ORLANDO, Fla. – Sixty-six of Florida’s 67 counties lack sufficient dental professionals and almost half of the state’s population does not have dental insurance.

A common theme emerged among those seeking help at one Daytona Beach high school offering free dental services last month.

“Aspen Dental wants $6,000; well, I don’t have that,” Diana Marcam said.

“Dental work is very expensive these days,” April Taylor told News 6.

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The need for care was made clear by those who lined up, even before dawn, to secure their spot.

“We were here at 3:30 this morning,” Marcam explained.

“I’m trying to get my partials done because I’ve really needed it. It’s been a year, and they say it costs $4,000,” Juwun Mills said.

According to the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration Florida ranked 50th in the percentage of children receiving an annual dental visit in 2021. The same report shows that the state ranked 42nd in the percentage of adults getting a dental check-up that same year and that annually, nearly 120,000 Floridians visit the emergency room for non-traumatic dental conditions.

“At the emergency department, they’re not getting dental care. They don’t do dentistry. They’re getting a pain pill, hopefully not an opioid. They’re getting an antibiotic, which holds it off because it is a bacterial infection. But once that antibiotic wears off, it will start again and it can go into an abscess very, very quickly,” Catherine Cabanzon said.

Cabanzon, a dental hygienist and founder of Floridians for Dental Access, expressed concern about the state’s dental care system.

“There are 67 different diseases and conditions that are associated with the mouth and oral health. We are not a third-world country. We really should be able to do better. There are not many Medicaid providers within the state of Florida, and in my county as well. Those who are Medicaid providers may not be accepting new patients for three, four, five, or six months. When you have an emergency, you can’t wait. That’s what drives people to the ER,” she said.

She said that increasing the number of dental professionals in the field who can offer routine visits is crucial to help prevent poor oral health.

“So if a person is lined up for two hours to deal with the pain of a cavity or a tooth that needs to be pulled, I promise you there are a lot of other problems in that person’s mouth, so maybe they’ll get that one extraction that day and thank God that they have that availability. But what happens to the rest? It doesn’t go away because you extract one tooth,” she said 

“If we could increase our access to care, especially in the prevention and area or the early phases of a cavity where it doesn’t have to get into a crown or a root canal or an extraction. If we could do that, we could stay ahead of this and do better.’

MIAMI – Nearly 25 years after Janet Acosta, a beloved Miami Herald employee, was kidnapped and killed, her convicted murderer, Michael Tanzi, is scheduled to be executed in less than a week.

Acosta, 49, was on a lunch break in April 2000, reading in her van in Miami, when authorities said Tanzi, 48, forced his way inside.

Investigators say he punched her, pushed her aside, and drove off, taking her south into the Florida Keys.

Along the way, they said he tied her up, withdrew money using her bank card, and ultimately strangled her.

Frank Zamora, a retired Key West detective and now an investigator with the Monroe County State Attorney’s Office, was one of the officers who tracked Tanzi down.

Detectives said they initially began their search in downtown Miami, but it was in Key West where they finally caught up with Tanzi.

“Detectives started looking downtown,” Zamora recalled when speaking to Local 10’s Janine Stanwood on Wednesday. “Tanzi shows up — we approach him.”

Acosta’s van was later spotted on Duval Street in Key West, abandoned in a bustling area filled with tourists and locals.

When officers confronted Tanzi, he quickly confessed. He then led investigators to Cudjoe Key, where they said he had taken Acosta’s life.

“He went up to her, punched her in the face, pushed her over — got in the car and took off,” Zamora said.

Investigators retraced the events leading to Acosta’s death, visiting the site where her body was dumped.

“Here’s the area where he ended up dumping her body,” Zamora said while looking at the location once more. “Somewhere right in here. It’s been a long time.”

Tanzi was convicted and sentenced to death for the crime.

Now, with his execution scheduled on Tuesday, Zamora believes justice is being served.

“He’s going to pay for what he did — killed this woman, tortured her — and now he’s going to pay the price.”

Holt resident and three-term Okaloosa County Commissioner Nathan Boyles beat Jay Mayor Shon Owens and a field of six other Republicans to secure the GOP nomination for the District 3 seat in the Florida House of Representatives.

Owens finished 949 votes behind to finish second.

The big difference lay in the number of voters each of the front runners were able to pull in from the other’s home county. Boyles secured 1,390 votes more in Okaloosa County than the Jay mayor, unofficial results indicated. Owens beat Boyles in Santa Rosa County by only about 440 votes.

With voter turn out at about 28% in both counties, and with all precincts counted, Boyles had secured 8,712 total votes to 7,763 for Owens.

“I’m proud of the support we received in both Santa Rosa and Okaloosa County. It was a spirited, close race and the good news for the district is that the voters had multiple good choices,” Boyles said.

He said it is important to remind everyone following a sometimes contentious campaign that this election was not about Okaloosa or Santa Rosa counties, but about finding someone suitable to represent District 3 in Tallahassee.

To win the seat outright Boyles must defeat Democratic candidate Dondre Wise in a June 10 general election battle.

“I am mindful of the fact that I will have to ask voters one more time to step out and fill in a ballot with my name,” Boyles said.

Wise, who listed a Pensacola home address at the outset of the campaign and has yet to report any campaign finance activity, will be a decided underdog. Republicans outnumber Democrats by large margins in both Santa Rosa County and North Okaloosa County.

More: Here’s everything you need to know about candidates running for Florida’s District 3 Seat

Santa Rosa County has been without a resident member of the Florida Legislature effectively since late November of last year when Dr. Joel Rudman, who lives in Navarre, announced he was resigning his state House seat to run for the congressional seat left vacant by the departure of Matt Gaetz.

The district is composed of all of Santa Rosa County except the southwestern tip, represented by Pensacola resident Alex Andrade, which includes the city of Gulf Breeze, the Pace and Midway communities and Navarre Beach.

District 3 extends enough into North Okaloosa to encompass rural areas north of the county seat of Crestview. The number of registered Republican voters in District 3 in Santa Rosa County outnumber those in Okaloosa County 73,497 to 14,814.

Boyles becomes the first Okaloosa County resident to serve this district since Greg Evers was elected in 2001. Evers, of Baker, served through 2010 in what was at that time District 1.

Hayden Hudson, an assistant state attorney who was Rudman’s choice to follow him into the District 3 seat, was third in the balloting with 2,522 votes. Pace resident Cindy Smith finished fourth with 2,099 votes. Wade Merritt, a Baker resident, pulled enough Okaloosa County votes to finish second behind Boyles in that county’s balloting.

Boyles ran as the darling of the GOP power brokers in Tallahassee and was endorsed by every member of the Northwest Florida legislative delegation. He received significant donations from outside sources during the campaign and was able to tuck $151,000 into his campaign war chest by the Tuesday election.

Owens entered the fray with endorsements from nearly all of Santa Rosa County’s local leadership. Boyles also missed out on an endorsement from outgoing state Rep. Dr. Joel Rudman. Rudman threw his support to Hudson and didn’t hesitate to criticize Boyles as an establishment candidate favored by “old time country club Republicans.” 

Owens took the notion of keeping the district seat in the hands of a district resident, as it had been since Evers with first Doug Broxson, then Jayer Williamson and then Rudman. He blamed candidates who didn’t have a real opportunity to win with siphoning off Santa Rosa County votes that could have gone to him.

“There were two or three people who never had a chance to win that did not really see the importance of this as a Santa Rosa County seat, they were just being selfish,” he said.

Owens said he believes Boyles will serve well at the District 3 representative and he will support him.

Boyles, whose company, Adams Sanitation, serves as the garbage service provider for thousands in Santa Rosa County and employs 75 county residents, has said he believes he is better positioned than anyone in the District 3 race to serve as the representative.

“Santa Rosa County’s success is very important to me. Just as important as Okaloosa County is to me,” he said. “I think I’m the only candidate with real connectivity in both counties.”

Boyles said in a recent candidate survey that he intends to work with the local delegation to support and implement President Trump’s America First mandate.

“I will champion legislation that helps make living in Northwest Florida more affordable by tackling key issues like our continuing property insurance crisis,” he said.

“I believe strongly in championing better infrastructure for our communities,” Boyles said. “This includes an improved road network, rural broadband, adequate contaminant free drinking water, stormwater treatment to keep our surface waters healthy and modern sewage treatment and disposal. I have significant experience in prioritizing infrastructure while keeping taxes low.” 

The decision by Gov. Ron DeSantis to hold off scheduling this primary until April 1 and a general election until June 10 means that Boyles or Wise won’t get the opportunity to participate in the 2025 legislative session.

“If elected, I will be fully dedicated to the job,” he said when asked about the “red-shirt” aspect of the job he has now been hired to do, Boyles said “the additional time ahead of the 2026 legislative session will give me the opportunity to meet with residents and local officials to learn more about the priorities that they expect me to pursue.”

“Starting mid-way through a term allows the opportunity to learn the process in Tallahassee and build relationships to better serve the citizens of the District,” Boyles said.