FEATURED STORIES
By Bill Cotterell
Florida legislators began the grim business of budget-cutting on multiple fronts Thursday, with the House leader issuing a spending outline and a grim outlook.
By Gary Fineout
Florida voters will likely to get a chance to vote this fall on whether or not they want to revamp the state's class size restrictions.
By Aaron Deslatte
Florida legislative leaders are proposing election-law changes that could unleash even more special-interest spending in state elections but require that the millions of dollars pumped into races be fully disclosed to the public.
By William March
An exchange between Gov. Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio in a conservative political journal this week marked the toughest rhetoric so far between the two Republican U.S. Senate primary opponents.
BEST OF THE BLOGS
By Steve Schale
For most of the last year, Crist has ineffectually tried to define himself as the real conservative in his primary against Rubio.
By Gimleteye
"Miami's little Madoff" is how one Cuban American investor described a prominent businessman and his wife, Gaston and Teresita Cantens.
By Ray Seaman
St. Petersburg Times columnist Howard Troxler, cites my favorite Florida politician, former Gov. Reubin Askew, as evidence of leadership that worked out well for Florida.
By Beach Blogger
Louis Cooper in today's PNJ has an intriguing front page news story about the latest plans for a new elementary school in Pensacola.
By Trish Ponder
The speculation in Florida that Gov. Charlie Crist might switch parties to beat his Republican challenger in the U.S. Senate race, Marco Rubio, says a lot about the state of the Republican party.
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
By Bill Kaczor
House Speaker Larry Cretul issued a budget allocation plan Thursday that would increase state funding for public schools by 9 percent to offset a $788 million drop in local property tax receipts, but he warned it won't be enough to avoid some spending cuts.
By John Frank
The first week of the 2010 legislative session closes today with a whimper compared to the chaotic start.
Fight over residency restrictions threatens sex offender bill
News Service of Florida via Palm Beach Post
Bill would give local governments power to regulate specific dog breeds
Palm Beach Post
Sparing Emergency Care Providers
Sunshine State News
A bill that could spare emergency room doctors and other emergency medical care providers from healthcare lawsuits passed the Senate Health Regulation Committee in quick order Thursday.
The Associated Press
A South Florida lawmaker wants to put a stop to people impersonating military veterans when soliciting donations.
By Sara Kennedy
In an effort to support the 911 emergency system, state Sen. Mike Bennett held a press conference Thursday at the Capitol about a bill that would set up a system to collect fees from purchasers of wireless pre-paid phones.
Paul Femming
Conflict at the Capitol is common.
POLITICAL RACES
By Mary Ellen Klas and Marc Caputo
As Florida hemorrhages as much as $3.2 billion in Medicaid fraud a year, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink proposed reforms Thursday and pinned much of the blame for the problem on her political opponent, Attorney General Bill McCollum.
By Adam C. Smith
Marco Rubio was on south Florida's WFTL radio this morning where for the first time he said the $133.75 tony hair salon charged on his state party credit card was not for a hair cut.
By Michael C. Bender
U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, has returned $9,000 in donations from former House Ways & Means Chairman Charlie Rangel after Rangel was forced to give up the powerful spot after questions the belated disclosure of hundreds of thousands of dollars in previously unlisted wealth.
By Jessica Taylor
North Miami City Commissioner Scott Galvin joined a crowded Democratic field looking to replace Florida Rep. Kendrick Meek Wednesday.
ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY
By Jim Ash
Sometimes the lions and the lambs lie down together.
By Alex Leary
The Environmental Protection Agency today agreed to a extend the public comment period on proposed new water rules that have been blasted by Florida politicians.
By Paul Quinlan
To stanch pollution flows into the headwaters of the Everglades, Obama administration officials are considering designating a new national wildlife refuge north of Lake Okeechobee.
LGBT
By Jim Abrams
The time has come to change a policy that imposes a lifetime ban on donating blood for any man who has had gay sex since 1977, 18 senators said Thursday.
JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY
By Kenric Ward
Is there a shell game afoot on stimulus money?
By Bill Cotterell
A group of current and former government officials, business leaders and policy analysts today made cost-savings recommendations -- including reduction of penalties for minor drug offenses, collecting the sales tax on Internet purchases and putting state government on a four-day work week -- to save Florida taxpayers up to $3.2 billion.
By Mary Ellen Klas
A two-year federal investigation into possible fraud at the Florida State Board of Administration, which manages $138.5 billion in retirement funds for state and local governments, ended this week with no action taken.
By Tom Bayles
The long-running spell of cold weather has continued to ravage Florida's tomato crop, leaving consumers paying top dollar at the grocery store and coming up sliceless at fast-food venues.
By Tom Palmer
High-speed rail's success in Florida and the rest of the United States lies in effectively promoting and selling it as a safe, convenient, environmentally friendly mode of transportation.
Editorial
The call by Republican leaders in the Legislature for Congress to balance the federal budget reminds us of a famous scene from "Casablanca."
EDUCATION
By Jeffrey S. Solochek
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced Thursday that Florida is among 16 finalists to receive a share of the nation's largest single influx of discretionary money ever into public schooling.
By Daniel Ruth
Yep, to be sure, this is a mere bagatelle of a do-nothing job -- modest pay, grading papers for hours, overseeing six to seven packed classes a day, attending to parent conferences, dealing with the occasional brawl, being forced to teach to a cockamamie test.
By Angeline J. Taylor
Students Courtney Sengstock and Janeen Talbott don't know each other. But each was motivated to attend the Rally in Tallahassee at the steps of the old Capitol on Thursday afternoon.
HEALTH AND SENIORS
By Jim Saunders
Reopening a political battle about medical malpractice, Florida senators are considering a bill that would limit the liability of hospitals, doctors and other workers for emergency-room errors.
The Associated Press
U.S. Sen. David Vitter has called for federal officials to do a more thorough review of the deaths of several people who lived in homes that contained smelly, possibly toxic Chinese drywall.
CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES
By Bil Kaczor
The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the execution of a death row inmate so a hearing can be held to determine the validity of a new standardized IQ test that could spare his life by showing he's mentally retarded.
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