After that, cities and counties with sanctuary policies already on the books have 90 days to repeal them or face fines between $1,000 and $5,000 a day.

Nearly three hundred concealed carry permits went to people who couldn’t pass a background check under the previous administration. Speaking to the Capitol Tiger Bay Club, Newly elected Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried is crediting a top to bottom restructuring of the program to making it work again.

“And so now that we have a new leadership in place, a new culture, we have actually reduced the amount of time to get your concealed weapons permit.  We walked in, we were at ninety three days. The statutory limitation is ninety. Since taking office we are now down to forty five days” says Fried.

The agency got 25 new positions from lawmakers this year and is poised to issue its two millionth permit this summer.