President Barack Obama announced that he would meet with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Thursday as the two nations have reached a free-trade agreement.

Florida's court system will remain up and running for the next two months as Gov. Rick Scott stepped in Wednesday to loan the courts $19.5 million. Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles Canady wrote Scott last month asking for funds to make up for the court system's $50 million deficit for the current fiscal year. Scott issued a $14 million loan at the time, and asked for more information before issuing additional funds. Courts throughout the state were contemplating furloughing workers and closing down during work days, delaying cases.

Florida TaxWatch and the Collins Center teamed up to unveil a new report on Wednesday that maintains that prison construction is putting the Sunshine State residents in debt. The study, which is entitled A Billion Dollars and Growing: Why Prison Bonding Is Tougher on Floridas Taxpayers than on Crime, argues that lease revenue bonds, which are used to fund the building of new prisons, have hurt the state.

Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, kicked off the budget debate in the Senate Wednesday by demanding that amendments offered by other senators, that include pet spending projects, also ask for tax increases in order to pay for them.

On Tuesday, the Ecuadorian government expelled American Ambassador Heather Hodges due to comments she made attacking police in that Latin American nation over corruption. Hodges comments were revealed as part of the mine of sensitive information released by Wikileaks.

Sunshine State News has learned that James Moran, a tea party founder, may have the inside track for a seat on the South Florida Water Management board of governors. Moran, whose daughter heads up Tea Party in Action, is among more than two-dozen applicants vying to fill five vacancies on the SFWMD board.

A poll conducted by Quinnipiac University and released on Wednesday found Florida voters souring on Gov. Rick Scott, with 48 percent disapproving of his performance in office and 35 percent supporting it.

With Tim Kaine announcing that he was stepping down as chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to run for the U.S. Senate in Virginia, President Barack Obama selected U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz to head the DNC as he prepared his bid for another term.

Viewpoint Florida continued to release details on a recent survey they conducted of the state. On Tuesday, they announced that they had conducted a poll that found Floridians giving Gov. Rick Scott mixed marks with his disapproval numbers over his approval rate by the slimmest of margins. The poll found that 48 percent of those surveyed disapproved of Scott while 47 percent approved. The poll also found that the governor was provoking strong feelings on both sides, with 33 percent strongly disapproving of his job as governor while 24 percent strongly approved of it.

In what surely has to be sobering news for President Obama and the Democrats, a Washington Post poll shows that Americans are evenly divided over who to blame for an impending government shutdown. The poll, released Monday, reported that 37 percent would blame Republicans and an identical 37 percent would blame Democrats if a shutdown occurs Friday. Fifteen percent say both sides are equally to blame.

On Tuesday, Florida Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio continued his criticism of the federal health-care law backed by President Barack Obama. Rubio, who is backing the efforts of U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., to repeal the law, weighed in on efforts to wipe out the 1099 provision in the law which makes organizations file IRS 1099 forms if they buy $600 from businesses during the year.

The mainstream media's horror stories about the (supposedly) dire impact of a federal government shutdown raise a notable and ironic parallel. As newspapers and major media laid off thousands of newsroom employees over the past decade, readers were unfailingly assured that the "quality of journalism" would not suffer. Could the furloughing of non-essential government bureaucrats be any worse? Bottom line: If the media moguls' assurances were right then, their doomsday warnings seem overblown now.

Immigration-control proponents are still seething after getting the bum's rush at the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on Monday. George Fuller, a South Florida resident, e-mailed the following complaint to Chairwoman Anitere Flores, R-Miami, excerpted here:

Weeks after a bill allowing destination casino resorts was pulled, a similar bill has been approved by the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee, the same committee that failed to find favor with the original bill.

Two Republican congressmen from Northwest Florida joined forces on Tuesday to back a bill mandating that part of the fines that BP must pay resulting from last years oil spill go toward economic development along the Gulf Coast. The measure, introduced by U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller and freshman U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland, would have 40 percent of the fines go to local communities and states to be used for development and tourism. BP is expected to pay anywhere between $5 billion and $21 billion in fines.