Attention, future Florida military officers: U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio this week opened the application process for high school students seeking nominations to attend West Point, the Naval Academy, the Air Force Academy or the Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y.

The self-dubbed extraordinary 15-day special session on redistricting got underway Wednesday with approximately 10-minute full floor sessions in both the House and Senate Wednesday,.

Here it comes: a $1 tax on every health-insurance policy to fund abortions. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has ordered that all enrollees in the health-care exchanges will pay a separate monthly surcharge for abortion coverage. In all likelihood a lot of people are going to be purchasing a plan and if they are not paying attention when they purchase, they are going to be paying a dollar a month surcharge for a service they are never going to use or want to use, a House staffer told the Daily Caller.

Now, this is just creepy. Fox News is reporting a truly odd story about the Lake County, Fla., Democratic Party flying an American flag with a picture of our presidents face where the stars should be.

Former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, now seeking the Republican nomination to challenge Democrat incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in November, has launched a new radio ad bashing his chief GOP rival -- U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, whose father held the seat for 12 years before Nelson.

Heather Beaven, CEO of the Florida Endowment Foundation for Floridas Graduates, announced Wednesday she will run for Congress in Floridas new 6th Congressional District. Beaven, a former Navy cryptologist from Palm Coast, will seek the Democratic nomination in the GOP-leaning district that runs northeast from Orlando. Four Republicans have already filed for the seat.

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney continued to look to poach Pennsylvania from GOP rival Rick Santorum, who represented the Keystone State for two terms in the U.S. Senate, on Wednesday when he unveiled the support of Tom Ridge. Besides serving as governor of Pennsylvania, Ridge served as the first secretary of Homeland Security under George W. Bush. Ridge had backed former Gov. Jon Huntsman of Utah earlier in the election cycle.

With an increased focus on Pennsylvania in the Republican presidential race, Quinnipiac University released a poll looking at the Keystone State that found favorite son Rick Santorum leading there. Santorum takes 36 percent followed by Mitt Romney with 22 percent, Ron Paul with 12 percent and Newt Gingrich lagging in single digits with 8 percent. In a one-on-one match-up, Santorum leads Romney, taking 52 percent with the former Massachusetts governor trailing with 32 percent.

The Republican presidential race turned to Alabama and Mississippi, two states almost assured to rally behind whoever emerges with the GOP nomination in November, and Rick Santorum won Alabama by a small margin over Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney. With 53 percent of the votes counted, Santorum won Alabama, which had 50 delegates on the line, with 35 percent, followed by Gingrich with 30 percent and Romney with 28 percent. Ron Paul trailed with 5 percent.

Dont call the Florida Supreme Court if you have a question about redistricting. The court posted a document Tuesday on its website advising anyone with a question about last Fridays ruling on House and Senate redistricting maps to write the court in Tallahassee The Code of Judicial Conduct governing behavior by judges forbids the justices of the Florida Supreme Court to discuss pending cases with the public, the document states. Please do not call the court to speak with a justice about the redistricting case.

Businessman Herman Cain, the former Republican presidential candidate who won the Presidency 5 straw poll in Orlando in September, is backing a host of Republicans running for Senate and for the U.S. House all across the nation -- including one congressional hopeful in Florida.

Americans who follow politics through the mainstream media could be forgiven for thinking the recent controversy over contraception is playing right into the Obama administrations re-election effort among women voters. Doesnt this prove that Republicans really are engaged in a war on women, determined to drag them back to the days of chattel status? Wont this non-story guarantee Democrats -- including our president -- will be able to seize the high ground and sweep women voters in November? Well, in a word, no.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin called out President Barack Obamas attack ad which includes quotes from her -- and is calling for the opportunity to debate him on the issues Americans are actually concerned about.

Eight Florida Muslims have filed employment-discrimination complaints against an Orlando taxi company, alleging a hostile work environment. The Arab-American employees claim that Star Taxi discriminated against them and their Islam religion by prohibiting them from praying.

President Obama's Energy secretary, Steven Chu, on Tuesday backed away from his previously stated desire to see gas prices rise to match European levels in order to motivate alternative-energy research, the Washington Examiner reported. Amid steadily rising prices at the pump and falling poll numbers for his boss, Chu is now telling Congress he wants gas prices to fall for the sake of the economy.