Carol Browner, who headed the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation under Gov. Lawton Chiles, is leaving her post at the White House, where she ran the Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy.

Gov. Charlie Crist, who is running for the U.S. Senate without party affiliation, was in Quincy Thursday to highlight a change in the Florida Discount Drug Card program. There will now be greater access to the program through tear-off brochures with cards attached as well as a virtual card program …

Republicans and Democrats cast ballots in 10 state Senate districts across Florida Tuesday. While some incumbents faced primary challenges, all of them prevailed. And look for some different faces in the Senate -- even if they have familiar names.

While the close battle for the Republican gubernatorial nomination and U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek’s demolishing of Jeff Greene for the Democratic nomination in the U.S. Senate election won the headlines, there were a number of dramatic contests in congressional primaries across Florida on Tuesday.

This is it -- primary Election Day in Florida -- in a state of increasing national importance and political vigor. As the rest of America watches -- for that matter, as Florida intently watches itself -- voters go to the polls to decide who will be their party's nominees in November’s general election.

Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed $371 million from the state budget Friday and signed a spending plan that strips away key proposals backed by major Republican lawmakers.

Crist, now running for U.S. Senate as an independent, waited until the afternoon of his last day to sign the budget. And what he signed was a slimmed-down, slightly-more-than $70 billion spending plan rid of a much-debated raid on transportation funds, a reduction in Medicaid funds to nursing homes and many local and higher education projects.

Even though the 2010 elections are still being waged, speculation has already begun about which Republicans will look to challenge U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in 2012. The venerable national opinion journal The New Republic ran a piece on energy bills in the Senate and offered an aside building up current U.S. Sen. George LeMieux possibly taking on Nelson. With his recent letter to Nelson on national issues, buzz is building that incoming Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, could also be looking at running for the U.S. Senate come 2012 ...

Looking to spur African-American turnout at the polls, Sen. Tony Hill, D-Jacksonville, launched a new group called Florida African-American Caribbean Empowerment (FACE) on the steps of the old Capitol on Tuesday.