As of October first, the new health insurance exchanges made possible by the federal Affordable Care Act came on line. That prompted a veritable tsunami of applicants, in some cases crashing the systems set up to handle the sign-ups. The message now for Floridians anxious to log onto Healthcare-dot-gov is to take your time. The first three days of the online exchanges have been problematic and things are moving slowly. But as we hear from Alicia Mandigo with member station WMFE in Orlando, enthusiasm isn’t waning.
A North Florida couple faces ten misdemeanor charges for failing to properly educate their eight children. The kids have been home-schooled. And Lynn Hatter says the case is raising questions about how much state oversight is enough when it comes to home schooling.
The federal government shutdown was topping the news all this week. Stories abounded on how that was impacting all kinds of government functions and services. For example, national parks have been closed since Tuesday. State-run parks, including those in Florida, have remained open. But as Ryan Benk reports even those are being affected somewhat because of numerous connections with the national park system.
As the budget battle continues in Washington D-C, Democrats and Republicans are still at an impasse regarding the federal budget. But, as Sascha Cordner reports, a bipartisan group of Florida leaders came together Thursday on Capitol Hill to discuss an issue lawmakers from both parties can agree on: how to address the damage done to several Florida waterways due to water releases from Lake Okeechobee.
Finally this week, several Florida death row inmates are challenging the state’s new lethal injection drug because it’s never been used in executions and they say it could result in severe pain. As Jessica Palombo reports, the state says the change is because of a national execution-drug shortage.