U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, national incident commander for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, has told British Petroleum America CEO Tony Hayward in a letter that the oil giant needs to give the National Incident Command [NIC] better access to its claims payment process and records.

New gubernatorial candidate Bud Chiles was in Pensacola yesterday and the independent taking on both the Democrats and the Republicans was not impressed with the efforts of both BP and the federal government to combat the Gulf oil spill -- so he is calling for local empowerment to manage the disaster.

President Obama is planning to visit Florida and other oil-impacted Gulf states early next week.

The president will be making the rounds in Alabama, Mississippi and Florida Monday and Tuesday. Exactly when he will set foot in our state, where tar balls have started to wash up on North Florida beaches, has yet to be decided.

Attorney General Bill McCollums gubernatorial campaign team is ripping into Rick Scott who is also running for the Republican nomination.

With the Scott campaign sending out campaign mail describing their candidate as a pro-life leader, Matt Williams, McCollums campaign manager, blasted Scotts conservative credentials on abortion.

Former Rep. Loranne Ausley, the front-runner for the Democratic state CFO nomination, just announced that she is being backed by the Florida Police Benevolent Association (PBA), a group with more than 36,000 members across the state.

State CFO Alex Sinks gubernatorial candidate just released a letter from legendary Democratic political strategist James Carville.

I'm from Louisiana, wrote Carville. And I've seen firsthand the damage this oil spill has caused, and how unacceptable BP's response has been. As oil hovered just miles away and tar balls started washing up on Pensacola beaches last week, BP's CEO wasn't there to help. Do you know who was? Alex Sink.

I don't know how iconic this photo might be for the BP spill but I can appreciate the irony of it.

Leaders of the Republican Party are urging Gov. Charlie Crist not to veto the measure currently before him requiring women in Florida considering having an abortion in the first trimester to have an ultrasound.

Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp, who is running for the GOP attorney general nomination, sent Crist a letter urging him to support the measure. Giving the expecting mother the option of looking at an ultrasound of her unborn child will be incredibly important, wrote Kottkamp, noting that he had seen his son through an ultrasound.

Big pickup for Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, in his bid to win the Democratic nomination for attorney general. Gelber, who is in a close battle with Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, won the support of the South Florida Council of Firefighters Tuesday morning.

Apparently memos have gone out for Florida political campaigns to showcase their support from professional athletes. Moments after NFL great Jack Youngblood backed Craig Miller for Congress, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, the leading Democratic candidate in the race for the U.S. Senate, sent out an e-mail from NBA legend Magic Johnson.