A controversial Progress Energy Florida project to build two nuclear reactors in Levy County will not start producing electricity until 2024 -- and likely will cost between $19 billion and $24 billion, the company said Tuesday.

Progress released the information as it notified state regulators that it will seek to collect $151.7 million from customers in 2013 to pay for work on the Levy County project and for upgrades at an existing nuclear plant at Crystal River.

After months of legal battling about whether it spent enough money on patient care, a Medicaid mental-health plan will not have to pay back about $4 million to the state, according to a settlement agreement.

Florida Health Partners Inc., which provides mental-health services to Medicaid beneficiaries in a large part of Central Florida, filed administrative challenges last year after the state Agency for Health Care Administration said the plan had not complied in 2006 with what is known as a "medical loss ratio."

In a decision that adds fuel to the debate about expanded gambling, the Florida Supreme Court last week upheld a lower-court ruling that says lawmakers can allow slot machines at pari-mutuel facilities in various parts of the state.

Justices declined to take up a challenge to a 1st District Court of Appeal ruling that stems from a plan by Hialeah Park horse track in Miami-Dade County to add potentially lucrative slot machines.

But the lower-court ruling has ramifications outside South Florida, as it would allow lawmakers to authorize slot machines elsewhere.

Arguing they are being hit with an "unfunded mandate," 47 counties filed a lawsuit Thursday that challenges the constitutionality of a new state Medicaid law that could cost them hundreds of millions of dollars.

The local governments, joined by the Florida Association of Counties, indicated they will seek an injunction to try to quickly block parts of the law. The association announced earlier this month that it would file the lawsuit in Leon County circuit court.

Preparing for Florida's shift to a statewide Medicaid managed-care system, 20 health companies and organizations are interested in competing for contracts to serve seniors who need long-term care.

Potential bidders faced a deadline last week to submit nonbinding letters of intent that signaled their interest in the long-term care program, as the state Agency for Health Care Administration gets ready to move forward with a lengthy contracting process.

Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday took a scalpel to health and human services programs, vetoing more than $38 million from the 2012-13 state budget -- including money for university training and research programs, a Southwest Florida children's hospital and a variety of local projects.

In what it described as an "accounting mess,'' the Florida Association of Counties said Thursday it will file a lawsuit challenging the state's decision to try to tap counties for tens of millions of dollars in disputed Medicaid money.

The decision came two weeks after Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill that calls for the state to recoup the money -- and more than a month after counties frantically tried to fend off the measure in the Legislature.

An appeals court Monday rejected a North Florida jury's call for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. to pay $79.2 million to the daughter of a dead smoker -- overturning what could have been the largest verdict in a barrage of lawsuits against cigarette makers

The 1st District Court of Appeal sent the case back to Levy County Circuit Court to determine a reduced amount of damages in the 1996 lung-cancer death of James Cayce Horner.

A political committee that played an important role in Gov. Rick Scott's 2010 election raised $910,000 in contributions during the first three months of this year, according to state records.

The Let's Get to Work Committee also has started quickly in April, reporting on its website that it has already brought in about $438,000 -- with large contributions coming from private prison operator The Geo Group Inc., and a Florida Optometric Association political committee.

First, the usual disclaimer: It's notoriously difficult to predict how the U.S. Supreme Court -- or many other courts, for that matter -- will decide complicated cases.

But landmark Supreme Court hearings this week added fuel to the arguments of Attorney General Pam Bondi and other Florida Republicans that the 2010 federal health-care overhaul is unconstitutional.