An independent committee, with pre-set timelines and expected results, will be directed to eradicate hazing from the Florida A&M University campus. FAMUs board of trustees on Monday agreed to create the five-member committee, as well as an on-site memorial and scholarship dedicated to band member Robert Champion, who died last year of injuries the Orange County medical examiner has announced were caused by hazing.

Gov. Rick Scott will give the opening night keynote speech for the Everglades Coalitions 27th annual conference at the Hutchinson Island Marriott Beach Resort and Marina Thursday. About 300 big names from government, science and nonprofit agencies are expected to attend, reported TCPalm.com. The conference will address all levels of Everglades restoration, including local, state and federal impacts ranging from the Kissimmee River to the Gulf of Mexico.

Former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer took aim at Rick Santorum on Wednesday morning as the campaign to see which Republican will emerge to challenge Barack Obama heads to New Hampshire. Roemer has focused on New Hampshire in recent months.

The team behind Ron Paul downplayed the fact that Rick Santorum -- rather than their own candidate -- placed second behind Mitt Romney in Iowa. Paul placed third, some 3 percent behind the other two Republican presidential hopefuls. The Ron Paul campaign is celebrating a great victory tonight, insisted Jesse Benton, Pauls campaign chairman. There were three tickets out of Iowa, and Ron Paul earned one of them.

When the dust cleared, Mitt Romney won the Iowa caucus by 8 votes -- taking 30,015 votes to Rick Santorums 30,007 votes. Romney won 13 delegates while Santorum took 12 delegates. The race now moves on to New Hampshire, which Santorum has said he will take part in. New Hampshire will hold the first presidential primary on Tuesday.

Rick Perry's "reassessment" of his faltering presidential campaign could give a further boost to Rick Santorum. Santorum, who tied Mitt Romney atop the Iowa caucuses Tuesday night, was the second choice of Perry voters, according to Public Policy Polling. A previous PPP survey found that Michele Bachmann was the back-up choice of 39 percent of Perry supporters. In each case, Romney trailed far behind as an alternative for Perry's backers.

Ron Paul has to settle for the bronze in Iowa. The maverick Texas congressman is projected by the networks to place third in the Iowa caucus -- behind fellow Republican presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.

With 47.5 percent of the vote counted, the three leading Republican hopefuls in Iowa are Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul. Santorum is leading, for the moment, with 24.3 percent -- less than 250 votes ahead of Romney. Paul is in third with 21.8 percent, a thousand votes behind Romney. Newt Gingrich is in fourth with 13.2 percent followed by Rick Perry with 10.1 percent. With reports that her staff is telling her to get out of the race, Michele Bachmann takes 6 percent followed by Jon Huntsman who has yet to break 1 percent.

With early results showing former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich placing fourth in the Iowa caucus, the team behind the Republican presidential candidate -- who led briefly in the Hawkeye State in polls taken last month -- is pushing on to New Hampshire.

Ron Paul is a top contender to win the Iowa caucus on Tuesday night, but he is also ahead in the Drudge Report caucus. With almost 300,000 votes cast, Paul is winning with 31 percent followed by two of the other top contenders in Iowa -- Mitt Romney with 25 percent and Rick Santorum with 17 percent.

U.S. Rep. Ander Crenshaw, R-Jacksonville, called Brazilian aircraft maker Embraers decision to build 20 aircraft for the U.S. Air Force a win for Jacksonvilles economy. A great team came together to make a solid case for building this plane in Northeast Florida, resulting in a win for the First Coast economy and our national defense, Crenshaw, a member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, stated in a release.

The Florida Supreme Court has disciplined 17 attorneys, disbarring six, according to a Dec. 29 release from The Florida Bar. One attorney was publicly reprimanded, three attorneys were placed on probation and two attorneys were ordered to pay restitution. According to a Florida Bar release:

No matter what happens in the Iowa caucus on Tuesday night, a poll from Suffolk University/7NEWS released on Tuesday afternoon shows that the pack of Republican presidential hopefuls will have a hard time knocking off Mitt Romney in New Hampshire.

Despite winning the Iowa Republican straw poll in August, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota is not expected to do well in the Iowa caucus on Tuesday night. While Bachmann had counted on a strong showing in the Hawkeye State to propel her bid for the Republican presidential nomination, she is now turning her eyes to South Carolina which is set to hold its primary on Jan. 21 -- after New Hampshire has its say on Jan. 10.

CORRECTED TO ADD MORE FLORIDA UNIVERSITIES: The state university system in Florida has long insisted that its tuition schedules are among the best value for a student's higher education dollar in the country, justifying further increases. On Tuesday, a venerable annual survey backed up that claim.