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For the first time, Floridians will be able to place legal sports bets on a NFL game Thursday night, thanks to the recent launch of the Seminole Tribe’s new sports betting app.

The Seminole Tribe’s app is the only legal avenue for Floridians to gamble on sports, but that monopoly could be short lived if a citizen initiative makes it on the ballot and is approved by voters next year.

The Hard Rock SportsBook app’s launch brings the $500 million a year gaming compact with the Seminole Tribe into full effect.

Sports betting makes up $50 million of the deal.

“It’s great to finally see all that work finally come to fruition,” said State Representative Randy Fine.

Fine led the House’s efforts to approve the compact.

He hopes the app launch will drive betters out of the black market.

“A lot of people don’t want to break the law and also people have concerns about the legitimacy of the game,” said Fine.

But others, like Senator Jeff Brandes predict the Tribe’s monopoly on sports betting will have the opposite effect.

“What you’re going to find is certain people not wanting to place sports bets through this way so they’re gonna use illegal apps,” said Brandes.

But backers of a citizen initiative aimed at fully legalizing sports betting in Florida have told us they’ve already gathered almost half of the nearly 900,000 signatures required to make the 2022 ballot.

It’s no surprise the Seminole Tribe is pushing back.

It has released a second attack ad in three weeks urging voters not to sign the petitions.

“Because we already have plan that’s working for us,” said a man featured in the ad.

If the amendment makes the ballot, voters will get to decide whether to keep sports betting in the hands of the Tribe or allow other companies like FanDuel and DraftKings to enter the Florida market.

The sports betting initiative, if approved by 60 percent of voters, allows the Legislature to tax sports betting.

Those revenues would have to be spent on education.

And Fine said no matter what voters decide, the state will still cash in on at least $450 million a year through the compact.

“So we’re still in a much, much better place than we were before the compact passed,” said Fine.

And even if the sports betting market is opened up, the Seminole Tribe can still participate, they’ll just have to share the profits with competitors.

A man who spent 37 years in state prison for a rape and murder he didn’t commit is also being barred from being compensated for his wrongful conviction.

Efforts are under way to eliminate or bypass the so called “clean hands” provision that bars compensation if there had been previous convictions.

55-year-old Robert Duboise has been walking the halls of the state Capitol seeking compensation for 37 years he spent behind bars.

It has been ruled a wrongful conviction.

Duboise has maintained his innoncence the entire time.

“You just got to keep your faith. That’s what its about. You’ve got to have patience. It’s easy to get in there, but its hard to prove your Innoncence once you’re in,” said Duboise.

His problem is that he had previously been sent to prison for nonviolent felonies.

Under Florida law, anyone wrongly convicted seeking compensation must have a clean record.

“An incredible story,” said State Senator Jeff Brandes.

Brandes has filed legislation waiving the clean hands provision for Duboise.

“We’ve taken a portion of their lives as a state then they should be compensated for that wrongful conviction,” said Brandes.

State law sets payments for wrongful convictions at $50,000 a year.

In Mr. Duboise’s case, he would qualify for $1.85 million.

This week Robert met with lawmakers, including Senate Democratic leader Lauren Book.

He was describing how he helps feed the homeless

”So what I did was started making bag lunches,” said Duboise.

”How do you stay so positive?” Asked Senator Book.

“You have to,” replied Duboise.

In 2020, lawmakers waived the clean hands requirement for Jacksonville’s Clifford Williams.

If they do the same for Duboise, he’s already got a plan in place.

“I would get me a house, which I’ve never had, and just concentrate on the future. Invest, and just keep pushing forward,” said Duboise.

And even if the money comes through, Duboise told us he’s going to keep working.

Since his release last fall, Duboise has been working as a handyman, doing small construction and maintenance projects.

The legislation also apologizes for the wrong, and provides Duboise with 120 hours of trade school or college free at a state institution.

Governor Ron DeSantis said the state would be filing suit as soon as Friday morning to stop the five hundred page OSHA vaccine mandate for companies that employ more than a hundred people.

The lawsuit is part of a larger effort by the state to push back against vaccine mandates.

The Legislature will meet starting November 15th to address multiple COVID-related policies including school masking, vaccine mandates and unemployment benefits for people fired over vaccines.

The Governor didn’t directly call for a ban on private employer vaccine mandates, but repeatedly said he doesn’t believe anyone should be fired over their vaccination status.

And while the Governor thinks the courts will stop the mandate from taking place, the Governor also said he wants the state to create a fund to pay the fines of business that might someday be found in violation.

“So, I think there are ways we can create some support to be able to basically pay some of these fines. I think we can get this thing enjoined in the meantime, but yeah, we want them to follow Florida law. And we understand if there are conflicts there, we want to smooth those conflicts out,” said DeSantis.

The Governor also said he believes parents should be able to sue school boards if they believe their rights under the Parents Bill of Rights have been violated.

He said if they win, they should be entitled to attorney’s fees.

Several hundred Floridians rallied at the Capitol against vaccine mandates Wednesday.

The protesters want the Legislature to ban all vaccine mandates both public and private, but Republicans have expressed hesitations about interfering with private employers.

The courtyard between the old and new capitols was packed with protesters wielding signs displaying anti-vaccine messages.

“We as Floridians are not experiments,” said Hillsborough Pastor Jayson Williams.

They came to send a message to Republican lawmakers who they accuse of putting corporate interests over the will of those who don’t want the vaccine.

“You seriously support your constituents being thrown out on the street?” said podcaster JC Hall.

Missing among the crowd were state lawmakers.

Only one showed up.

“Why are they hiding in their offices?” Said attorney and podcaster KrisAnne Hall.

Representative Anthony Sabatini, the one lawmaker in the crowd, wants to ban both private and public vaccine mandates for employees.

“It’s not just the threats from big government that are a threat to liberty today. It’s the threat from these big woke corporations,” said Sabatini.

He rejected the argument made by some Republicans that the state shouldn’t tell private businesses what the can and can’t do.

“They pass dozens and dozens and dozens of regulations on private businesses in the building every single year,” said Sabatini.

After the rally protesters flooded inside the Capitol.

From there they went to the House Speakers Office where they demanded a meeting, but they were told the Speaker was attending a family member’s funeral.

After failing to secure a meeting with the House Speaker, protesters then planned to attempt meeting with all 160 members of the State Legislature.

And while the protesters said they have the Governor on their side, DeSantis has not asked the Legislature to outright ban employer vaccine mandates.

Still no official legislation has been unveiled ahead of the Special Session, but we’ve been told to expect that to change by week’s end.

A Texas couple who discovered spy cameras in their Manatee County AirBNB was before the Supreme Court of Florida Wednesday morning asking for their day in a trial court.

The couple has been blocked from suing because they agreed to the vacation rental’s terms and conditions.

When someone signs up for AirBNB and most other online platforms, they must first agree to the company’s Terms of Service.

But did a Texas couple agree to be spied on?

The couple, known only as John and Jane Doe were at the Supreme Court of Florida with an uphill argument: Giving away their legal rights to a third party was not clearly stated.

“They give the power to an arbitrator to make a decision, but it’s not supposed to displace the trial court’s inherent authority to make that decision too,” said attorney Tom Seider, who is representing the couple.

AirBNB’s disagreed.

“Terms of Service begins with all capital letters. Read these terms of service. Your legal rights and remedies are limited,” said AirBNB attorney Joel Perwin.

Justices asked why the language weans’t more clear.

“Just three or four, five, six, seven more words that basically say your arbitrator is going to decide whether he or she gets the case or not,” said Justice Jorge Labarga.

The spy cameras weren’t mentioned in court at all Wednesday, and won’t ever get before a judge unless the Supreme Court decides the terms and conditions were’t as clear as they could be.

Afterward the couple’s attorney said they knew they were giving up some rights, but not others.

“Our contract doesn’t talk about surveillance. It says we’ll arbitrate claims over deposits or if the property doesn’t match up with what we saw online. So we agreed to arbitrate those claims. We didn’t agree to arbitrate whether we were illegally surveilled,” said Seider.

The bottom line is that terms and conditions seldom benefit the consumer, so buyer beware.

Only one of at least three Florida appellate courts has ruled against AirBNB in cases like this one.

The different findings are why the case is before the Supreme Court.

There’s no timetable for a ruling.

Florida has been working on creating a digital drivers license since 2014, but has been hampered by a lack of national standards until now.

A new secure app became available Wednesday morning, but won’t be fully turned on until mid-November.

State Representative Fiona McFarland said if it had come online sooner, the application could have saved the state millions in unemployment claims.

“It was difficult to show that the person applying for unemployment benefits was who they said they were and there were some different hacks and spoofs that happened. And if this mobile drivers license had been in place, it would have been a fantastic way to identify that the applicant was who they said they were,” said McFarland.

An education campaign for drivers and law enforcement will launch soon.

Drivers must consent for the digital information to be transmitted to police or merchants checking IDs.

And while the rollout is coming soon, the state will be taking baby steps to make sure the app is secure and that police have the equipment to receive the device’s information without ever having to hold your phone.

The special session of the Florida Legislature called by Governor Ron DeSantis is less than two weeks away.

It was called to deal with mask policies, vaccine requirements and other COVID-related issues, but as of Tuesday, there was still no specific language for lawmakers to chew on.

With lobbyists in the hallways, Florida’s Capitol resembled pre-pandemic days this week, but vaccines and mask mandates are very much on the agenda in the coming special session.

“To add protections for people in the state of Florida,” said Governor Ron DeSantis when announcing the session in late October.

The Governor has said businesses mandating vaccines should lose COVID protections passed last year.

Republican Senator Jeff Brandes passed those protections and doesn’t see them changing.

“I don’t plan to support anything that would remove the COVID protects for business, period,” said Brandes.

“We’re gonna see where we land on that as we get ready to launch a special session,” said State Senator Travis Hutson. “I would say it’s in the discussions between the House the Senate and the Governor.”

Hutson, who represents Palm Coast, told us specific bills will be out soon.

“Friday, Saturday. We’ll probably launch some bills then,” said Hutson.

Among the legislation likely to be introduced is a plan for the state to create its own workplace safety agency, replacing the federal agency OSHA, which is about to issue vaccine mandates.

Democratic Senator Audrey Gibson argues businesses should be left alone.

“Those businesses in those communities should be able to to exercise their freedom based on the conditions that they know are happening,” said Gibson.

Florida Agriculture Commissioner and Gubernatorial hopeful Nikki Fried blasted the call for a session.

“And I do hope that this Legislature steps up to the plate, does what right for the people of our state and pulls back the request for the Governor,” said Fried.

Brandes and other GOP lawmakers told us they believe the Governor will come away with a legislative win, even if it’s not everything he wants.

The dilemma is that GOP lawmakers are pro-business at almost every turn, so they have a small needle to thread to make the results acceptable to their base, businesses and parents alike.

NBA legend Magic Johnson was at the State Capitol meeting with student athletes, encouraging them to start a conversation about mental health Tuesday.

The CDC reports mental health-related emergency department visits spiked by 31 percent among teens last year.

It’s one of many stats demonstrating the strain the pandemic has put on teens mental health.

“My grandson really struggled,” said Johnson.

But the 5X NBA Champion is hoping to help students turn things around by starting a conversation.

“We sometimes in the Black community don’t talk about things like this,” said Johnson.

Talking with student athletes at the State Capitol Johnson and mental health experts and the head of Florida’s Department of Children and Families took on the topic of mental health, letting the teens know it’s okay to ask for help.

“It’s okay if you’re sad, but it’s not okay if you keep it inside,” said Dr. Lisa Gwynn, who severs as Chair of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Johnson also encouraged the students to share how the pandemic affected them.

“Being in a classroom and just having the right mindset is a very important thing, so some people did struggle. I was one of them,” said Leana, a 10th grade student.

Johnson said he was pleasantly surprised by how willing the students were to share their feelings and called it a sign that times had changed.

“How many times will young people stand up and say and tell you the truth like that? That was just outstanding, and so for me, it helped me too,” said Johnson.

And students we spoke with told us seeing their peers being so open, made them feel more comfortable with their own struggles.

“Me in particular, I’m going through some things right now and I think this was good for me and good for the younger students,” said FAMU basketball player Cameron Reaves.

And Johnson encouraged the student athletes to take what they learned back to their schools to help keep the conversation going.

Johnson and other speakers at the event encouraged students to visit SimplyHealthyMinds.com, a new website dedicated to providing mental health resources to kids, teens and parents.

Floridians can officially place legal sports bets now that the Seminole Tribe has launched its Hard Rock Sportsbook app.

Sports betting was included in the new gaming compact reached with the tribe earlier this year and makes up $50 million of the Tribe’s $500 million annual payments to the state.

Sports betting in Florida could be short lived though.

Multiple lawsuits have been filed claiming the inclusion of sports betting in the deal constitutes an unconstitutional expansion of gaming.

However Representative Randy Fine, who chaired the House’s Gaming Committee during the special session, said he believes sports betting is here to stay no matter the outcome of the lawsuits.

“Cause once the cat’s out of the bag, you know it’s hard to put it back in. If people are using the Seminole sports betting product, it has to be turned off all of the sudden, there probably would be an outcry for us to come back and to try to fix that and I’m sure we would,” said Fine.

There’s also a citizen initiative circulating that seeks to put the question of outright legalizing sports betting on the 2022 ballot.

If passed, other companies like Draft Kings and FanDuel could enter the marketplace.

The Seminole Tribe would also no longer have to pay its $50 million sports betting share to the state.

The state’s tourism and marketing agency’s life would be extended until 2031 under legislation approved by a Senate Committee in the State Capitol Tuesday.

The agency was nearly abolished in 2019, but its life was extended until 2022 when the pandemic hit.

Tuesday’s action was supported by the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, which told lawmakers the agency has been instrumental in the state’s economic recovery.

“Extending the sunset day allows VisitFlorida to really dig into its mission, attract top talent and develop innovative marketing strategies for the short term and the long term. All of these benefit all Floridians because tourism is the engine for Florida’s economy,” said Samantha Padgett with the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association.

The agency has been having trouble recruiting top talent who were concerned their job would only last a year or two.

The Florida House rejected a plan to keep the agency in-business indefinitely, but it agreed on the 2031 date, which future legislatures can extend or honor.

After initially telling three professors they could not testify against the state in an elections lawsuit the University of Florida has now relented.

But the University has now set conditions for the professors to testify in court.

Professors Daniel Smith, Michael McDonald and Sharon Austin were all notified in mid-October that the University of Florida would not allow them to testify in a lawsuit challenging election law changes.

Documents filed in Federal court show UF believed the testimony created a conflict between the state and UF.

Senate Bill 90 prohibits unattended ballot drop boxes and prohibits the possession of more than two mail ballots by a single person.

In its suit, Rising Florida argues the changes impose substantial restrictions on voters.

The Governor and a handful of lawmakers who negotiated the deals on SB 90 are all fighting subpoenas requiring them to testify on why the legislation was needed.

Senator Dennis Baxley sponsored SB90, but on Monday he wouldn’t talk about trying to block efforts to have him testify in the case.

”It’s time for me to hush and let them do their business,” said Baxley.

The professors have testified against the state before.

Smith worked with voting rights advocate Desmond Meade to win the right of felons to once again vote.

“In our case, he was very helpful because he gave us a better idea of the number of people that was impacted by fines and fees, and so it really helped to tell our approach as to how we were going to attack that problem,” said Meade.

Democrats called the affair an example of the state’s top down management style.

“It’s the universities, they way one individual thinks they should be run, or they won’t be given their allowance,” said State Representative Evan Jenne.

The University has now clarified its position.

The professors can testify, but only on their own time and without compensation.

When asked about the university’s decision Governor DeSantis’ Press Secretary Christina Pushaw told us the Governor ‘has always championed free speech, open inquiry, and viewpoint diversity on college and university campuses’.

“The Constitution guarantees the right to free speech, but not the right to receive compensation for speech,” said Pushaw.

Full statement from UF:

“The University of Florida has a long track record of supporting free speech and our faculty’s academic freedom, and we will continue to do so. It is important to note that the university did not deny the First Amendment rights or academic freedom of professors Dan Smith, Michael McDonald and Sharon Austin. Rather, the university denied requests of these full-time employees to undertake outside paid work that is adverse to the university’s interests as a state of Florida institution.”

“It is worth noting, the university views the professors’ request as a request to be paid to testify against the state, and the university, as a public institution, is part of the state — therefore, that would be adverse to the university’s interests. However, to be clear, if the professors wish to do so pro bono on their own time without using university resources, they would be free to do so.”

Full State from the Governor’s Office:

“Governor DeSantis has always championed free speech, open inquiry, and viewpoint diversity on college and university campuses. Earlier this year, he signed House Bill 233, which requires state colleges and universities to conduct annual assessments of the viewpoint diversity and intellectual freedom to ensure that Florida’s postsecondary students will encounter diverse ideas and opinions, including those that they may disagree with or find uncomfortable.”

“UF’s statement reiterated the university’s long-standing commitment to academic freedom. UF denied the requests of full-time university employees to undertake outside paid work that the university considers adverse to its own interests. Those professors, like all UF professors, are free to express their own opinions about this and other issues. In fact, these faculty have openly stated their disagreement with their institution’s policy: For example, Professor McDonald tweeted “I won’t back down” and asserted his opinion that faculty are being denied their right to free speech. Professor McDonald and all faculty members are entitled to their own opinions.”

“The Constitution guarantees the right to free speech, but not the right to receive compensation for speech.”

“The fact remains that all public universities, including UF, have policies around situations where conflicts of interest may arise, including paid testimony in a lawsuit. The UF policy that requires professors to seek approval for paid outside work to prevent conflicts of interest was established well before SB 90 and the lawsuit; therefore, it could not have been a reaction to this case.”

“The governor’s office did not create UF’s policy on conflicts of interest, nor did the governor tell the university – directly or indirectly – how to enforce their own policy.”

The health care industry in Florida says it is in crisis and is pleading for lawmakers’ help in the upcoming legislative session to address chronic staffing shortages.

The lack of employees is already resulting in people having to wait longer for care.

Florida Hospitals saw one out of four nurses leave their job last year, the highest turnover rate the state has ever seen.

“We just saw during the Delta surge what happens when you can bring beds in but you can’t staff them,” said Florida Hospital Association President Mary Mayhew.

Additionally, 92 percent of long term care facilities say they’re facing staffing challenges.

“And for 75 percent of them it is the number one concern,” said Nick Van Der Linden with LeadingAge Florida.

Mayhew and Van Der Linden were among a diverse group of health care representatives who met Monday to raise the alarm in hopes of catching the the ears of lawmakers.

For the long term care facilities, additional Medicaid funding is the biggest ask, as the industry has seen costs increase by $600 million.

“And it doesn’t have to be strictly dollars. There can be other creative ways to do that, whether it’s looking at how we do staffing. Are there more creative ways to safely take care of our residents that will reduce costs?” said Emmett Reed with the Florida Health Care Association.

Hospitals are pushing for more faculty in nursing programs at universities.

They’re also hoping lawmakers will create incentives to increase graduation rates.

“We’ve got to replace what we’ve lost and then grow it even more for our growing population,” said Justin Senior with the Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida.

If something isn’t done soon, the Florida Hospital Association estimates the state could be short nearly 60,000 nurses by 2035.

That will make it harder than it already is to find openings at nursing homes and it could also mean further delays for elective procedures.

“So it’s a dangerous situation for Floridians,” said Reed.

And with an 11 percent vacancy rate, Florida has been hit harder by nursing shortages than the nation as a whole, which has a vacancy rate of 9.9 percent.

All of the health care representatives at the round table agreed the staffing shortages have been exacerbated by the pandemic.

The turnover rate in nursing homes nearly doubled between 2017 to 2021.

Visitors to the State Capitol got a free piece of pizza as part of a political statement Monday.

Represent US, a grassroots organization calling on lawmakers, was making the point that during this year’s redrawing of political maps, lawmakers shouldn’t be allowed to pick who they represent, just as Represent Us was giving free pizza to the customers it was choosing.

“Pizza places shouldn’t hand pick their customers any more than politicians shouldn’t and pick their own voters. So this is a public education campaign to educate voters across the country about the redistricting process that happening right now. It’s a once-in-ten year process. And talking about the threat gerrymandering poses to our democracy,” said Joe Kabourek with Represent US.

Represent US argued the best thing voters can do is require lawmakers to be transparent about how and why maps are drawn in particular ways.

The Governor has officially signed a proclamation calling for a special session to be held from November 15th to the 19th.

His top ask is for lawmakers to protect workers from discrimination based on vaccination status, but there are already rumblings Republican lawmakers aren’t aligned on how to deal with that issue.

And history proves just because lawmakers will gavel in, doesn’t necessarily mean anything will get done.

There’s an old adage in the State Capitol on special sessions: Don’t call one unless you know the outcome.

“You really want to try and put everything in order first,” said Pete Dunbar, who served as Former-Governor Bob Martinez’s Director of Legislative Affairs.

In a 1989 Special Session on abortion restrictions Dunbar saw first-hand what can happen if the Executive and Legislative branches aren’t on the same page.

“Governor Martinez was one example in his experience and Governor Askew had a similar experience when he tried to take Florida off Daylight Savings time and he couldn’t reach the consensus inside the legislative prerogative. That’s the challenge that we don’t know the answer to yet,” said Dunbar.

And there are early indications Republicans aren’t aligned on banning private employer vaccine mandates.

“There’s a real split on the idea of whether the state should interfere with private employers,” said Representative Spencer Roach.

Senate President Designate Kathleen Passidomo was recently asked if she supported a ban on private employer vaccine mandates.

She would have to see the actual legislation, but indicated the policy might be a tough sell.

“I support the freedom for businesses to make sure that they’re successful,” said Passidomo.

While Republican lawmakers may have different views on whether the government should interfere with private businesses, all of those we’ve spoken with said they think it’s important to have the conversation.

“People are losing their jobs now. They have lost their jobs,” said Representative Cord Byrd.

One thing is certain, Democrats intend to pushback.

The Governor is also calling on lawmakers to limit school districts’ ability to issue mandates for COVID-19, strengthen the Parents Bill of Rights and ensure workers fired over vaccines can obtain unemployment assistance.

Those measures will likely be opposed by Democrats, but aren’t likely to be seen as controversial by the Republican majority.