Tom Flanigan

Florida’s state employees may not have received a raise in years, but the lowest-paid state workers could be in line for a new benefit.  Tom Flanigan reports a Senate committee has voted to allow those employees to enroll their children in Florida’s low-income healthcare service.

For years, children in Florida’s low-income families have had an option for low-cost medical coverage called “Kidcare”.  But members of the Senate’s Health and Human Services Budget Subcommittee learned Thursday that one group of low-paid Floridians doesn’t have that option available to them.

Monticello’s historic opera house will be serving up a tasty musical buffet this Friday and Saturday.  Tom Flanigan reports the event will become a future “From the Heart Music Hour” on WFSU-TV.

Growing up in Pensacola during the sixties, Jim White was exposed to a surprising variety of musical influences.

“There was one radio station in town that played popular music and it played anything from schlock psychedlia to straight-up-country like Bobbi Gentry to the series of Motown artists that came out to pop, rock…it played everything.”

The Florida Legislature's various budget writing committees were still waiting for new revenue estimates Thursday. But that didn't stop them from starting to lay the groundwork for next year's state spending plan. Tom Flanigan reports it was during one such meeting that the Senate Budget Subcommittee for Criminal and Civil Justice heard some troubling news.

The second official day of Florida’s 2012 Legislative Session was a flurry of activity at the State Capitol.  Tom Flanigan reports lawmakers jumped right into issues, both heavy and not-so-heavy.

In his State of the State message on the session’s opening day, Governor Rick Scott told lawmakers he wanted something done about auto insurance fraud and what that’s costing policyholders.

“These costs are being driven up each and every day all around the state by scams that are ultimately paid for by Florida’s working families.”

Governor Rick Scott had a very short wish list for Florida lawmakers Tuesday.  Tom Flanigan reports the governor did have two top priorities he wants to see addressed above everything else.

The top priority is more money for public schools.  In his State of the State address, Scott insisted the legislature up public school funding by just over a billion dollars.  The governor’s other priority is putting an end to personal injury protection or “PIP” fraud.  He says that’s costing auto insurance policy holders an extra nine-hundred million dollars.

Florida’s 2012 Legislative Session is just days away.  Tom Flanigan reports that this year’s gathering of lawmakers will be unique in several ways.

The first, most obvious difference is the timeframe for the session.  Instead of early March, the starting date for this session is early January.  The reason is the once-every-ten year necessity for legislative redistricting, based on the outcome of the latest U-S Census.