Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi says her office has reached first-of-its-kind settlements requiring reforms to the business practices of five of the Sunshine State's largest prepaid debit card companies: Account Now Inc., First Data Corp., Green Dot Corp., Net Spend Corp., and Unirush LLC.

The FloridaHouse Criminal Justice Subcommittee approved by a unanimous vote Wednesday morning a bill that revises the 2011 "Massage Practice Act," in an effort to combat human trafficking.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondis office has begun calling Florida borrowers who may be eligible for cash payments under the national mortgage settlement. Live operators will call those who lost their homes to foreclosure between Jan. 1, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2011, and had their mortgages serviced by Ally/GMAC, Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo.

U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., issued a statement Tuesday night defending his vote againstHR 152, the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act:

The Fiscal Times has named U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio as one of "five Republicans to watch for their potential to lead" the Republican Party in 2013, as the nation's conservatives and libertarians try to score more political victories in the 2014 midterm and 2016 presidential races, and recover from the defeats suffered last November.

The R Street Institute, a free-market think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C., today expressed strong opposition to the recent introduction of HR 240, the Homeowners Insurance Protection Act, and the pending reintroduction of the Homeowners Defense Act, both bills that it says would create a federal bailout fund for state catastrophe reinsurance programs.

On Tuesday morning, the Florida Senate's Committee on Criminal Justice voted unanimously to move forward SB 92, a bill filed by Sen. Joe Negron, R-Palm City, which would limit the use of drones (unmanned aerial vehicle) by law enforcement officials.

In an interview today on the Andrea Tantaros Show, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., rebuked suggestions byretired four-star general and former U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell that there exists "a dark vein of intolerance in some parts of the [Republican] party."