Both the Florida House and Senate are prepared to take a final vote on a bill that would permit college athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness.
The policy change wouldn’t take effect until 2021.
Senate Sponsor Debbie Mayfield said that’s to give the NCAA time to adopt its own rules around the issue.
“My goal is that we’re very similar and I’ve been working with Senator Rubio’s office as well to ensure that we’re similar in the nature of what we’re trying to do, which is really just allowing them to market themselves,” said Mayfield.
Governor Ron DeSantis supports the bill and is expected to sign it into law when it makes it to his desk.
14-year-old Alyssa Alhadeff was one of the first killed during the Parkland shooting, but legislation carrying her name passed by the Senate Friday hopes to make schools safer going forward.
The bill would require schools to have panic alarms, allowing them to quickly contact police in the event of a dangerous situation.
Alyssa’s mother, Lori Alhadeff said she believes the proposed panic alarms could have saved lives during the Parkland shooting.
“If a threat is in the cafeteria and someone is on the football field the teacher will know to take their class away from the school. So Alyssa’s Law will save lives and if we had Alyssa’s Law on February 14th I do believe that kids, especially on the 3rd floor, could have possibly survived because they would have known how to respond more effectively,” said Alhadeff.
The bill still needs to clear the House, which is expected next week.
There is one new presumed Covid-19 case in the Florida Panhandle.
The state has already monitored 948 people for Covid-19.
248 remain under observation.
“So these are people who may have been in some other part of China, but they come. Fourteen days. Temperature checks. Seeing if they develop symptoms,” said Governor Ron DeSantis.
The newest presumed case is a man in his 70’s in Santa Rosa County.
“He had been doing international travel. He’s not in shape to fully answer all the questions, so there is an investigation ongoing,” said DeSantis.
Five others who traveled from China are under quarantine in Washington state.
“They tested positive. Now they’re not going to be released from quarantine until they test negative, so we don’t anticipate that having any impact on the people living in Florida,” said DeSantis.
With Spring Break gearing up over the next month, the Governor was quick to point out the risk in Florida remains low.
As of mid-day Thursday, the Department of Health said 31 coronavirus tests have come back negative in Florida Another 69 remained outstanding.
About 135,000 N-95 masks have been stockpiled by the Department of Health, and the Governor is urging residents not to go online to buy the masks because they may be needed for professions.
“For just the average person going to Amazon, buying a mask. That is not what you need to be doing,” said DeSantis.
State labs in Tampa Miami and Jacksonville are now able to test for Covid19.
The Governor said at least 10,000 test kits have been promised, but not yet delivered.
He also praised federal officials for quickly imposing travel restrictions from impacted countries, saying it has helped keep the spread here low.
The Florida House is pushing ahead with a bill that would make it harder to amend the constitution through the citizen initiative process.
Grassroots organizations fear the bill would spell the end for constitutional amendments pushed by anyone but millionaires and billionaires.
Jodi James is part of Floridians for Freedom’s effort to legalize recreational marijuana in Florida, and knows how difficult putting an amendment before voters can be
She fears the bill moving through the Legislature would make it much harder.
“An initiative like ours will never happen again,” said James.
Campaigns would have to collect five times as many signatures to have the Supreme Court review their ballot language.
It also would make it up to ten times more expensive to have signatures verified by election supervisors.
“You will not be able to contemplate a citizens’ initiative in Florida unless you have really deep pockets and I’m talking in the neighborhood of $25 million,” said James.
The bill would also require the Attorney General to ask the State Supreme Court if a proposed amendment would violate the US constitution.
House sponsor James Grant says currently no such protection exists.
“You could actually put a citizens’ initiative together to repeal the First Amendment,” said Rep. Grant.
Grant also rejected the idea the additional costs would benefit big-money campaigns.
Instead, he argued it will protect the constitution from policy that should be left to the Legislature.
“What we’re trying to do is strengthen a republic and mitigate the disastrous effects that we see from direct democracies when policy and fundamental policy questions are answered on a whim with marketing campaigns, put into the constitution almost in perpetuity,” said Grant.
The House is still negotiating with the Senate to see what ultimately makes it in the final product.
The bill is expected to be brought before the full Senate and amended Friday.
Local governments that illegally dump sewage would face higher fines under a bill ready for a final vote in the House.
House sponsor Rep. Randy Fine said the current fines the Department of Environmental protection can issue have proved to be ineffective.
“What we’re trying to do is change the thought process where this simply becomes a cost of doing business, which is how it’s looked at today. I’ll just leak some more sewage, I’ll pay a small fine, it’s a cost of doing business. We want them to think about it differently and do the right thing up front,” said Fine.
Any money collected through the fines would go to general revenue, but the bill sponsor hopes the fines will act as a deterrent to prevent the dumping from happening in the first place.
In 2017 the Florida Legislature formally apologized to the former students of the Dozier School for Boys, a now shuttered state reform school where allegations of abuse were rampant.
The Florida House recognized a group of the former students known as the White House Boys Thursday.
Rep. Tracie Davis used the opportunity to urge lawmakers to consider financial reparations in the future.
“I want this chamber to see in real life the attendees of a school that we were in charge of and what these men and their families went through. I will continue to run this bill and with the help of my colleagues I know at some point within the next year we will be able to provide some type of relief,” said Davis.
Remains of 40 boys survivors suspect died of abuse were found on the school grounds in 2013.
The Florida House approved a motion to serve former Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence CEO Tiffany Carr with a subpoena by any means necessary after failing to do so through traditional means Thursday.
The Coalition was discovered to have paid Carr over $7 million over a three year period and awarded millions in salaries and paid time off benefits to executives using state funds.
Rep. Tom Leek is chairing the committee investigating the Coalition, which until recently was the sole conduit of state domestic violence services funding.
Leek said he’s confident the move will get Carr to Tallahassee and before lawmakers.
“So if this were a civil case, which it is not, you could go to the judge and say this person is evading service we need to serve by publication or one of the other extraordinary means. What happened today is the House authorized service by any means possible and what we mean there is literally by any means possible and probably by every means possible,” said Leek.
The State Attorney General and Department of Children and Families announced lawsuits against the Coalition Wednesday in hopes of preserving evidence and recovering the misused funds.
Florida classrooms would be required to start the day with a moment of silence under a bill passed off the House floor Wednesday.
The proposal is causing some to raise concerns about separation of church and state.
Lawmakers hope to improve the mental health of students by requiring one to two minutes of silent reflection at the start of each school day, but the specific statue the bill changes also includes ‘permitting study of bible and religion’.
Devon Graham with American Atheists fears the bill is a back door way of mandating prayer in schools.
“It’s not neutral, it’s not innocuous by any stretch of the imagination,” said Graham. “There’s supposed to be a strict separation of church and state and it’s for the best for everyone. When things like this impede upon that, that’s an issue for everybody.”
While the bill received unanimous support as it moved through the House committee process, but received 20 no votes when passed off the chamber floor.
It’s faced continued opposition from some Senate Democrats.
“I think you put kids in a very uncomfortable position when they’re in a classroom and the majority of the class is of one faith,” said Senator Gary Farmer during the bill’s final Senate committee stop Monday.
But Senate sponsor Dennis Baxley argued the bill is crafted to benefit students from all backgrounds.
“Without crossing the line with advocating what people do during that moment of silence. That would be between them and their parents,” said Baxley.
The bill allows students to use the moment of silence how ever they best see fit and prohibits teachers from giving direction, but Graham worries that may not be the way it works in practice.
“I could imagine different teachers telling their students different ways of how to do this and it could be explicitly, you must bow your head, you must close your eyes, you must pray,” said Graham.
If the moment of silence is misused, Graham believes lawsuits would likely ensue.
After body cam video of a six year old being arrested in Florida went viral, state lawmakers are on the verge of passing legislation that would require every law enforcement agency in the state to have a policy on arresting anyone younger than ten.
Sponsors call it a humble beginning.
Video of six-year-old Kaia Rolle being arrested last September went viral.
For a solid two minutes, sobbing is heard on the body cam video.
“I don’t want to go,” Kaia said in the video.
“Come on lets, go. You can tell me what happened in the car,” the officer responded.
On Wednesday, Kaia and her grandmother Marilyn Kirkland came to the Capitol pushing for change.\
“To have a police officer on the line telling you that your six-year-old baby, my granddaughter Kaia, was arrested and I just couldn’t process it,” said Kirkland.
Kaia has been diagnosed with PTSD, is seeing a therapist, and has transferred to a private school with a state scholarship.
“At any point in her life, at age 20, they think she could be driving down the road and is pulling over for a traffic infraction and have a flashback,” said Kirkland.
Lawmakers now say young arrests happen far more often than they realized.
“In my district, we arrested 53 eight-year-olds. This is standard operating procedure,” said Rep. Wendy Newton.
The legislation went nowhere in committee, but a last minute amendment tagged onto this year’s school safety bill would require every law enforcement agency to have a written policy that requires supervisory authority to arrest anyone under ten.
The House passed the legislation 118-0 Wednesday.
It now goes to the Senate.
Ironically, the policy about to become law was in place, but not followed in Kaia’s arrest, but supporters say the legislation is a starting place and better than nothing.
The State of Florida filed suit against the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence and its former CEO Tiffany Carr Wednesday.
Carr received millions while shelters and victims suffered funding shortages.
The suit alleges breach of contract, breach of the implied duty of good faith and duty, and breach of fiduciary duty.
Carr is facing allegations of fraud.
Attorney General Ashley Moody said the suit seeks to freeze the assets of the coalition and preserve evidence.
“I am disgusted at the mismanagement and the greedy misuse of public funds that were meant to assists victims of domestic violence across the state of Florida. The damage caused by Miss Carr and the leaders of the coalition will certainly take time to repair,” said Moody.
Criminal charges remain possible.
Last week, state lawmakers changed the law that named the coalition as the only funding conduit between the state and 42 local shelters.
The House is pushing forward with a bill that its sponsor claims would make it easier for public sector employees, including first responders, to quit their unions, but the bill is facing significant opposition.
Lawmakers were greeted by public and private sector union members chanting ‘What’s disgusting? Union busting!’ as they entered the chamber doors Tuesday.
They’re protesting legislation would require state workers like teachers, firefighters and even police to reauthorize their union membership every three years.
It also would prevent public sector unions from requiring workers to explain why they’re ending their membership.
Some fear if lawmakers were to pass the restrictions for public sector unions it would only be a matter of time before they set their sights on the private sector as well.
“They’re trying to make it harder for unions to collect money. They couldn’t decertify us because it’s in the constitution so now they’re trying to defund us,” said Jeremiah Tattersall who belongs to a private sector union in Gainesville.
The bill also requires employers certify that workers have authorized payment of their dues.
“If an employer simply doesn’t want to do it, they don’t. And then what happens to that firefighter? What happens to that teacher? Are they in the union or are they not in the union?” said Rich Templin with the Florida AFL-CIO.
Even Presidential hopeful Senator Elizabeth Warren is weighing in.
“HB 1 is just another plan to try to break the backs of unions. We need to make it easier, not harder to join a union,” Warren said in a video released Tuesday.
“I don’t not believe this is a union busting bill by any stretch,” said bill sponsor Rep. James Grant.
Grant argues the goal of the legislation is to strike a balance.
“It’s easy to opt in, it ought to be easy to opt out and you’re not going to be discriminated or deal with the fear of discrimination by the way in which you opt in or the way in which you opt out,” said Grant.
The Senate President said he has no appetite for the bill, but in the horse trading of the final days of session anything is possible.+
Just before noon Tuesday, Governor Ron DeSantis confirmed Florida’s third corona virus case.
“We received, which we expected, a presumptive positive test for Covid 19. That’s going to be confirmed by the CDC. And it is the sister of the young female who traveled back from Italy. She was also traveling back,” said DeSantis.
In a strange twist, the Governor said the third case won’t be listed as a Florida case, even though she is in the Tampa area because she is a California resident.
But he said more cases are likely.
The roommate of the third confirmed case has not tested positive yet and she is in isolation.
Four tests remain outstanding.
And top lawmakers are starting to talk about setting aside additional money to fight the virus.
“You know maybe 10 to 20 million dollars, until we know what we are looking at with the numbers still in play,” said Senate President Bill Galvano.
State University faculty staff and students were told in a memo that anyone traveling from China, South Korea, Japan Iran or Italy would not be allowed on campuses for at least 14 days after returning.
And the Department of Agriculture, which regulates gas stations is asking wipes or paper towels be provided for customers use because of how long Covid 19 can survive.
“Corona viruses can live up to nine days in hard surfaces including glass, metal, steel,” said Deputy Agriculture Commissioner Mary Barzee Flores.
The Governor continues to emphasize that frequent hand washing, not touching your face and staying home if you are sick is the best way to prevent the virus from spreading.
The Capitol courtyard looked like an occupied country Tuesday, with military equipment on display for lawmakers during the annual National Guard Day.
More than 11,000 Floridians serve in the National Guard, and the Governor saluted them while promising to continue to make Florida the most veteran friendly state in the nation.
“More military families calling Florida home is a great thing for all involved. We obviously want to make a great state for them because they served our country, but they also contribute a lot to our state, so we obviously want to attract veterans,” said Governor Ron DeSantis.
The Governor is asking lawmakers for $8 million to help veterans with down payments for homes and low interest loans.
For LGBTQ advocates the 2020 legislative session has proven to be a mixed bag.
As the session draws nearer to a close advocates are celebrating the defeat of bills they argue would have harmed the LGBTQ community.
But advocates failed to pass housing and employment protections for sexual orientation and gender identity.
“Sometimes when we’re in the minority caucus it’s really about how hard we fight even when we know we’re not going to win that battle, but this battle goes way beyond this chamber. It goes into the election cycle and we’re going to do our part to make sure that we elect candidates who care about these issues,” said Rep. Anna Eskamani.
Advocates feared the Parents’ Bill of Rights would have required school guidance counselors to out students to their parents.
Another bill would have banned sexual reassignment surgeries on minors.
Florida lawmakers have until Tuesday to reach an agreement on the state budget, but they are so far apart they are planning for an extended session.
Differences include the survival of Visit Florida, environmental land purchases, teacher raises and more according to Senate President Bill Galvano.
“Well, you know, these things are complicated and and id you look at the budgets as they were rolled out, they are over a billion dollars apart. Everybody’s operating in good faith. The relationship Speaker Oliva and I share couldn’t be better. It’s just these things take time,” said Galvano.
The Governor’s message to lawmakers was to get it right and not worry about staying longer.
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