Attorney General Bill McCollum said at the Cabinet meeting earlier this week that it was the governments job to hold BPs feet to the fire -- and now he is getting support from a fellow Florida Repubican at the federal level. U.S. Senator George LeMieux has backed the Oil Spill Response and Assistance Act (ORSA) to raise the amount oil companies are liable for when there are spills like the recent one in the Gulf.

The National Federation of Independent Business, which has a Tallahasee-based Florida branch, is joining 20 state attorneys general attempting to overturn the recently approved federal health care overhaul. Dan Danner, the NFIB president and CEO, released a statement today:

Republican Marco Rubio's campaign for the U.S. Senate seat was endorsed by the Catholic Families for America (CFA) PAC. "Among the several dozen candidates for the U.S. House and U.S. Senate whom CFA plans to endorse, Marco Rubio is at the head of the class," said Dr. Kevin Roberts, who serves as executive director of the CFA. "His substantive, traditional values message, coupled with his upbeat approach, is a welcome tonic to our toxic public square right now." CFA backed Rubio due to his positions against abortion and gay marriage.

Conservative Rep. Greg Evers, R-Baker, is having a good week. Besides having chased Rep. Dave Murzin, one of his main rivals, out of the state senate contest Friday, Evers has now been named the Northwest Florida Legislator of the Year by the Florida League of Cities.

If you can believe the tweet, Gov. Charlie Crist thinks Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan would "do a great job." That's the sound bite from a St. Pete Times Twitter posting this afternoon, and it has a ring of authenticity, given Crist's tendency to tilt toward Democratic positions. The U.S. Senate candidate, who officially surrendered his Republican Party registration today, has not only embraced President Barack Obama (and, now, apparently, his high court choice), he's echoing other Dems as well.

While some Florida Republicans are criticizing Arizona for its new law looking to curb illegal immigration, others are praising the measure. Former Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Holly Benson, running in a tight Republican primary for the attorney general nomination, blasted the Los Angeles City Council today for voting to boycott business from Arizona due to new law.

Calling it a mean-spirited measure and a draconian bill, Congressman Kendrick Meek called on Gov. Charlie Crist to veto HB 1143, the measure the Legislature passed requiring a woman considering an abortion to have an ultrasound. With Meek the leading Democrat in the primary field for the U.S. Senate, he may well face independent candidate Crist along with Republican Marco Rubio in Novembers general election.

You might want to bring your magical broomstick on a future visit to one of Visit Florida's four Welcome Centers in North Florida. Visit Florida, the state's official tourism marketing agency, is planning on bringing the Harry Potter franchise to the centers to promote the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter attraction at Universal Studios Orlando's Islands of Adventure theme park.

Speculation continues that Broward County Property Appraiser Lori Parrish, a Democrat who has been prominent in South Florida politics for two and a half decades, will back Gov. Charlie Crists independent bid for the U.S. Senate if he vetoes a measure requiring mothers considering an abortion to have an ultrasound. But while she has not revealed if she will back Crist, she has backed a candidate running for the congressional seat that U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, the Democratic frontrunner to take on Crist and Republican Marco Rubio for the Senate, is vacating.

While he generally focuses on Latin American affairs, Republican Congressman Connie Mack is now pointing to other regions of the globe -- and saying that the U.S. can learn a lesson. Mack said in a release today that the U.S. could end up like Greece, which just borrowed $40 billion from the International Monetary Fund to stabilize its sagging economic situation. The debt crisis in Greece proves that unsustainable and out-of-control spending on big government programs will only lead to fiscal disaster, said Mack. Clearly, socialism doesnt work.

The eyes of everyone affected by tourism in Florida will be on Orlando starting this weekend as the huge international trade show known as Pow Wow 2010 kicks off. The annual show is staged for global tour operators and generates hundreds of millions of dollars for state tourism industries as U.S. tourism operators meet with big tourism package operators from around the world to cut deals on packaged tours, conventions and conferences. Approximately 5,000 people are expected to take part at this year's May 15-19 event.

For those keeping the score: With the Republican National Convention heading to Tampa in 2012, Florida will now have hosted four national political conventions. But as important as Richard Nixon winning the 1968 GOP presidential nomination in Miami Beach was, and as dramatic as the 1972 Democratic convention in Miami Beach was, the most important political convention in Floridas history has long since been forgotten.

Further fueling the national debate over immigration, a new report finds that the percentage of U.S.-born teenagers in the workforce has fallen as the share of immigrant workers rises. The Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based group that supports tighter border controls, found that the number of U.S.-born teenagers not in the labor force increased from 4.7 million in 1994 to 8.1 million in 2007. In the summer of 2009, the figure stood at 8.8 million.

They're heeeeere. Oh, wait. Never mind. Earlier today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service posted a tweet about tar balls washing ashore in Destin, which were thought to be from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Turns out, none of that was true.

The day Gov. Charlie Crist made his announcement to abandon the Republican party, Republican Party of Florida Chairman John Thrasher told the media one of the first things he would do would be to take down the portrait and sell it on eBay. Looks like he made good on that promise. Less than two weeks after Crist announced, his former Republican colleagues have sold the painting of him that hung on the RPOF headquarters' wall for a profit. It auctioned on eBay for $7,700, according to an announcement released Wednesday.