Almost a year after Tallahassee Police initiated “Operation See Change”, a crack-down on drug trafficking, police have nearly wiped out open air drug markets along Tallahassee’s Alabama street corridor. But, officers are still struggling with gang-related crime, from graffiti to violence. Tallahassee Police Chief Dennis Jones said they can only do so much without help from the community

 Leon County Commissioners are having difficulty getting support to re-establish a mental health court.

Commissioners spent most of their May 9th meeting on how to revive the county’s mental health court, which was de-funded last year. Commissioner Bill Proctor re-ignited the debate.

Leon County Commissioners will continue their budget workshop Wednesday to take care of a budget shortfall. Tuesday morning, Commissioners were told by staff that the county is facing a projected deficit ranging from about 9 to 11 million dollars.  One option they’re considering is adopting a valued based benefits design as part of county’s health insurance.

Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam announced the start of a summer nutrition program Tuesday. It's called Summer BreakSpot, and it allows low income students to receive free nutritious meals during the Summer at thousands of locations throughout Florida.

Incoming Florida Senate President Don Gaetz is building his leadership team. Gaetz has tapped the head of the Department of Revenue as his new policy advisor.

Effective July 1st, Lisa Vickers will leave her current role as the Florida Department of Revenue’s executive director and become the chief policy advisor for incoming Senate President Don Gaetz. Gaetz says he’s worked with her before, and knows Vickers will be a great asset to his team.

The “Click it or Ticket” campaign starts Monday all across Florida and continues through Memorial Day weekend.  Captain Roger Norris with the Florida Highway Patrol say troopers are making sure everyone is wearing their seatbelt. He adds this campaign is about safety awareness.

“This is a general campaign. We’re just trying to keep people alive. We’re trying to educate the public, make sure they are wearing their seatbelts. We want everyone to wear it. It reduces the fatalities when you have a crash, it reduces the injuries, and that’s the big thing,” said Norris.

With a few weeks left before the start of hurricane season, Florida Division of Emergency Management officials are preparing now just in case a hurricane makes landfall during the Republican National Convention in Tampa.

Florida Disvision of Emergency Management Director Bryan Koon said while the chance of a hurricane hitting Tampa during the time frame of the convention is relatively slim, it’s something the state needs to have a plan for.

Despite the bad economic situation in Spain, Governor Rick Scott is leading more than 60 business leaders and state officials there for a five-day business development mission. As Sascha Cordner reports, the Governor says he wants to strengthen the economic ties between Florida and Spain.

In his most recent weekly radio address, Scott said one of the main goals for his trip to get business leaders from Spain to see Florida as an attractive place to do business.

Florida is getting the DMV involved in its plan to check whether thousands of registered voters are legal U.S. Citizens. And, as Sascha Cordner reports, some elections supervisors say it’s about time.

Governor Rick Scott will soon say good bye to his second chief of staff, and welcome his third one since his 16-month term began. Sascha Cordner reviews the week of when Steve MacNamara announced his resignation after recent media reports scrutinized some of the contracts he handled as well as how he did his job.

A Tallahassee man is now in police custody after failing to properly register with the sex offender database.

When Phillip Richardson originally registered with the Leon County Sherriff’s department he gave police the address of the homeless shelter on Tennessee Street as his permanent residence. Sherriff’s spokesman James McQuaig says they initiated a search for the man after the sexual offender unit could not verify where he had been living.

A measure passed by lawmakers in 2009 imposed a 10-percent rate cap on Citizens Property Insurance Premiums. But the company is now saying it doesn’t think the caps apply to new policy holders.

The scores on this year’s state writing test were so bad that state education officials voted to grade the test on a curve. The move comes after about 75-percent of students who took the test failed it. And as Lynn Hatter reports, those failing grades, coupled with the state board of education’s decision to lower the passing score on the test, have observers once again questioning the value of standardized testing.

Florida has been working to connect healthcare providers to one another by creating a place where they can share patient-information electronically. As Florida works to get its Electronic Medical Record database off the ground, Lynn Hatter reports the state is struggling with how much access it should give to health insurance companies.

Right now, health plans can participate in the state’s Health Insurance Exchange, but they can’t go in and pull down patient records. Allen Byington is with the Big Bend Regional Health Network.

Leon County Students scored higher than the state average on this year’s high school FCAT Reading test, but the results show there’s still a long way to go. About 60-percent of the district’s 10th graders and 57-percent of its 9th graders are reading on grade level. Lynn Hatter reports several high schools saw double-digit improvement on the reading test.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers and Florida officials gathered at seven separate events throughout the state Thursday to show their support for members of the Florida National Guard and Reserves. As Sascha Cordner reports, they also applauded the efforts of an organization that tries to make sure a job is still waiting for those same men and women when they come back from combat.

Even with the advent of social media, musicians just can’t replace the exposure gained by touring. The costs of which can bring a band’s success to a screeching halt. But one company is aiming to make touring a dream come true for artists on a budget.

Two defendants have pleaded no contest to lesser charges of misdemeanor hazing in the beating of a fellow Florida A&M University band member. Police say fellow band members beat Bria Shante Hunter on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1.

After their pleas in Tallahassee, Aaron Golson and Sean Hobson were sentenced Thursday to 30 days in a work camp followed by 12 months of probation.

Action in the case of a third defendant was delayed.

A local hospital has announced the grand opening a family room, the first of its kind at a Health Care Administration facility. As Sascha Cordner reports, the Ronald McDonald Family Room is intended to be “a home away from home” for families who want to be close to their sick kids.

“This is our pediatric unit, and then the family room, so we opened this up again about eight months ago, colorful theme, and so, Welcome to our Pediatric Floor, and Pediatric Family Room.”

Florida’s Defense Support Task Force says it’s keeping an eye on the Federal Government. Congress and the President have until January 2nd  to come to an agreement on $1.2-trillion in cuts or added revenue in the next ten years, before a process called sequestration kicks in.  Sequestration is a part of the 2011 Federal Budget Control Act, and Lieutenant Governor Jennifer Carroll said it could mean a loss of more than 14-thousand jobs for the state.