State News

A second day of negotiations between House and Senate lawmakers over a spending plan for the budget year that begins July 1 seemed to highlight longstanding divisions between the two chambers even as legislators tried to come to agreement.

Florida Senator Bill Nelson has asked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to look into the possibility an immigration visa program has gone awry.

Nelson talked to reporters at Jacksonville’s Hyatt Regency hotel Friday.

Nelson says he asked for the investigation after receiving thousands of letters claiming the H-1B visa program is being misused.

The purpose of the visa program is place immigrants in U.S. jobs where there are labor shortages. Nelson says it’s not to take jobs away from Americans, but he says he thinks that could be happening.

In a move echoing recent congressional budget showdowns, Florida Governor Rick Scott is asking state agency heads how much money is essential to simply keep running.

The information gathering is for next month, when state lawmakers return to Tallahassee to try again at making a budget.

The first stab at crafting a state budget didn’t work. In an extremely rare move last month, the Florida House of Representatives went home early instead of reaching agreement with the Senate over state funding. A special session in June is planned to finish the job.

Rules for the state's first bear hunt in more than 20 years have been published as the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is expected next month to give final approval to the hunt.

The posting of the rules came as the Humane Society has reached out to Gov. Rick Scott to halt the pending hunt because the commission has yet to determine how many bears are in Florida.

"This is very premature," said Kate MacFall, the Humane Society's Florida director. "They haven't even finished the count. They don't even know about the bear population."

On Dec. 17, almost three months before the annual legislative session began, new Senate President Andy Gardiner met with reporters in the conference room of his Capitol office. He talked with the press for 30 minutes, touching on a wide variety of issues, including a plan by business groups and others that would use Medicaid expansion dollars to help lower-income Floridians purchase private health insurance.

 Updated 4/29 at 9:40 a.m.: 

The legislative session collapsed Tuesday amid an increasingly bitter budget fight over health-care funding, with the House abruptly adjourning and going home in a move that killed scores of bills and deepened the divide between the House and the Senate.

Meanwhile, Gov. Rick Scott filed suit against the federal government to try to stop the Obama administration from linking $2.2 billion in funding for health-care providers to a potential expansion of Medicaid.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Florida consumers filling up at the gas pump may have had their credit card information stolen.

Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam said Thursday that a sweep of roughly 6,100 gas stations in the last few weeks led to the discovery of "skimmers" in 81 locations. The devices enable someone to illegally obtain credit card and debit card information.

The devices were found inside gas station pumps stretching from Miami-Dade County all the way to Florida's Panhandle.

Two reports presented to lawmakers last week criticized the Florida Department of Children and Families for poor oversight of the privatized agencies that deliver child-welfare, substance-abuse and mental-health services statewide.

The reports arrived as the Legislature is considering further changes to all those services.

The Florida Office of the Auditor General published its findings last month and reviewed them Thursday with members of the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee.

The Florida Legislature has thrown out the state’s ban on gay adoption.

Tuesday’s vote in the Florida Senate came after fierce debate over repealing the ban.

Adoption by same-sex couples already happens in the Sunshine State after a court overturned the gay-adoption ban five years ago. Sen. Don Gaetz (R-Destin) is sponsoring the repeal to bring state law in line. Gaetz says it also gives special-needs foster kids the best shot at adoption.

Three-year-old Dinah is the latest face joining the entourage pushing for medical marijuana in Florida, arriving on the scene just as the Senate is poised to broaden the state's non-euphoric cannabis law approved last year.

Like others whose loved ones pleaded for the law, Dinah suffers from frequent seizures caused by severe epilepsy. The biggest difference is that Dinah is a dog.

The bulldog-labrador mix's owner, Lisa Miller, has spent nearly three decades walking the halls of the Capitol as a lobbyist and regulator pitching lawmakers on insurance issues.

The Senate and House are on different paths as they consider setting auto-insurance requirements for technology-based rideshare services such as Uber and Lyft.

As taxi and limo services call for stricter regulations on growing "transportation network companies," the Senate has expanded an insurance measure, S.B. 1298, to include a requirement for around-the-clock coverage on the vehicles of app-connected rideshare drivers.

The requirement would kick in once a driver has been working with a company for at least six months.