The Florida Senate's Select Committee on Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) launched its first meeting Monday, withChairman Joe Negron, R-Palm City, assuring his fellow legislators and citizen attendees that no votes would be taken that day.

"I've always believed it's good to have a trial first, before a verdict," Negron announced.

The Committee is considering what the Florida Legislature's official response will be to the Obamacare Act, which comes into full effect in 2014.

No word on how this is affecting sales of vodka and babushkas, but CNBC reports that a growing share of Miami's real estate market is falling into the hands of Russia's er-wealthy:

Roll Call reports that, contrary to popular myth, it is the Democrats who are the nations Party of the Rich, at least in terms of congressional wealth.

On Sunday, the newspaper published its annual 50 Richest Members of Congress. Thirty-one of the 50 are Republicans, but seven of the 10 richest are Democrats.

Not very, according to an analysis authored by researchers Chester E. Finn Jr. and Amber Winkler, that appears today in the pages of National Review; indeed, our teacher unions are among the weakest in the nation:

"[A]re union biceps as brawny as ever, or growing flabby with age? Short answer: It depends, particularly on which state (or the District of Columbia) you look at, and at what point in time. Thats the central finding of our recently concluded three-year study of the relative strength of teacher unions state-bystate.

The Miami Herald has the scoop on what appears to be another jihadist terror plot foiled by the FBI:

"Two Pakistani brothers from Oakland Park have been arrested on terrorism charges, accused of conspiring to deploy explosive weapons against an American target, according to a federal indictment released Friday.

Attorney General Pam Bondis Medicaid Fraud Control Unitand the Miami-Dade County Police Department today arrested three Miami-DadeCounty residents for Medicaid fraud and grand theft. Noriel Batista, theowner of Westchester Pharmacy, Eduardo Marcos-Mone, a pharmacist, andBarbara Iglesias, a Medicaid recipient, allegedly participated in a schemethat resulted in billing the Medicaid program for more than $143,000 forprescribed medications that were never dispensed.

Broward County's newspaper of record is voicing its tentative support for Gov. Scott's latest education reform proposal:

"Some are mocking the idea, calling it a political stunt or a gimmick. Others don't think it's possible.

"But we like the challenge Governor Rick Scott has put before the state's 28 public colleges --previously known as community colleges --to offer discounted bachelor's degree programs for $10,000 or less to in-state students.

More vindication of Republican Gov. Rick Scott's policies? The News Service of Florida has the scoop:

"Nearly half of the metro areas in the United States that saw their unemployment rate drop by more than 2 percentage points over the last year are in Florida, according to a U.S. Department of Labor report out Wednesday.

Why did Republican Connie Mack lose the Senate election to Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson? Would former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux have been a stronger candidate?Did Mack's defeat constitute a vindication of LeMieux?

During the general election, Nelson took up some of LeMieux's own primary campaign criticisms of Mack's youthfulindiscretions; does LeMieux feel any guilt over making these an issue?

The Fraser Institute, a conservative Canadian think-tank, has just published the 2012 edition of its annual "Economic Freedom of North America" report. The study grades the economic freedom of all 50 U.S. states and and each of Canada's 10 provinces on a scale from 1 through 10, and ranks these territories in comparison with each other.