FEATURED STORIES
By Jeremy Wallace
Related AP story: Fla. governor might run for Senate as independent
Gov. Charlie Crist's decision in the next two days on the fate of a controversial teacher bill may well decide his political future.
By Jim Ash
His reception room swarming with indignant teachers, his personal cell phone swamped with calls from strangers demanding a veto, Gov. Charlie Crist spent an intense Wednesday wrestling with the fate of a highly controversial merit-pay plan for teachers.
By Howard Troxler
I suppose there is no point in saying that the Legislature is doing something stinky.
By Dara Kam
Faced with a rules challenge from Democrats, Republican leaders in the House have agreed to strip a bill of amendment language added last week to give Attorney General Bill McCollum more ammunition to pursue his legal challenge of the new federal health-care law.
By Martin Merzer
Ease class-size limits - check. Cut corporate income taxes - check. End tenure for new teachers and link teacher raises to student performance - check (for now).
By Bruce Ritchie
A House panel is expected Thursday to receive a draft committee bill that would lift the ban on drilling for oil and gas in state waters.
By Alex Leary
The planners of an airport project that ended Ray Sansom's political career in scandal deliberately concealed the location of the building, according to newly surfaced documents.
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
The Associated Press
The Florida Senate is set to vote on a new compact allowing the Seminole Indians to expand gambling at tribal casinos.
By Richard Mullins
They fought multimillion-dollar rate increases by Progress Energy.
The Associated Press
Gov. Charlie Crist has signed a bill that will make it harder to win slip-and-fall lawsuits against Florida businesses.
By Lindsay Peterson
State Sen. Mike Fasano wants to tighten regulations on businesses known as Internet sweepstakes cafes, where people play slot machine-type games to win cash, sometimes thousands of dollars.
By Mary Ellen Klas
After a personal appeal by Gov. Charlie Crist, a Senate committee approved his two appointees to the Public Service Commission, but not until committee members grilled both nominees and complained about a lack of racial diversity in their choices.
By Bill Cotterell
With a personal plea from Gov. Charlie Crist, a Senate committee voted 8-1 Wednesday for the governor's two new appointees to the Public Service Commission.
By Sara Kennedy
Bills that would set statewide parameters for use of high-tech cameras to catch red-light runners Wednesday won committee approval in both chambers of the Florida Legislature.
By Josh Hafenbrack
Trying to strengthen the patchwork of sex offender residency laws in Florida, the state House will vote Thursday to establish a 300-foot, 24-hour buffer zone around schools and places where children congregate.
By John Miller
A growing number of conservative groups are bankrolling startup news organizations around the country, aggressively covering government and politics at a time when newspapers are cutting back their statehouse bureaus.
Editorial
As the legislative session heads toward its final two weeks, state lawmakers are letting too many important issues slide into oblivion.
POLITICAL RACES
Staff Report
Gov. Charlie Crist didn't want to talk much Wednesday about a report that he may run for the U.S. Senate as an independent, rather than continue his bid to win the Republican nomination.
By David Hunt
It was a ground zero of sorts for Marco Rubio as he spoke with a backdrop of road construction vehicles and plant employees who'd seen coworkers let go.
By Scott Maxwell
Toni Jennings has a message for GOP leaders who have been spending someone else's money on their luxury lifestyles: Stop it.
By Bill Cotterell
State Sen. John Thrasher, who heads the Florida Republican Party, has called a special board meeting next week to brief GOP officials on financial and litigation issues involving former state Chairman Jim Greer.
The Associated Press
Bill McCollum plans to announce the economic policies he'll pursue if he's elected governor later this year.
By Patricia Mazzei
After a visit to Florida's Space Coast to talk about the future of NASA, President Barack Obama heads to Miami Thursday evening for two Democratic fundraisers -- including a cocktail reception at the home of Gloria and Emilio Estefan that has irked some in the Cuban-American community.
By Anthony Man
Almost any politician in America would covet the 62 percent-plus victory Congressman-elect Ted Deutch racked up in Tuesday's special election in Broward and Palm Beach counties. And Democrats were crowing Wednesday.
By George Bennett
Democrat Ted Deutch won a special congressional election Tuesday after getting former U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler's endorsement, hiring Wexler's top aide as his political consultant and taking Wexlerian liberal positions on health care, the economy and other issues.
By Tom McLaughlin
Walton County Supervisor of Elections Bobby Beasley said he's had three people in the last year inquire about running for president.
By David Hunt
Former state Rep. Aaron Bean, who bowed out of a contentious Florida Senate race last summer, says he's planning another run.
ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY
By Christine Stapleton
A frustrated federal judge ordered the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to appear in a Miami courtroom in October to explain how the agency will enforce the Clean Water Act in the Everglades after "failure to comply with the law for more than two decades."
By Steve Newborn
The federal Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to take over monitoring the quality of the state's waters from Tallahassee. The public got a chance to weigh in today during a hearing held in Tampa.
Editorial
Floridians who care about jobs, economic diversity, clean alternative energy development and government that works should be raising hell with lawmakers.
LGBT
By Louis Cooper
When Milton resident Jay Boda retired from the Air Force on Jan. 1, he began a new era of honesty in his life by proclaiming that he is gay on Facebook, and adding the name of his male partner to his profile.
EDUCATION
By Robert Samuels
Of the many disagreements lawmakers are having about the future of Florida's education system, one thing doesn't seem to be in contention: College tuition is going up.
By Cristina Silva
For many educators across the state, the Republican-led Legislature's proposed overhaul of Florida schools is inspiring a wave of deja vu.
By Michael Horgan
Related editorial: Crist has no weasel room: On merit pay, it has to be all or nothing
Senate Bill 6 rewards great teachers with higher salaries
St. Petersburg Times
Paying their dues, but will teaching pay bills?
Pensacola News Journal
Florida's merit-pay plan for teachers: Is there another way?
Orlando Sentinel
By Cara Fitzpatrick
Palm Beach Post
Miami-Dade teachers, students chat with Gov. Charlie Crist
Miami Herald
Pull up your sagging pants, Florida legislator tells students
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Merit pay bill should be vetoed
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY
By James Dean
Related: Obama's plan transforms NASA
Report: Florida No. 4 economically distressed state
Naples Daily News
Foreclosures hint at a subtle shift
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Foreclosures heat up in Orlando
Orlando Sentinel
Obama to offer hope to local space workers during KSC visit
Orlando Sentinel
HEALTH AND SENIORS
By Jim Saunders
In a win for the Florida Medical Association, both the House and Senate have dropped proposals that would have barred pain-management physicians from dispensing more than 72 hours' worth of controlled drugs from their own offices.
By Robert Samuels
Alone and new to the United States, Maurine Kisob says she found an "American family'' with the staff at the Healthy Start program.
CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES
By Frank Fernandez
When the Ku Klux Klan wants new recruits for its hooded robes, it likes to toss fliers on driveways, according to a researcher who tracks the group.
By Lucas L. Johnson II
