Gov. Rick Scott has appointed Charles P. Sniffen to the Manatee County Court. Sniffen will replace Judge George K. Brown, who announced in October he would be stepping down after experiencing some medical issues after nearly three decades on the county bench. Sniffen, 39, of Bradenton, has been with Harrison, Kirkland, Pratt & McGuire PA since 2011, after four years as a sole practitioner.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondis office has begun calling Florida borrowers who may be eligible for cash payments under the national mortgage settlement. Live operators will call those who lost their homes to foreclosure between Jan. 1, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2011, and had their mortgages serviced by Ally/GMAC, Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo.

U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., issued a statement Tuesday night defending his vote againstHR 152, the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act:

The Fiscal Times has named U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio as one of "five Republicans to watch for their potential to lead" the Republican Party in 2013, as the nation's conservatives and libertarians try to score more political victories in the 2014 midterm and 2016 presidential races, and recover from the defeats suffered last November.

Gov. Rick Scott has appointed Julius D. Davis, owner of VoltAir Consulting Engineers in Tampa, to the Enterprise Florida Inc. board of directors. Davis, 43, currently serves on the Hillsborough County Community College board of directors, the University of Tampa Fellows Council and the City of Tampa Planning Arts Committee. He succeeds Frederick W. Leonhardt for a term that ends July 1, 2016.

State Rep. Jimmy Patronis, R-Panama City, was named chairman of the Florida Defense Support Task Force for the remainder of the current fiscal year by House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel. Given the importance of the military to both our state economy and our citizens, it is essential that we continue to support our military installations, missions, families and veterans, Patronis stated in a release.

The R Street Institute, a free-market think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., today expressed strong opposition to the recent introduction of HR 240, the Homeowners Insurance Protection Act, and the pending reintroduction of the Homeowners Defense Act, both bills that it says would create a federal bailout fund for state catastrophe reinsurance programs.

The mother of Trayvon Martin will be in Floridas Capitol on Wednesday as part of a Democrat-run media conference announcing legislation to repeal the states Stand Your Ground law. Sybrina Fulton is to be joined in the Capitol rotunda by Rep. Alan Williams, D-Tallahassee, and Sen. Dwight Bullard, D-Miami, who are seeking to repeal theUse of Deadly Force in Defense of a Person statute.

The R Street Institute, a free-market think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., has issued a press release praising therecent orderby Judge Richard Lazzara of the U.S.

Dr. Ghazi Darkazalli, a United Nations consultant and the former president and CEO of Marian Court College in Swampscott, Mass., has been charged with landing accreditation for the states newest university.

Two Florida companies and one based out of California have been order to stop selling insurance in Florida, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation announced Tuesday. In all three cases, the office conducted investigations and determined the companies were unlawfully offering insurance products and services without being licensed in Florida, the state office announced in a release. The companies as described by the office:

The bishops of Florida's seven Catholic dioceses have issued a statementdecrying the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that imposed legal abortion on state governments. The anniversary falls on Jan. 22.

On Tuesday morning, the Florida Senate's Committee on Criminal Justice voted unanimously to move forward SB 92, a bill filed by Sen. Joe Negron, R-Palm City, which would limit the use of drones (unmanned aerial vehicle) by law enforcement officials.

Gov. Rick Scott summed up his efforts to create jobs during his first two years in office as both his greatest failure and success early Tuesday. Appearing on WCTV TV in Tallahassee, Scott was asked for his assessment on the first half of his term, along with topics including state work pay and gun control. When it came to his top success and failure, he lumped them into his overriding theme since he hit the campaign trail: unemployment.

Senate Ethics and Elections Committee Chairman Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, conducted a video review of Mondays five-and-a-half-hour session discussing the 2012 election and recommendations to improve the voting process with a group of county election supervisors.