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Florida will face a severe nursing shortage by the year 2035 according to a report by the Florida Hospital Association and Safety Net Hospitals.

The problem is compounded by too few entering the profession and too many leaving.

The report found Florida will be short more than 59,000 nurses by 2035.

The pandemic has made an already bad situation worse.

“We have a crisis today because of what our hospitals, staff have experienced throughout the pandemic, the stress and strain,” said Florida Hospital Association CEO Mary Mayhew.

Over the next 14 years Florida’s population will increase by more than four million.

The fastest growing segment is those over 65.

“That population is the one most likely to use inpatient services, out patient services, emergency room services,” said Justin Senior, CEO of Safety Net Hospitals.

Quality healthcare is a big draw for both people and companies who want to move to Florida.

Ultimately, not having enough nurses could impact the state’s economic and population growth.

The study recommends the state adds at least 4,000 new nurses every year.

There are now more than 18 nursing schools in Florida.

Senior said there are plenty of applicants, but not enough seats or faculty.

“The number of applicants to nursing schools has actually increased, but if the number of seats doesn’t increase, the number of faculty members doesn’t increase, then all you have is more applicants,” said Senior.

Willa Fuller is the Executive Director of the Florida Nurses Association.

“More forms you have to fill out, more things we have to document. And you know, one of the things now is that even satisfaction is measured by a survey,” said Fuller.

The report also found if barriers to health care are lifted, such as expanding medicaid, the need for nurses could increase by a third, to almost a 100,000.

Recommendations include using Florida’s strengths to recruit, expanding training in non-metro areas and increasing the faculty Senior said is lacking.

The problem is also made worse by nursing staffing companies that hire nurses, then lease them back to hospitals at a premium.

In 2019 the Florida Department of Education conducted a survey of bus drivers and found that on any given day, school buses in Florida were illegally passed nearly 13,000 times across the state.

Lawmakers raised penalties for violations in 2020, but new legislation aims to strengthen the law’s enforcement.

The 2020 legislation doubled penalties for illegally passing a school bus, but Leon County bus driver Willie Mae Heard told us she still sees it happen at least three times a day.

“My great concern is they might hit one of our kids getting off the bus,” said Heard.

State Representative Emily Slosberg said the problem comes down to enforcement.

“Because law enforcement is not sitting at bus stops all day and they’re not following buses all day,” said Slosberg.

She’s sponsoring legislation that aims to capture violators on video by installing external cameras on buses.

“We need cameras on the long arms that can catch violators as it happens and so that we can issue citations,” said Slosberg.

Santa Rosa County recently implemented a similar initiative.

Videos captured by the bus cameras show drivers completely disregarding the the red flashing lights.

“It is paramount that we keep our children safe,” said Andrew Spar, President of the Florida Education Association.

The union represents school staff including bus drivers.

Spar told us illegal passings continue to be a common complaint.

“Whether they don’t like that they’re behind a bus, whether they’re running late or whatever it may be, it’s no excuse for someone to endanger children,” said Spar.

If the bill passes, Florida would join 23 other states that have already adopted similar laws.

“This is going to give notice to drivers that you are being recorded, and to drive properly, and to use caution and to obey the law,” said Slosberg.

The cameras could pay for themselves.

Fines for illegally passing a stopped school bus range from $200 to $400, depending on which side of the bus an offender passes.

Those fines would be paid directly to school districts that opt into the program to cover the cost of the cameras’ installation and maintenance.

Thursday is the deadline for 750 Leon County employees to prove they have been vaccinated or lose their job.

Most have already gotten shots, but the state is likely to put the county on notice it is violating state law.

On August 5th, the Gainesville City Commission voted to impose vaccine requirements for all city employees.

On Sept 20th, a court issued an injunction against the mandate.

Three days later the commission voted to reconsider the ordinance, effectively removing the mandate, for now.

“Specifically rescinding all previous directions for COVID vaccination policies,” said Gainesville City Commissioner Adrian Hayes Santos. “That includes reasonable alternatives.”

The next day the state told the city it was still subject to being fined.

The move leaves only Leon County and the City of Orlando with employee vaccine mandates.

Both jurisdictions want proof of a vaccine by the end of Thursday.

Leon Administrator Vince Long wasn’t available Wednesday, but he did tell us on September 14th most employees were already vaccinated.

“The time for handing out free doughnuts for vaccinations for employees is over,” said Long.

Leon County is likely to soon get a letter like the one sent to the City of Gainesville, telling them they are in violation of state law.

The letter threatens $5,000 fines could be assessed for each employee.

It also asks how many were required to prove their status.

Two Leon employees we spoke with said ‘it is what it is’.

“I don’t have any problem with it,” said Solomon Hart.

“I don’t know, some of them ain’t going to take the shot,” said Bruce Hall.

In Leon, 30 exemptions have been granted for medical or religious reasons.

If the state follows through with fines, Leon could be on the hook for $3.7 million.

Leon County is predicting it will have to dismiss less than one percent of its work force after the Thursday night deadline passes.

At midnight Thursday the minimum wage will jump from $8.65 an hour to $10 an hour and tipped workers will see hourly wages rise from $5.63 to $6.98.

The pay raise is being applauded by labor groups, but business groups fear it will add additional strain to employers still recovering from pandemic hardships.

The wage hike is the first step of a constitutional mandate to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026.

The first jump will be the largest the state has ever seen, and that has business groups worried jobs could be on the line.

“60 to 100,000 jobs almost immediately could go away,” said Dr. Jerry Parrish with the Florida Chamber Foundation.

Dr. Parrish told us entry level jobs are the most likely to be impacted.

“And it’s going to make it much more difficult for people with low skills. They’re going to pay the biggest price here,” said Parrish.

But Dr. Rich Templin with the Florida AFL-CIO told us he heard similar doom-and-gloom predictions when the minimum wage was raised in the past.

“Nothing terrible happened. We didn’t see a loss of jobs,” said Templin.

The Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association argued things are different this time, especially with the industry still recovering from lockdowns and other strains inflicted by the pandemic.

“We hope that we see Florida’s restaurant industry continue to survive and thrive, but there is reason to be concerned right now,” said the association’s General Council, Samantha Padgett.

Supporters of the minimum wage hike assert the increased wages will be a boom for the economy as a whole.

“The more money you can put in the hands of consumers, the better we all do,” said Templin.

But Dr. Parrish is worried in an economy already seeing costs rise from inflation, a wage hike could compound the problem.

“Certainly prices are gonna go up,” said Parrish.

Lawmakers are already looking for ways to soften the economic blow.

A State Senator filed a joint resolution just hours before the wage hike, that would allow the Legislature to set a training wage, lower than the minimum wage set in the constitution.

Under the resolution employees could only be paid the lower training wage for their first six months on the job.

If approved by the Legislature, the proposal would then need 60 percent voter approval in the 2022 election.

The Governor has called on the Secretary of State to open an investigation into Facebook after a Wall Street Journal article suggested the company may have given preferential treatment to incumbent candidates in the 2020 election.

State Democrats are calling the move political.

The Wall Street Journal article found Facebook had ‘whitelisted’ 5.8 million accounts, providing them preferential treatment if they were accused of violating the company’s rules.

The article also states while most government officials were whitelisted, not all candidates were.

“It’s definitely problematic,” said Democratic State Representative Anna Eskamani.

Eskamani is concerned about the alleged favoritism.

“It speaks to the larger conversation around big tech,” said Eskamani.

But the Governor has gone further, calling on the Secretary of State to investigate.

In a statement, the Governor’s Press Secretary Christina Pushaw explained the state wants to know whether the whitelisting could have benefited some candidates’ sponsored posts.

“The Secretary of State’s investigation would seek to determine whether Facebook’s actions amounted to undisclosed in-kind contributions to state and local campaigns in Florida,” said Pushaw.

An investigation like this is rare for the Division of Elections.

Usually alleged election law violations are pursued by prosecutors and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

“The Secretary of State doesn’t do investigations,” said Eskamani.

Eskamani argued favoritism of incumbent candidates would have been more likely to benefit Republicans in Florida.

“The irony is that if this is a so-called investigation, then he needs to be investigating his own party for benefiting from some sort of exclusive service from Facebook, not actually Facebook,” said Eskamani.

The Governor’s Office made no mention of political party in its statement.

“If Facebook’s double standards amounted to interference in state and local races in Florida, then Floridians deserve to know the extent of that interference,” said Pushaw.

We also reached out to the Department of State for comment on this story, but did not hear back in time.

Wheelchair bound Floridians haven’t been able to use a beachside park specifically created for them for more than three years.

They have been asking for change and now they are getting it.

The Agency for Persons with disabilities is giving control of the park to an agency that knows how to run a park.

Rish Park in Gulf County has been closed for almost three years, upsetting the disabled who use it.

“And memories and opportunities have been denied for too long,” said disability advocate JR Harding.

Since we first reported on the story at the start of September, it has been announced the park is getting new management.

The Agency for Persons with Disabilities, has agreed to turn over operation the State Park System.

“It’s really important to the disable community. It’s been closed since Hurricane Michael. And APD is not an agency that deals with state parks,” said State Senator Lorrane Ausley.

The transfer to the Department of Environmental Protection is set for December first.

“So this is a great move,” said Harding.

Harding proposed to his wife at the Park.

He has been the leading advocate for getting it open after Hurricane Michael.

“We’re excited about new opportunities and we’re excited about being involved,” said Harding.

Those who use Rish Park have told us it’s a place where they go to feel normal, have fun and not made to feel different by others using the park.

The plan now is to open the Rish in phases, with beach access likely coming first.

Harding said time is of the essence.

“If it goes six more months with a few bells and whistles, that would be okay. Another year would be completely unacceptable,” said Harding.

When fully functional again, the park will have it all: Boating, fishing, beach going, camping and a place the disabled can call their own.

Once in the hands of the State Park System, Rish Park will have the benefit of a full time ADA compliance officer, something the Agency for Persons with Disabilities does not have.

Thirteen bills seeking to either increase or loosen gun restrictions in the state have already been filed for the 2022 legislative session, but whether the Legislature actually plans on hearing any gun legislation is yet to be seen.

Ten of the 13 bills would add additional firearm restrictions.

They include a repeal of stand your ground, implementing universal background checks for firearms and ammo as well as banning those convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence from owning a firearm.

“There’s no single solution to the epidemic of gun violence,” said Democratic Representative Carlos Guillermo Smith.

Smith has filed a bill banning assault weapons for the 5th year in a row.

“Because it’s important for me to stay focused to honor the 49 who were taken at Pulse nightclub with action,” said Smith.

Other gun restrictions filed for the 2022 session include strict safe storage requirements and repealing a prohibition on record keeping of firearms and firearm owners

On the other hand, Republican Representative Anthony Sabatini has filed three bills, all aimed at loosening gun restrictions.

Among his proposals is legislation that would make Florida a ‘constitutional carry’ state.

“It allows you to actually open carry a firearm in the State of Florida. I think that’s really important because you know, you have the right to defend yourself and you shouldn’t have the duty to hide your firearm if you’ve done nothing wrong,” said Sabatini.

It’s no secret Democrats don’t have the votes to push gun restrictions through the Republican controlled Legislature, but that doesn’t necessarily mean there’s an appetite for loosening gun restrictions.

“We don’t have Republican officials right now, a lot of them anyways, who are standing up for the Second Amendment sadly,” said Sabatini.

Rep. Smith fears that because 2022 is an election year, Republican leadership might entertain the easing of some gun laws.

“In election years Republicans, who are in the majority of the Florida Legislature, often like to throw red meat at their conservative base,” said Smith.

Marion Hammer with the NRA was unavailable for an interview Monday, but told us the organization’s goal in 2022 is the same as always: “Protect the constitutional rights of law-abiding gun owners”.

The clock is ticking for the parent company of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.

The state has given Unilever until October 26 to reverse Ben and Jerry’s plans to stop selling in occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank.

If the policy isn’t reversed, the company faces economic consequences.

On July 19, Ben and Jerry’s announced it would no longer sell its ice cream in the West Bank after 2022, saying “We believe it is inconsistent with our values for our product to be present within an internationally recognized illegal occupation”.

“I have not seen any meaningful response from Unilever, period,” said Executive Director of Florida’s State Board of Administration Ash Williams at the September cabinet meeting.

At the meeting, the cabinet gave the go ahead for the state to divest all Unilever stock if the company doesn’t reverse its West Bank policy within 90 days.

“It’s a small part of our overall portfolio as you might imagine,” said Williams.

Those investments now total about $139 million.

“If 90 days tolls from the notice they are given, then we are barred by law from making any additional investments in the securities of that firm, so that’s exactly what we’ll do,” said Williams.

The state won’t just be selling its shares in Unilever.

Once the 90-day period is over, no government agency in Florida can buy its products.

The clock runs out on Unilever October 26th.

“I would guess there are probably a fair number of public institutions that are buying those products. I don’t think they will be after the 26th of October unless Unilever is responsive on this issue,” said Williams.

In 2019, the state put Airbnb on the scrutinized list after it said it would refuse to offer listings in the West Bank.

The company relented just days before the penalties would have kicked in.

In a statement, Unilever told us that while they will not sell Ben and Jerry’s in the occupied zone, it will remain in Israel, where it employs 2,000 people in four factories.

Florida school boards bucking the state’s mask mandate ban were supposed to have their day before an administrative judge Friday, but that didn’t happen.

The case was rendered moot because the Department of Health rescinded the rule being challenged and replaced it with another.

The new Department of Health rule is nearly identical to the original mask mandate ban.

Now school boards who had challenged the original rule are experiencing deja vu.

“Same problem, different rule,” said Alachua Superintendent Dr. Carlee Simon.

Dr. Simon said the school boards are likely to file another administrative challenge in hopes of striking down the new mask mandate ban.

And with federal dollars now backfilling pay check sanctions from the state, the school board isn’t likely to reverse course on its masking policy.

“If anything progresses further, we will still be able to lean on their support,” said Dr. Simon.

The Governor has justified the masking policy by saying case rates in mask mandatory and mask optional districts have been the same.

More troubling to school districts, is that the new DOH rule also includes new quarantine protocols that allow parents to decide whether to leave their children in school after an exposure if they have no symptoms.

“This new rule, unfortunately I believe is more risky and problematic than the first rule because this removal of quarantining for asymptomatic individuals and having this be a parental choice,” said Dr. Simon.

Dr. Simon is concerned some parents may abuse their new discretion.

“Easily we could have parents who have decided that their child is asymptomatic, or they’re going to mask it and make them appear asymptomatic, and they’re going to send a child who is shedding the virus into our schools,” said Dr. Simon.

The quarantine changes prompted Congressman and Gubernatorial hopeful Charlie Crist to call for the removal of Florida’s new Surgeon General.

“This is a reckless and baseless endangerment of our entire classrooms and schools across the state,” said Crist.

The Governor has said it’s rare a quarantined student actually ends up testing positive and the harms of missing school outweigh the risks.

A state appeals court also rejected a request for a lawsuit brought by parents challenging the mask mandate ban to be expedited to the Florida Supreme Court on Friday.

Instead the Appellate Court will rule on the case, which could be months away.

Dozens of middle and high school students gathered outside the State Capitol Friday afternoon to demand lawmakers take action to address climate change.

They’re alarmed by a recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which found global temperatures could rise as much as seven degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century if drastic action isn’t taken to reduce carbon emissions.

16-year-old Charlotte Stuart-Tilley helped organize the protest.

“We are out here demanding climate action. Right now we are in an unprecedented crisis. We are in the verge of a mass extinction and we are out here asking our lawmakers, our politicians to do something about this crisis,” said Stuart-Tilley.

Stuart-Tilley told us she hopes lawmakers will put a higher emphasis on solar energy and that any climate action taken also takes into consideration social justice.

Florida lawmakers haves begun the once-a-decade process of redrawing their own district boundaries, as well as those of Congress.

Two million more residents got the state an additional congressional district that will likely be in Central Florida.

From 2010 to 2020, 13 Florida counties grew more than 20%, while 17 lost population.

“Districts, where feasible, will utilize existing political and geographic boundaries,” said Representative Tyler Siros.

Redistricting has never been easy.

Then-Republican leader Bill James said this in 1982.

“The existing system has been more concerned with protecting incumbents than in protecting the rights of the citizens of Florida,” said James.

Even former Governor Bob Graham likened it to operating on oneself.

“Reapportionment is a lot like doing open heart surgery on yourself. It’s a very difficult political job for the Legislature,” said Graham in 1982.

Back then, maps were drawn by hand.

Now, residents have access to the same map making tools as lawmakers.

Sixty three percent of those who voted in 2010 approved the Fair District Amendments providing guidance on how redistricting must be carried out.

After the last map drawing session, lawmakers admitted they drew maps favoring incumbents.

That’s prohibited by the fair districts amendment.

But lawmakers said they now have case law telling them what they can and can’t do.

“So, we have a better understanding today then the legislature did ten years ago about how we implement these standards,” said Siros.

Jonathan Webber of FL Conservation voters is taking lawmakers at their word.

“The constitution is extremely clear on what the requirements are of the Legislature during this process, and, I am looking forward to them following that. They promised that. They said that,” said Webber.

The Fair Districts Amendments also requires the map drawing to get done by the end of the 60-day session, which starts in mid-March of 2022.

The Department of Health is under fire because it has still not issued a medical marijuana license to a Black farmer.

Lawmakers grilled the department to find out what is responsible for the delay on Thursday.

When the Legislature passed its medical marijuana law in 2017, one growers license was reserved for a Black farmer.

“So that the medical marijuana licenses in our state would have equity,” said State Senator Darryl Rouson.

Senator Rouson called the Department of Health before the Senate Agriculture Committee to explain why the Black farmer’s license isn’t among the 22 that have already been issued.

“Years have passed since this Legislature spoke,” said Rouson.

The department blamed the delay on a lawsuit challenging the state’s seed to sale requirement for license holders.

The State Supreme Court finally ruled in the State’s favor in May of this year.

“We are working quickly and anticipate moving forward with the Pigford MMTC licensing process in the coming weeks,” said Christopher Ferguson, Director of the Office of Medical Marijuana Use.

Senator Perry Thurston wasn’t satisfied with the excuse.

“The one entity that we designated to participate has been denied the ability to participate and the denial has nothing to do with them,” said Thurston.

Thurston and Rouson both said they worry that because of the delay, when a license is finally issued, the Black farmer who gets it will be starting off with a severe disadvantage.

“Talk about insult to injury,” said Thurston.

Senator Rouson is hopeful the department will move hastily going forward.

“And we’re going to stay on top of this. I’m going to work with leadership to make sure this gets done,” said Rouson.

The department’s timeline of weeks to months is just to get an application process in place.

Nothing was mentioned about a timeline to actually get a license issued in Thursday’s meeting.

The department did tell lawmakers that the license meant for a Black farmer would be issued before the other 18 that are currently available.

Florida lawmakers continued looking for answers to why students went missing from the school system after the pandemic hit during a House committee meeting Wednesday.

They’re displeased with progress made so far, and they say more than $100 million meant to help find the kids has been left on the table.

Last fall there were 88,000 students missing from the classroom.

The number was down to just shy of 19,000 students as of September first.

Of the missing students, 2,432 were identified as truant, while the remaining 16,463 have not yet been tracked down.

“We went from 70,000 down to 16,000 or 19,000, which is a pretty good number,” said Representative Matt Willhite.

But Representative Randy Fine argued with the amount of money thrown at the problem the number should be much lower.

“Every student who is not going to school is a life destroyed,” said Fine.

Of the $112 million allocated to find and help missing students, only two districts requested a combined total of $4,000.

“I think that is a disconcerting notion that all of us should have questions about,” said Fine.

Democratic Representative Susan Valdes argued districts may have been hesitant to spent the one-time dollars on reoccurring costs.

“Being able to hire more of these professionals to do this work, I can see why school districts maybe did not go that route,” said Valdes.

It’s not just the money allocated to find missing kids that has been left on the table.

$1.2 billion in available Federal emergency funds has yet to be spent by school districts.

“On average school districts have only spent 48 percent of the money they have access to today,” said Fine.

But Democratic Representative Robin Bartleman suggested bureaucracy at the Department of Education could be bottlenecking the flow of funds.

“Ask your personal school districts how many times they go back with the DOE until their plan is accepted,” said Bartleman.

Both Democrats and Republicans on the committee do agreed, more needs to be done to get to the bottom of why the money isn’t being spent.

Agriculture Nikki Fried held a press conference to celebrate Florida reaching more than 12 million fully vaccinated residents Wednesday.

Of those eligible to receive the vaccine, 64.6 percent have been fully immunized, which is slightly higher than the national rate of 64.1 percent.

Fried attributed the recent decline in cases to the rising vaccination rate.

She also expressed concerns about the Governor’s new pick for Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, who has faced criticism from the Florida Democratic Party for not pushing vaccinations hard enough.

“We as elected leaders need to be doing everything possible to be encouraging the people of our state to be getting the vaccines and that is leadership. And to make anybody doubt the vaccines or to downplay them I believe is irresponsible,” said Fried.

Dr. Ladapo in a press conference Tuesday said he supported vaccines, but noted he didn’t believe they were the only measure to deal with COVID.

A Republican Florida lawmaker has officially filed a Texas-style abortion prohibition in the State Capitol.

The legislation would grant citizens a private cause of action to sue anyone who performs or helps facilitate an abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which is usually around six weeks of gestation.

When confronted by reporters to answer questions about the legislation, Sponsor Webster Barnaby repeatedly declined to comment.

“No comments at this time. Thank you,” said Representative Webster.

It’s not clear ion the Republican-led Legislature actually plans to entertain a heartbeat bill this year, although the House Speaker and Senate President have expressed general interest in pursuing some form of abortion legislation this year.