After teaming up with Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum to write to Ken Feinberg, state CFO Alex Sink, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate who lost to Rick Scott, sent a letter to President Barack Obama on the claims process for those Floridians impacted by the oil spill in the Gulf.

The rate of foreclosure filings in Florida fell 42 percent in November from the previous month, and 38 percent from November 2009, according to a report released Thursday by Realty Trac, a California-based company that tracks foreclosed properties. Nationwide, foreclosures were down 21 percent in November from the previous month. One out of every 267 housing units received a foreclosure filing in Florida in November, and nationwide that number was one in every 492 housing units.

With the Senate moving forward to vote on the START treaty, U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, R-Fla., voted in the minority to defer it, arguing that such a complex matter needed longer debate and study.

In a 250-175 vote along largely partisan lines, the U.S. House passed a stand-alone bill Wednesday repealing the "don't ask, don't tell" ban on homosexuals in the military. Just 15 Republicans voted for repeal, only 15 Democrats voted against it.

Despite all the rumours and and the blatant trips to early primary states made by potential Republican presidential candidates for 2012, nobody from the GOP has actually made the plunge and announced a candidacy. After all, it is still two years away.

But when someone does decide to announce they'll take on Obama, they'll have much of their calendar already filled. Several debates have already been set in early primary states by organizers, even though the participants won't be known for some time.

Rep. Bill Hager, R-Boca Raton, is not the only freshman in the House focusing on health-care and health-related issues. His fellow freshman Rep. Daphne Campbell, D-Miami, who is a registered nurse. established a task force to focus on health-care needs in her district which covers part of Miami-Dade County.

On Wednesday, Democratic state CFO Alex Sink and Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum, both of whom unsuccessfully ran for governor earlier in the year, sent a sharp letter to Kenneth Feinberg who is handling claims resulting from the oil spill in the Gulf.

Sink and McCollum demanded changes to the claims process, insisting that 40 percent of the more than 150,000 claims from Floridians have been paid.

Incoming Gov. Rick Scott praised a new study released by the Florida Chamber of Commerce that found that increased focus on ports, trade and logistics could lead to 143,000 new jobs in the Sunshine State.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced Wednesday that the Justice Department filed a civil suit against BP and eight other companies. The suit is the result of an investigation begun just after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20, killing 11 people and starting the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) sent a clear message to Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson on Wednesday -- he is being targeted.

The NRSC hammered Nelson for seeking to use the final hours of the lame-duck session to ram through a massive $1.1 trillion government spending bill, totaling almost 2,000 pages as they noted in a press release.