State News

The overall number of nurses in Florida is increasing, but experts say Florida needs to find ways to keep the nurses who are working now from retiring or face a shortage.

Florida’s population is aging and so are its nurses.  According to a report from the Florida Center for Nursing nearly half  the state’s registered nurses are 51 or older.  And Center Executive Director, Mary Lou Brunell says that spells trouble, unless employers make some changes. She says employers need to help nurses move from more strenuous jobs to positions that require fewer hours or less physical work.

A Democratic Florida attorney general candidate is speaking out against energy conservation program cuts. Power companies are asking regulators to allow the programs to be scaled back in favor of more cost-effective ventures.

Attorney general candidate George Sheldon is calling on the Public Service Commission to deny utility companies’ requests for lower energy-efficiency standards. The PSC regulates privately owned utilities. The commission is meeting this week with power companies, including Florida Power & Light and Duke Energy to re-evaluate conservation goals.

Former Florida Gov. Bob Martinez talked today  in Tallahassee about the importance of civic engagement. A Smithsonian exhibit on the same topic will be in town for a couple more weeks.

Martinez addressed Florida State University applied politics master's students in the old Senate chambers at the Historic Florida Capitol. Before becoming governor, he’d led a teachers’ union and was mayor of Tampa.  

Martinez recalls, “My very first session was in this building in 1965, when they only met every other year, and it was odd-numbered years.”

The Florida legislature passed the so-called Stand Your Ground statute in 2005 to expand protections for self-defense.  But as Nick Evans reports, one south Florida man’s case shows the law is far more complex than it may at first seem.

Harvey Hill was attacked on his front porch by two men.  Cornered, he pulled out a gun and shot one of them in the stomach.  The state charged Hill with aggravated battery with a firearm, and he claimed the Stand Your Ground defense, asking that the charge be dropped. 

But there’s one problem.  Hill is a felon. 

Numbers released Friday show Florida added more jobs than any other state in June. Gov. Rick Scott announced the creation of 36,900 private-sector jobs last month. The statewide unemployment rate dipped to 6.2 percent, down a tenth of a percent from May.

But for the first time since last spring, Florida’s unemployment rate is higher than the national rate. Florida Department of Economic Opportunity Executive Director Jesse Panuccio says it’s important to look at the bigger picture.