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Survivors of the Dozier School for boys are one step closer to being compensated after a Senate committee has a approved a bill Tuesday that would set in motion plans to identify those who were victims of the reform school.

The legislation still must overcome many hurdles before becoming law.

Survivors of the now-shuttered Dozier School for Boys have been coming to the State Capitol for at least a decade seeking restitution for the physical, mental and sexual abuse they suffered during their time at the state-run reform school.

“It’s something that we’ve waited our whole lives for,” said Dozier survivor Charles Fudge.

More than 500 victims have come forward, all united by a shared horrific experience.

“Mostly the sexual abuse that was inflicted on us as children. And when I say children, I’m speaking of children as young as five and six and seven years old,” said Dozier survivor and retired Army Ranger Capt. Bryant Middleton.

This year they’re advocating for a bill that would establish a process for victims to register with the state, so they might be compensated in the future.

“Time is not on the side of the victims to continue to wait for justice,” said Senate sponsor Darryl Rouson.

There are signs attitudes in the Legislature may be changing.

A key state Senator who voted against this bill last year, voted for it in its first committee stop Tuesday.

That Senator is George Gainer, who grew up near the school.

“By the grace of god there, I might have been there too. And I feel like this is one move that puts us a little closer to closure,” said Gainer.

The House never heard the bill last year, but sponsor Tracie Davis said she’s hopeful a deal can be struck this session.

“The time is running out because these men are now 70, 80 years old and so they’re not gonna be around much longer. So getting this done is of the essence for me,” said Representative Davis.

Even if the legislation crosses the finish line payment would be at least a year away.

That’s precious time many of the now-elderly survivors can’t afford.

The bill doesn’t address how much money Dozier victims would be entitled to.

That determination would be up to a future Legislature.

New York City instituted a new mask mandate Tuesday as the stock market was down over renewed COVID fears.

In Florida, state lawmakers took a step to extend liability protections to health care workers incase the pandemic doesn’t wain soon.

Derell Butler has spent the last 15 years working as a certified nursing assistant.

The last year and a half have been the toughest.

“It’s been very hard. It’s been very hard. Especially seeing our loved ones pass away inside a nursing home facility,” said Butler.

Legislation protecting health care workers like Derell and his employer from COVID-related lawsuits is set to expire at the end of March.

Lawmakers want to add another 14 months of protections.

“So, as our front line workers are out there doing God’s work and protecting us, we just want to make sure they aren’t out there looking over their shoulders, doing everything they can during an uncertain global pandemic,” said Senate sponsor Danny Burgess.

Under the legislation, a health care facility would have to been grossly negligent or engaged in intentional misconduct to be sued.

A patient would also have to specifically pinpoint where and when a infection occurred.

Trial lawyers argued against the extension.

“This disincentivizes heath care providers from doing the things are necessary to help us end this pandemic,” said Stephen Cain with the Florida Justice Association.

But nursing home attorneys testified that even with the protections in place, they are in court everyday.

“There was a stop in the number and volume of the lawsuits coming in, but there still is active litigation,” said attorney Robin Khanal.

The sponsor told us the legislation is not about fears that the pandemic is getting new legs, but a fact that lawsuits live on.

Democrats voted no.

“It protects bad actors and lumps them into the same category of those who who are working hard to provide for our loved ones,” said State Senator Darryl Rouson.

Lawmakers end their session March 11.

If the bill gets bottled up in last minute horse trading, the Governor would have just a little over two weeks to sign it before the current protections expire.

A Senate committee approved more than $100 million in tax holidays and reductions Tuesday morning.

The proposals include a 10-day back to school sales tax holiday and a three-day sales tax holiday for energy star appliances.

Senators also gave a thumbs up to removing sales taxes on airplane purchases and a 50 percent reduction on sales taxes for new mobile homes.

Committee Chair Senator Ed Hooper said the proposals will provide financial relief for Florida families.

“I think that’s the goal every year is to recognize and adopt sensible sales tax exclusions and exemptions that help Florida’s families. Whether it’s buying clothes and supplies for back to school, whether it’s hurricane supplies, whether it’s what we heard today,” said Hooper.

Removing sales tax on airplane sales was the only legislation to draw controversy out of the four tax bills.

Supporters argued it will support airplane manufacturers and keep Florida competitive with other states that have already removed the tax.

The brother of a woman who died with her husband in the Surfside Condo collapse in June was at the state Capitol Tuesday arguing against a bill he believes will cost lives.

The legislation would reduce the amount of time someone has to discover and sue a contractor for construction defects, such as not following the building code, from ten years to just four.

Martin Langesfeld knows the bill won’t bring his sister back, but it could save others.

“Developers need to be held accountable for what happens. The opposite is happening. The negligence will continue to go forward and this is why so many innocent people died. Lowering the years to four years is unheard of. You do not see building defects until five, ten years. We saw it in Surfside 40 years. Sometimes you never see the defects,” said Langesfeld.

Even Republicans who voted for the legislation said it needs more work before they can vote for it again.

The sponsor promised changes before the next committee stop.

Florida Democrats are hoping to make the state more equitable by promoting legislation that would establish an Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

The office would be tasked with drafting legislation to address racial inequities in the state, make budget recommendations to the Governor’s Office to support equity and identify laws that have disparate racial impacts.

Senate sponsor Lori Berman said Florida should follow the numerous companies, universities and states that have created similar offices.

“We have a tremendous opportunity here to follow the lead of other states and our business and academic communities and leverage diversity as our strength. We can promote changes that increase equity and make government truly representative of the people,” said Berman.

The legislation was officially filed at the start of October, but has so far not been slated for any committee hearings in either chamber.

The once a decade redrawing of the states congressional and legislative boundaries is heating up in the state Capitol. Today, House staff released the chambers first drafts, while a Senate committee fine tuned that chambers proposals. and as Mike Vasilinda tells us, at least one of the House maps is raising questions of fairness.

Ten yeas ago, new standards approved by voters aimed at making the process of drawing new political boundaries less political were in place for the first time.

Matt Isbell is an independent data analyst and says those standards weren’t always followed.

“They were secretly drawing stuff behind the scenes” says Isbell.

Fast forward to today.  Adding fuel to the debate is that Florida gets one additional member of congress.

“You are recognized for a walk thought of the staff prepared plans” said Senate Congressional redistricting chair Jennifer Bradley.

So far all of the maps have been drawn by staff with no public input. 

“They are telling us that they’ve done the work, but they are not sharing the analysis” says Florida League of Women Voters President Cecelia Scoon.

That worries the League of Women Voters, which originally passed the fair districts amendments.

“So if you want to understand what they’ve done, we have to follow their pathway, and they are just expecting us to trust them, and that’s not how government should work” Scoon told us.

After a Monday meeting, Democrat Linda Stewart says unlike a decade ago, politicians don’t appear to be trying to pick their voters instead of the other way around.

”What I’ve seen is not political.”

Q:”What does that bode for the future?”

“I think it means we won’t have a lawsuit.”

Two congressional maps dropped by the House today, are raising eyebrows.

Donald Trump won 16 of the states 27 congressional districts in 2020. Analyst Isbell 

says Trump would have won 17 districts under the first House released map, and more under the second.

“This second House Congressional plan has Trump at eighteen districts and Biden ten, so that’s much more aggressive than the other plans” says Isbell.

The House and Senate will each re-draw their own districts, but in the end, both must agree on the new congressional map.

After lawsuits following the 2012 redistricting, courts redrew both the Senate and Congressional maps, which took several years of litigation.

The co leader of the House Democrats in the state Capitol today said new legislation passed in the special session, eliminating vaccine and mask mandates could slow the state response to the new Omicron strain of Covid. But as the same time, Rep. Evan Jenne cautioned the impact of the new strain is unknown here in Florida

“One of the things it will do is give us concrete shows  moving forward when it comes to public health emergencies.  So, unfortunately I believe it will have a bit of a detrimental effect, but look, lets not jump to conclusions here” says Jenne.  

The majority of Democrats voted against ending mask and vaccine mandates. The legislation was signed by the Governor the day after the special session ended.

The Seminole Tribe is seeking to put a ruling that struck down the state’s new gaming compact on hold so the tribe can continue offering sports betting while an appeal moves forward.

There are also at least two other options state lawmakers could consider to salvage some of the $500 million a year the state will lose without a deal.

The Seminole Tribe is hoping to continue offering online sports betting while it appeals the ruling that struck down its $500 million a year compact with the state.

But sports betting attorney Daniel Wallach doubts the tribe will succeed because the tribe hasn’t stopped taking bets even with the ruling in effect.

“They’re making the likelihood of success for themselves and the odds here infinitely, infinitely much more difficult by engaging in activity that’s already deemed a violation of the law,” said Wallach.

But Wallach said the state and the tribe could potentially salvage the majority of the compact on appeal.

“Because there is language in IGRA (Indian Gaming Regulatory Act), which allows the preservation of the compliant parts of the compact to remain in tact,” said Wallach.

There’s also another option.

State lawmakers could revert back to the 2010 compact if they outlaw designated player card games offered by parimutuel facilities.

“The simplest thing to do is for Florida to simply follow the terms of the initial 2010 compact and get $350 million a year,” said John Sowinski with No Casinos Inc.

Wallach on the other hand, argues the best option would be for state lawmakers to amend the compact signed this year and exclude online sports betting.

“That’s roulette, that’s craps, that’s on-reservations sports books, that’s the ability to build four new casino structures. You can have all of that,” said Wallach.

Even without sports betting, the state could still bank $450 million a year from a deal with the tribe.

State lawmakers will be back next week for committees, but there’s been no indication they plan to gavel in to pass an amended compact.

So far the State of Florida has not taken any formal action to appeal the ruling striking down the compact.

“We are reviewing the Court’s perplexing ruling, which certainly contains appealable issues. Because neither the Seminole Tribe nor the State of Florida are parties to the case, it is unclear what if any immediate impact the ruling has in Florida,” said the Governor’s Press Secretary Christina Pushaw in an emailed statement.

If you were planning to bet on the on the Thanksgiving Day NFL game through the Seminole Tribe’s Sports betting app, you might want to think twice.

A ruling Monday night from a federal judge struck down the tribe’s compact with the state, which means at least for now sports betting is illegal in Florida.

However, voters may have an opportunity to legalize sports betting in less than a year.

At the start of this month the Seminole Tribe launched its Hard Rock Sportsbook App.

Now a federal judge has ruled the compact that made it possible null and void.

State Representative and former House Gaming Chair Randy Fine told us Floridians should stop placing sports bets, at least for now.

“Unless you want to be a felon,” said Fine.

But Fine noted sports betting could be back if voters will it.

“Voters could have an opportunity even if the compact worked out, but not until next November,” said Fine.

Florida Education Champions is behind the citizen initiative seeking to legalize sports betting across the board.

Tax revenue generated would be used to boost education funding.

“We estimate hundreds of millions of dollars and that’s based on comparison to other states, large states, that are also implementing this,” said Christina Johnson with Florida Education Champions.

The citizen initiative also wouldn’t run into some of the issues the compact faced, because voters would have to approve it.

Unlike the compact, the initiative allows for betting not only on professional and collegiate, but also amateur sporting events.

John Sowinski with No Casinos doubts Florida voters would sign off.

“You’d have people betting on high school football if this thing were to pass. I don’t think Florida voters, that that agrees with their sensibility. Even those who might not be that opposed to the general idea of sports betting,” said Sowinski.

The sports betting initiative only has 116,000 signatures validated so far, but the group backing it tells us more than half a million have been collected.

It will need approval from the State Supreme Court and nearly 400,000 more signatures to make the 2022 ballot.

If it does make the ballot the initiative would need 60 percent voter approval to pass, a feat no gaming expansion of this magnitude has ever achieved in Florida.

A Federal Judge has thrown out the state’s gambling deal with the Seminole Indians.

The compact signed last April included sports betting, which is what undid the agreement, because it wasn’t already legal in Florida.

The 25-page opinion was strongly worded.

Under the compact signed this past April, sports bets could be placed on a phone from anywhere and deemed legal as long as the servers were on tribal lands.

The court wrote that it “cannot accept that fiction”.

“You know, elections have consequences,” said John Sowinski, founder of No Casinos Inc.

Sowinski, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said the so called ‘hub and spoke’ design was a deception.

“And in 2018 Florida voters went to the polls and by a margin of almost 72 percent locked the key on more gambling in our state and kept it in their own hands,” said Sowninski.

In a one sentence statement, the Seminole Tribe said it was reviewing the judge’s order and carefully considering its next step.

The Governor, speaking in Broward early in the day had not yet been briefed when asked by a reporter.

He expects an appeal.

“We also knew when you do hub and spoke, it was unsettled legal issue,” said Governor Ron DeSantis.

While the compact contains severability language that would have kept other provisions of the compact alive, the judge noted the Department of Interior didn’t ask for it, so she killed the whole deal.

“The problem is the Biden administration didn’t tell the judge that, so the judge said if you’re not going to ask me to make it severable, then I’m not. And Joe Biden owns that,” said State Representative Randy Fine.

In a later statement, the Governor’s office called the ruling ‘perplexing’ and added, “It is unclear what if any immediate impact the ruling has in Florida”.

And since neither the state nor the tribe are parties to the suit, it is unclear who would appeal

The judge ordered the Seminole Tribe to operate under the previous 2010 compact, which the state had violated by allowing parimutuels to operate so called designated player games.

The tribe stopped paying the state $350 million a year two years ago because of the violation.

Governor Ron DeSantis made stops at two convenience chains Monday to announce plans to lower gas prices by suspending collection of the state’s 26.5 cent-a-gallon tax.

State lawmakers won’t be able to act before consumers see an automatic increase of eight-tenths of a cent on January first.

Florida last cut the gas tax by eight cents a gallon, just for the month of August in 2004.

“I propose we lower the state gas tax by ten cents,” said then-State Representative Bob Henrique in March of 2004.

Henrique, now Hillsborough’s Property Appraiser, pushed the idea of a gas tax holiday.

“It’s costing me another $25 a week,” said Financial Consultant Doc Viker.

But at stops in Daytona and then Jacksonville, Governor Ron DeSantis announced plans to suspend the tax’s collection for up to six months.

“This will be many months and this will be over a billion dollars. So that will be real, meaningful relief for people,” said DeSantis.

The 2004 cut saw some hoarding gas, which hurt supply.

Some companies didn’t comply so the state set up consumer hotlines for complaints.

Florida’s 26.5 cent gas tax will automatically adjust for inflation, rising to 27.3 cents January first.

Two top Democrats competing to run against DeSantis last week called on him to stop the January increase.

Democratic State Rep. Anna Eskamani said despite the politics at play, it’s a good idea.

“It’s a worthy cut to discuss because it’s regressive and so it’s going to benefit everyday people,” said Eskamani.

And pool contractor Steven Gilmore told us if the tax goes down, he can start saving again.

“It would be good for me. I don’t know if it’ll be good for the budget,” said Gilmore.

The state does have billions in reserves and gas tax collections were up by half a billion last year over what was expected, so money isn’t an issue.

The cuts could come early next year and must be approved first by state lawmakers.

They begin their annual session January 11th.

The State of Florida has been dealt an initial blow in its battle to block a federal rule requiring health care workers to get vaccinated.

The federal policy conflicts with the state law banning vaccine mandates and could result in facilities facing stiff fines, but health care groups are most concerned about how the mandate will affect staffing levels.

Health care workers will have to be vaccinated by December 6th or billions of Medicaid dollars could be withheld from facilities.

Kristen Knapp with the Florida Health Care Association told us nursing homes have no choice but to comply.

“That December 6th deadline is fast approaching and we’re all working really hard to make sure that we’re in compliance,” said Knapp.

And with only about six of ten nursing home staff vaccinated to date, Knapp worries how staffing could be affected.

“There’s a possibility if we have limited staffing that we have to shut down wings, limit admissions,” said Knapp.

Compliance with the federal rule would also mean facilities could face ten to $50,000 fines from the state for every employee fired.

Mary Mayhew with the Florida Hospital Association said health care facilities are in desperate need of resolution.

“Where there is confusion there’s a lack of clarity and that’s where we are right now between the state law that has recently been passed and the federal rule,” said Mayhew.

So far the state’s efforts to block the federal vaccine mandate for health care workers in the courts has been unsuccessful.

The Governor has vowed to continue fighting the rule, despite a US District Judge refusing to block it in an initial ruling.

“I don’t want to see anyone get thrown out of a job based on getting a shot or not getting a shot,” said Governor Ron DeSantis.

The Governor said he plans to take the state’s lawsuit against the rule to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal, but there’s no guarantee a ruling will come before the December 6th deadline.

Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office issued this statement about the loss in the lower court.

“Attorney General Moody will continue to fight back on President Biden’s unlawful vaccine mandates. We strongly disagree with this order and will pursue further action in court to protect the livelihoods and rights of all Floridians,” said Moody’s Director of Public Affairs Lauren Schenone Cassedy.

Florida continues to outpace the nation in job growth, adding 41,500 jobs in October.

The unemployment rate also dropped two-tenths of a percent and 29,000 Floridians rejoined the workforce.

The numbers paint an optimistic picture for Florida economic recovery.

Florida makes up about six and half percent of the nation’s population.

In October, the jobs added here made up nearly eight percent of the total job gains nationwide.

“We’re seeing labor force growing, we’re seeing the unemployment rate declining and we’re adding jobs to payrolls at the same time,” said Adrienne Johnston, Chief Economist at the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.

September’s numbers were even better.

Four of every ten US jobs added that month were in Florida.

“For the month of September Florida added over 84,000 new jobs,” said Governor Ron DeSantis in a video released late last month.

In October the leisure and hospitality sector saw the most growth adding 16,600 jobs, but the industry still 27 percent below pre-pandemic employment levels.

“We need a lot more. so we’re ready for folks that have been in our industry to come back,” said Geoff Luebkemann with the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association.

State economists project the state’s economy will only continue to improve, especially with the new state law limiting employee vaccine mandates.

“What we saw was a positive move,” said Johnston.

The Restaurant and Lodging Association said it’s too soon to tell how the new law will impact the industry.

“I tend to think that one of the drags on getting people back in to work in hospitality and tourism doesn’t have anything to do with vaccines, it has more to do with lifestyle factors. Childcare and things. Kind of externalities,” said Luebkemann.

And the Governor directly attributed job growth to the state’s pandemic policies.

“Our state’s economy is growing faster than the nation because we keep our businesses open and push back against heavy-handed mandates,” the Governor Tweeted Friday.

Florida’s unemployment rate of 4.6 percent in October was on par with the national average for the month, which was also reported at 4.6 percent.