This November Florida voter will have to decide more than just who they want to be the next President of the United States. They’ll also have to choose whether to add up to 12 different amendments to Florida’s Constitution. The proposals cover everything from how education dollars are spent, to who gets additional property tax exemptions. And for tonight Lynn Hatter reports the first thing voters will be asked is to choose, how far government should go when deciding healthcare issues?
The Florida Department of State has whittled a list of potentially ineligible voters down from thousands to about 200. But Regan McCarthy reports some are questioning whether now’s the time for elections officials to be focusing on rooting out illegally registered voters.
The Federal justice department claims Florida policies have led to disabled children being unnecessarily housed in nursing homes, away from their families. It’s the same claim brought in two ongoing class-action suits against the state, but as Jessica Palombo reports, Florida health care regulators maintain they’re not violating federal law.
About three-thousand employees could soon be out of a job, after the Florida Department of Corrections recently received the funds to privatize its inmate health care services. A Legislative Budget panel gave millions of dollars to the department to contract with two private companies. But, as Sascha Cordner reports, a state employee union is now preparing to file a lawsuit to block the move.
It’s been more than two years since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but environmentalists are still working hard to ensure fisheries in the sensitive ecosystem are healthy. As Florida Public Radio’s Janelle Irwin reports, scientists at a symposium on St. Pete Beach are mulling over ways to manage both shortages and abundances of sea life.
The oysters of Apalachicola Bay are becoming endangered and some say that’s bad news for the region’s economy. But as our intern Thomas-Andrew Gustafson reports, the blame for the Bay’s low Oyster population is so far spread, the biggest difficultly is finding where to begin.
Sanibel Island’s beaches are among the best places in the world to pick up seashells. They attract both serious and casual collectors. And for the casual collector who wants to learn more the island has a world class facility for doing so….the Bailey-Mathews Shell Museum. The museum recently added a new exhibit honoring one of its founding forces. Valerie Alker recently visited the museum and has this report.