Has Florida's U.S. Senate contest fallen off the Republican radar? John Cornyn, head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, on Thursday listed seven states with good-to-fair prospects for GOP pickups in 2012. They are: North Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, Missouri, Wisconsin, Virginia and New Mexico. Cornyn, R-Texas, did not include Florida, where a half-dozen Republicans have lined up to challenge Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.

An assisted living facility administrator in Miami has been charged with defrauding the Florida Medicaid program out of more than $45,000, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced. Eldridge Charles Pratt, 73, was arrested Wednesday by the Miami-Dade police department on a felony warrant issued by Bondis Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. Our state is facing a challenging budget year, and we cannot allow taxpayers money to end up in the hands of criminals rather than in the hands of those who provide legitimate Medicaid services, Bondi stated in a release.

Gov. Rick Scott, the father of two daughters, announced, via his Facebook page, that he is now alsoa grandfather. I became a grandpa! Auguste Philippe Richard Guimard, born 7:48 p.m. last night, Nov. 15th. He is beautiful and so tiny ... 5 lbs. 15 ounces, 19 inches long.

Despite increased costs, Thanksgiving travel is projected to be up 3.6 percent from a year ago in Florida, with nearly 2.4 million Floridians driving, flying or taking another form of transit to reach a holiday destination, AAA reported.

Florida attracted 20.4 million visitors during the third quarter of 2011, a 5.1 percent increase from the same period a year earlier, the states tourism arm, Visit Florida, announced. Of those visitors, 17.5 million came from other states or U.S. territories, 420,000 were Canadian and 371,000 Brazilians. The Brazil visitors, surpassing the United Kingdom's, jumped 38 percent from a year earlier.

Mitt Romney is "lying" when he tries to distinguish his Massachusetts health-care plan from Obamacare, an MIT professor says. The problem is there is no way to say that, Jonathan Gruber told Capital New York. Because theyre the same [expletive deleted] bill. He just cant have his cake and eat it too."

Sunshine State News is hitting the radio airwaves on Wednesday at 3 p.m. I will be on the Ed Dean radio show, which is hosted by one of the most feisty, informative and entertaining conservatives in Florida. It 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.

Former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, now running in a crowded Republican primary to see who will emerge to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in 2012, looked to highlight his right-of-center credentials as he reached out to conservative bloggers and media on Wednesday. My focus remains on the fact that our country is headed in the wrong direction, said Hasner, who insisted he is a proven fighter who had stood for conservative values in the Florida House and on the campaign trail.

Embattled 1stDistrict Court of Appeal Judge Paul Hawkes has submitted a letter of resignation, the St. Petersburg Times is reporting.

George LeMieux has been the big winner when it comes to U.S. Senate candidates raising money from those who previously supported former Gov. Charlie Crist, the Orlando Sentinel is reporting.

A Bloomberg News poll released on Wednesday finds former Massachussetts Gov. Mitt Romney routing other hopefuls for the Republican presidential nomination in New Hampshire.

Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam said Florida would be best served if it does nothing on immigration in the 2012 legislative session, the Lakeland Ledger reported. Instead, the paper reported, the nation needs a "smart immigration policy, not 50 different not-so-smart immigration policies."

Oba Chandler, convicted of the triple murder of an Ohio woman and her two daughters vacationing in Tampa in 1989, was put to death by lethal injections just after 4 p.m. at Florida State Prison in Raiford on Tuesday. Though Chandler had nothing to say to witnesses before he was executed, he did leave a written statement behind, the Tampa Tribune reported. "Oba Chandler last statement. You are killing a innocent man today."

From his perch on the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney warned that defense cuts -- which are looming as a bipartisan joint committee set up to cut the federal budget appears stalled -- could undermine national security.

Florida Republican U.S. Rep. David Rivera tore into President Barack Obama on Tuesday over the administrations decision to postpone the Keystone XL project. President Obama has decided to play politics with an issue that intersects at the avenues of jobs, foreign affairs and energy, said Rivera. By postponing the approval of the Keystone pipeline, out of a concern for his own electoral future, the president has jeopardized 20,000 American jobs --something we can ill afford at a time of 9 percent unemployment.