The Florida Retail Federation (FRF) announced on Tuesday that its Grocery Council will be renamed the Florida Grocers Association to help focus on the more than 2,300 grocery stores across the Sunshine State, a $45 billion annual industry. The Florida Grocers Association will be a division of the FRF. 

Florida Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, fired away at fellow Republican Gov. Rick Scott for vetoing more than $460 million from the state budget on Tuesday. Gardiner accused him of putting his “political agenda” over the need of Floridians. Scott and Gardiner stood on opposing sides in the debate over Medicaid expansion. 

 Americans for Prosperity’s (AFP) Florida chapter cheered Gov. Rick Scott for using the line-item veto and cutting more than $460 million out of the final budget on Tuesday. 

The Liberty First Network, a Tallahassee-based lobbying firm which includes some of the leading Libertarian Party members in Florida,  expressed disappointment at Earthjustice suing the Florida Legislature over how it spent money for environmental projects as directed by Amendment 1, which voters added to the state Constitution last year. 

Former U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., returned to Washington last week as the Guardian Fund PAC held a “victory event.” West turned over the Guardian Fund to U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., who currently chairs the PAC. West left his position as chairman when he went to work as CEO for the National Center for Policy Analysis. 

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., the chairwoman  of the U.S. House  Middle East Subcommittee, ripped into the State Department's “Country Reports on Terrorism for 2014” on Monday, saying the Obama administration made a “political calculation to whitewash” Iran’s and Cuba’s “support for terror."

Radio show host and hypnotist Robert Saviola is challenging state Rep. Kathleen Peters, R-St. Petersburg, on the Libertarian line. 

As the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) kicked off in Washington, D.C., on Monday, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a Republican presidential hopeful, called on President Barack Obama to stand up to that Asian nation. 

Republican pollster Vox Populi Polling released a poll on Friday looking at the Democratic primary to replace U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in 2016. Currently running for the Republican presidential nomination, Rubio has said he will not run for a second Senate term. 

Gov. Rick Scott is looking to lure jobs from Connecticut after that state raised taxes by $1.2 billion. Earlier this month, reports emerged that General Electric (GE) was looking at getting out of the Constitution State after the latest tax hikes from Hartford.