The Florida Senate unanimously voted to reprimand its leader, Senate President Mike Haridopolos, for failing to properly file financial disclosure documents from 2004 to 2008.

The Senate Rules Committee previously accepted the finding of the Commission on Ethics that his violation was inadvertent.

The measure sparked some debate over whether the public reprimand of Haridopolos was too harsh for an unintentional violation.

With protesters gathered in Tallahassee, opposing the plan to reduce unemployment compensation from 26 weeks to 20 weeks and down to 12 weeks if the unemployment rate drops below 5 percent, the House will debate the matter on Thursday. The chairman of the House Rules and Calendar Committee, Rep. Gary Aubuchon, R-Cape Coral, set the stage for the debate, announcing that each side will be given 30 minutes to debate the matter on Thursday.

Senate Majority Leader Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, praised the Senate for voting against the federal health-care laws backed by President Barack Obama.

CEO Vivian Schiller has resigned from her post at NPR, according to a radio announcement on NPR News radio broadcasts Wednesday morning.

From the wires:

Fox News: "The announcement comes a day after a hidden-camera video was released showing a senior NPR executive criticizing the tea party as "racist."
NPR condemned the comments, but the company announced Wednesday that the board of directors just accepted Schiller's resignation, "effective immediately."

Florida Republican U.S. Rep. David Rivera sent U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a letter on Wednesday, weighing in on the case of Alan Gross, who is in jail in Cuba. The Cuban government maintains that Gross was a spy, while his defenders insist that he was working on Internet projects.

Madame Secretary, being patient with a dictator is not a policy, wrote Rivera, a member of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee and a sharp critic of the Obama administrations handling of Cuban affairs.

After being prompted by U.S. District Court Judge Roger Vinson last week, the U.S. Justice Department has appealed a ruling declaring the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

To read the notice of appeal, click here.

The Health Care Freedom Act, which would place an amendment to the state Constitution on the 2012 ballot allowing Floridians to opt out of the individual mandate portion of the year-old federal health care law, is ready for a final vote in the state Senate after being introduced by Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island.

House Democrats named Rep. Perry Thurston of Plantation as their next leader after the 2012 elections when current House Democratic Leader Ron Saunders of Key West will face term limits. Thurston defeated current House Democratic Leader Pro Tempore Joe Gibbons of Hallandale Beach on Tuesday in a caucus vote.

In the coming months we will work as a united front, insisted Thurston, who also ran against Saunders two years before.

Senate Majority Leader Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, released a web video on Tuesday, the first day of the 2011 legislative session. Gardiner offered a quick glimpse of what the Senate will focus on during the first days of the fledgling session.

Before kicking off the legislative session, Oscar Braynon II, D-Miami, was sworn in Tuesday in the Senate chambers to complete the body's full complement of 40 members.

Braynon moves from the state House, having won special election recently after Frederica Wilson vacated her state Senate District 33 seat to take a spot in the U.S. House of Representatives.

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