On Wednesday, outgoing U.S. Sen. George LeMieux grilled Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Administrator John Pistole at a U.S. Senate Transportation, Science, and Commerce Committee hearing on the TSAs new security procedures -- including a pat-down process that critics have called extremely invasive. The outgoing senator, who is considering running against Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson in 2012, agreed with the critics.

While Gov. Charlie Crist cant be pleased with the Legislature overturning eight vetoes he made earlier in the year during a special session held on Tuesday, he did sign the appliance rebate bill that sailed through both chambers. Floridians who purchased an Energy Star labeled appliance between Aug. 30 and Sept. 14 will be able to submit the paperwork for the rebate by Nov. 30.

Roy B. Dalton Jr., partner in the law firm of Dalton & Carpenter in Orlando and of counsel in the Carlyle Appellate Law Firm in The Villages, has been nominated by President Barack Obama to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Dalton has spent 33 years as a civil litigator, primarily as a sole practitioner and in small partnerships in the Orlando area.He served as counsel to then-U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez from 2005 to 2006.

Environmental groups have demanded to see details of Progress Energy's plans to build two nuclear power plants in Levy County. Granted intervener status by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, the groups are challenging the west coast project on grounds that it would severely damage the state's water resources.

U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns was named as chairman of Floridas Republican congressional delegation on Wednesday. The Florida delegation is the nations fourth largest and with seven freshmen members, the delegation will have great influence, said Stearns. We share a commitment to advancing the interests of Florida and the people we represent, and I look forward to working with the states delegation on our priorities.

With U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi being selected as House Democratic Leader in Congress on Wednesday, Republicans are weighing in -- and licking their chops over future electoral victories. The 150 House Democrats who voted for Nancy Pelosi as leader should have checked in with their cohorts who lost on Nov. 2nd -- 'cause if they keep ignoring the will of the American people, they'll be joining them in 2012, said former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who is considering making another run at the Republican presidential nomination.

On Wednesday, the State Board of Administration released its annual report, looking at how its investments performed between July 2009 to June 2010. Ash Williams, the executive director and chief investment officer for the SBA, said he was happy with the results as the Florida Retirement System Pension Plan brought in a 14.03 percent return -- ahead of the 11.5 percent that he had targeted.

With more than 1,000 dead and thousands more hospitalized in Haiti due to the cholera epidemic, state officials confirmed on Wednesday that a woman in Collier County was diagnosed with the disease. She caught it in Haiti where she was visiting family. Vinny Kuntz of Health News Florida is tracking the case. While the officials insist that the woman has recovered, they are investigating the matter.

Who is the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination? According to a new Gallup poll, there isnt one. Gallup took a poll of 925 Republicans and GOP-leaning independents on Nov. 13-14 and found the nomination is up for grabs. The poll had a margin of error of +/- 4 percent. The poll shows that there is a clear top tier of candidates -- all of whom are familiar faces.

These aren't exactly salad days for the working class, but Florida tomato pickers will be getting a penny more a pound for their labors. Averting any interruption in the harvesting of the nation's largest fresh tomato crop, the agreement signed by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange affects some 30,000 field hands.

Florida will be leaning a bit more to the right this weekend as conservative luminaries head down to the Breakers in Palm Beach for the Restoration Weekend event hosted by the David Horowitz Freedom Center. Besides the neocon namesake of the host organization speaking, other presenters include former U.S. Rep. Newt Gingrich, U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, U.S. Rep. Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota, Liz Cheney, Ann Coulter, Michael Barone, Fred Barnes, U.S. Rep. Steve King of Iowa and U.S. Rep. Ed Royce of California.

Congressional Democrats met on Tuesday and a Sunshine Democrat called out Speaker Nancy Pelosi. According to the National Journal, U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd, who went down to defeat earlier in the month as Republican Steve Southerland routed him at the polls, said to Pelosi, Youre the main reason we lost!

More than two weeks after losing the attorney general race, former Democratic House leader and state Sen. Dan Gelber shows no sign of going away. On Wednesday morning, Gelber took aim at comments that new Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, made in his speech to open the new House.

More than 50 congressional Republicans, led by U.S. Rep. Tom Price of Georgia, have joined the legal challenge launched by Attorney General Bill McCollum against new federal health-care laws backed by President Barack Obama. Price and members of the Republican Study Committee (RSC) filed an amicus brief -- joining 20 states led by Florida as well as the National Federation of Independent Business.