Sen. Marco Rubio officially has a new job and a whole lot of ambition to go with it.

Shortly after 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, and according to tradition, Marco Rubio walked down the aisle of the Senate floor with Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., on his left and retired Sen. Mel Martinez on  his right.

Teacher performance pay exploded onto the political and educational scenes during the 2010 legislative session, but it was eventually vetoed by Gov. Charlie Crist. Now advisers on Gov.-elect Rick Scott's education team have made some tweaks that might help a similar bill to SB 6 pass in 2011.

According to the first report released from Gov.-elect Rick Scott's transition teams, Florida is on the road to ruin and needs a course correction -- quick.

In the midst of low-budget dollars and high unemployment discussions for the 2011 legislative session, Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, is taking a detour to help save the lives of children with the use of relatively simple technology.

Rick Scott is giving every state legislator in Florida the chance to weigh in on his or her 2011 priorities. And while he's getting plenty of thoughts on the top issues and how to approach them, he's getting almost nothing when he asks how they plan to pay for it.

If anyone has a chance of surviving a Mexican gang kidnapping, it might be Felix Batista. Then, again, if anyone should have been able to avoid getting kidnapped in the first place, he was at the top of the list.