Three U.S. senators announced in recent days that they plan to retire in 2012 instead of seeking another term. But Florida Democrat Bill Nelson shows no signs of joining his three colleagues -- Kent Conrad, D-N.D., Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.

The deeply unpopular, $1.1 trillion spending bill -- including its more than 6,700 earmarks -- went down in flames Thursday night. And Florida Republicans in Congress can claim their opposition as some of the ammunition that shot it out of the sky.

Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville announced late Thursday afternoon that he is canceling the Quran-burning event scheduled for Saturday -- and added that a deal is in place to move a mosque farther away from its planned site a block and a half from where the World Trade Center stood.

Congress begins this week with leftovers on its plate that hardly anyone wants to deal with. These include the stalled tax extenders bill in the Senate and the war supplemental appropriations bill in the House.