U.N. diplomats will devote their workday Wednesday to debating the rights of Mother Earth. A bloc of mostly socialist governments seeks a U.N. treaty that would grant the same rights found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to Mother Nature. Bolivian President Evo Morales has led the crusade, establishing a Ministry of Mother Earth to act as an ombudsman in his country.

It's probably not how Mitt Romney envisioned it, but the former Massachusetts governor's signature health-care law is turning out to be a gigantic freebie for illegal immigrants. A new report from the Massachusetts inspector general found that state agencies have failed to implement controls to prevent ineligible people -- including illegal aliens -- from getting free taxpayer-funded health care.

Gov. Rick Scott may be an outsider to Tallahassee, who argues that his experience in the private sector will help spur job growth in the Sunshine State, but he chose a veteran state employee to head up the state Department of Transportation (FDOT) on Monday. Scott selected Ananth Prasad to be FDOT secretary. While Prasad worked in the private sector for two years as vice president of a construction company, he also put in almost two decades with FDOT, most recently as assistant secretary for engineering and operations.

With Standard & Poor's Ratings Service lowering its outlook on the federal government's debt on Monday, Florida Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio called it a warning that cannot be overlooked.

Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Ander Crenshaw marked Tax Day by calling for the federal government to back the Fair Tax plan which would abolish federal income taxes and mandate a consumption tax on goods and services.

Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Sandy Adams used the occasion of Tax Day to attack the Democratic leadership in Washington, including President Barack Obama.

Tax day is here -- and Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Rich Nugent is not too pleased about the current situation. Today is officially tax day, noted Nugent on Monday. It's time for everyone to say enough is enough. Let's look for ways to cut taxes instead of raising them.

Former House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, who is considering jumping in a competitive Republican primary to take on Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in 2012, attacked the incumbent for backing policies supported by President Barack Obama. Four votes, noted Hasner in an e-mail sent out to supporters over the weekend. That was the margin in the United States Senate that prevented defunding Obamacare, its trillion-dollar tax hike, its Medicare cuts, and its unconstitutional government takeover of our private health care decisions.

Contrary to disinformation circulated by immigration enthusiasts in Tallahassee, tough legislation is being passed in other states. Just look over the border to Georgia. That state's Legislature last week gave final approvals to an immigration enforcement bill virtually identical to Rep. Bill Snyder's House Bill 7089.

Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne, has hit the ground running, and while he is only in his second term in the House, he has become increasingly visible on a number of issues. For example, Workman led the pension reform effort for state employees in the House and was active in calling for an Arizona-style immigration law in Florida.

No Labels, a bipartisan citizens group, is calling out Tea Party Patriots for "threats" against House Republicans for supporting the bipartisan deal on the 2011 spending bill. Tea Party Patriots' co-founder Mark Meckler told The Hill he is encouraging primary challenges against Republican members who voted for the stopgap budget measure.

Facing term limits in 2012, Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, the chairman of the Agriculture Committee, is hoping to keep his Senate seat in the family. On Friday, Victoria Siplin, wife of the senator, filed paperwork that she intends to run for the seat in 2012. She faces a crowded Democratic primary field, including Rep. Geri Thompson, D-Orlando, former Rep. Curt Levine, and Robert Acosta who ran for a House seat in the area before.

In a historic first, online advertising surpassed newspaper advertising last year, the Interactive Advertising Bureau reported. U.S. ad revenue on the web rose 15 percent to $26 billion in 2010, according to the report prepared by Pricewaterhouse-Cooper LLP. Newspaper ad revenue slid to $22.8 billion. The web-based advertising traffic was led by a 24 percent increase in the display category, such as online banner ads and digital video ads, the report stated.

If President Barack Obama is serious about getting the nation back to work, then he didn't get the message across to one of his largest federal arms, the Environmental Protection Agency.