Gov. Scott is scheduled to visit the Ringling College of Art and Design and the Sarasota Military Academy, both in Sarasota, and Rick Treworgys Muscle Car City in Punta Gorda on Friday morning. In the afternoon, Scotts calendar has him off to Dean Steel Buildings Inc. in Fort Myers, before speaking, via phone, with U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geitner and Air Force General Douglas Fraser.

What if you hosted a presidential debate and no one came? CNN announced it today: it will cancel its presidential debate that was set to take place in Atlanta. Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum indicated they had no appetite to travel to Georgia for yet another Republican presidential primary debate on March 1, ahead of Super Tuesday. Not surprisingly, the news was not well-received by the Gingrich camp, whose candidate relies on strong debate performances and the roar of a crowd.

Sen. Jack Latvala blocked consumer-protection efforts Thursday by winning approval of an amendment to authorize the continued sale of Floridians' Social Security numbers. Senate Bill 1208 would have prohibited the state Department of Financial Services from disseminating some 3.3 million Social Security numbers to registered attorneys, CPAs and private investigators.

Marking Friday's three-year anniversary of the $1.2 trillion federal stimulus package, U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney on Thursday reminded Floridians of three big promises made and broken by President Obama: "Broken promise: Passing the stimulus would save or create 3.5 million jobs. "Reality: The economy has shed 1.1 million jobs since Obama took office. "Broken promise: The stimulus would keep unemployment below 8 percent.

What's that you say? The group screaming loudest about putting bloated amounts of money into politics is doing what? Putting bloated amounts of money into politics, that's what.

Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater released the following statement regarding the House Economic Affairs Committees passage of HB 1277 that cracks down on those in the check-cashing services industry that aid in workers compensation premium fraud.

Gov. Rick Scott signed the Senate Bill 634 Thursday, which is expected to make it easier for Space Florida to access state and federal transportation money to improve launch facilities.

Ohio ranks as one of the chief states Republicans want to pick up from President Barack Obama in November -- and a poll released on Thursday finds Rick Santorum is heading for a major victory in the March 6 primary. Santorum, who hails from neighboring Pennsylvania, takes 42 percent in a poll of likely primary voters released by Rasmussen Reports on Thursday. Mitt Romney places second with 24 percent followed by Newt Gingrich with 13 percent and Ron Paul with 10 percent. Three percent of those surveyed back other candidates, while 8 percent are undecided.

An estimated record 85.9 million visitors came to Florida last year, a 4.4 percent increase over 2010, state officials said Thursday. Surpassing the previous record of 84.5 million visitors in 2007, Florida added more than 38,000 travel-related jobs last year. That increase brought travel-related employment to a near-record 1,013,100, Visit Florida reported.

Florida Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio announced on Thursday that he was introducing a companion measure to U.S. Rep. Steve Southerlands, R-Fla., bill forcing the federal EPA to adopt the states water standards -- and keep it from imposing its own draconian standards on the Sunshine State. The bill, entitled the State Waters Partnership Act, would ensure the EPA follows the standards that unanimously passed the state Legislature earlier this month.

The Senate Budget Committee has submitted a $70.7 billion budget for the 2012-2013 fiscal year. The following budget breakdown was released from the Senate:

A new Republican National Committee infographic, based on an analysis by The Washington Post this week, shows a web of Obama "insiders" in the Department of Energy who are tied to clean-energy companies that received billions in federal dollars.

George LeMieux on Thursday announced five legislative endorsements, making a total of 26 state legislators supporting his bid for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. The most recent endorsements come from state Reps. Ed Hooper, Bryan Nelson, Jimmy Patronis, Keith Perry and Ana Rivas-Logan. Their statements:

Gov. Rick Scott says he will look into what his office can do to advance prison privatization this year, estimated to save the state $16.5 million a year, now that the effort to bid out the management of the correctional institutions has died in the Senate.

With the Michigan primary looming on Feb. 28, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is looking to get back in the game in the Great Lakes State. It should be friendly territory for Romney. He won the primary there in 2008, beating John McCain by 9 percent, and his father, George Romney, served as governor during the 1960s.