Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami, the front-runner for the Republican nomination in the race to replace U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart won a straw poll and gained an endorsement on Monday. Diaz-Balart currently holds the seat in the 25th Congressional District which he is vacating to run for the seat currently held by his brother, U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart. The district stretches across the southern part of the state, taking in parts of Collier, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.

Rush Limbaugh solidified his Palm Beach "Southern Command" by selling his New York penthouse. The Wall Street Journal reported that "El Rushbo" severed one more link to the Empire State with the sale of his 10-room condo facing Central Park. A broker was quoted as saying the sale price was $11.5 million -- about $6 million more than Limbaugh paid in 1994. Citing high taxes, Limbaugh vowed last year to bail out of the Big Apple and maintain his year-round residence in Palm Beach, where he broadcasts his top-rated national radio program.

The University of Florida won a $1 million federal grant for a research project that aims to dramatically improve the use and production of energy. The UF project -- officially called Vapor Absorption/Adsorption: A New-Generation Solar and Waste Heat Power Absorption Chiller -- "will develop a next-generation solar and waste heat-powered absorption chiller and refrigeration system that is an order of magnitude smaller than the existing systems with a significantly reduced cost," the Department of Energy announced in a statement Monday.

Beginning Jan. 1, a series of tax increases and reduced deductions will kick in. Chief among them: the unhappy resurrection of the federal "death tax." Democrats in Washington say the tax-code changes are needed to generate revenue. But two think tanks in Florida call them job killers that will prolong the state's economic downturn and thwart recovery. Watch Sunshine State News on Tuesday for a story that itemizes the changes and assesses the impact.

Citizens Against Government Waste is taking aim at two members of the U.S. House delegation from Florida in its newest Pork Alert. Looking at the 2011 proposed budget for the federal Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the group included the following jab at two Florida Democrats:

Florida Right-to-Life PAC endorsed Sen. John Thrasher, R-Jacksonville, on Monday for re-election. Thrasher, the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, faces Deborah Gianoulis, a long-serving news anchor in Jacksonville, who is running as a Democrat and Charles Pernciaro in the Republican primary.

Republicans in Florida, looking to push an immigration law in Florida similar to recent measures pushed in Arizona, will be heartened by a new poll taken by Rasmussen Reports. The poll found that Floridians want a similar measure to the one that passed in Arizona, with 62 percent favoring that type of legislation, 24 percent opposing and 14 percent remain undecided.

Six days after writing a letter laying out his take on where the Obama administration and Democrats in Washington have gone wrong, incoming Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, has not heard back from U.S Sen. Bill Nelson.

Gov. Charlie Crist, who skipped last weekend's National Governors Conference to devote more time to the Gulf spill, was assailed by Marco Rubio today for political opportunism. "(Crist) is leveraging his office for political gain, using the Gulf as a photo op. I don't think there's any disputing that point," Rubio said during a conference call. "He's just adding insult to injury with a special (legislative) session." Recent polls show Rubio and Crist running neck-and-neck in the U.S. Senate race this fall.

Reports are coming in that Attorney General Bill McCollums gubernatorial campaign has $800,000 in the bank -- having spent $4 million to fend off health-care executive Rick Scotts challenge for the Republican nomination. With six weeks to go until the primary, McCollum needs cash, and fast (something the Scott team will point out as one of the reasons why McCollum is taking an active part against Scotts challenge to Florida campaign finance laws). One national pundit has weighed in at the way McCollums bank account plummeted.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio reeled in more than $4.5 million for the second quarter of 2010 -- the largest amount a candidate in Florida ever brought in for a single quarter, breaking a record that had been held by Rubios chief rival in the race, Gov. Charlie Crist, who left the GOP and is now running as an independent.

U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meeks camp is counting down until Thursday, when its chief rival for the Democratic nomination in the U.S. Senate race, Jeff Greene, has to file his campaign finance report.

Wondering what's become of former U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez? JP Morgan Chase and Co. has hired him as chairman for Florida, Mexico and the Caribbean.

The Republican Party of Florida took a shot atits former standard bearer Gov. Charlie Crist --who left the GOP to continue his campaign for the U.S. Senate seat to run without party affiliation. The RPOF sent out a release linking to the Web video released on Monday by former House Speaker Marco Rubio, the likely Republican candidate in the race, trashing Crist for calling a special session of the Legislature for political purposes.

Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink is urging the Legislatures presiding officers to pass measures authorizing tax relief and other financial aid for businesses and individuals affected by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Gov. Charlie Crist has said that the special session, scheduled from Tuesday of next week to Friday, willconcentrate only on advancing a state constitutional ban on offshore oil drilling through the Legislature in time to get it on the November ballot.