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A bill seeking to ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s only leagues associated with educational institutions was given initial approval by a House committee Wednesday.

Advocates for the transgender community came out in force to oppose what they consider a discriminatory piece of legislation.

Florida is one of 25 states considering legislation that would ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s only leagues.

Bill sponsor Rep. Kaylee Tuck said it’s about fairness.

“Nearly 50 years after Title IX all gains women have made athletically could be wiped away. The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act is intended to make sure that doesn’t happen,” said Tuck.

But in the bill’s first hearing, parents of trans-children said the legislation feels like discrimination.

“Do not deny her the rights that I had as a kid growing up,” said Jesse Jones, who has a transgender daughter.

Others went further.

“I have watched their pain and I have watched their suffering and this will bring more of that,” said Nathan Bruemmer, who is himself transgender and the former Executive Director of ALSO Youth in Sarasota.

The bill would allow trans athletes to compete in co-ed leagues or against men, but advocates said it’s not enough.

Gina Duncan with Equality Florida said the legislation is unconstitutional, pointing to a similar law blocked by a federal court in Idaho.

“They’re not really about sports. These bills are about marginalizing and demonizing transgender Americans,” said Duncan.

But Tuck said that case still has a long way to go and she believes protections for women in Title IX will ultimately uphold the law.

“We’re just asking that the biological differences are recognized between men and women and the sports teams reflect that,” said Tuck.

Tuck told us she’s willing to consider amending the bill, perhaps adopting language from a senate bill that does allow trans athletes to compete in women’s sports under certain circumstances.

The Senate legislation, which has not been scheduled for a hearing, would allow transgender athletes to compete in women’s leagues if they have maintained a specified level of testosterone for a year.

Transgender advocates argue even that proposal, would place an undo burden on the transgender community.

Nearly 100 teachers and school staff came to the state’s capital to testify against legislation that would establish new hurdles for them to join a union Wednesday

The bill would require teachers to reauthorize their union membership on an annual basis and prohibit them, from having union dues automatically withdrawn from their paychecks.

Andrew Spar, head of the Florida Education Association called the legislation an attack on educators.

“Our friends in law enforcement, our friends in fire fighting, our other front line workers, our friends who work in our cities and our counties who are also public employees are not the target of this bill. It is just the educators who literally give day in and day out for our kids, for our grandkids,” said Spar.

The legislation cleared its first Senate committee Wednesday morning.

Similar legislation in the House cleared its first committee last Monday.

State Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried previewed legislation creating a greenhouse gas registry Wednesday.

It would require agricultural interests to report regularly on what they have done to decrease their carbon footprint.

Options include sequestering carbon in the soil, reducing methane emissions and producing renewable energy.

By reducing the footprint, Fried said farmers could be eligible for millions in Federal grants.

“Climate change impacts everybody. Impacts everybody differently, but it has an impact on every single element of our state. And so it is real. It is here. It is not a partisan issue. This can provide farmers with much needed financial help while saving our environment for generations to come,” said Fried.

The legislation, filed by Democrats in the House and Senate, has yet to get a hearing in either chamber from the GOP-led Legislature.

How much money a students receives from their bright futures scholarship may depend on what major they pick if a bill passed by its first Senate committee Tuesday becomes law.

The bill sponsor argues the goal is to ensure students have the best chance of getting a job after graduation.

Nearly three million Florida students have helped pay for college with a Bright Futures Scholarship.

But State Senator Dennis Baxley worries some degrees aren’t resulting in jobs.

“It’s not a bright future when you are there with a degree and a pile of debt of money you borrowed to get through college, you bought the promise that your life would be better if you went, but you can’t get a job,” said Baxley.

He’s sponsoring a bill that aims to ensure florida students are getting the best return on the state’s investment, $6.8 billion since the program’s inception.

It would establish a list of programs that aren’t likely to result in employment and reduce funding for scholarship recipients who pursue those degrees.

He said the goal is to better link college educations, to future economic prosperity.

“And I’m really trying to look for the longer good of bringing these two worlds closer together,” said Baxley.

An online petition against the bill has received more than 100,000 signatures.

Democrats like Senator Tina Polsky disagree with the state picking winners and losers.

“This bill is the opposite of freedom. It is dictating our choices when it comes to majors, parents’ choices, students’ choices,” said Polsky.

Baxley said it’s his hope the state won’t identify any programs that wouldn’t be eligible for full bright futures funding.

Instead, he hopes ending up on the list, would encourage universities to better tailor their programs’ curriculums to include skills that make a graduate more likely to get hired.

“I think almost all programs could have some ingredients that would allow you to do some type of work when you leave the college,” said Baxley.

If passed, the legislation wouldn’t affect current scholarship recipients.

The bill also would remove scholarship award amounts from state statute.

Starting as early as this year, lawmakers would set award amounts on an annual basis.

Late last year, a Tampa city councilman dropped plans for a resolution banning new gas stations after the year 2030, but the decision hasn’t stopped state lawmakers from moving legislation that would prohibit any local government in the state from banning any energy choice.

Climate activists believe that banning new gas stations will speed up the move to electric cars, but state lawmakers are having no part of it.

“What’s currently in place, you can’t change,” said State Senator Travis Hutson. “Local governments can continue their to appropriately site gas stations in their jurisdiction so long as the activity does not have the effect of prohibition.”

Two bills approved Tuesday morning stop local governments in their tracks.

The first says they can’t ban energy choices outside you home, like gas stations.

The second prohibits bans on energy choices inside your house, like natural gas.

“This bill undermines the power of Floridians. Floridians are problem solvers,” said Ida Eskamani with Florida Rising.

Environmentalists argued the legislation is limiting, not increasing consumer choices.

“We have to cut back on fossil fuels. If we don’t, getting to one percent renewable energy will be one hundred percent impossible,” said Dave Cullen with the Sierra Club.

Both were approved along near party lines.

State Senator Janet Cruz split her vote on the bills, but doesn’t really like either.

“I’ve never happy with anything that preempts local government. I’m a little sick and tired of it actually,” said Cruz.

Hutson, who is sponsoring both bills, said the original ban proposed in Tampa is what got his attention.

“The Tampa one was more of the eye opening one because that is a large city that could make some major implications when it comes to tourism, right. People that are coming in not knowing the rules,” said Hutson.

The measure would also not allow counties to restrict gas supplies arriving at local ports.

Originally, the legislation would have erased anti-fracking ordinances in 13 counties, but objections forced it out of the bill.

The number of Florida children being Baker Acted is on the rise according to a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

In the 2018-19 fiscal year alone, more than 37,800 children were Baker Acted.

The rate of Baker Acts has more than doubled over the past two decades and Bacardi Jackson with the Southern Poverty Law Center said black students are even more at risk of being involuntary committed to a psychiatric facility.

“Some of these children are as young as five and six years old. Many have developmental disabilities and a disproportionate number of them, as we see in most of our negative circumstances, are black and brown. So we have effectively created a second pipeline to push out and police our most vulnerable children and put them at greater risk of harm,” said Jackson.

The SPLC report made recommendations to overhaul the Baker Act law by requiring mental health professionals to have the final say on initiating a Baker Act, not law enforcement.

It also called for better reporting and collection of statistics, along with better educating school staff and other stake holders of the traumatic effects of inappropriately Baker Acting children.

At any given time an abuser is stalking a woman who has sought refuge in a domestic violence center, but under Florida law, there is nothing law enforcement can do to stop the harassment.

New legislation may soon give them a tool to take action.

Florida is one of 19 states that require the location of domestic violence safe houses or shelters to be confidential, but it’s also one of 11 nationally with no penalties for disclosure by someone other than a shelter employee.

“We’ve had continuous problems over the years with abusers or their friends or their family finding out where the shelter is located, and then essentially stalking the victims outside the shelter, waiting for them to leave,” said Emily Mitchem, Executive Director of Refuge House.

But legislation would make it a misdemeanor for disclosing where a shelter is located.

A second offense would be a felony.

“Multiple domestic centers in Florida have reported drones flying over the confidential shelter, recording the video and publishing the confidential information on line,” said State Senator Ileana Garcia, who is sponsoring the bill.

The legislation has already gotten tentative approval in the Senate and final vote could come as early as this week.

A second bill would protect the staffs’ identity.

“And they stalked one of the staffers who work at the domestic violence staffer. Followed them to their car, and demanding information about their victims. This particular staffer was so just horrified about the entire incident, she actually quit,” said bill sponsor Representative David Borrero.

The legislation is a tool shelter directors are looking forward to having.

“I think it will be as really helpful tool for law enforcement because right now they have no way to discourage or stop that type of behavior,” said Mitchem.

The legislation could face a first amendment challenge.

If that happens, the state would have to prove there was a compelling interest in protecting victims.

A first offense for disclosing the information could land someone a year in jail and a thousand dollar fine.

A second offense jumps to as many as five years behind bars and a five thousand dollar fine.

Legislation seeking to increase transparency in big-tech and to fight back against social media censorship is moving quickly through the Florida House after it cleared its second committee stop Monday.

Florida Republicans believe conservatives are being targeted by big-tech censorship, but Democrats argue the GOP-sponsored legislation is a response to former-President Donald Trump’s deplatforming from Twitter and Facebook.

“I think that everybody should, at least if we’re being intellectually honest, be able to agree that yeah, there is a double standard here,” said State Senator Danny Burgess.

Burgess is sponsoring legislation that would require social media companies to inform users why their accounts were blocked or disabled within 30 days.

“The notice is provided to the user no matter who they are or what they do and you know, just to let them know why,” said Burgess.

A similar bill in the House goes much further, requiring social media companies to publish standards for censoring users on their sites and apply them in a consistent manner.

It would also create a cause of action, allowing Floridians to sue if they feel they were wrongly banned and it imposes fines on companies that censor political candidates.

“This is a distraction bill,” said Representative Evan Jenne.

Jenne, a Democrat, believes the bill is a direct rebuttal to former President Donald Trump’s de-platforming.

“You know, ‘we are owning the libs’. If that’s your main policy thrust, the state’s in really bad shape moving forward,” said Jenne.

Theoretically, the legislation could apply to the former President, who is a Florida resident, but the Governor shied away from the possibility when we asked if he’d spoken with Trump about using the legislation to get back on social media.

“No I haven’t,” said Governor Ron DeSantis.

The bill would impose a $100,000 a day fine on social media platforms for deplatforming statewide candidates and a $10,000 a day fine for all other Florida candidates.

The bill has one more committee stop left in the House before a floor vote.

The Senate version of the bill has not yet been scheduled for a hearing.

Florida’s economy is showing some improvement.

The unemployment rate for January was revised downward by a full percentage point Monday.

Florida’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is now 4.8 percent in January 2021, which is up just one and a half percent from a year ago.

The U.S. unemployment rate was 6.3 percent in January.

DEO Chief Economist Adrienne Johnston said the one point drop in the revised rate is the biggest revision in more than a year.

“Jobs are continuing to be added back into our economy. And people are going back into work, so we are seeing people going back into employment status. We’re actually seeing a reduction in the unemployed, so job growth is connecting people back into the labor market, and people are getting jobs,” said Johnston.

There were 482,000 jobless Floridians in January out of a labor force of 10,069,000.

February’s unemployment numbers will be released later this month.

Once President Biden puts pen to paper on the American Rescue Plan, Florida will receive billions of dollars in federal COVID-relief funds.

The burden falls on Florida lawmakers to the decide how to spend that money.

Lawmakers began this legislative session facing a $2.1 billion budget shortfall caused by the pandemic, but the state is about to receive $10.2 billion from the federal government, which at least in theory, will make balancing the budget easier.

“A lot of our ongoing budget challenges are non-recurring,” said Senate Budget Chair Kelli Stargel.

Stargel is mindful of the fact the federal dollars are a one-time payment.

“We’ve got a future minimum wage implementation. We Medicaid that’s going to be expanding. These are recurring expenses and that influx of money is non-recurring funds. So we’re trying to balance that out in the most appropriate way and how we can kind of pay for non-recurring things with non-recurring dollars,” said Stargel.

Florida Democrats hope the money will be used to back their $100 million plan to provide direct utility relief for Floridians.

“Roughly a million Floridians have been unable to pay their utility bills during COVID,” said Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith.

While lawmakers and the Governor appear eager to utilize the federal cash injection, a former Governor turned US Senator is urging the state to reject it.

In a letter sent to all 50 state governors, Senator Rick Scott called the $1.9 trillion relief package ‘wasteful’ and urged them return excess funds.

Stargel isn’t buying the idea.

“You return the funds, it just gets redistributed to New York or California or to other states,” said Stargel.

The Governor has suggested lawmakers set the state budget at $96.6 billion, more than $4 billion higher than the current budget.

Even with the new federal funds lawmakers have remained skeptical of such a large increase.

In total, the American Rescue Plan will bring $17 billion to Florida.

In addition to the money going to the state, cities will receive $1.4 billion, counties $4.3 billion and another $1.3 billion for other local governments.

Florida is just one of two states that does not require out of state retailers to collect the sales tax on items sent to the state, but a compromise will end the isolation.

The measure is expected to bring in as much as $1.3 billion in its first year and the new cash will be used to offset higher unemployment taxes on businesses.

Florida’s unemployment trust fund was a healthy $4 billion at the beginning of last year.

Last week it sat at $652 million.

“Florida businesses are facing an extremely large automatic increase in unemployment taxes,” said Rep. Chuck Clemons.

Because of the drop, businesses are being hit with a $713 million tax hike, but an early session compromise has lawmakers moving to stop the increase by collecting the tax already owed, but seldom voluntarily paid, on internet purchases.

“Thus relieving the buyer of that personal responsibility. Thus eliminating the risk of penalties and interest for those who fail to remit the tax,” said Clemons, who is sponsoring the House bill.

An attempt to also raise unemployment benefits by a hundred dollars a week failed in the bill’s first committee stop Thursday.

Democrats also unsuccessfully sought to direct some of the new cash to the state’s affordable housing trust fund to help people hit hard by the pandemic.

Florida’s constitution requires a 2/3 vote by the Legislature for new taxes, but this tax is already on the books.

“This is a change in the process of collection,” said Grace Lovett with the Florida Retail Federation.

But workers advocates argue working people who shop online won’t see it that way.

“The diapers that she’s buying on Amazon, that are going to cost more. It’s very difficult to look them in the face and say its not a tax increase,” said Dr. Rich Templin with the Florida AFL-CIO.

Just two of the 18 members voted no.

One democrat, the other a Republican.

“It was a bi-partisan effort to level this playing field that has been un-level for many many years,” said Clemons.

Under the bill, the money will continue going into the unemployment trust fund until it reaches the four billion mark.

If a new or existing professional sports team wants to build a new stadium in Florida, a state program that has already rebated $370 million since 1994 for stadium construction or expansion would no longer be available under legislation approved by a House committee Thursday.

The Sports Development Program was re-tooled in 2014 and hasn’t given any money for a new stadium since, because of legislative opposition.

Sponsor Mike Beltran said professional sports teams no longer need a state subsidy to compete.

“We have the best weather, the best athletes as some of the members have said, we have 22 million people who are fairly prosperous and spending money on sports and other things. Sports teams are going to play here whether we subsidize them or not,” said Beltran.

“They make tons of money. These teams can afford any type of expansion they want and we’re still paying for it, and we’ll be paying for it for many years to come,” said Representative Dianne Hart.

The program was originally created to lure Major League baseball to St. Petersburg.

Eight teams, including the Marlins and Rays continue to receive payments.

Most stopped this decade, but the Orlando Magic, the newest team, will receive up to $2 million a year until 2038.

The Combating Public Disorder Act, known as HB 1 because it is a top priority of legislative leaders, cleared its final committee Wednesday afternoon.

The move will clear the way for a vote by the full House, but the legislation continues to spur controversy.

Before the final meeting, State Rep. Fentrice Driskell spoke at a small rally against the bill outside the Capitol.

“We don’t need this bill that will have a chilling effect on protestors. We don’t need this bill that will trample on our first amendment rights. We don’t need this overreach by our state government that tries to tell our cities what they can and can’t do with the tax dollars that the residents of those cities elected them to be a steward over. We don’t need this bill that will divide us, and it does nothing to make us safer,” said Driskell.

The legislation is facing a headwind in the state Senate, where it is yet to be scheduled for its first of three committee meetings.

One of those Committees is chaired by a Democrat.