With tax collections slowing, Medicaid costs rising and Florida housing still a mess, state lawmakers may be facing a budget shortfall whose depth is around $3.5 billion next year, analysts said Tuesday.
By: Kevin Derby
| Posted: December 8, 2010 4:05 AM
Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, named more chairmen and vice chairmen of House committees Tuesday, committees that will shape legislation and laws in Florida for the next two years.
By: Kenric Ward
| Posted: December 8, 2010 4:05 AM
As a group of lawmakers watched the school-reform documentary "Waiting for Superman" on Tuesday, Florida educators are waiting to see what the Legislature has in store for schools.
By: Kevin Derby
| Posted: December 8, 2010 4:05 AM
The Florida House will tackle one of the chief problems impacting the Sunshine State with the creation Tuesday of a select committee to handle the often contentious issue of water management.
By: Kenric Ward
| Posted: December 7, 2010 4:30 PM
Opening a second front in their battle against the federal government, Florida officials on Tuesday sued the Environmental Protection Agency over its proposed water standards.
By: Kevin Derby
| Posted: December 7, 2010 4:05 PM
Veteran Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns is in for a tough fight this week as congressional Republicans choose the next chairman to head up the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee -- one of the most powerful chairmanships in Congress.
By: Kenric Ward
| Posted: December 7, 2010 3:30 PM
Florida officials on Tuesday touted record numbers of high schools earning "A" and "B" grades last year, meaning more money for top-rated campuses under the state's reward systems.
A proposal to prohibit message-sending while driving has returned in the Senate, with Sen. Evelyn Lynn filing a measure that would bar drivers from sending or reading text messages, e-mails, or other forms of communication.
By: Kevin Derby
| Posted: December 7, 2010 4:05 AM
Rick Scott vowed to meet with as many state legislators as possible before becoming governor in January and he continued that effort this weekend. Scott met with members of the Panhandle delegation in Shalimar on Sunday before heading down to Melbourne on Monday to meet with six members of the House.
By: Jeff Kottkamp
| Posted: December 7, 2010 4:05 AM
Over the last month I have had the opportunity to meet with government and business leaders from Japan and Italy -- including the Japanese ambassador to the United States, Ichiro Fujisaki, and the president of Umbria in Italy, Catiuscia Marini.
By: Kenric Ward
| Posted: December 7, 2010 4:05 AM
The tea party wave that swept the nation this fall continues to roil the political waters in Florida. Now the tide is turning on itself, threatening to drown out the movement's message and potentially sink its future.
By: Kenric Ward
| Posted: December 6, 2010 5:30 PM
Former Washington, D.C., school chief Michelle Rhee won't be Florida's next education commissioner. Instead, she is embarking on a nationwide crusade to expel bad teachers.
By: Kenric Ward
| Posted: December 6, 2010 12:50 PM
Sen. George LeMieux, who led the pre-election opposition to extending unemployment benefits, has done an about-face before Christmas. Now he's blaming Democrats for failing to deliver.
By: Kevin Derby
| Posted: December 6, 2010 4:05 AM
While international affairs has not been one of the chief hallmarks of either his presidential bid in 2008 or the efforts he has been making to run for the Republican presidential nomination again in 2012, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney took aim at one of President Barack Obama’s major foreign initiatives.
By: Kevin Derby
| Posted: December 6, 2010 4:05 AM
While the jury may be out on whether U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan will enter what could be an increasingly crowded Republican primary field to take on U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in 2012, the Florida congressman has raised his profile significantly in recent weeks.
Campaigning for governor, Rick Scott wasn’t particularly courteous when talking about President Barack Obama, whose policies he slammed on the campaign trail. But somehow the incoming governor was surprised this week to be left waiting for a courtesy call from Obama that never came: a heads-up about a ban on new drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Senate and House spent much of this week behind closed doors discussing the tax deductions that will expire in a few weeks. These “Bush tax cuts” that became law in 2001 and 2003 number in the 60s.
By: Kevin Derby
| Posted: December 4, 2010 4:05 AM
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Friday that the unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent for November, an increase from October’s 9.6 percent figure -- and congressional Republicans have opened fire on the Obama team.
By: Kenric Ward
| Posted: December 4, 2010 4:05 AM
Meeting in one of Florida's most Republican counties, Senate President Mike Haridopolos and three other state lawmakers were encouraged to supercharge their cost-cutting agenda.
By: Kevin Derby
| Posted: December 3, 2010 8:00 AM
While negotiations continued to extend all tax cuts supported by President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003, the U.S. House extended some of those cuts Thursday. The measure passed with 234 votes, 188 congressmen opposing it.
By: Kenric Ward
| Posted: December 3, 2010 4:05 AM
Trial lawyers are getting the bum's rush at the Legislature, where a Republican supermajority -- led in the Senate by right-minded President Mike Haridopolos -- will push aggressively for tort reform next year.
By: Kevin Derby
| Posted: December 3, 2010 4:05 AM
From his perch as the ranking Republican on the U.S. House Communications, Technology and Internet Subcommittee, U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns continues to fight for free market solutions for the Internet.
Republican Rick Scott got plenty of political mileage during the governor’s race ridiculing the Obama administration for running up the federal deficit.
By: Kevin Derby
| Posted: December 2, 2010 4:05 AM
On Wednesday, the Florida Chamber of Commerce announced that former House Speaker Larry Cretul will be the staff director of the Chamber’s board of governors program.
By: Kenric Ward
| Posted: December 2, 2010 4:05 AM
The DREAM Act would cost Florida taxpayers an estimated $472 million more a year in college tuition subsidies while potentially crowding out citizens, according to a new report from the Center for Immigration Studies.
By: Kevin Derby
| Posted: December 1, 2010 3:30 PM
On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced that the eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico would be closed to new offshore drilling until at least 2017.
