During a three-hour meeting Thursday morning with Enterprise Florida, Gov. Rick Scott said he will bring the public-private partnership and two other state agencies into a newly created department of commerce -- and house the department right next door to his office where he can give it the attention it deserves.

Let's put the so-called "extravagant" inauguration of Florida's 45th governor in a little perspective.

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.

Florida has been knocked out of the top five rankings of the best states in which to do business by Chief Executive Magazine, but it still holds a spot in the list of the top 10 business-friendly states. And it’s high above California, which has held the bottom spot on the list for the last several years.

Florida has the capacity to create "hundreds of thousands" of new jobs through expanded international trade over the next five to seven years, economists said Wednesday.