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Florida tries more kids as adults than any other state in the country, and 98 percent of those cases are due to the state’s “Direct file” statute – it basically gives prosecutors the ability to move a juvenile into adult court on a whim. As Matt Galka tells us, lawmakers are now preaching “reform” and are trying to change the law.

If two kids commit the same crime in different parts of the state – one may go through the juvenile justice system – the other could be tried as an adult.  Representative Katie Edwards (D-Plantation) is looking for uniformity.

“I want to get every juvenile a first crack at the juvenile system so they get the programs that they need, the services, the support, and make sure that were not diverting a juvenile who could be rehabilitated in the juvenile system,” she said.

Edwards is part of a bipartisan group of Florida lawmakers looking to reform how kids are tried after they’ve committed crimes in the state.  Her bill would require prosecutors to get a judge’s approval before they can try a juvenile as an adult.

Of the more than 1200 juveniles tried as adults in 2014 and 2015. a majority of them were for non-violent burglary crimes.

Circuit Judge Terrance Ketchel says the adult system doesn’t help most juvenile offenders.

“Juvenile courts have a lot more services, the adult criminal courts, it’s more about punishment,” he said.

34% of the teens who are tried as adults wind up back in prison.

“What we’re doing is we are seeing kids who are crimjnally inclined not get the very help to keep them from recidivating,” said former state Juvenile Justice Secretary Wansley Walters.

Non-partisan research group the James Madison institute estimates that reform could save more than $12 million dollars over 10 years – which could then be reinvested for more state juvenile services.

The bill still gives prosecutors the ability to direct file and transfer a kid into adult court for more heinous offenses a juvenile may be charged with including murder, carjacking, and sexual crimes.

Lawmakers are looking for tougher penalties against convicted DUI offenders. As Matt Galka tells us, they’re touting a bill that installs breathalyzer technology on cars as a lifesaving tool…if they can get it passed.

DUI…meet IID.  Lawmakers are pushing for the technology known as an Ignition Interlock Device to be installed on all first time offenders cars if they’re convicted of drunk driving.

Frank Harris with Mothers Against Drunk Driving gave us a demonstration

“And now it’s analyzing…and I passed,” he said.

First time offenders already have the devices installed on their cars, but only if they were convicted with a .15 blood alcohol level or above.

A bill moving thorugh the capitol would lower that threshold.  Kristen Allen with MADD says IID’s were responsible for stopping nearly 2 million drivers around the country from driving drunk.

“Residents and visitors deserve to drive without fear that the driver next to them has recklessly chosen to drive drunk,” she said.

Lawmakers say its about saving lives.

We need to do what we can to curb that behavior, and make sure we have fewer victims that just go out innocently to drive on our roads,” said Rep. Scott Plakon (R-Longwood).

But opponents say the price tag which is about $80 bucks a month, means many drivers don’t get them even when court ordered.  What’s worse…a drunk driver could have a sober person pass the breath test for them before they get behind the wheel.

The device would stay on a first time offender’s car for 6 months if the legislation passes

The US Supreme Court declared Florida’s death penalty unconstitutional a month ago and now Florida lawmakers are at odds over how many jurors should be required to recommend a death sentence. Until they settle the question, as Mike Vasilinda tells us, Florida will remain without the ultimate penalty.

Serial killer Ted Bundy went to his death on an 11-1 jury recommendation. John Couey, who killed 9 year old Jessica Lunsford got death on a 10-2 recommendation. Now lawmakers are struggling over how many jurors should be required to send someone to their death. Prosecutor Brad King, testifying before a House committee, said requiring a unanimous verdict like most other states would be a mistake.

“John Couey earned the death penalty by what de did.”

Prosecutors got help from victims like Emilee Cope. Her father was murdered seven years ago.:”

“ He was not able to be there when I learned how to drive. He was not able to be there when I graduated high school” the woman told lawmakers.

After Emilee’s testimony, the House committee voted down legislation requiring all twelve jurors to agree on death.

Instead, they would require a 9-3 vote.

Even at 9-3 or 10-2 Florida would remain an outlier for death cases. Something this court told them more than a decade ago.”

The Senate is pushing for a unanimous verdict, and the two agree, Florida remains without viable death penalty.

And even though his name is on death warrants, Rick Scott is yet to weigh in on the controversy.

“If the legislature passes something, I’ll be glad to review it” is all Scott would say.

A unanimous jury verdict is considered by many to be a safe haven for Florida’s death penalty. Anything else opens the door to more legal challenges.

Only Alabama and Delaware require less than a unanimous jury verdict for death. A recent poll by Public Policy Polling found that 62% of respondents preferred life in prison over the death penalty for convicted murderers, while 35% preferred the death penalty.

A pilot program for seven Florida counties would spend two hundred thousand dollars on tracking devices for alzheimer’s patients. The idea is to warn families the minute their loved one starts to roam. Rep. Elizabeth Porter sponsored the legislation after a first hand experience with her parents.

“Time matters when you are in search of a child or sometimes even an adult, who has eloped whether its suits or alzheimer’s disease. Unfortunately autistic individuals do tend to be drawn to water and if you do not find them sick enough, that unfortunately, its often too late” Porter told the committee.

The pilot was originally set for five rural northeast Florida counties. It was expanded to include Broward and Palm Beach, and may be expanded to include other counties before the final vote.

Governor Rick Scott is pushing for 20 million dollars to better fund technical training in Florida. He brought several dozen technical students to the Capitol to help him make his point. Scott recognized Taylor County Technical Student Michael Williams who is about to complete his training.

“There was a young guy just 19 years old who finished the program about two weeks ago, went to work his first job and is making seventy dollars an hour” said Williams, drawing applause from the Governor.

“We have a proposal for twenty million dollars in this years budget. It’s going to help all of our technical schools around our state make sure their individuals get jobs” says Scott.

Scott calls the program “Career in a Year.” He hopes it will attract companies to come to Florida by providing employment ready technical students.

In Florida, a growing number of third party administrators are getting homeowners to sign over their insurance claims with the promise of a bigger settlement. What they don’t know is that they lose control of the work and often end up with inferior or delayed work while contractors fight with insurers over inflated crimes. Roofer Rick Davis is part of a consumer movement to stop the assignment of benefits, which he says hurts consumers.

“This is wrong and very fraudulent activity and we need to get it dealt with. I’m fine with a check signed by the contractor and the homeowner and that way the homeowner stays in control of the construction activity” says Davis.

Davis and consumer advocates delivered a thousand petitions to legislative leaders, urging them to act on the assignment of benefits legislation.

A House committee has approved sweeping changes to the regulation of court appointed guardians. Numerous reports indicate that some court appointed guardians

isolate their elderly charges, medicate them to keep them quiet and drain their bank accounts. New legislation sponsored by Rep. Frank Ahern of Tampa would give families more say in their loved ones care and allow them easier access to courts.

“It’s our duty, part of our duty is to protect the duty, and its an important part of job to make sure that under our care and court appointed, that they;’re getting the best possible outcomes and not being taken away from their children or denied]ed assess to their children as has been reported” says Ahern.

The legislation also creates a first ever register for public guardians and provides they can be taken off the registry for unscrupulous or fraudulent activity.

Legislation to protect pastors who refuse to marry same sex couples moved one step closer to a vote by the full Senate today at the State Capitol. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, both sides in the debate believe they are being targeted.

There’s no middle ground in the debate over Pastor Protection.

Sot: Michael Rajner is a Gay Rights Activist.  “Its the concerns over the hatred and the bigotry toward the gay community.”

But pastors say its not about hate. Its about avoiding law suits.

Pastor Abraham Rivera came from the La Puerta Life Center in Miami. “We’re pastors, we’re not politicians or lawyers, and we can not afford to fight legal fights just to be able to do what with do with our first amendment rights, so this reaffirms it.”

The so called pastor protection act would keep them for being sued if they refuse to marry someone. It also guarantees their tax exempt status won’t be taken away when they do. Pastor Gerald Bustin told the committee the bible is his everything.

“I anchor everything I preached everything I believe is that the bible is the word of god. I’m not hateful toward people, but I do live by the bible.” says Bustin.

Nadine Smith of Equality Florida says it is much to do about nothing. “The First amendment of the United States Constitution protects every clergy member from being compelled to marry anyone, for any reason.”

The legislation cleared the committee by a six to one vote.

The pastors we talked to made it clear: with or without this legislation, they’re still going to say no to same sex couples.

That’s because pastors like Jesse Sanders of Tallahassee say the decision on whom to marry isn’t in their hands.

“We stand on god’s word. Marriage is between a man and a woman.”

Q:So, you would refuse to marry a gay couple?”

A:”I would, I would.”

Q:”Are you afraid of being sued?”

A:”No sir.”

The Senate bill has one more committee stop. In at least one of the lawsuits, Idaho pastors were sued when they refused to make a marriage chapel available to a gay couple.

For the 32nd year in a row, the state Capitol has been home to the world’s largest Paella. The food fest is sponsored by Miami Dade County for their annual trip to the Capitol. Chef Bijan Nakhuvuan’s goal; feed two thousand hungry denizens of the Capitol.

“400 pounds of chicken, and we had almost about 700 pounds of seafood, which is shrimp, crab, lobster meat, mussels, octopus, and fish, and the rest is rice, tomatoes, green pepper, red pepper, onions, garlic, and beer and wine on rice.”

Governor Rick Scott is a usual participant, serving Paella up to all who come,, but this year, he left the duties to Lt. governor Carlos Lopez-Cantera, who is running for the US Senate.

Efforts to do away with a fee on cremations stalled today in a Senate Committee. 42 counties collect fees ranging from 30 to 60 dollars overtime some one is cremated. The four million collected each year is used to fund the medical examiners officer. Susan Harbin of the Association of Counties says the fee makes sure no evidence is lost before a body is cremated.

“you have to have a highly trained professional determine the cause of death and make sure no evidentiary issues are overlooked before you creamate the body and finally dispose of any potential evidence. There’s a public safety issue at hand here” says Harbin.

Although efforts to remove the fee appear to have failed, the legislation now limits the fee to fifty dollars for each cremation.

Governor Rick Scott signed a bill last June mandating a 24 hour waiting period for a woman before she gets an abortion…but its been locked in a legal battle ever since. As Matt Galka tells us, the case found itself in appeals court Tuesday morning.

Should a woman have to wait 24 hours before she proceeds with an abortion? The questions been debated since the Governor signed the law mandating the waiting period last year.  Representative Jennifer Sullivan (R-Mount Dora) said she didn’t write an unconstitutional law.

“I think it empowers women, they get that consultation with the doctor which currently the doctors aren’t showing them like they do for other patients in other procedures,” she said.

But the American Civil Liberties Union disagrees. They told the First District Court of Appeals Tuesday morning that the law harms women’s health.

“They should not be forced to delay the procedure they should not be forced to undertake the additional costs and burdens of having to take more time off work,” said staff attorney Julia Kaye.

The law was signed in 2015 but was essentially only in effect for one day before an injunction was filed.

Medical students who joined the lawsuit say the law negatively impacts their education. And because of doctor’s schedules, a 24 hour waiting period could turn into 48 or 72.

Catherine Somodi-Stephenson/Medical Students for Choice

“That can sometimes bump up the price of a procedure for her, and for a woman who already saves so much money for the procedure that can be truly detrimental,” said Catherine Somodi-Stephenson, a member of the group Medical Students for Choice.

Appeals court judges now have to decide whether or not the law violates Florida’s constitutional guarantee of privacy to citizens.

The appeals court will decide whether or not to keep the injunction against the law in effect and could ultimately turn the case back to a lower court.

Florida is one of four states whose birth certificates don’t reflect the changes in modern parenting, But as Mike Vasilinda tells us, legislation trying to modernize the wording on Florida birth certificates is running into some opposition.

In Florida, by law, parents are still listed as Father and Mother on birth certificates. Lesbian couples who give birth must petition a judge if they want to be listed as the mother, the spouse or the parent.

Carlos Smith from Equality Florida says the legalization of same sex marriages means Florida birth certificates should reflect modern realities.

“Parental presumption is one of the many rights which is afforded to marriage, and so if a same sex couple is married, one of the rights that they have is the right to an accurate birth certificate so they can be treated in the exact same way as opposite sex couples.“

But Sponsor David Richardson (D-Miami) says Florida is one of four states in which the Department of Health doesn’t have the authority to list same sex couples as parents.

“We have always assumed we know who the mother is because the mother is the one bearing the child, But even that has changed given the advances in reproductive technologies.”

The legislation was approved ten nothing by a House Committee. Three members did not vote.

“Now I recognize that some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle may not want to take a vote on this issue. But, they’ll let a judge do it perhaps, and then when the judges does it, they’ll cry there’re just being an activist judge and legislating from the bench” says Richardson.

Under the new legislation new parents have the right to designate what they want to be called. Their choices: mother, father, or parent.

The three other states that haven’t changed their birth certificate laws include Wisconsin, Indianan, and Arkansas.