Mark Meckler, a founder of the national Tea Party Patriots, resigned this week -- and some Florida tea partiers are saying good riddance. Meckler's resignation as national coordinator was accepted by the TPP board following "months of discussions and good-faith differences on how best TPP can serve the Tea Party movement," the organization said in a statement Friday.

READ RULING HERE... A decision continues to be anticipated soon from Leon County Circuit Judge Jackie Fulford on Floridas decision to require state employees to contribute 3 percent of their pay toward the pension program.

The third time was the charm for NASA and the U.S. Navy. After weather scrubbed two launches last week, an Atlas 5 rocket carrying the Navy's newest generation of mobile communications spacecraft -- the Mobile User Objective System-1 (MUOS-1) -- got off the ground just after 5:15 p.m. Friday. The launch marked the 200th flight of the Centaur upper stage. For information go here.

There's crassness. There's hypocrisy. This is crass hypocrisy. A fundraising email to Obama supporters Friday pegs its appeal to a speech Mitt Romney is giving in Troy, Mich., sponsored by Americans for Prosperity, the conservative group largely funded by David and Charles Koch, the Houston billionaires liberals probably scare their children with.

Advocates for tougher legislation against human trafficking, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Rep. William Snyder, R-Stuart, praised the House support for HB 7049 on Friday. This legislation will give us the tools we need to stop the exploitative and degrading business of human trafficking, Bondi stated in a release.

You've got to admire it. After the website buzzfeed.com broke the story Thursday that Florida's Sen. Marco Rubio was baptized in the Mormon church as a young boy in Nevada -- only to leave it and return to Catholicism with his family several years later before the Rubios returned to Miami -- the senator's team handled it straightforwardly, confirming the accounts Nevada relatives gave the website and explaining that the episode would be detailed in a forthcoming autobiography.

On Friday, from his perch on the Ways and Means Committee, U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., offered qualified support to President Barack Obamas plan to lower the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 28 percent, but insisted that more needed to be done.

U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney endorsed fellow Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Allen West on Friday. With the congressional districts redrawn by the Legislature, Rooney represents some of the district that West is currently running for. West faces Martin County Sheriff Bob Crowder --who backed Democrat candidate Alex Sink in 2010 during the closest gubernatorial election in Floridas history --for the Republican nomination.

House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, has no regrets about Florida's early primary. While a smaller field remains in the hunt for the GOP presidential nomination than when Florida's Republican voters went to the polls, Cannon told reporters Friday that he has no problems about legislators having moved the Sunshine States presidential primary from March to Jan. 31.

After admitting to sending inappropriate texts to Assistant U.S. Attorney Marlene Fernandez-Karavetsos -- an unwilling recipient who complained to law enforcement about the matter -- Florida Rep. Richard Steinberg, D-Miami Beach, announced he would resign his office on Friday. His resignation takes effect immediately.

A letter from 42 business groups and agricultural interests asks Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson to approve, in their entirety, the Florida Department of Environmental Protections water quality standards approved by the state Legislature, signed by Gov. Rick Scott, and supported even by Florida Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson. Below is the letter and associations that signed: Dear Administrator Jackson:

With his battle with Congressman Connie Mack for the Republican nomination to challenge Democrat incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson continuing to intensify, former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux continued to hammer his GOP rival and looked to play a little political judo over former Gov. Charlie Crist.

NASA and the U.S. Navy will try, for the third time, to launch an Atlas 5 rocket this afternoon from Cape Canaveral. The launch is set for 5:15 p.m. Attempts last week were scrubbed due to unfavorable high-altitude wind conditions and weather brought by a passing cold front. Air Force meteorologists have forecast favorable weather for launch at 80 percent.

Mitt Romney has built a solid lead over Rick Santorum in Arizona, which holds its primary on Tuesday, according to a poll released by Rasmussen Reports on Friday. The poll of likely primary voters has Romney taking 42 percent while Santorum places second with 29 percent. Newt Gingrich garners 16 percent while Ron Paul lags in single digits with 8 percent. One percent back other candidates. According to the poll, there are not enough undecided voters for Santorum to catch up -- only 3 percent of those surveyed are undecided.

Associated Industries of Florida released the following statement on the House Economic Affairs Committees approval of HB 511, which would limit the amount doctors can charge their workers' comp patients for dispensing prescription drugs from their office: