One of the least-talked about but most-significant aspects of the nation's immigration debate is the outsized influence of Cuban-Americans. Sen. Marco Rubio is helping push the immigration bill with Sen. Bob Menendez and Sen. Ted Cruz is essentially fighting them. In the House, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart is one of the key players.

via @msanchezMIA and @kikeflor

After having learned that his name appears next to the amount of $1,500 in a notebook kept by an alleged Hialeah ballot broker, lawyer Ricardo Corona said Tuesday that he never hired anyone to collect absentee ballots on his behalf during his unsuccessful campaign for a Miami-Dade judgeship in 2008.

Florida TaxWatch prepares to release its list of “turkeys” tomorrow, having scoured the $74.5 billion budget for items that were adopted outside of established procedures, which did not have opportunity for public review, or which non-competitively benefit a specific interest or area of the state.

Well, that didn’t take long.

Speaker Designates Steve Crisafulli, Richard Corcoran, and Jose Oliva will host a fundraiser for Mike Hill, the newly-minted GOP nominee in House District 2 on May 22.

The event begins at noon. The reception will be held in the Plantation Room of The Governors Club, 202 South Adams Street, Tallahassee.

On Tuesday, eight Pinellas legislators were grilled by members of the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club on issues ranging from Medicaid expansion to legislative health insurance costs — and then turned around to rib each other on who had scored the most “turkeys”, aka hometown projects, in the budget.

After a series of very public controversies, Florida Atlantic University President Mary Jane Saunders resigned Tuesday, the school announced today.

Shirley Walker-Turner, who was suspended as mayor of South Bay in December after she was charged with violating the Sunshine Law, will be returning to city government after winning a special election Tuesday.

Karen Jaroch, an organizer for the Tampa 912 Project, says she believes the Tampa 912 Project was one of the first tea party-style organizations that faced extra IRS scrutiny after its application for tax-exempt status.

“I believe we were actually one of the first groups targeted,” she said.

Jaroch said…

Senator Marco Rubio blasted controversies over the Obama Administration’s handling of the terror attack in Benghazi, IRS targeting of conservative groups, and subpoena of reporter phone records as “embarrassing to the country.”

“These are things you typically see in the Third World from unestablished republics and other places,” Rubio told Fox News in an interview on the “O’Reilly Factor.” “You don’t see that here.”

“But the one advice I give to Republicans is stop calling it a huge scandal,” writes Charles Krauthammer. “Stop saying it’s a Watergate. Stop saying it’s Iran Contra. Let the facts speak for themselves. Have a special committee, a select committee. The facts will speak for themselves.

Marco Rubio says super PACs helped drive his push for moving Florida’s presidential primary.

So sayeth the headline from the Tampa Bay Times.

Here’s what Rubio had to say:

@MarcACaputo

Last night's crushing defeat of the Miami Dolphins stadium effort was a matter of some vindication for House Speaker Will Weatherford, who has taken a measure of heat from the club and a few fans for refusing to resurrect a bill that would have fully authorized a referendum.

By Mary Kelli Palka and Topher Sanders

Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown and his chief administrative officer, Karen Bowling, flew in December on the Jaguars plane to Miami where they had a Sunday meeting with representatives of the team and SMG.

Brown’s public calendar said he was in church.