Back in February, Gov. Rick Scott spoke at a tea party event in Eustis and unveiled his proposed $65.8 billion budget, which he claimed would give $2 billion back to Floridas taxpayers.

On Friday, in his weekly radio address, Scott declared victory as the Legislature was ready to pass a $69.7 billion budget closer to the one that then-Gov. Charlie Crist signed into law last year than the one released in Eustis.

On the verge of sine die, Sen. J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, lauded Gov. Rick Scott for helping to move his "bold goals" through the Legislature.

Alexander bumped heads with Scott early on in his administration, taking issue with Scott's unilateral sale of state planes without legislative approval. But in an impromptu Q&A with reporters, Alexander said Scott helped to guide the Legislature during regular session, which ends Friday.

A compromise over legislation to fight pill mills was reached late Thursday night, and a bill that will impose stricter regulations on pain clinics and greater penalties for doctors who liberally and unscrupulously prescribe powerful painkillers, which law enforcement agencies say is responsible for the overdose deaths of seven Floridians each day.

The bill has passed through the Senate and now heads to the House, where it is expected to pass before going to Gov. Rick Scott. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who helped to craft the compromise, was on hand for the 39-0 vote.

A revamp of Florida's Medicaid program is closer to becoming law after the state Senate passed a reform package that moves Medicaid recipients into managed-care plans. The bill now heads to the House, which is expected to pass it on the final day of the legislative session and send it to Gov. Rick Scott's desk.

Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, who moved the bill through the Senate, touted the final work product that is believed to help institute cost-controls on a program that is taking up nearly 30 percent of the state budget.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced on Friday that while there were an additional 244,000 nonfarm payroll jobs (and 268,000 new jobs in the private sector) added to the economy in April, the national unemployment rate rose from 8.8 percent in March to 9.0 percent in April.

A package reforming Medicaid looks ready to pass on the final day of the legislative session as the Florida Senate prepped a compromise with the House that includes less provider service networks than the House originally wanted. Overall, the plan still moves Medicaid recipients into managed-care providers in an effort to reduce costs. Lawmakers have targeted the program for reform since it takes up nearly 30 percent of the budget at a time when legislators are taking on cuts to education and other services to fill a $3.8 billion budget hole.

A bill preventing address changes at polling places on the day of an election, reducing the shelf-life for citizen-driven petitions for constitutional amendments from four years to two years, requiring third party voter registration groups to submit applications they gather within 48 hours, setting up a committee to determine the date of the 2012 presidential preference primary and reducing the amount of days for early voting has passed the Florida Senate. It will now head back to the House, which passed a different version last month.

Stuart Rothenberg released his latest look at 2012 U.S. Senate races -- and maintains that Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida is slightly favored for the moment to win a third term. The Rothenberg Report gives the race -- which has already drawn some strong Republican challengers -- a tossup/tilt Democratic ranking

Two abortion bills have cleared the Florida Senate and will now head to Gov. Rick Scott's desk for his signature.

Bills requiring abortion seekers to undergo an ultrasound and imposing greater safeguards to ensure parental notification for minors seeking abortions passed the upper chamber Thursday, but not before Republican Sen. Evelyn Lynn of Ormond Beach berated her colleagues for taking their focus off of the dismal economy.

Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan came out swinging at Pakistan on Wednesday, calling for putting a hold on American taxpayer dollars going to aid that country until its government can prove they had no idea that Osama bin Laden was hiding in a compound in that nation.