Shane Strum, best known in Florida politics for his service as former Gov. Charlie Crists chief of staff, will be heading into higher education. Strum was named as associate vice chancellor of business development for Keiser University.

Reactions continued to pour in across Florida after the House joined the Senate in passing SB 736, a measure reforming teacher performance pay, on Wednesday afternoon. Gov. Rick Scott is expected to sign the bill into law.

The Florida Gators are as close to a home team as you can get in Rounds One and Two at the only March Madness venue in the Sunshine State. Don't bet against them. Vegas has UF (26-7) scribbled in as a 2-to-1 favorite in Round One Thursday against the UC-Santa Barbara Gauchos (18-13). In a telephone interview Wednesday, Victor Alvarez, a booking agent at New York New York in Las Vegas, told Sunshine State News, "You want to bet on Florida, you gotta put down 50 cents for every quarter you win.

Social conservative leader Gary Bauer, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000 and now leads the Campaign for Working Families PAC (CWF), weighed in on Wednesday on the increased calls that Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio should run for the Republican presidential nomination.

The House joined the Senate in passing SB 736 --a measure changing teacher pay based on performance and assessments instead of relying on seniority and tenure --on Wednesday after a lengthy debate. With the bill having passed both chambers of the Legislature, it now goes to Gov. Rick Scott who is expected to sign it into law.

With more than 250 Catholics from across Florida gathered in Tallahassee for Catholic Days at the Capitol, the Florida Catholic Conference presented legislators awards for fighting for the Churchs values in the public square. The conference gave Rep. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, the Defensor Vitae (Latin for Defender of Life) Award, noting that the Republican legislator was continuing to push bills requiring parental notice for teen girls considering having abortions in Florida.

Florida Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio joined 22 other Republicans in the Senate, ranging on the political spectrum from Richard Lugar of Indiana to Rand Paul of Kentucky, in sending a letter to President Barack Obama on Wednesday focusing on government spending and the deficit.

While Japan melts down, Col. Gadhafi routs the Libyan rebels and America's economy slides toward stagflation, rest assured that President Barack Obama found time to complete his NCAA basketball brackets. The commander in chief took a few minutes to go live on ESPN Wednesday, venturing out onto a limb to pick the odds-on favorite Kansas Jayhawks to win it all. Media personalities were, naturally, impressed with Obama's "grasp of the game." And Americans everywhere are, no doubt, relieved that this president remains right on top of things.

Undoubtedly eyeing the $2.4 billion Florida passed up, former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell is lobbying for a federal-state-private partnership to launch a bullet train in the Northeast corridor. Calling Amtrak's Acela train "a joke" (it only occasionally hits speeds of 100 mph), Rendell and investment banker Peter Peyser envision a public-private partnership in whichthe government entities would own 51 percent of a multistate compact to run a true high-speed rail line through the country's most congested transit corridor.

The House spent Wednesday afternoon debating SB 736, a measure changing teacher pay based on performance and assessments instead of relying on seniority and tenure. So far, 25 legislators have taken to the floor to debate the bill -- with more to come.

During the 2010 session, Bob Burleson, president of the Florida Transportation Builders Association (FTBA), led a coalition that included leaders from the Associated Industries of Florida and Florida TaxWatch to ensure that the Legislature did not pull money out of the State Transportation Trust Fund (STTF). Burleson repeated his warning on Wednesday after a House subcommittee looked to tap into the trust fund which, Burleson pointed out, is being kept intact in the budget proposals from Gov. Rick Scott and the Senate.

While the rollout of his presidential exploratory committee flopped, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich turned his focus on Wednesday to rising gas prices -- and pointed the blame at President Barack Obama. A disturbing pattern has emerged during Barack Obamas first term as president, noted Gingrich in an essay his team released on Wednesday. At the times when our nation most needs presidential leadership, Barack Obama chooses to let others take the lead.

An article out in Politico shows Marco Rubio 'building a national brand.' The freshman senator is making a name for himself as one who sticks to his tea party roots of smaller government and shrinking debt, even if that means opting for a different path than his own Republican Party. From Politico:

Norman Braman, the South Florida auto magnate who led the successful drive to recall Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez, isn't wasting any time in his continuing campaign to clean up that county's government. In an Election Night statement, the multimillionaire Braman said the "County Commission has made it impossible for citizens without the financial means to petition their government for change or redress of grievances.All of that must end."

Calling Tuesday's landslide ouster of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez a "resounding vote of no confidence in the current county administration," Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina says he's ready to step in.