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A Florida Group focused on helping kids wants to make sure the Department of Juvenile Justice is able to follow through with its recommendations. Tuesday the department released its Blue Print Commission report. The report offers 52 recommendations to change the state’s juvenile justice system. The Network of Youth and Family Services held a press conference to offer its suggestions on how to make the recommendations a reality. The Commission outlined a five point action plan and pointed out the state’s short comings.

“We don’t invest in early childhood education, we don’t invest enough in things like kid care, we don’t invest in after school programs, and so those investments aren’t made and problems develop and as a state we’re going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars even billions of dollars throughout the state budget to address problems that could have been prevented,” Roy Miller, President Children’s Campaign.

Eighty five percent of the states youth services come from the private sector not the state.

Thousands of single parents who need child support aren’t receiving it. The money is invested until it can be claimed. Now the funds could be declared missing property and go into the state’s coffers. As Whitney Ray tells us, the money is there, but parents just aren’t claiming it.

Hear it here: Unclaimed Child Support Could Go To State General Fund, Not Parents

For many parents just making ends meet is a daily struggle.

“It’s hard being a single parent and not getting Child support,” said Jennifer Oliver a single mother raising a two year old.

For some parents the money is there. Florida’s child support office has more than 20 million dollars waiting in limbo. The money belongs to single parents who can’t be located. What methods the department uses to find parents is unclear. We tried to talk to the spokesperson of the Department of Revenue’s Child Support Division, but she refused to be interviewed on camera.

In a written statement the spokeswoman said the division makes every effort to locate the parents, yet a published report found one parent through an internet search. Right now the money is being put in bank accounts and trust funds.
The story irks mothers like Elizabeth Gabriel, whose deadbeat husband isn’t paying up.

“I went by the State Revenues Office, and I called, and I did everything I’m supposed to do, and I’m owed about 25,000 dollars, and I haven’t received any child support in about 12 years,” said Gabriel.

A federal report suggests the excess money should be put in the state’s general fund. The child support division is successful in finding most of the parents who are owed money. More than a billion dollars in child support is distributed by the division every year.

A blue ribbon panel is recommending 52 changes to the state’s juvenile
justice system. One recommendation calls for gender specific programs
for girls. The report also found a disproportionate number of minorities
in the system. One recommendation also made reference to failed boot
camp experiences, saying the state should not invest in programs that
are unproven. Corrections Secretary Walt McNeil said the state must
establish a balance in juvenile justice.

“Our system had gotten out of balance and one of the key things that I
summit to our legislature is that we’ve got to stay focused on making sure
that we never get our system out of balance, that it’s always balanced on
prevention on the front end and obviously correction on the back end and in
the middle,” said McNeil, Secretary of The Department of Juvenile Justice.

The report also said the state should find alternatives to locking kids up
and when lockup is necessary, it should be in smaller facilities with
good educational and skill building programs.

A report on the January wildfire that may have contributed to a 50 car pile
up on Interstate four, claims those in charge of a controlled burn did
everything required by law. The report said chance coincidences contributed
to a ten acre burn turning in a 500 acre wildfire. Contributing factors
include a sudden increase in wind and a drop in humidity. In releasing the
report, Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson said he was concerned with
knowing if his department had dotted all the I’s and crossed the T’s.

“I was more concerned about the legality of whether all those conditions
that were supposed to be met were met or whether there were mistakes made,” said Bronson.

Bronson added reports of victims smelling smoke may have been due to cars
burning, not the wildfire.

For the second day in a row, insurance executives faced tough questions from state lawmakers over how rates are determined. There is a consensus that the companies are using a near term loss prediction model which hasn’t been approved and as Mike Vasilinda tells us, may be driving rates up.

Hear it here: Lawmakers to Stop Use of Short Term Models

Florida Farm Bureau was the third company to testify under oath.

The company is under fire for seeking a 30 percent rate hike when rates should be going the other way. An inability to explain why the hike was needed irritated the panel.

“The construction cost went down and you have fewer policies because you dropped some, which you attributed to attrition after dropping them, why is your cost staying the same?” Senator Rhonda Storms said.

The insurance Florida Farm Bureau buys to cover losses went from21 to 66 million over three years. The increase was based on a new, unapproved model, predicting more frequent storms. Senators challenged the validity of the model.

“Every single time, you’ve distanced yourself from this calculation and this short-term model being used in your increasing rate,” Senator Steve Geller said.

Until the hearing, no company had acknowledged it changed the rules for assessing risk.

“You saw today, footnotes from the insurance company, that said this information is actually going to overstate losses and yet we’re going to apply it anyway,” Senator Jeff Atwater said.

The use of the near term model began after the 2005 hurricane season.

The most likely outcome of these hearings is legislation that will tell insurers exactly what models they can use.

No one could put an exact number on the effect of using a model predicting more storms, but the company conceded it likely added about 15 percent to the cost of insurance.

A Department of Children and Families Spokesman, arrested on child pornography charges, had a record. Now, DCF is reviewing its background check policy. As Whitney Ray tell us, former DCF spokesperson Al Zimmerman’s application didn’t reflect his criminal record and he listed Governor Charlie Crist as a reference.

Hear it here: Spokesperson Arrested, DCF Looking At Screening Process

Al Zimmerman was the face for the Department of Children and Families, now Investigators say he’s a reminder that child predators come from all walks of life.
The attorney general’s cyber campaign helped catch Zimmerman, who is accused of offering teens money to photograph them performing sex acts.

“We’ve seen a lot of these people don’t have prior records there’s really no way to predict when this behavior is going to appear in an individual you may know,” Sandy Copes, a spokesperson for the attorney general said.

Police arrested the former DCF spokesperson last week on eight counts of using a child in a sexual performance. It wasn’t the first time Zimmerman was arrested.
In 1993 Zimmerman was arrested for DUI, he was also charged in 1998 and 2003 for bad checks. DCF hired Zimmerman In 2005. At the time the Department didn’t require fingerprinting for background checks on people applying for administration positions. Lt. Governor Jeff Kottkamp said Zimmerman’s arrest could lead to investigations in other departments.

“We don’t have all the facts right now to know how many people have been hired or what sort of procedures have been in place not just in DCF, but in any critical area,” Kottkamp said.

Zimmerman’s resume was pretty impressive. Among his references, Governor Charlie Crist, who at the time was the state’s attorney general. DCF is reviewing its background check policy. Zimmerman was release on 120,000 dollars bail

The Seminoles have a new top dog in the sports department. Former Utah State Athletic Director Randy Spetman is now the Florida State University Athletic Director. The announcement was made on campus Monday morning. The appointment comes just as FSU is ready to send the NCAA a report detailing what happened when 23 athletes were caught cheating in an online music course. University President T.K. Wetherell said the new AD will put the incident to rest.

“The NCAA report is basically written. We’re doing some finalization,
some word-smiting of that. It’ll be shipped off to the NCAA in the next
few weeks. Obviously we’ll hand it to him, but clearly he’s inheriting
that and he has experience with the NCAA and worked through it and that
process will do what it does,” said Wetherell.

“It was a bump in the road but we’ve all seen different institutions have that from time to time, but I don’t think it’s jeopardized anything that this university represents. And we just have to get going and win national championships and people will forget about it,” said Spetman.

The cheating incident was brought to the universities attention by student athletes. In published remarks, President Wetherell indicated the department tried to downplay the problem. It may be one of the reasons there is a new Athletic Director tonight.

A conservative think tank, the James Madison Institute, is giving Florida’s Insurance market an “F”. Only four other states got the ranking. The grade is based on the fact that recent reforms did not lower rates but added risk to all of the state’s homeowners. State Representative Dennis Ross said a year of massive storms could cost every family in the state up to 16,000 dollars.

“The risk that our current system imposes on Floridians has forced us upon an overwhelming financial risk and a business climate that is hostile to insurers. This dismal grade comes as no surprise,” said Ross.

The ranking comes as lawmakers began grilling insurance executives on why rates have not gone down.

State Senators asked probing questions today in the first day of a two day hearing that had insurance executives under oath. Allstate executives were asked why the company used a model to predict risks that generated higher profits than the model allowed by regulators. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, Senators weren’t pleased with what they were told.

Hear it here: Allstate in the Hot Seat

For the second time in a month, Allstate Insurance executives swore to tell the truth.

The company is on the hot seat for seeking a 42 percent rate hike when new legislation was supposed to send rates lower by a fourth. Senator Bill Posey says the math doesn’t add up.

“If you were charging 75 cents for this reinsurance and now you get it for 12 cents, that’s 63 cents that’s supposed to go back to the customer,” Posey said.

Senators spent more than an hour grilling the executives over their use of an unapproved  model which raised loss expectations and generated an extra 10 percent increase in premiums.

“Is it your testimony that nobody on that team or yourself ever conversed that this model that we’re using is not approved in the state of Florida?” Senator Jeff Atwater asked.

“I don’t recall having those conversations,” Allstate Actuary Ryan Michel replied.
The committee chairman stopped just short of saying the company committee perjury when it swore it did its best to lower rates.

“I am only asking the questions as to explain the documents of your company and how you went from  A to Z,” Atwater said.

And with every answer from the company came more questions. And as one senator put it, the answers  had very little substance.

”I haven’t seen so much bobbin’ and weavin’ since Muhammad Ali did the rope-a-dope,” Posey said.

Allstate spokesman Adam Shores says the company if happy to be able to tell its story.

The hearing will continue on Tuesday.

This November Floridians will have to decide if they want to ban same-sex marriage. The Marriage Amendment is just one of several issues petitioners tried to put on the ballot. Whitney Ray tells us which groups gathered enough signatures and what opponents of two of the most controversial amendments have to say.

Hear it here: Marriage Amendment Approved for November Ballot

It took years, but Florida4Families finally got enough signatures to put a gay marriage ban on the November ballot. The marriage protection amendment was one of seven petitions submitted to the Division of Elections.

“Only one made it and will be on the ballot this fall and that’s the amendment to prohibit same sex marriage,” said Sterling Ivey, a spokesperson with the Secretary of State.

One controversial petition that didn’t make the ballot was by Home Town Democracy. The proposed amendment would require local referendums on land-use changes. For the first time in Florida’s history a group was able to collect signature to revoke names on the original petition. Barney Bishop, with Save Our Constitution, said his group used the new revocation process to revoke almost 20,000 signatures from the Hometown Democracy petition.

“If they’re not told the truth in the beginning and you tell them you’re version of the truth later on, they have a chance to make a choice,” said Bishop.

Now the only choice left, of the seven petitions, is the marriage amendment. Florida already has a statute banning gay marriage. Supporters of the referendum said it’s not strict enough. They want to change the constitution to make sure the ban will hold up in court. Opponents of the amendment say Florida4Families is misleading voters.

“It’s a much broader agenda that would strip folks of basic rights they have through domestic partnership laws and privileges they enjoy on the corporate side that help them take care of their families,” said Bill Phillips with Fairness for All Families, a group against the amendment.

Groups on both sides of the issue will be campaigning across the state as Floridian’s draw closer to what could be one of the biggest elections in recent history. Since the ban on gay marriage is being proposed as a constitutional amendment, at least 60 percent of the voters would have to approve it.

Governor Charlie Crist’s budget recommendations rely on funds from reserves, lotto enhancements, and the Seminole gaming compact. The state Supreme Court is still deciding if the compact is legal. As Whitney Ray tells us, some state leaders believe the governor is relying on money that’s in jeopardy.

Hear it here: Budget Gamble, Gambling Money Earmarked for Budget

To balance the budget Governor Charlie Crist is counting his chickens before they hatch. Floridians are already gambling on games made legal by the governor’s compact with the Seminole Tribe. There’s just one problem, the state Supreme Court hasn’t decided if the compact is legal.

“I have great confidence in our legal team and the basis on which we entered into those negotiations in good faith, so I remain confident,” said Crist a press conference, Wednesday.

Legislative leaders told the court the legislature should have the final say on any gambling deal. Five other states have filed lawsuits similar to the one heard by the Supreme Court this week. In each case the courts ruled in favor of the legislature. Still The Seminole Tribe’s Attorney, Barry Richard, said the governor’s doing the right thing.

“I think the prudent thing is for him to include it in his budget, and that’s what he did,” said Richard.

The tribe already paid 50 million dollars to the state. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of the legislature and lawmakers vote against the compact, then Florida would have to give the money back to the tribe.

“The state not only loses the 50 million, which would have to be returned to the tribe, it loses 150 million next year, 100 million the following year, and then a guaranteed minimum 100 million every year there after,” said Richard.

No matter which branch of government prevails, the real winner is likely to be the Seminole Tribe. At the very least, they’re expected to be able to keep their Vegas style slot machines. It could be a while before the case is closed. Among the options open to the court, is to do nothing, which would send the case back to the legislature, which could then attempt to overturn the Indian compact.

Governor Charlie Crist suggests adding lottery games to generate money. Crist recommends generating about 250 million dollars from the Florida Lottery. Officials with the governor’s office said the money would come from adding lottery terminals, more marketing, and midday drawings. The money would go to fund education. A spokesperson for the State Lottery said they’re always looking to change and add games.

“We’ll just continue on our mission and our mandate to raise as much money as we can and transfer it to education and try to make it available for those vital programs,” said Barreiros, a spokesperson for the Florida Lottery.

The budget recommendations also suggested taking more than a billion dollars from state reserves and trust funds.

The clock has stopped for two organizations trying to get issues on the November ballot. Petitioners for Home Town Democracy and the Florida Marriage Amendment had until five o’clock Friday, to gather more than 600,000 signatures. The marriage amendment would ban same sex-marriages. The amendment proposed by Home Town Democracy would require local referendums on land-use changes. A spokesperson for the Secretary of State said every signature will be checked.

“When those petitions are turned in at the local level, the supervisor is looking at each signature, checking that signature against a name in the voter database to make sure that the person is a registered voter in that county,” said Sterling Ivey with the Secretary of State.

The results will be released tomorrow at noon.

Lack of faith in government is tied to a lack of civics education say supporters of an effort to increase civics education in our schools. One study has found that only about half can name the three branches of Government. But as Mike Vasilinda tells us, a grant hopes to change the level of education.

Democracy was founded on the principle of three separate but equal branches of government.

The Legislative, the Judicial, the Executive.

We asked John Fulman to name them. He got one right..three times.

“Congress, Senate, House of Representatives,” Fulman said.

Down the street, Ronnie James did a little better.

“Legislative, Judiciary,,,can’t get that last one,” James said.

These guys aren’t alone. Four out of ten Floridians couldn’t name them either.

So a frustrated former U.S. Senator Bob Graham and Representative Lou Frey are behind an initiative to train Florida’s 66,000 elementary school teachers.

“Most of them never had a college course in civics,” Frey said. “And when asked about what they did, the teachers say we spend less than two hours a week on civics, history education, the economy, etc. So that’s a whole ‘nother bunch we’ve got to work with.”

One of the three branches…state lawmakers..will be asked to make civics part of the FCAT test.

“The reality is, of education today, if it’s not tested it tends not to be taught,” Graham said.

And if lawmakers agree another branch, the executive, will be asked to sign the bill into law. No one expects the third branch, the courts, to be involved.

Amendment one promises property owners a tax break, but county and city leaders say the referendum is simply robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Whitney Ray tells us how the 9 billion dollars in tax relief could force county and city governments to raise fees.

Hear it here: Property Tax Down, Fees Up

Tuesday’s vote was to lower property taxes, but experts say higher millage rates, increased fees, and the loss of sales tax exemptions are on the horizon.

Bill Horak, who voted for amendment one, said he knew referendum would come with a catch.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” said Horak. “I think we still need to pay for those folks. I just think spreading the taxes as equally as possible is a good way to look at it.”

The tax cut will save home owners an average of 240 dollars a year, but the loss of that cash will cause local governments to look for ways to make ends meet. Members of The Association of Counties said mileage rates could go up and government services could cost more.

“Fees are something counties will have a chance to look at,” said Cragin Mosteller, a spokesperson for the association.

Experts with Tax watch said fees for trash, fire and parks services are most likely to go up. Governor Charlie Crist said despite what counties and cities do he’s looking for even more property tax cuts.

“We have to consult with the legislature and see what their appetite is,” said Crist. “I know what the appetite of the people is, they want to see more property tax cuts. And I support it.”

How the amendment shakes out financially will be different in every county.

Experts with Florida Tax Watch said taxes on gas could also be raised.