FEATURED STORIES
By Adam C. Smith
Marco Rubio is trouncing him in the polls, raising big money and turning into a Republican superstar.
By Josh Hafenbrack
Florida's tanned optimist-in-chief, Gov. Charlie Crist, used to love proclaiming a "golden era" in the state Legislature.
By Bill Kaczor
Gov. Charlie Crist says he'll focus on Florida's sagging economy in his fourth and final State of the State address today as the Legislature convenes its annual session facing a potential $3.2 billion budget gap.
By Keith Laing
Despite the Senate's seeming reluctance to lift a 20-year ban on offshore oil drilling in Florida waters, the first legislation on the subject was filed in the upper chamber.
Editorial
Tallahassee has suffered a courage deficit far longer than it has grappled with a revenue deficit.
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
By Bill Cotterell
Related: Florida House to focus on 'high performance government'
Florida legislators converged on the Capitol Monday for an election-year lawmaking session marked by an unprecedented $3 billion revenue shortage and wide-ranging political ambition.
By Lloyd Dunkelberger
Related editorial: Florida's dismal outlook
Florida legislators to consider a slew of laws with ride-ranging impact
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Florida Senate expects conservative shift amid national movement
St. Petersburg Times/Miami Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Creating jobs by cutting taxes is GOP plan for Fla. legislative session
Palm Beach Post
Gambling issue back on table for Florida Legislature
Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times Tallahassee Bureau
Stop or go? Florida Legislature to debate turning off the red light cameras
Naples Daily News
Ethics Reform: Tied Up in Tallahassee
Lakeland Ledger
The two faces of Jeff Atwater
Editorial
Republican Senate President Jeff Atwater of North Palm Beach -- a candidate for Florida chief financial officer -- sent the state's congressional delegation a letter Wednesday.
POLITICAL RACES
By Mike Esterl
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist suddenly is the underdog in a heated Republican primary race with rival Marco Rubio for a U.S. Senate seat, amid signs the Sunshine State is tilting more to the right.
By Niall Stanage
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist speaks to the press after a meeting with President Obama during the National Governors Association meeting at the White House on Feb. 22.For Charlie Crist, it's all crumbled apart so quickly.
By Fred Grimm
It can't be cheap, being married to the woman Marco Rubio described as ``the First Lady of the Florida House of Representatives.''
By Steve Bousquet
In an annual game of beat the clock, lawmakers fanned across the capital Monday with dollar signs in their eyes, chasing campaign cash from lobbyists.
By Tony Marrero
Leodon "Leo" Killinger doesn't have a laundry list of criticisms to levy against U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite.
ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY
By Jim Ash
Floridians won't have to worry about oil platforms spoiling their view if the Legislature opens Florida waters to offshore drilling this year, the chief House proponent said Monday.
By Laura Ruane
Southwest Florida's tourism industry took no apparent cheer from a Florida legislator's remarks Monday that any bill permitting offshore oil drilling also would require that platforms be kept out of sight from shore.
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Energy Associates, one of the primary backers of the push to open Florida waters to oil drilling last year, recently trimmed its lobbying force to zero after having more than 30 last year.
By Mary Ellen Klas
In the cavernous hearing room where the Public Service Commission regulates the state's utility companies, the new chairwoman has added a piece of décor: ropes.
By Sara Kennedy
Sen. Mike Bennett hopes one of his bills will speed up construction of a proposed Florida Power & Light solar thermal plant near Parrish.
By Glen Gardner
When Florida's black bears come in contact with humans it often results in a death sentence for the bear involved, but it doesn't have to be that way.
JOBS, BUDGET, AND ECONOMY
By Dara Kam
Republican leaders in the state House and Senate want to join 19 other states demanding that federal lawmakers change the U.S. Constitution to require a balanced budget to stem the escalating federal deficit now topping $12 trillion.
By David Damron and Stephen Hudak
Vice President Joe Biden told frustrated national union leaders meeting in Orlando Monday afternoon that the economy was so bad when the Obama Administration took over, it would take more than a year to recover most of the millions of lost jobs and focus more sharply on key labor-agenda concerns.
By Kenric Ward
President Barack Obama says he's committed to keeping American jobs, but don't tell that to anxious workers waiting for the ax to fall at Kennedy Space Center.
By Joshua Lee Holton
Tomato pickers are still lobbying for better wages for farm workers in operations they call modern-day slavery.
By Mark Albright
Fallout from the freeze that wiped out 70 percent of Florida's winter tomato crop has hit local produce departments.
EDUCATION
By Kathleen McGrory
South Florida educators are applauding a new White House initiative to invest more money into the nation's lowest-performing schools.
By Hannah Sampson and Kathleen McGrory
School districts have tried begging for money from state legislators. They've pleaded for mercy when it became clear that cuts were inevitable.
By Michael Williams
The ABC'S of the state budget spell trouble ahead for education despite the soothing words of Governor Crist.
Staff Report
Measures to ease class-size amendment requirements, replace the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test with end of course examinations and require teachers in the state's pre-kindergarten program to hold a bachelor's degree are all up for consideration as the Legislature goes into session today.
HEALTH AND SENIORS
By Carol Gentry
Doctors who haven't passed certification exams in pain management will be able to keep working in pain clinics as long as they have hospital privileges and a qualified supervising physician, under a rule adopted by a state board this weekend.
By Carol Marbin Miller
Florida lawmakers will once again consider a measure to rein in the use of psychiatric drugs among foster children in the wake of last year's death of a 7-year-old Broward boy who was on a cocktail of mood-altering drugs.
CIVIL RIGHTS, PEACE AND SOCIAL ISSUES
By Erika Hobbs
A federal judge Monday ordered plaintiffs in a decades-old desegregation case against Orange County public schools to prove that traces of discrimination remain in the district before she will approve a settlement to end oversight of its operations.
By Bill McCollum
For gun owners and Second Amendment advocates, the U.S. Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia v. Heller was a landmark case overturning an unconstitutional ban on firearm ownership.
JUSTICE AND THE COURTS
By John A. Torres
Confident that any attempt at clemency would be rejected by Gov. Charlie Crist while she remains behind bars, Catherine Jones' only hope is faith that her lifetime probation will be eliminated when she is released from prison in six years
