The campaign team of Bud Chiles announced on Wednesday afternoon that their candidate would end his independent gubernatorial bid on Thursday in Tallahassee and endorse state CFO Alex Sink, the Democratic nominee. While some polls showed Chiles pulling in the teens, he simply was not able to gain traction to pose a challenge to Sink or Republican candidate Rick Scott.

On Wednesday afternoon, House Democrats turned to Rep. Adam Fetterman of Port St. Lucie to respond to Speaker Larry Cretuls, R-Ocala, letter maintaining that a special session is not needed to remedy the economic damage caused by the oil spill in the Gulf.

The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services wants people to know Florida's seafood from the Gulf of Mexico is good to eat. Starting this week, Charles Bronson & Co.air this ad in the Panhandle promoting the commercial fishing industry. While it doesn't mention the BP oil disaster by name, it does say, "After a difficult summer, it's a new day in the Gulf." It continues to point out that "Safe, wholesome Florida seafood is available at your local fish market or seafood restaurant."

U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, the Democratic nominee in the U.S. Senate race, looked to fence in Democrats straying to back Gov. Charlie Crist, who is running without party affiliation, by having U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson send a fund-raising e-mail to supporters labeling the governor as a conservative. Crist may want us to forget he's a conservative Republican, but the past keeps coming back to haunt him, wrote Grayson who included kind words from Crist for Sarah Palin in the e-mail.

Florida TEA Party candidate John Perez was disqualified from the state House District 91 race, but a circuit court judge ruled that TEA could replace him with another name. Perez's candidacy was challenged on grounds that he allegedly accepted campaign contributions over the prescribed limit. The court did not order Perez's name removed from the ballot, but authorized the TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party to name his replacement if he wins Nov. 2.

Looks like the final nail is in the coffin for another special session of the Legislature in 2010. House Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, announced on Wednesday morning that the committees he had authorized to kick over options to handle the fiscal impact of the oil spill in the Gulf finished their assignments and he forwarded the various committee recommendations to his members.

Per our story on the new federal Early-Retiree Reinsurance Program, a U.S. Senate staffer did some math and quickly calculated a doomsday scenario for the ERRP (sounds a little like AARP, doesn't it?). Here it is: "Section 1102 of the health-care law appropriates $5 billion between now and January 2014 for the reinsurance program. Assuming 2,000 employers apply for the program, that amounts to a total subsidy of $2,500,000 per employer for the next four years -- or $625,000 per employer per calendar year.

Placing third in the polls, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, the Democratic nominee in the U.S. Senate race, is going after Gov. Charlie Crist who is running without party affiliation. Meek and former House Speaker Marco Rubio, the Republican candidate in the race, have both been hammering Crist for being inconsistent since the primary elections last Tuesday. Meek released a radio ad on Wednesday, hoping to bring Democrats who are thinking of backing Crist back to his column.

Bud Chiles is taking a hike from the Florida governor's race, but that doesn't mean the field is cleared for Democrat Alex Sink. A pollster reports that though Chiles is the son of a beloved Democratic governor, his supporters don't like President Barack Obama and actually went for John McCain in the 2008 presidential election. See our upcoming story analyzing the impact of Chiles' withdrawal from the gubernatorial contest.

Could it be the future shock of Obamacare? A Florida health-care association says Medicare and Medicaid are taking stonewalling to new heights. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services rejected a request from 136 members of Congress to bring greater transparency into the bid process for home health-care contracts. The request, signed by 12 House members from Florida, wanted CMS to disclose the list of providers whose bids were used to determine the single-payment amounts in nine bidding areas.

Minutes after President Barack Obama declared the end of combat operations in Iraq, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, the Democratic nominee in the U.S. Senate race, cheered the president for bringing the war to an end.

Former House Speaker Marco Rubio, the Republican candidate in the U.S. Senate election, weighed in minutes after President Barack Obama declared the American military mission in Iraq over. The withdrawal of American combat brigades from Iraq marks an important milestone in a struggle that has eliminated security threats and helped democracy take root there, said Rubio. Because of Americas commitment and sacrifices in Iraq, the Iraqi people, the region and the world are all safer today.

Closing his Oval Office address on Tuesday night, President Barack Obama called for a post 9/11 version of the GI Bill to honor veterans who served in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq -- and a way to jump-start the American Dream and the economy. Our most urgent task is to restore our economy, said Obama who added that a trillion had been spent on military operations in the last decades, leading to record debts and deficits.

Noting that the war in Afghanistan was approaching its 10th year, President Barack Obama called on Tuesday night for renewed focus on military operations there. We will disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaida, pledged Obama. He said that the end of combat operations in Iraq would free up resources in Afghanistan -- and that he would send more troops to that troubled nation. Obama compared his plans to the surge in Iraq. Obama called for more operations in Afghanistan during the 2008 presidential campaign.

For only the second time in his term, President Barack Obama addressed the American people from the Oval Office Tuesday night, this time to talk about the end of combat operations in Iraq. He then turned to the war in Afghanistan and the economy. While it was not as dramatic as Douglas MacArthur accepting the Japanese surrender on the USS Missouri, Obama declared the war in Iraq over.