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A shifting Dorian has hurricane planners repositioning assets and hoping for the best, but as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the Governor says Florida is still likely to experience some of Dorians wrath.

“Don’t make any assumptions. Remain vigilant and be prepared” cautions the Governor. 

He’s also asking you to expect some of Dorians wrath.  

“You still looking at really significant storm surge on the east coast of Florida. You’re looking at major flooding events in parts of the state” says DeSantis.

But there is other good news. Gas supplies are improving.

Q:”Governor, how would you describe the fuel situation today as opposed to yesterday?”

“Better, yeah, we’ve had the trucks. They were in all night refueling. Those are now moving to the gas stations.”

Price gouging complaints continue to roll in, now totaling more than 1400. Attorney General Ashley Moody says one gas station raised prices over night “two dollars or more a gallon.”

After visits, culprits lowered prices.

“We have a rapid response team in the field. Investigators responding to locations. I can tell you, there have been instances already where they’ve responded. Prices were decreased, refunds have been given” says the AG.

And in an effort to prevent another nursing home tragedy like the one that took 14 lives during 2017’s Irma, the Agency for Health Care Administration visited every home that was not shown in compliance with generator requirements.

“Every nursing home in this state has a generator with the exception of three that have an emergency plan that would require evacuation” says AHCA Secretary Mary Mayhew

Early this week, just 80 percent of the nursing home and assisted living facilities were

listed as in compliance with the law.

Dorian’s path remains uncertain as of Friday night, but the Governor is warning the storm will likely be a multi-day event for most of the state.

Because of the uncertainty, all 67 counties are under an emergency order.

The state has more than a million gallons of water in a Central Florida warehouse and plans on ordering more than a million meals for distribution once the storm passes.

Some gas stations are starting to run out of fuel.

Most remain busy.

“Just making sure I got it,” said Governor Ron DeSantis.

The Governor said there is no shortage of gas, but there are not enough trucks to make deliveries.

“The emergency declaration waves service and truck weights for fuel trucks, so we can increase the capacity of fuel that’s brought in,” said DeSantis. “We’re also , starting today, implementing Florida Highway Patrol escorts for fuel trucks, so we can facilitate refueling in critical parts of the state.”

Florida is nervous.

“If you are in an area that has an impact from this storm, you should assume you’re gonna lose power,” said DeSantis.

It is the storms uncertainty that people from across the state taking precautions.

“Who knows, didn’t want to take a chance,” said Tallahassee local Rick Gittens.

Two thousand National guard troops will be on active duty by the end of the day Friday.

“By the end of the day tomorrow, it’ll be doubled to about four thousand. We‘re trying to be responsive but not over zealous,” said Major General James Eifert.

During the state of emergency’s first twenty four hours, the Attorney General Ashley Moody said 568 alleged price gouging complaints were filed, mostly involving water or gas.

“Some have not been cooperative, and in fact insisted that in order to do something we might have to send someone with a badge, which I will oblige,” said Moody.

The state will be opening the shoulders of major roadways to ease evacuations, once ordered.

Deciding who should leave and when will be decided by local officials.

The decision to move Saturday’s FSU game from Jacksonville to Tallahassee in advance of Hurricane Dorian’s landfall has posed logistical challenges to both the university and the capital city.

Hotels are expected to be completely booked through the weekend from a combination of fans and evacuees.

The last minute decision to swap venues for the FSU game against Boise State was a huge task for the team.

“It’s been crazy. Everything from popping popcorn to getting hay for the horse,” said Associate Athletic Director Rob Wilson.

Friday afternoon, less than a day out, the team was ready.

A few RV’s had already reserved spots.

Tallahassee residents Kathleen and John Pirtle had planned to travel to Jacksonville.

“It actually made it easier for us,” said John.

But the Pirtles said that’s not the case for everyone.

“We’ve got some good tailgating friends from Mexico Beach and were completely wiped out last year and they’re now living 100 miles south of Jacksonville. So they said they were feeling PTSD all over again,” said John.

FSU anticipates 40,000 plus fans to show, it’s about on par with ticket sales when the game was scheduled in Jacksonville.

By mid-day Friday more than half of the city’s hotels were booked solid from the influx of fans and evacuees escaping Hurricane Dorian.

Kerri Post with Visit Tallahassee said accommodations are being made to ensure space.

“Typically football games are a two night minimum, but the majority of hotels have relaxed that,” said Post.

The game’s noon kickoff is no coincidence.

“The idea being if you do come to the game you’re going to have time to get back to wherever you need to go and then do what you need to do to be prepared for the storm,” said Wilson.

The game is expected to bring between $3 million and $5 million to Tallahassee.

In contrast, the change of venue means Jacksonville will lose out on the economic activity of 30,000 out of town visitors.

Jacksonville’s Mayor Lenny Curry said it’s worth the cost to ensure the safety of the public.

People looking for lodging in Tallahassee either to escape the storm or attend the game, can go to visittallahassee.com to check hotel availability.

Attorney General Ashley Moody said her office received 568 complaints over alleged price gouging as of the opening of business this morning.

About half came through the new app Florida No Scam, the other half from the traditional hot line.

Moody said the majority of complaints are about gas and water.

She said some companies have not been as cooperative as they should be when contacted by investigators.

“Gas stations need be aware we are following this closely. We got some reports that some had increased prices overnight. I can tell you that in trying to be proactive about that, some have not been cooperative. In fact insisted in order to do something about that, we may need to send someone with a badge, which I will oblige,” said Moody.

Under Flordia law, when there is a state of emergency, which has now been declared in all 67 counties, companies can not raise prices higher than the average price over the last 30 days unless then can prove their costs increased.

If you see what you believe is price gouging the number to call is 866-966-7226 or use the Florida No Scam App for Android and Apple devices.

The State Emergency Operations Center will soon begin working around the clock to prepare for Dorian’s landfall.

Three days before the start of hurricane season, Governor Ron Desantis, put a note in the Western Wall in Jerusalem, asking Flordia be spared this hurricane season.

Unless Dorian makes a dramatic turn, the note will have worked for just under a hundred days.

“Obviously, the Governor and I both hoped this would not be the situation,” said State Emergency Director Jared Moskowitz. “The state has been hit by two major storms over the last two years.”

On Friday, the state EOC will shift into 24/7 operation.

Its mission is complicated by a somewhat erratic forecast track for Dorian.

“I am extremely sensitive of the forecast tracks that take this into the Gulf and potentially spin it into the Panhandle,” said Moskowitz. “Obviously that is the worst case scenario.”

In the past, emergency managers have said you need three worth days of supplies.

This is the first year they’ve said you need seven.

“We have to look at previous storms, right? They are getting stronger, the stronger they are, the greater the impact. I don’t want people to run out of supplies and then, because of power issues or road issues, they can’t go get supplies,” said Moskowitz.

As people seek supplies, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has activated her price gouging hotline.

She is also asking airlines to facilitate tourists who want to leave the state early.

“I’ve already been on the phone this morning with airlines, making sure they are going to waive fees for those that are trying to change tickets to get out of Florida, who are trying to evacuate,” said Moody.

FSU has moved its football opener from Jacksonville back to Tallahassee.

The Decision made by FSU and Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry.

“This is about the safety of people above all,” said Curry.

The FSU games was set for 7PM Saturday night in Jacksonville.

I will now be played at noon in Tallahassee.

It is illegal for businesses to significantly raise the price of essential commodities like gas and water as a hurricane approaches the state.

Yet it happens dozens if not hundreds of times during each storm.

The Attorney General is touting a new way for people to report and hold bad actors accountable.

As threat of a storm like Dorian increases, so too does the threat of price gouging.

Attorney General Ashley Moody is urging consumers to report complaints to her office.
“If they give us this information we can be proactive in making sure that people can have access to these commodities because we’ll stop the price gouging as it’s taking place,” said Moody.

Moody activated the state’s price gouging hotline Wednesday.

Even with the storm days away from making landfall, calls have steadily trickled in, with consumers reporting illegal price hikes on water, gas and plywood.

“You can sense people’s stress level because you know they’re trying to get things, trying to get everything collected, trying to get prepared for the storm and they go to buy necessary items and they see that they’ve increased double, triple in price,” said Crystal Fukushima, an employee in the price gouging receiving center.

Before now people generally called the state’s price gouging hotline to report companies, but the Attorney General has launched a new app that allows people to report detailed information and even photos of price gouging.

“All of this stuff immediately gets forwarded to our office,” said Moody. “It allows us to have more success on the back end when we’re trying to pursue these individuals.”

And employees we spoke with said so far they’ve been receiving more complaints through the app than phone calls.

It’s an early sign the new tool is making an impact.

The number for the price gouging hotline is 866-966-7226.

You can also download the Florida No Scam App for free on the both the Apple and Android app stores.

A proposed constitutional amendment aimed at opening up the utility market in Florida got its day before the Florida Supreme Court Wednesday morning.

Utility companies came out in force, asking the Supreme Court to block the amendment from the ballot.

The State Supreme Court weighed whether voters would understand what they are being asked to vote for in 2020.

After the hearing, one of the first out the door was FPL President Eric Silagy, a show of how important killing the amendment is to Florida’s major utility companies.

“Everybody is showing up here. It shows the stakes,” said Alex Patton, Chairman of Citizens for Energy Choice, the group pushing the amendment.

Dubbed the Energy Choice Amendment by supporters, it would prohibit Florida’s investor owned utilities from power generation and storage, essentially limiting them to building and maintaining the poles and wires.

Private companies would take their place.

“It would allow consumers to choose. It would really have an effect on breaking up monopolies, which currently are anti-consumer, they’re anti-competitive and they’re a corrupting force on today’s politics,” said Patton.

Amendment supporters said more competition will save the average family $300 a year with total savings hitting as high as $7 billion across the state.

If the amendment ultimately passes, the Florida Legislature would be directed to implement laws promoting competition in the energy market place and expressly prohibiting energy monopolies.

The laws would have to be in effect by June 1st 2025.

“This is quite simply and experiment that Florida cannot afford to chance,” said Brewster Bevis with the Associated Industries of Florida.

Utility companies argue the amendment doesn’t inform voters they’d loose their current providers as an option.

They also said it doesn’t guarantee residents will be able to sell electricity they produce as the ballot language claims.

“This language is as clear as mud,” said Bevis.

Amendment sponsors dismiss those concerns.

“What they are providing is a very misleading argument that is clear as mud,” said Patton.

If the Supreme Court doesn’t strike down the amendment, it will likely make it to the 2020 ballot.

Sponsors said they’re on track to reach the required 766,000 signature by the end of the year.

Families of the Parkland school shooting victims are fighting for compensation from the Broward County School Board.

At issue is whether or not each pull of the gunman’s trigger counted as a separate incident, or if the entire shooting was a single incident.

Under state law, a government entity like the school board can only be held liable for $300,000 for a single incident.

“A week later a copy cat shooter could have come into the school had it been open and done the same thing and the school board would be saying, ‘same incidence or occurrence, it was just our negligent security’. That cannot be the rule,” said Stephen Rosenthal who is representing the families involved in the case.

“This is an issue of one occurrence, one incident,” said Eugene Pettis, the attorney representing the Broward School Board. “We don’t have the situation where it’s days or weeks later. This all happened in a matter of a few minutes.”

If the Supreme Court sides with the school board, families would have to get approval from the Legislature for any compensation above the $300,000 cap.

Dorian officially became a hurricane this afternoon and is now expected to be a major storm before making landfall.

The State’s Emergency Operations Center has a skeleton staff on duty monitoring Dorian, but before the weekend, the room will be filled with hundreds making preparations.

“Obviously, we don’t want to pull triggers too late. So we don’t want to do things too early, like evacuate or over evacuate and put people on the road. So these are things the Governor and I were discussing,” said EOC Director Jared Moskowitz.

Complicating the planning are disagreeing models that leave a lot of the state open to landfall.

“People turn on the news and nobody knows where the storm is going, right? They see what’s going on and they factor i, well, where is it going. Is is going to Jacksonville. Is it going to Dade County. But as far as us, we have to plan for all contingencies,” said Moskowitz.

A planned Saturday night FSU football season opener in Jacksonville is also in jeopardy.

Radio talk show host Bobby Mac is one of thousands planning to make the trip, but the storm has him concerned.

“Yeah. Definitely. It’s real close to when kickoff is supposed to be,” said Mac.

FSU said it is monitoring the storm and that, “The safety of the student-athletes and the fans attending the game will, as always, be the top priority.”

The EOC Director said the game is also large on the Governor’s radar.

This is the new administration’s first storm and one of the first things they have done is preposition more supplies in different parts of the state for faster response.

“Think generators. Think pumps. Things of those nature,” said Moskowitz. “So those are things we are seeking to acquire and preposition.”

The state only recently hired a new logistics coordinator, a position that had gone unfilled since the previous administration.

More than anything, the state is urging citizens to stock up, be prepared and most of all pay attention.

Legal marijuana advocate John Morgan, who lead the drive for medical marijuana says he is encouraged by new polling showing 67% of likely voters would vote for full legalization in 2020.

Morgan likens the shift in public attitudes to an avalanche.

“What’s happened with marijuana is like this. It’s like Gay marriage. Once upon a time gay marriage was no, no, no, no. then one day gay marriage is okay,” said Morgan. “I say this when an avalanche happens, it not just happens. A snowflake hits. It build and builds and and as snowflake his the snow. And then theres an avalanche. That’s what’s happening with all things marijuana in America.”

As for funding the drive, Morgan said he’s keeping his checkbook closed, choosing instead to bankroll a $15 minimum wage amendment.

The Florida Legislature will not be returning to the Capitol for a special session on guns.

Florida Democrats had hoped to call the Legislature back to talk background checks and red flag laws.

“We would like to strengthen those laws and allow families to also petition the courts in addition to law enforcement,” said Kate Kyle with Moms Demand Action.

The effort failed to win the support of three-fifths of the members.

At close of business Monday, 19 of 40 senators and 62 of 120 house members had said no to a special session on guns.

The failure came as no surprise to NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer.

“They simply wanted to create an opportunity for political grandstanding,” said Hammer.

But now gun control advocates are shifting their attention to Washington.

Ads set to appear in Fort Meyers and Miami, target US Senator Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, urging them to support tougher background checks and red flag laws.

They’re part of a $350,000 national television campaign backed by the group Everytown for Gun Safety.

However Congressman of Florida’s 2nd District, Neal Dunn is skeptical Washington is in a position to act on gun legislation.

Dunn said he believes its not the laws that are broken, but enforcement.

“We already have laws that say this guy shouldn’t own guns, this guy needs to be baker acted, and it isn’t even being done,” said Dunn. “So we don’t have a measurable place to start with the laws that we actually have on the books.”

While gun control advocates hope to change the minds of Florida’s US lawmakers, state Democrats still plan to file gun control legislation for the regular session in January.

The Senate President has promised a thorough discussion.

Lawmakers technically have until 5 PM Tuesday to respond to the special session poll being conducted by the Secretary of State.

With the outcome clear many will likely choose not to respond, as has been seen in past attempts.

A final vote tally will be released some time Tuesday evening.

Governor Ron DeSantis ordered a security audit of all 67 counties back in May.

The audit is complete, but once a report is published it’s not going to advertise what problems were found.

The former president of the Florida State Association of Election Supervisors Paul Lux said the security audit of all 67 counties has been completed.

“The Secretary basically reported to us they had visited all 67 counties already,” said Lux. “And They are in the process of producing a remediation report, and we’ll go from there.”

Lux added he was not aware of how much remediation has been ordered.

Governor Ron DeSantis ordered the security audit in May after Special Counsel Robert Muller’s report said Russians successfully hacked two Florida Counties in 2016.

“There was no manipulation, It didn’t have any effect,” said DeSantis in May.

But he said the FBI would not let him name the counties, partly because the FBI said it would help the hackers learn how they were detected.

Supervisors Paul Lux and Mark Early were in the Capitol for a rule making workshop on machine security Tuesday.

“I think we are more ready than a lot of states,” said Lux.

One of the biggest challenges supervisors said they’re facing a year ahead of the 2020 election, is hiring people to process petitions, thanks to a new law.

Since July, petition gatherers have been required to register with the state and turn petitions into supervisors within 30 days.

It has required dozens of new hires.

“The law currently says we must be paid for those petitions, either ten cents per petition or the actual cost, which ever is less. So guess which one is less,” said Lux.

Elections supervisors are also sharing a $5 million grant to increase security.

They plan to ask for more when lawmakers meet in January.

The Florida Supreme Court was told the so-called Craig’s List Killer, David Kelsey Sparre, who killed a 21-year-old woman he met on the popular website for sex, was represented by incompetent attorneys during his original trial.

His new counsel, Stacy Biggart, argued even though Sparre had at least five lawyers, he got quantity, not quality.

“Mr. Sparre had one death qualified lawyer who can not take Capital cases anymore. He had for other additional lawyers. Who all jumped on his case so they could get death qualified,” said Biggart. “There was confusion at the evidentiary hearing over who was actually lead, who was fourth chair, who was third chair. This was not a well oiled machine. Five lawyers, yes, that was not quality representation. “

Lawyers missed deadlines.

The state calls those missed deadline ‘harmless error’.

The state is asking for the death sentence to be upheld.

Lawyers for death row inmate Raymond Bright are asking for a new sentencing hearing.

He’s already had two.

They said their client deserves another chance at life because the trial court discounted arguments that Bright suffered from PTSD resulting from childhood abuse.

Justices seemed skeptical.

The state argued the crimes were so horrific, a death sentence was appropriate.

“On February 13th, 2008, the defendant took a hammer and bludgeoned both Derrick King and Randall Brown to death,” said Assistant Attorney General Lisa Hopkins. “Dr. Rav, the medical examiner, testified that Derrick King suffered more than 38 injuries to his head and 20 to his extremities. He had injuries consistent with defensive wounds and also testified that Mr. Brown had over 20 injuries to his head and also his extremities.”

The court took the case under advisement.

Rulings can take a month to six months or more for a decision.

US Congressman Neal Dunn, who represents a large portion of the Florida panhandle, is optimistic about Hurricane Michael recovery.

Dunn said Tuesday that Congress still needs to pass a standard disaster tax relief package to help impacted communities.

And while nearly $7 billion in outstanding insurance claims are still outstanding in the panhandle, Dunn said money has begun to flow.

More than $1 billion in insurance checks were cut for hurricane victims last week alone.

“We’re not finished, but the money has begun to come out. And it’s slow, let’s face it. It’s much slower than we thought it should have been, but finally the money is flowing and I can tell you that on the ground, back in the west end of the district, the morale is picking up,” said Dunn.

Dunn also highlighted legislation he is sponsoring that would offer tax credits for home buyers and businesses that move into disaster recovery areas.