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Capital Report: 03-15-2017

A Stand Your Ground-related bill passed the Florida Senate Wednesday, but not without some opposition. Sascha Cordner reports.

Florida House members debated whether legislation stiffening penalties for certain offenses committed by illegal immigrants was constitutional. Critics say it's unconstitutional. But as Sarah Mueller reports… lawmakers are moving it forward

Besides House Speaker Richard Corcoran, Senate Democratic Leader Oscar Braynon of Miami is one of Governor Rick Scott’s most vocal critics.  Braynon took a moment to discuss some of his biggest concerns and the Senate Democratic priorities with Florida Public Radio’s Jim Ash as the 2017 Session got off to a rocky start. 

After battling for years over how to make health care more accessible and affordable, Florida lawmakers last session landed on a compromise. Instead of expanding Medicaid to cover more people, they decided to attack the cost of care directly. They created a database to make procedure pricing transparent. Now, as Ryan Benk with member station WJCT in Jacksonville reports, lawmakers this year are looking to make it even easier for Florida patients to shop around.

House lawmakers are wrangling over whether to allow optometrists to perform procedures traditionally reserved for ophthalmologists.  Nick Evans reports the long-standing fight is tied up in questions of access and professional scope.  

Florida lawmakers want to give law officers more authority to use blood tests in routine DUI cases.  But others are worried about unintended consequences as we hear from Kate Payne.

Florida lawmakers say they need to work fast to get on the leading edge of a developing new technology. Regan McCarthy reports a measure is moving through the house to clear the path for so called Personal Delivery Devices.