Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, offered some changes to House budgetary allocations on Thursday, sending additional monies to the PreK-12, Higher Education and Justice appropriation subcommittees and taking away funds from the Appropriations Committee. Cannon sent out a memo to House members on Thursday morning, explaining the changes from the initial assessments released on Monday.

As Gov. Rick Scott signed a merit pay bill to reward effective teachers, senators expressed concern over a proposal for next year's education budget, which currently includes a $1 billion cut. At the heart of the concern was a $678 million reduction in spending derived from a contribution from teachers toward their pensions. Currently, Florida teachers are not required to contribute to their own retirement plans. The level of the contribution was in dispute among members of the Senate Education Pre-K through 12 Appropriations Committee.

Strangely enough, the Ku Klux Klan is a political issue in Florida in 2011 and it could be one come 2012 in the presidential election.

On Thursday morning, at a school in Jacksonville, Gov. Rick Scott signed SB 736, legislation that reforms teacher performance pay, into law. A similar measure, SB 6, passed the Legislature in 2010 but was vetoed by then-Gov. Charlie Crist. I am proud that the first bill I sign is this important legislation that will give Florida the best educated work force to compete in the 21st century economy, Scott said. We must recruit and retain the best people to make sure every classroom in Florida has a highly effective teacher.

Gov. Rick Scott and Secretary of State Kurt Browning honored a number of past and present Floridians on Wednesday night by presenting the Great Floridian Awards. Some current Florida leaders, including former Gov. and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, former Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings, former Secretary of State Jim Smith, and Everglades activist (and, like your humble blogger, a Trinity College alumni) Nathaniel Reed. Also receiving the award were Floridians from the past. Inventor Thomas Alva Edison is still celebrated though he is better known for his work in New Jersey than in the Sunshine State.

With only two more space shuttle flights scheduled before the program is terminated, a congresswoman from Florida turned up the heat this week on NASA administrators as the Sunshine State dukes it out with other locations to house the retired orbiters. Freshman Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Sandy Adams sent a letter on Tuesday to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, asking for one of the retired orbiters to be housed at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC).

Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, released a video on Wednesday to mark the one-year anniversary of President Barack Obama signing the federal health care into law. Haridopolos, who is running for the Republican nomination to take on Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in 2012, attacked the law and said there were better alternatives than Obamas legislation.

Gov. Rick Scott, who rose to political prominence by opposing President Barack Obamas federal health-care program, weighed in on the one-year anniversary of it being signed into law.

Vice President Joe Biden is here in Florida Wednesday with his begging cup, trying to rev up fund-raising for Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson. Republican candidates after Nelson's job are coming out of the woodwork. Who are they? Mike Haridopolos, Adam Hasner and George LeMieux are the most prominent. Biden went to the Winter Park home of developer Alan Ginsburg during lunchtime and next he'll be in Tampa. It's a full-schedule-in-Florida day for the veep.

Allen West 2012? The Florida Republican congressmans national ambitions got some support from colorful and controversial conservative media figure Andrew Breitbart in an interview he did in GQ. While the article is getting attention for Breitbarts comment that the presidency was beneath Sarah Palin, he did praise West, saying that the Florida congressman and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota would be his dream ticket in 2012.

File this one in the "misery loves company" department. Florida legislators have been fretting over the state's $3.75 billion deficit, but they are not alone. Other states will be under the same pressure to balance their budgets, if thedata released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau is anything to go by. State governments collected $704.6 billion in revenue in the 2010 fiscal year, about $14 billion less than in 2009. Florida's share was $31.5 billion, the vast majority of which was collected from sales and gross receipts taxes.

Wednesday marked the one-year anniversary of the passing of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the health care law backed by President Barack Obama -- and the constitutional challenge launched by Florida against it. Republicans marked the anniversary and continued to call for repeal of the law.

Florida Republican U.S. Rep. David Rivera received a briefing earlier in the week from Rear Admiral William Baumgartner of the U.S. Coast Guard on Cubas plans for offshore oil drilling. According to Baumgartner, drilling could begin in late 2011 or early 2012.

After hearing from Nigel Sheinwald, the U.K.'s ambassador to the U.S., the Florida Senate got to work, quickly readying several bills for a final floor vote Thursday. Here are some of the highlights: SB 1970 -- This bill, originally brought by Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, would exempt some research and authorized project papers of the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability from public records requests, and would apply retroactively.

With her children at her side, screen legend Elizabeth Taylor died early Wednesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles from congestive heart failure. She was 79. Taylor, first a child actress, appeared in more than 50 films, winning Oscars for her performances in "Butterfield 8" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"