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Labor unions are making a last ditch effort to convince Governor Ron DeSantis to reverse course on his decision to end $300-a-week federal unemployment benefits early.

For unemployed Floridians like Aaron Davison the $300 a weeks federal unemployment checks have been a lifeline through the pandemic, allowing him to find temporary housing in hotels.

“The biggest fear is for us to be put back into the car,” said Davison.

Personal stories like Davison’s were included in a batch of 6,800 petitions delivered to the Governor’s Office Thursday.

The hopes is to convince him to reconsider cutting off the federal benefits this Saturday.

Rich Templin with the Florida AFL-CIO argued the idea the checks are keeping Floridians at home rather than returning to work doesn’t hold water.

“What we’ve been talking about all this time is $300 a week. That’s less than the minimum wage,” said Templin.

But the state is awash in job openings

There are roughly 500,000 jobs available according to the latest state statistics.

Unions point to evidence in other states that have ended the federal benefits that suggests hiring may have actually dropped when the checks were cut off.

A recent report from Indeed Hiring Lab shows job search activity in states that cut off benefits early is keeping relative pace with states that intend to keep the benefits for the full duration.

“It didn’t force people back into the workplace. It actually put more burden on them so they don’t have an ability to look for work,” said Templin.

Even in the unlikely scenario the Governor does reverse course, the clock is ticking on the federal benefits, which are set to expire on their own in September.

We reached out to the Governor’s Office for comment after the petitions were dropped off at noon, but have not yet received a response.

Last week Lake Jackson, visible from the observation deck on the 22nd floor of the State Capitol, had almost completely drained.

It’s done so at least twelve times in the last two hundred years.

But already, the geological abnormality is again filling with water.

State geologists were on hand at Lake Jackson Thursday with ground penetrating radar.

“Yesterday, there were some bubbles coming up, so it’s still draining, still taking some water. We’re just waiting to see what happens,” said Casey Albritton with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

A week ago, the lake had almost completely drained after a large sinkhole opened up for the first time since 2012.

The first recorded dry down was in 1829.

“Hopefully we’re trying to see if there is any connectivity between some of these other sinkholes and proximity to the main sinkhole at Porter hole, and get a clearer picture of what’s going on near Porter sink,” said Albritton.

But after two and a half inches of new rain, birds were once again diving for fish and onlookers coming to see the disappearing waters saw them reappearing instead.

“Get an actual feel for it, you know. Cause I’ve seen it on pictures and everything, but, you know, it doesn’t do justice,” said Corey Hooker who was sightseeing at the lake Thursday.

Authorities now say that two skulls found when the lake drained are not the result of foul play, but are of archeological interest.

At mid-afternoon Thursday, details about the find remained sketchy.

The yellow caution tape that surrounded the sinkhole last week, now under water, was being retrieved by the Department of Environmental Protection to protect future boaters.

Okeehempkee is what the Seminole Tribe used to call Lake Jackson.

It means ‘disappearing waters’.

During the 1982 dry down, an alligator was seen being sucked into the sinkhole.

Geologist told us the question is not if, but when the lake the lake will dry down again.

Several dozen proposed amendments have been filed for the 2022 ballot, but new restrictions on contributions for initiatives are expected to slow any efforts to amend the state constitution.

A federal judge could rule as early as Thursday on whether the new $30,000 contribution limit is legal.

Florida lawmakers enacted a $3,000-per-person limit on contributions to petition gathering efforts.

Senate sponsor Ray Rodrigues said the intent it to keep them citizens’ initiatives.

“The concern I have is that you have out-of-state billionaire’s who are coming in and putting in referendums and amending the Florida Constitution,” said Rodrigues.

Many in the state Capitol believe the new law should have been named for controversial trial lawyer John Morgan.

That’s because Morgan successfully bankrolled and passed a medical marijuana and minimum wage amendment.

“This is a direct attack on Democracy,” said Morgan.

Morgan told us he believes the legislation is all about who has got the power.

“We don’t want people to have the power. We want special interests to have the power, so we can get elected over and over and over and over again,” said Morgan.

Federal lawsuits challenging the contribution cap raise free speech issues.

In its brief, the ACLU argues the cap will make it impossible to raise the money to get on the ballot.

“An initiative simply won’t be able to get its signatures under this law,” said ACLU attorney Nicholas Warren.

But Rodrigues believes the change will survive federal scrutiny, because there are no limits on contributions once a proposal gotten on the ballot.

“Free speech exists. It exists when it actually becomes a referendum. While its an initiative, with just petitions being gathered, we don’t see that as a free speech issue,” said Rodrigues.

A federal judge will hear two motions Thursday, the ACLU’s request to put the law on hold while it moves forward, and the state’s motion to dismiss.

Part of the education reform signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis includes legislation aimed at protecting diversity of thought on college campuses.

The new law’s first goal is to gauge whether students and faculty feel university campuses are tolerant of different ideas and perspectives.

A 2017 national survey found while roughly seven out of ten students felt their campus provided a supportive environment for diversity based on race, gender and religion, only about half felt that way when it came to political diversity.

“In other words, they’re really focused on people that, while they look different, they think the same,” said State Representative Spencer Roach, who sponsored the diversity of thought legislation.

Roach hopes requiring universities to conduct annual surveys asking faculty and students whether they feel their campus is welcoming to diverse political viewpoints will help lawmakers better understand campus culture.

“This is not about advancing one ideology over another or pitting people against each other. Rather, we want to ensure the respectful open dialogue of competing views and let the marketplace of ideas sort that out,” said Roach.

Retired Political Science Professor Susan MacManus agrees with the goal of the survey, but she noted the devil is in the details.

“Because a survey is only as good as how it’s designed, whose input is there, how it’s analyzed,” said MacManus.

In addition to the survey, the legislation creates new due process protections for students, student government officials and student organizations facing disciplinary action from universities.

It also permits students to record lectures for educational purposes.

Another part of the new law prohibits universities from shielding students from controversial ideas.

Roach said the intent is to stop universities from canceling speaking events.

“And we’re talking here about people like Ben Shapiro and Candace Owens, who have been invited to campuses by student-led organizations and then the university has cancelled them or banned them because a few students felt that their speech was offensive,” said Roach.

The surveys are optional and while the state will develop a standard survey, each university has the option to create its own.

The first survey results are due in September of next year.

Following the Florida Supreme Court upholding the state’s seed-to-sale medical marijuana model, the Department of Health is preparing to issue 15 new treatment center licenses.

Those involved in the industry believe the expansion will increase competition and benefit patients, but some lawmakers doubt whether the new players will actually make a dent on cost and availability.

There are more than 575,000 medical marijuana patients in Florida and the ever growing number has opened the door for 15 new MMTC licenses.

Once the patient count hits 600,000, a total of 19 licenses will be available.

“This frankly doubles the size of the industry,” said Jeff Sharkey with the Medical Marijuana Business Association.

Sharkey expects those licenses will be granted within 18 months.

“I think it’s going to have a big impact. I mean you’ll see people really becoming competitive in this space,” said Sharkey.

But of the 22 current license holders, nine have produced zero, or virtually zero, product.

That’s one of the reasons State Senator Jeff Brandes is skeptical more license holders will make a noticeable impact on patients.

“Florida is going to be awash in medical marijuana licenses. The problem is, nobody wants to put the capital in to build the facilities and then site the retail facilities and build the processing plants necessary to make this work,” said Brandes.

With the Supreme Court upholding the state’s medical marijuana law, it would take legislative action to undo the expensive, but lucrative, requirement for MMTCs to control every part of the process from seed-to-sale.

Soon after taking office in 2019, Governor Ron DeSantis expressed disdain for the vertically integrated medical marijuana system put in place by lawmakers, saying they ‘essentially created a cartel’.

But legislative efforts to abolish the seed-to-sale model in recent years have failed to gain traction.

State Representative Carlos Guillermo Smith hopes its an issue the Legislature will move to address next year.

“We need more competition because that will drive down the cost of the product for patients,” said Rep. Smith.

The Department of Health told us it’s establishing an application process for the 15 licenses currently available, but it has not yet begun accepting applications.

Legislation signed by the Governor seeks to block websites from profiting from official mugshots.

The aim is to stop companies from profiting when bad things happen to good people.

Blake Mathesie was bartending at a Gainesville bar in the wee hours of September morning in 2018.

When a fight broke out, he hopped the bar to break it up.

But two weeks later he found himself in handcuffs.

“Four or five police cars show up at my house, and they said you are being arrested for a felony battery,” said Mathesie.

Months later a judge, in a nine page ruling, found Blake had done nothing wrong.

“But my mugshot was now online forever,” said Mathesie.

Efforts to get it down went nowhere.

“I had it brought up in a job interview before. You know it’s like the elephant in the room,” said Mathesie.

In 2017, Florida made it illegal for a website to hold a mugshot hostage by requiring payment for its removal.

Then the websites switched to an ad-based business model.

New Legislation signed by the Governor now allows people to make a written request to have a mugshot removed.

State Senator Aaron Bean was the sponsor.

“This bill kinda closes a loophole. It says you can’t be a for-profit website generating ad revenue for the sole purpose of embarrassing people,” said Bean.

But even Bean acknowledges his bill won’t completely shut down the mugshot industry.

“This is not going to one hundred percent solve the problem. These are bad guys. Their websites are offshore,” said Bean.

So the fight is not over for Mathesie, who will enter his final year of law school at FSU this fall.

“If we can make these bots that these sites use non-operable, well, then we’ll win. And the way to do that is not have these sheriff’s agencies post them online,” said Mathesie.

The legislation carries a $1,000 fine for not removing a mugshot.

The legislation takes effect October first.

The legislation requires a written request be sent to website by registered mail.

The site then has ten days to respond, or start the clock running on $1,000-a-day fines.

Florida’s Commissioner of Agriculture, who heads the state’s Division of Consumer Services, is threatening to levy fines on an organization associated with a former Trump attorney.

The Division alleges Defending the Republic Inc. has been soliciting donations from Floridians without registering with the state.

Defending the Republic’s website is full of information questioning the safety of COVID vaccines and the legitimacy of the 2020 election.

On the front page is the name of former Trump attorney Sidney Powell, known for claiming she would ‘release the kraken’ during post election-litigation.

Florida’s Commissioner of Agriculture Nikki Fried alleges the organization has been unlawfully soliciting donations from Floridians, by failing to register as a charity.

“My job is to hold everybody accountable regardless of the mission of that organization and regardless of where their money is allegedly going,” said Fried.

The Division of Consumer Services is threatening a $5,000 fine for the alleged violation and additional $10,000 fine for deceptive practices.

“They posted a disclosure, claiming to be registered in the State of Florida,” said Rick Kimsey, Director of the Florida Division of Consumer Services.

When we Googled the West Palm Beach address listed on the organization’s website it appeared to direct donations to a mailbox at a UPS store in the city.

Fried said when the Division confronted the organization, Defending the Republic gave this response.

“They intimated, ‘Oh, that’s not us. You’ve got the wrong people’,” said Fried.

The Commissioner had this message for Powell.

“If you take advantage of Floridians, if you think the rules don’t apply to you, we will release a kraken of our own,” said Fried.

Defending the Republic has 21 days to respond or come into compliance with state law if it hopes to avoid fines and further consequences.

The Division of Consumer Services said it is not aware of how much money Defending the Republic may have solicited from Florida residents.

We contacted an attorney representing Defending the Republic, but he said he wasn’t prepared to issue a statement, as he claimed when we sent the the subpoena and administrative complaint filed by the Division, it was the first time he had seen documents.

Florida’s unemployment rate rose slightly in May to 4.9 percent, up a tenth of a percent from April.

The total labor force now sits at 10.3 million with a total of 503,000 Floridians counted as unemployed, an increase of 15,000 over April.

Florida Department of Economic Opportunity economist Adrienne Johnston said the unemployment rate will likely continue to increase in the near future as more Floridians return to the labor force and begin searching for work.

“We are certainly seeing strong growth and it continues to get stronger every month. So I think that that’s a positive sign and there’s nothing that’s pointing to that slowing any time soon,” said Johnston.

The state added 35,800 private sector jobs in May, with largest gains seen in the information and leisure and hospitality sectors.

The Florida Supreme Court has blocked a second citizen initiative aimed at legalizing recreational marijuana from appearing on the 2022 ballot.

With two out of three initiatives out of the running, the odds of legalization any time soon are dimming.

The Supreme Court ruled that the ballot language was misleading because it said the amendment would limit recreational use.

The actual amendment language however, left open the door for state and local governments to allow for unlimited use.

Attorney General Ashley Moody petitioned the Supreme Court to block the initiative.

“We thank the Florida Supreme Court for their time and attention to this issue and respect their ruling. Floridians must fully understand what they are voting on when they go to the ballot box,” Moody said in an emailed statement.

Jeff Sharkey with the Medical Marijuana Business Association said the ruling is a disappointing blow to the cannabis community.

“We need to rethink our strategy and either get this done by 22 or 24,” said Sharkey.

In April, the Supreme Court struck down another proposed amendment to legalize marijuana because it failed to disclose the drug would still be illegal under federal law.

“This court has been really tough for the cannabis community,” said Jodi James with the Florida Cannabis Action Network.

James is also the Chairperson of Floridians for Freedom, which is backing the only remaining legalization effort.

It would guarantee a right to cannabis to Floridians over the age of 21.

Unlike the two amendments that have been blocked, the Floridians for Freedom initiative does disclose marijuana would remain federally illegal and it short ballot summary is almost identical to the amendment language, creating fewer opportunities for the Supreme Court to rule it misleads voters.

“If we can collect that million signatures before February 1st we believe we have enough ammunition at that point to make sure that we could get a ruling from the justices and everything we have seen from these last three decisions lead us to believe we were right all along,” said James.

Currently, Floridians for Freedom has just 2,610 of the required 891,589 valid signatures, but because the initiative dates back to 2015, proponents believe new state laws regulating the citizen initiative process may not apply to them.

Those new regulations include a $3,000 contribution cap on signature gathering organizations.

If the initiative is truly exempt, it open the door for the organization to secure a cash advantage to meet the February 1st deadline.

In the past Native Americans camped at a lake just north of what is now the the State Capitol, but now hundreds are flocking there because the lake is being swallowed by a sinkhole.

The dry down happens every decade or two.

People walking along the side of the sink hole at Lake Jackson Thursday, would have been in three to four feet of water before the lake drained.

The phenomena is called a ‘dry down’ by environmentalists.

Dry conditions, a lack of rainfall and a lowered water table are likely causes.

“It dried up my mother said when she was a kid. Once,” said Katherine Robinson, whose mother used to bring here to Lake Jackson to fish when she was a child.

The lake was once one of the premier bass fishing spots in America.

“Oh wow. I just can’t believe what I’m seeing. This is the first time I’m seeing it like this,” said Robinson.

The first time the dry down was documented was in 1829, but long before that Native Americans had named the event ‘disappearing waters’.

In 1982 when the lake drained, it became a playground for 4-wheelers.

Six years later, then-Governor Bob Martinez celebrated its return by going fishing.

“We’re putting it right back in the water,” said Martinez after making a catch in 1988.

Billy Shaynak came to see the lake draining as a teen.

He brought his eighteen-month-old son for pictures.

“I wanted him to see this phenomenon. He may not see it again for twenty years, thirty years,” said Shaynak.

When the lake opened this time, the first onlookers found two human remains.

The investigation remains open with no details on how long the bodies may have been there.

Archeologist Barbra Clark was touring the site, looking not for bodies, but for artifacts.

“We were walking around and we didn’t see any artifacts, but if people do find things, please leave them in place,” said Clark who is with the Florida Public Archaeology Network.

The lake will return once there is more water flowing into it than out.

The Department of Environmental Protection declined to be interviewed Thursday, but directed us to this Lake Jackson FAQ document on their website.

Florida became one of 15 states to require schools to provide a moment of silence at the beginning of each school day Monday.

The moment of reflection was already allowed, but after July 1st it becomes mandatory.

Florida lawmakers start each day with a prayer.

Now, with the stroke of the Governor’s pen, K-12 students will get one to two minutes each morning to reflect.

Whether the moment of silence lasts one minute or two is up to the teacher under the legislation.

Bill Sponsor Representative Randy Fine told us it will give students a break from a fast moving society.

“With technology, the media and cell phones, children just don’t have that time to be centered the way we’d like them to be. This is going to allow them to be quiet and let the world into their minds in a way that may not be happening today,” said Fine.

Key points in the legislation: students may not interfere with other students’ participation, and a teacher may not suggest the nature of any reflection.

But teachers are required to encourage parents to talk with their children about how to use the moment of silence.

“We are staunch believers of the separation of Church and State,” said Devon Graham with American Atheists.

Graham testified against the idea because she’s worried it will lead to bullying and more.

She told us she believes the new law’s true intent is to mandate prayer in schools.

“It is a bit of a back door way of getting there,” said Graham.

Making the moment mandatory also upset opponents.

“There’s no reason to force them to participate in something they don’t want to do,” said Graham.

The Florida School Boards Association told us more than half the districts were already allowing a moment of silence each day.

After last week’s Board of Education vote, Florida teachers will be prohibited from incorporating Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project in the classroom when they return this fall.

But some academics worry banning concepts like CRT for K-12 classes is a slippery slope.

Florida Chancellor of K-12 Public Schools Jacob Oliva said the Board of Education decided to ban CRT because it presents ideology as fact.

“It makes judgments or assumptions about people, falling into almost two different categories: that you’re either an oppressor or that you’ve been oppressed based on your ethnicity. And those experiences may not fall true for every single person,” said Oliva.

But critics of the new rule worry the K-12 ban could just be the beginning.

“At what point is that then going to jump to going beyond K-12, because education moves beyond that too,” said Dr. Jonathan Cox, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Central Florida.

Cox argued Florida officials have a distorted understanding of CRT.

“It’s not about things being inherent or people belonging to inherent groups that you are just inherently oppressed or inherently an oppressor. It’s more about socially and historically speaking what groups have held power and how has that power helped kind of shape and mold our social world,” said Cox.

Oliva said the rule change will give teachers more clarity, not only on how to discuss American history, but a myriad of other topics as well.

“Because teachers need to know for their own protection what the standards say and do and what are those expectations that we should be implementing in our classrooms,” said Oliva.

Chancellor Oliva told us he expects the new rule to be enforced at the local level and encouraged parents and students who have concerns with learning materials or instruction in the classroom to contact their principle or local school board.

He also noted topics including slavery, the Civil War and the civil rights movement will still be taught in Florida schools just as they have for decades.