The Florida Association of Counties announced at its annual conference Wednesday afternoon that Sen. Paula Dockery is recipient of the organization's 2011 Legislator of the Year Award. Senator Dockery has been there for our local communities for the past several years, said FAC President Ilene Lieberman, She has been committed to ensuring that it is local communities her constituents, not Tallahassee -- who are empowered to make decisions that are best for their communities.

Oh, people, leave her alone. Sarah Palin isn't abandoning you, she's back in Alaska for all the right reasons. Internet chatter is all atweet with rumors that political celeb Palin has canceled her bus tour of historic American sites because she's 1) given up thought of any run for president in 2012; 2) is too tired or sick to continue; 3) misses the Land of the Midnight Sun; or 4) is engaging in some kind of secret rendezvous. Duty calls, drama queens. Nothing more than that. Palin has been called home for jury duty.

Members of the Cabinet easily gave their unanimous approval Wednesday afternoon to Gov. Rick Scott's nomination of Col. Mike Prendergast as Florida's new executive director of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Well, somebody likes them. A Rasmussen poll released Wednesday showed 8 percent of likely voters approved of the job Congress is doing. More than half of respondents (52 percent) gave Congress a rating of "poor." Nearly 40 percent think most members of Congress are corrupt, and more than four in five voters (81 percent) think Congress members are more interested in their own careers than they are about helping people. The poll surveyed 1,000 likely voters between Monday and Tuesday, with a sampling error of +/- 3 percent.

On Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who is running again for the Republican presidential nomination, signed the Cut, Cap and Balance pledge which opposes raising the federal debt limit. The pledge is backed by a number of prominent conservative organizations, including FreedomWorks, Club for Growth and the Family Research Council.

Gov. Rick Scott signed into law Wednesday a bill reducing property taxes by $210.5 million in four out of Florida's five water management districts. Property owners in the Northwest Florida Water Management District won't see any tax relief, but they won't get a tax increase either. Property owners in the other four districts will see an average of 30 percent decrease in their water management district property taxes, but that's still far short of the 19 percent overall property tax reduction that Scott campaigned on.

Tim Padgett over at Time has a piece on how freshman U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, a darling of the tea party when he was the Republican candidate in 2010, may find himself on the outs with that group down the road over international affairs.

Former state House Majority Leader Adam Hasner continues to garner support from nationally prominent figures affiliated with the conservative movement for his bid for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in 2012. The latest conservative to bestow his blessing on Hasner was radio host Hugh Hewitt.

Yep, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio has hit the big time. The Florida Republican met with Irish rock star Bono, the front man of U2, who was working the Hill on Tuesday to push the agenda of his ONE campaign which wants more taxpayer support of international aid efforts.

Former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, who is running in a crowded Republican primary to take on Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, is trumpeting the fact that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will be usingpredictive modeling technology to fight Medicare fraud -- an issue LeMieux fought for in his brief stint in the Senate.

Pro-life advocates continue to weigh in on former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney refusing to sign a pledge from the Susan B. Anthony (SBA) List. Penny Nance, the CEO of Concerned Women for America, offered her thoughts on the issue and Romneys article in National Review where he defended his pro-life credentials.

It's time to stop quoting Rick Scott's approval rating at 29 percent and it's probably time to stop calling him "the most unpopular governor in the United States." That's all old news. A Viewpoint Florida poll conducted last week found that 45 percent of likely 2012 general election voters in Florida approve of Scotts recent job performance, while 51 percent of voters disapprove.

On Tuesday, Gov. Rick Scott announced that he was appointing former Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre to the Florida Transportation Commission. This ranks as one of the most high-profile Democrats appointed by Scott in the first six months of his governorship. Ferre had broken with his party to back Scott during the 2010 election cycle, backing the Republican candidate over Democratic nominee Alex Sink.

Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania released a commercial on Tuesday jabbing former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman who announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination earlier in the day. Using the same theme that Huntsman has embraced -- a biker riding through the desert -- Santorum knocked the new candidate on social issues and jabbed Mitt Romney, the Republican front-runner, while he was at it.

Florida Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio teamed up with one of the giants of the Senate on Tuesday to introduce a measure looking to prevent minors being taken across state lines to receive an abortion.