Gas prices have jumped nearly 20 cents a gallon across Florida as Europes debt crisis continues to be focused on Greece. The average price of a gallon of regular gas in Florida stood at $3.63 as the week began, up from $3.45 a month earlier, according to AAA, which projects the increase to continue this week. "As long as Europe battles their debt issues, we're going to see global oil demand diminish along with Europe's economic growth," Jessica Brady, AAA spokeswoman, stated in a release.

Arizona will be in the spotlight in the coming days as Republicans duke it out in the Grand Canyon States Feb. 28 presidential primary. But, according to this blog from the Arizona Republic, Barack Obamas team is looking to make a push to carry it in 2012. Obama lost Arizona by 9 points in 2008 -- but then John McCain was a favorite son of the state.

Niger Innis -- the son of Roy Innis, the president of the Congress of Racial Equality, and a spokesman for the group -- announced over the weekend that he is backing Joe Kaufman for the Republican nomination to take on U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., in November. Wasserman Schultz is chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney launched a pre-emptive strike against President Barack Obamas budget on Monday -- even before the Democrat incumbent unveiled it. Romney pointed to Obamas record on fiscal matters, arguing that it showed he would not even attempt to tackle federal entitlements.

U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica will visit Port Canaveral on Monday to highlight major transportation legislation being considered in the House of Representatives this week. This week I am proposing to reform the current practice of the federal government denying our ports the full revenues being contributed to the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, said Mica, R-Orlando.

I'm sure the audience for a comment about this week's FSU elections would be pretty small statewide, but there was an item that should be of interest. On the ballot was a question clearly designed to get the answer its writers wanted. Check it out:

Some of the background scenery in this year's Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition -- due out on Tuesday -- might look familiar to Big Bend residents. One of the five locations the magazine's editors chose to shoot the annual edition -- its most popular, for some reason -- was the St. George barrier island near Apalachicola, USA Today reported Friday.

The Daily Caller's Neil Munro has an interesting article about Obama's speech Friday announcing religious organizations -- such as the Catholic Church -- will not have to provide coverage for sterilization and other birth-control measures that violate their beliefs. The gist of it is, who qualifies as a "religious" organization? The article essentially boils down to this:

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has been one of the leading critics of the Department of Health and Human Services' mandate that employers must provide birth-control coverage -- even companies affiliated with religious institutions opposed to birth control.

Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania may have come in third place in the Florida Republican presidential primary but a new poll shows that he is doing better against President Barack Obama than former Gov. Mitt Romney in the Sunshine State. A Rasmussen Reports of likely voters in Florida, released on Friday, finds Santorum in a dead heat with Obama. The Democrat incumbent takes 47 percent with Santorum right behind him with 46 percent. Four percent back other candidates while 4 percent are undecided.

From his perch on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Florida Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio reached out across the aisle to U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, Jr., D-Pa., to introduce a resolution calling for Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad to step down and for the Obama administration to help efforts to bring democracy to that nation.

Florida U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, who is running for the Republican nomination to run against Democrat incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in 2012, continues to carry water for GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. Mack, who was out front and center in Romneys big win in the Florida primary at the end of January, continued to back his presidential candidate on Friday when he spoke on the Martha Zoller show on WXKT-FM in Atlanta.

The Associated Press, citing sources, said President Barack Obama is planning a speech at 12:15 p.m. Friday to announce a revision of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' ruling that all large employers must provide comprehensive birth-control coverage to women, including Catholic organizations. The Jan. 20 ruling sparked an uproar among Catholic bishops, who had letters bitterly critical of the matter read at Masses on Sunday in churches around the country.

In case you missed John Sununu's column in The Boston Globe on the wrong-headedness of states taxing e-commerce companies -- and the sheer arrogance of giant predators like Walmart to demand it, check it out here. And pay close attention, Florida. Some of the Sunshine State's biggest guns are doing the big-boxer's bidding, promoting an Internet sales tax this legislative session.

An otherwise fairly good piece this morning from the Miami Herald's McClatchy about the Obama administration's assault on the Catholic Church's opposition to contraception and abortion contains one unfortunate paragraph that would be funny if it weren't so illuminating in how most of this country's media outlets see Obama, Republicans and, most importantly, voters at the beginning of an election year: