Following today's Sunshine State News story on SunRail, a transportation analyst cites more discouraging numbers about the cost-benefit of high-speed rail (HSR) ventures. "One of the rationales for both the California and Florida HSR projects is to relieve congestion on, respectively, I-5 and I-4, both of which are projected to need widening over the next decade or two," Robert Poole testified at the National Conference of State Legislatures in Washington, D.C.

While editorial writers in Florida's mainstream media join the teachers' union in blasting Senate Bill 6 (the so-called "End of Tenure" bill), the state Chamber of Commerce is fighting back. A new video posted at ClassroomFlorida.com decries highly paid union lobbyists "who come into the classroom and bully our kids." Other videos feature testimonials from teachers and lawmakers, as well as an interview beween former Gov. Jeb Bush and former U.S. Secretary of Education Bill Bennett.

After a weak last quarter of 2009, when his campaign to be the state's commissioner of agriculture brought in slightly more than $24,000, Scott Maddox, best known for his service as Tallahassee mayor and Florida Democratic Party chairman, brought in over $130,000 in cash and $2,500 through in-kind donations for the first quarter of 2010.

Fundraising figures for the first quarter for the state CFO race reveal that Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, has a huge advantage over his opponents. During the first quarter, Atwater raised over $446,000 in cash and pulled in $126,000 through in-kind donations. Former state representative Loranne Ausley, the favorite in the Democratic field, raised $190,000 in cash for the quarter and posted in-kind donations in the amount of $70,000. Rep.

Is there anyone in Jacksonville who is not running for mayor? Today, in a bit of a surprise, Alvin Brown, a former staffer in the Clinton administration, announced he is running for mayor of Jacksonville. While Brown has not run for anything since a failed bid to knock off U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown in 1994, he has been very active on the First Coast, most recently working at Jacksonville University. With a large crowd of Republicans battling for the GOP nod, Brown will have only one opponent in the Democratic field, City Councilwoman Glorious Johnson.

The House companion to Sen. Joe Negron's proposal to subject Children's Services Councils to a periodic vote on their existence failed to pass its first House committee last week.

Thousands rallied in Brevard County on Sunday to keep jobs at the Kennedy Space Center. The "Save Space" event, which opened with a series of religious hymns and invocations at Cocoa Expo, featured speeches by U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, U.S. Reps. Bill Posey and Suzanne Kosmas, Florida Senate President-designate Mike Haridopolos and Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp. Also on hand were retired shuttle astronauts Jon McBride, Winston Scott and Bob Springer.

Sen. Paula Dockerys, R-Lakeland, gubernatorial campaign just released their first quarter fundraising figures. Dockery raised $287,000 in cash and over $93,000 from in-kind donations. Dockerys team rightly notes that their candidates hands were tied by the fact that legislators cannot raise funds during the session; however, her chief rival for the GOP nomination, Attorney General Bill McCollum, raised $1.4 million during the same period.

Former Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Holly Benson, a candidate for the Republican attorney general nomination,just released her fundraising figures for the first quarter of 2010. Benson raised just under $242,000 during that period.

Pam Bondis attorney general campaign just announced that they raised $240,000 for the first quarter of 2010. This places the Hillsborough County Republican behind three of her rivals who already announced their fundraising from that period.

The historic Governors Inn in downtown Tallahassee will be holding its grand reopening on Wednesday and there will be governors galore in attendance. The inn will be naming rooms after four former governors who will all be in attendance. Former Governors Claude Kirk, Reubin Askew, Bob Graham and Bob Martinez will be present at the reopening. Gov. Charlie Crist is expected to attend.

While the House of Representatives was in the middle of a roughly 9-hour debate on teacher performance pay, the St. Petersburg Times was jumping the gun with an editorial that called the deliberations, which lasted from 5 p.m. Thursday to 2:26 a.m. Friday, a "rush job." In an editorial titled "An arrogant attempt to reform schools" and released Thursday at 10:48 p.m, before the debate ended, the Times stated:

The Houses handling of teacher performance pay will continue even after the debate. The House leadership will attempt to adjourn and start a new legislative session in order to move the bill back to the Senate and send it to the governor as soon as possible. The Democrats promise to fight the measure to prove they will not roll over on the issue. This means the House will be in session (or is that sessions?) for the better part of 12 hours and possibly longer.

The House is wrapping up its seventh hour of debate on the teacher perfomance pay bill with no end in sight. House Speaker Larry Cretul, R-Ocala, just announced that there were still 20 speakers wanting to debate the measure and, with each one having as long as 15 minutes to speak on the issue, this will go on for hours. Will the measure pass?It appears likelydespite at least nine Republicans breaking ranksto vote against it.

Paul Dunn, we hardly knew ye. A day after posting its campaign finance figures for the first quarter of 2010 and revealing it was outraised by GOP frontrunner Bill McCollum, state CFO Alex Sinks gubernatorial campaign announced that campaign manager Dunn and finance director Joanna Belanger are off the team. Before his stint as Sinks campaign manager, Dunn was best known for leading the upset effort of Suzanne Kosmas to win a seat in Congress back in 2008.