Building on a point raised in Tuesday nights debate with U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, his chief rival for the Democratic nomination in the U.S. Senate election, billionaire investor Jeff Greene, continued to hammer Meek as an ineffectual congressman on Wednesday. Greene pointed out that not a single bill authored by Meek passed the House in his eight years in Congress and that he had voted three times for congressional pay raises.

On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis celebrated the 75th anniversary of the passage of the Social Security Act of 1935, which created unemployment insurance. The act was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Aug. 14, 1935. "Losing a job is never easy, said Solis. Workers facing layoffs wonder how they will continue to support their families while they find work or enter training that will lead to new careers.

At their meeting in Orlando, the Florida Feedstock Growers Association (FFGA) endorsed Republican candidate U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam to be the next state agriculture and consumer services commissioner.

In what appears to be first local newspaper editorial opposing the U.S. Sugar land acquisition, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel today urged the South Florida Water Management District to reject the deal. Citing a rising tide of costs -- even as the deal has been downsized -- the Sun-Sentinel joined a chorus of critics who say the water district cannot afford to buy the land and build a needed reservoir in western Palm Beach County.

Attorney General Bill McCollum, locked in a bitter contest with health-care executive Rick Scott for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, focused on immigration in Orlando on Wednesday, proposing a new law similar to a measure that passed in Arizona. This legislation will provide new enforcement tools for protecting our citizens and will help our state fight the ongoing problems created by illegal immigration, said McCollum. Florida will not be a sanctuary state for illegal aliens.

A Tampa Tea Party activist, with financial support from the Republican Party of Florida, is suing to remove four Florida TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party candidates from the ballot. Don Hensarling alleged that the TEA political party appears to be an organized effort to confuse and mislead conservative voters and is not a part of the real Tea Party movement."

On Wednesday, at a meeting in Orlando with the Florida Medical Association, former House Speaker Marco Rubio --the likely Republican nominee in the U.S. Senate election --touched on health care, offering 10 proposals to strike back against new federal health-care laws backed by President Barack Obama, which Rubio promised to repeal.

Wondering if independent Gov. Charlie Crist or former House Speaker Marco Rubio, the Republican candidate, is ahead in the battle for the U.S. Senate? Well, according to a poll released this morning by Rasmussen Reports, it depends on who prevails in the Democratic primary on Aug. 24.

With less than two weeks until the primary, attorney Scott Fortune, waging a feisty underdog challenge to U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown in the Democratic primary, has launched his first television commercial in the race. Fortunes commercial features an endorsement from Jacksonville City Councilwoman Glorious Johnson who is running for mayor as a Democrat despite having been a Republican at one time.

Hours before the South Florida Water Management District was to consider a plan to purchase 26,800 acres of U.S. Sugar land, the Miccosukee Tribe went to U.S. District Court to block the deal. The tribe filed a motion for a temporary injunction Tuesday to prevent the water district from violating the court's March 31 order to build the EAA A-1 Reservoir Project. Citing comments from SFWMD Chairman Eric Buermann, the Miccosukees claim that the district will not be able to fund both the reservoir project and the proposed $197 million land purchase.

Sen. Joe Negron, R-Palm Beach, and nine Republican state representatives sent a letter to GOP gubernatorial hopeful Rick Scott late Tuesday, regarding recent legal issues involving Solantic -- a company in which Scott is an investor.

Former House Speaker Marco Rubio, the overwhelming favorite to win the Republican nomination in the U.S. Senate race, was on Fox News on Tuesday, talking with Neil Cavuto about why his campaign is making a big deal of Gov. Charlie Crist backing the Obama stimulus package.

Sen. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach sent out an e-mail to supporters on Tuesday accusing Sen. Dave Aronberg of Greenacres, his rival for the Democratic nomination for attorney general, of swiftboating his campaign -- linking Aronberg to Republicans as well as bringing back memories of the attacks on Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry back in 2004.

With two weeks to go till the primary, Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp is getting some extra help in Miami-Dade for his bid for the Republican nomination for attorney general. On Tuesday, County Commissioner Joe Martinez and Rep. Eddy Gonzalez, R-Hialeah Gardens, endorsed Kottkamp over Republican rivals Pam Bondi and Holly Benson. Kottkamp has won the backing of many of the county's Republican leaders, including both the Diaz-Balart brothers in Congress.

Republicans didn't like it and most of them -- Florida's delegation included -- didn't vote for it, but on Tuesday afternoon Congress nevertheless approved a $26 billion plan to save thousands of public employees' jobs. Teachers are among the chief beneficiaries. The economic stimulus bill is expected to be the last Congress considers before the November election. When the president signs it, it will bring the total direct federal spending on the economy to just over $1 trillion since late 2007.