FEATURED STORIES
By Alex Leary
Bringing one of the most complex, controversial and elusive public policy goals to the brink of reality, the House of Representatives approved sweeping health care legislation late Sunday after a last-minute push by President Barack Obama to allay concerns over abortion funding.
By Steve Bousquet and Marc Caputo
State lawmakers are piecing together a budget for next year that makes more cuts to programs and relies on billions more in federal stimulus money to stave off even deeper reductions.
By Bill Cotterell
U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek is in the home stretch of what he hopes will be a history-making signature drive for a ballot spot in Florida's U.S. Senate race this summer.
Staff Report
Teacher pay would be based on how well students do on standardized tests under a bill set for a final fight in the Senate.
By Michael Peltier
Related editorial: Access to federal waters may be the real goal of legislative proponents
Truth and hysteria about Hometown Democracy
St. Petersburg Times
EDITORIAL CARTOON OF THE WEEK
Miami Herald
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
By Marc Caputo
After the Legislature decided to cut state-worker pay last year, Florida senators did the opposite, passing out $183,000 in annual pay raises and promotions to some staffers.
By Aaron Deslatte
As the health-care debate rages nationally, Florida's Republican legislative leadership is laying the groundwork for seismic changes to how the state pays for the health care of the poor, sick and elderly.
Senate cuts hospital, library spending; may spare schools
Palm Beach Post
Florida House wants agency chiefs to move to Tallahassee area
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Florida Legislature's gambling discussion still focused on Seminoles
Florida Times-Union
State Sen. Mike Fasano crusades against arrogance
St. Petersburg Times
Lawmakers target red-light cameras
Daytona Beach News-Journal
Florida Senate panel proposes drivers pay less for license plates bearing corporate logos
The Associated Press
Area lawmakers add to flood of bills
Gainesville Sun
House dismisses complaint against Saunders
Palm Beach Post
Nefarious leadership funds revived
Miami Herald
GOP backs oldie, not goodie: No reason to bring back leadership slush funds
Palm Beach Post
POLITICAL RACES
By Adam C. Smith
For much of the past year, it has been widely assumed that Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Kendrick Meek would have a very tough time in a general election against either Marco Rubio or Charlie Crist.
By Jamie Page
Gov. Charlie Crist assured a Pensacola club on Friday that Florida is on its way back.
By Beth Reinhard
After months and months of pounding by U.S. Senate rival Marco Rubio, Gov. Charlie Crist caught a break.
By Carol Rosenberg
Sink has been using this crackdown to promote her Safeguard Our Seniors Task Force since her office put out a release on Sept. 28 under the headline, "CFO Sink Returns $1.2 Million to Delray Beach Seniors Scammed out of Life Savings."
Editorial
As he runs for the U.S. Senate, Marco Rubio touts his ability to fix the nation's finances. But he can't even explain his own finances.
By Brent Batten
A Republican woman not afraid to call out corruption within her own party aspires against long odds to the office of governor.
By Bill Cotterell
After hearing from constituents and interest groups for months, U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd said he decided to vote for national health care because "good policy equals good politics."
By Dale White
The Sarasota Alliance for Fair Elections wants the state attorney and sheriff to investigate Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent's decision not to have a spot-check audit last Tuesday of the school tax referendum results.
BALLOT INITIATIVES
Staff Report
A group fighting a statewide ballot initiative that would give voters direct say on land use decisions says people need look no further than the disastrous results of a similar initiative in tiny St. Pete Beach.
By David Hunt
In the debate over Florida growth management, a spotlight is shining on St. Johns County.
By Scott Maxwell
In today's edition of the Friday Files, we take a look at which politician took a free trip to Las Vegas, which one recently put himself up for bid and which one seems to be suffering from a bout of selective amnesia.
By Mark Lane
Florida suffers from constitutional bloat. Each election, both major parties scramble to put new constitutional amendments on the ballot as sure-fire tools for drawing their supporters to the polls.
ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY
By Damien Cave
Gov. Charlie Crist reaffirmed his commitment this week to the $536 million purchase of 73,000 acres of land from United States Sugar, declaring that it would heal both the Everglades and the coastal estuaries that are vital to Florida's tourist economy.
By Curtis Morgan
With the odds of borrowing a half-billion bucks growing dicey, water managers are exploring new ways to finance Gov. Charlie Crist's deal with the U.S. Sugar Corp. -- a controversial land buy the governor stood firmly behind Thursday during a South Florida visit.
By Eric Staats
More Southwest Florida streams and canals would violate water quality standards under a proposal by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to limit pollution in Florida waters, according to a Naples Daily News analysis.
By Eric Staats
As U.S. 41 runs through the Big Cypress National Preserve, the rural highway crosses a natural pathway that is a favorite route for endangered Florida panthers - with deadly results.
Editorial
Drilling off Florida's coast won't increase America's independence from foreign oil, lower gasoline prices or raise billions of dollars annually for the state.
Editorial
Listening to the U.S. Navy has always paid off for Northwest Florida, where our economy has been buffered from the worst of the recession by stable military spending.
Editorial
Last session, Florida Department of Community Affairs Secretary Tom Pelham was able to fend off insidious efforts to either abolish the growth management agency or pare its scope.
LGBT
By Margie Menzel
A bill to end Florida's ban on allowing gays and lesbians to adopt is back for the eighth straight year.
By Jeff Burlew
Lisa Comingore, an assistant attorney general for the state of Florida, knows what it's like to be forced out of a job over sexual orientation.
Editorial
Speaking of foster children's needs, nothing is greater than their need to be adopted into a stable and loving home.
EDUCATION
By Martin Merzer
No one was very happy about it, but a bill that attaches more rigorous standards to Florida's popular Bright Futures scholarship program passed a key committee test Friday.
By Catherine Whittenburg
Senate lawmakers are proposing to spend more than the state House on K-12 public schools - but they also assume that 24 counties, including Hillsborough, will levy additional property taxes.
By Leslie Postal
Florida's pre-kindergarten program would be forced to place six more children into each class next year to help offset deep budget cuts moving forward in the state House and Senate.
By Carmen Paige
Voluntary Prekindergarten program providers worry Florida's budget woes will mean cutting local classrooms.
Crist appoints three to FSU Board of Trustees
Tallahassee Democrat
Senate bill: Tough on teachers, short on reform
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY
By Lloyd Dunkelberger
From their paychecks to their pensions to their very jobs, state workers have a lot to lose as the Legislature tries to resolve a $3 billion budget shortfall.
By Robert Samuels
Condo bills have flooded the state Capitol. More than five dozen have been filed during the legislative session, as Florida grapples with its real estate crisis.
By Todd Halvorson
The U.S. Senate will direct NASA to develop a super-sized rocket and a spacecraft for missions beyond Earth orbit, the senior Senator from Florida said Friday.
By Michael C. Bender
A stimulus plan that Florida lawmakers are considering for state ports would be paid for with a tax break for insurance companies, but insurers would not have to pass the savings to policyholders under a provision in the bill.
By Beatrice E. Garcia
After four hurricane-free years in central and South Florida, insurance companies should have been raking in the profits.
HEALTH AND SENIORS
The Associated Press
Miles from the healthcare vote, Gov. Charlie Crist still has his opinion on tonight's debate at the U.S. Capitol.
Staff Report
Florida Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum will appear on two Fox News shows this afternoon to discuss his plan to challenge health care reform if it passes.
The Associated Press
The 219-212 roll call Sunday by which the House passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
By Bart Jansen
The entire Florida delegation voted along straight party lines on the health legislation, with Democratic Rep. Suzanne Kosmas of New Smyrna Beach supporting it and Republican Rep. Bill Posey of Rockledge opposing it.
By James Rosen
Republican prosecutors from South Carolina and Florida said Friday they were preparing to file a lawsuit if the health care bill before Congress becomes law, challenging its requirement that all Americans buy insurance.
By Stacey Singer
It was easy to miss, amid the eight or nine hours of House discussion of health reform, but leave it to a Kentucky Congressman, Rep. Brett Guthrie of Bowling Green, to bring up one of the most difficult issues ahead for Florida now that health reform legislation is about to become law.
By Paul Kane
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus said that racial epithets were hurled at them Saturday by angry protesters who had gathered at the Capitol to protest health-care legislation, and one congressman said he was spit upon.
By Stephen Patrick
Just 21 months into my mother's cancer treatment, she had reached her medical insurance policy's cap for chemotherapy -- $100,000.
By Loranne Ausley
We appreciated Gov. Charlie Crist's recent designation of "Cover the Uninsured Week," calling attention to the fact that Florida has more than 800,000 children who are without basic health care insurance.
CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES
By James A. Jones Jr.
From Richard Cohen's office in Montgomery, Ala., he can see the church from which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. launched the Civil Rights movement.
By Jeff Kunerth
Ten years ago, historically black Eatonville had one of the lowest census response rates of any city in Central Florida. Barely half -- 56 percent -- of Eatonville residents mailed back their census questionnaires.
JUSTICE AND THE COURTS
By Jay Weaver
Related: Mafia has had long history in South Florida, and latest Rothstein revelations show no different
Judge: Crist has authority to suspend Miami commissioner
Miami Herald
Editorial
TC Palm
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