A former Gainesville resident working as aninvestment manager was sentenced to 20 years for his role in a Ponzi scheme that attracted hundreds of investors with the false promise of up to 10 percent monthly interest through trading on foreign currency markets, the Florida attorney generals office reported Friday.

Floridas counties opposed changes to the Florida Retirement System that would increase local government and employee contribution rates, as Florida Association of Counties released a list of priorities for the 2012 session. The priorities list focuses on the pension program, pretrial services, county health departments, juvenile justice reform and changes to a governments ability to impose and collect impact fees.

On Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives failed to pass a measure to amend the U.S. Constitution by adding a balanced budget amendment. Supporters of the proposed amendment needed 284 votes to muster a two-third majority, and came up short --garnering 261 votes while 165 votes were cast against it. The last time the proposed amendment came up for a vote in the House, back in 1995, the measure passed with 300 votes though it failed byone vote in the U.S. Senate.

Former Brevard County GOP Chairman Ray Marino, 74, died Thursday, Florida Today is reporting. "Marino was GOP leader in the county for 10 years before stepping down to run for supervisor of elections in 2008," Florida Today noted.

U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, who is expected to enter the Republican primary field, leads Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in a poll from Rasmussen Reports released on Friday. Mack takes 43 percent of the likely voters surveyed, while Nelson --who won the seat back in 2000 when Macks father retired --takes 39 percent.

A South Florida pastor plans to hold a rally outside the downtown West Palm Beach office of state Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, to speak against her proposed gambling expansion bill."

Now leading the pack of Republican presidential candidates in national polls, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich has surged in the early key states. A Magellan Strategies poll for the New Hampshire Journal released on Friday found that Gingrich is now on the heels of former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts in the Granite State. Romney has been leading in polls of the first primary state throughout the year.

Unemployment in Florida stood at 10.3 percent in October, the lowest point in more than two years, the Department of Economic Opportunity reported Friday. Overall, 931,000 Floridians were listed as out of work, down from 984,000 a month earlier when the unemployment rate for Florida was 10.6 percent. With a net increase of 9,500 jobs since September, 106,900 since January, the new numbers are seen as encouraging by Gov. Rick Scott and DEO Director Doug Darling.

Expressway toll collections should be under the umbrella of the Florida Turnpike Enterprise, according to the Government Efficiency Task Force. According to the Florida Current, merging the collections could save up to $22 million.

Gov. Rick Scott has appointed John J. Falconetti and reappointed Reginald L. Gaffney to the Jacksonville Port Authority. The following is from a release from the governors office:

The Florida Supreme Court released an order Thursday saying that inmate Jeffrey Robert Hastings has "abused" the judicial resources of the court as he has filed 27 "meritless" petitions since 2000.

The American Conservative Union (ACU) and Citizens United on Thursday announced that former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee will be the keynote speaker at CPAC 2012 -- the 39th annual Conservative Political Action Conference.

Sunshine State News is hitting the radio airwaves again for a quick point at Thursday at 3:30 p.m. Kevin Derby will be on the Ed Dean radio show to talk about presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, whom Derby interviewed while the former speaker of the U.S. House was in Jacksonville earlier in the day. Host Ed Dean is one of the most feisty, informative and entertaining conservatives in Florida. The show can be heard online here and on two stations in South Florida -- 89.3 on the west coast and 90.3 on the Atlantic coast.

Reps. Alcee Hastings and Dennis Ross -- two names you don't see together every day -- are co-sponsoring legislation to regulate insider trading by members of Congress. Hastings, D-Miramar, and Ross, R-Lakeland, are among the most liberal and conservative members of the House, and rarely vote on the same side. But the odd couple joined 54 other members in supporting HR 1148, the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act introduced by Rep. Timothy Walz, D-Minn.

The Associated Industries of Florida confirmed Thursday that passage of a destination-resorts bill will be among its top legislative priorities in 2012. Bringing the destination-resorts industry to Florida would be the greatest job creator in the states recent history. With this kind of potential, a single industry could help us move approximately 10 percent of our states jobless off the unemployment rolls and we could get paychecks in the hands of tens of thousands of people within the next 12 months, said Brewster Bevis, AIF vice president of external relations.