With incoming Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merrit Island, naming his leadership team on Tuesday and Wednesday, Sen. Nan Rich of Weston, incoming Senate Democratic leader, announced the first selection of her team on Wednesday: Sen. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, will serve as Democratic leader pro tempore.

More than a week after losing the gubernatorial race, state CFO Alex Sink unveiled an effort to better connect veterans in Florida to the benefits they are entitled to. With more than 1.6 million veterans living in the Sunshine State, the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs (FDVA) has information on only 700,000 of them -- something Sink hopes will change with the new program.

A day after naming Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, as president pro tempore and Sen. Andy Gardner, R-Orlando, as majority leader, incoming Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, named three more members of his leadership team. Haridopolos is keeping Sen. J. D. Alexander, R-Winter Haven, with financial issues, naming him chair of the Budget Committee. Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, will handle redistricting while Sen. John Thrasher, R-Jacksonville, will lead the Rules Committee.

Our story about Supreme Court Justices Jorge Labarga and James Perry dodging the bullet at the ballot box this year confused at least one reader. In an online comment about the article, the poster assumed that the tea party effort to unseat Labarga and Perry was the work of the Florida TEA (Taxed Enought Already) Party. In fact, the campaign was waged by mainstream, generic tea partiers and other conservative groups. The TEA Party, headed by Orlando attorney Fred O'Neal, opposed the effort and recommended retention of Labarga and Perry.

Having held five events over the weekend, Second Amendment advocates continue to promote changing laws in Florida to allow citizens to openly carry holstered handguns. Open carry was legal in Florida until 1987 when Janet Reno, then an assistant state attorney in South Florida, lobbied the Legislature to ban the practice save in some situations -- namely hunting, fishing and at firing ranges. The Janet Reno open carry ban will be repealed, said Sean Caranna of Florida Open Carry.

A News Service of Florida story coming out Wednesday rounds up possible replacements for beleaguered state Democratic Chairwoman Karen Thurman. Not even waiting until the political corpus is cold, party insiders are jousting for the thankless job. Here are a few folks the News Service missed. They're all available and they'll all be out of work come January. Alan Grayson ... if MSNBC doesn't pick him up. Ron Klein ... unless he lands a job at the Congressional Black Caucus.

As he continues campaigning in his bid to become U.S. House Republican Policy Committee chairman, U.S. Rep. Connie Mack called again for the repeal of new federal health-care laws which were backed by President Barack Obama. Trying to upset U.S. Rep. Tom Price of Georgia to be the fifth in command of House Republicans, Mack forwarded a memo to his colleagues taking aim at the laws on Tuesday.

Incoming Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, named his leadership team Tuesday, tapping Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, as president pro tempore, while Sen. Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, was selected to serve as the Republican leader.

Outgoing Gov. Charlie Crist says one of his top orders of business is to fill judicial vacancies. With 10 open slots, including five circuit court positions and one appellate court vacancy, conservatives should beware. The guv's appointments have been a mixed bag at the Supreme Court. Two of his most recent picks -- Jorge Labarga and James Perry -- appeared to be affirmative-action hires as they were sent up by the Judicial Nominating Commission per Crist's request for more "diversity."

A Florida Republican offered his thoughts on the one year anniversary of the Fort Hood shootings -- U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney. Rooney, who served in the JAG corps of the U.S. Army and serves on the House Committee on Armed Services, offered his thoughts on the tragedy on Fox News.

With bedbugsa real problem in New York, outgoing Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles Bronson and state Surgeon General Dr. Anna Viamonte-Ros warned Floridians that the bugscould be a problem in the Sunshine State. Bronson cautioned Floridians on Monday to be careful when trying to fight them and, as they come out at night and are often hard to detect, to bring in licensed contractors to fight them.

Late last week President Barack Obama appointed state DEP Secretary Mimi Drew to serve as Floridas representative on the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force -- a move that received the strong backing of Gov. Charlie Crist on Monday.

The Florida Family Association (FFA), led by executive director David Caton, continues to pressure companies that advertise their products on television shows with controversial content -- taking aim at shows on Spike TV and a branch of Nickelodeon. Spike TVs Blue Mountain State continues to mock Christianity and push the envelope with very explicit material, wrote Caton. One of the new fall episodes of Blue Mountain State is titled Born Again. This episode belittles the confession of sin to God and mocks the relevance of the Christian church.

The campaign to oust Florida Supreme Court Justices Jorge Labarga and James Perry is turning on three other justices who voted to kill Amendment 9. The ballot measure, which would have given Floridians the opportunity to vote against Obamacare, was removed because of "unclear" wording on a 5-2 vote. Labarga and Perry survived the late-blooming anti-retention campaign this month, with Labarga receiving the lowest approval percentage in the 32-year history of such votes.

As he continues his campaign against U.S. Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., to become the next chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, the fifth ranking member of the GOP leadership in the House, Sunshine State Republican U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, touched on immigration Monday. Mack has raised eyebrows for opposing bringing an Arizona-style law on immigration to Florida, but he called for secure borders in a memo he sent to his Republican colleagues in Congress.