The Pinellas County jobless rate dropped slightly in April, beating the overall unemployment rate in Tampa Bay and Florida.

Pinellas County’s rated dropped from 6.7 percent in March to 6.5 percent in April. 

St. Petersburg City Council Chair Karl Nurse announced Friday that he has filed for re-election for his District 6 seat. 

“I believe that St. Petersburg is in a moment of great opportunity,” Nurse said in a statement Friday. “As the economy comes back, it is critical that we aggressively seek to bring more and better jobs to our community.

An annual ritual once again produced a sign of Miami-Dade County’s clout and size: The county took in by far the most money from the state budget, according to a county-by-county breakdown of local projects released Friday by the Legislature, reports Brandon Larrabee of the News Service of Florida.

In fact, Miami-Dade’s haul of more than $1.7 billion is about 65 percent more than the county with the next-largest share, Broward, which took in a shade over $1.05 billion.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus predicted to Bloomberg that there will be much more to the IRS scandal than we currently know.

“I have a hunch that a lot more is going to come out, frankly,” said Baucus. “It’s broader than the current focus.”

Florida House Republicans tried to close the state's pension system to new employees this year, saying it's a ticking time bomb that could cripple the state's budget for years to come.

But many of those same GOP lawmakers are members of the state pension system themselves, according to aTimes/Herald review.

Gov. Rick Scott has all but guaranteed a veto of the three-percent tuition increase in the state budget and he recently reached out to an unlikely group to aid his cause.

All 12 state university presidents were asked to sign a letter initiated by the governor’s office that says they do not want more tuition revenue. In the process, they would have rejected an automatic 1.7 percent increase to cover the cost of inflation.

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A signing ceremony for the texting while driving bill (SB 52) has been set for 2-3 p.m. May 28th in Miami, according to an email listed on Project Sunburst, a website that displays executive staff emails in the Governor’s office, but Jackie Schutz, a spokesman for Gov. Rick Scott, wouldn't confirm the information.

She said the governor hasn’t yet received the bill and he is still "reviewing the legislation.

A public works bill passed by the US Senate on Wednesday gives Georgia a hand up in the ongoing water-rights dispute with Florida.

A manufacturing tax break, one of Gov. Rick Scott’s two priorities this legislative session, is now law.

Scott signed the measure (HB 7007) on Friday and touted it during a stop at a Tampa manufacturing firm.

Under the new law, manufacturers won’t have to pay sales tax on equipment purchases for three years, beginning in April 2014. Scott had wanted to make the tax break permanent, but lawmakers gave him a three-year window instead.

Florida’s unemployment rate continues to fall, dropping another 3 points since March to 7.2 percent — representing about 680,000 jobless Floridians. This rate is the lowest since it has been since September 2008 — and certainly lower than its historic high of 11.4 percent in March 2010.  Indeed, this is the 33rd consecutive month of year-over-year job gains in Florida.