A new Rasmussen report out today shows Marco Rubio still maintains a strong lead over Gov. Charlie Crist in their bid for the Republican primary nomination. Crist's numbers have been trending downward for a while now, and the governor is considering leaving the Republican party to run as an Independent.

The gubernatorial race among Bill McCollum, Alex Sink, and Paula Dockery is tightening a little. McCullom holds his lead over Sink at 45% compared to her 38%. Dockery wasn't mentioned in the poll results.

With the House looking to pull $160 million out of the transportation trust fund to help balance the budget, transportation workers are about to rally at the Capitol to protest this action.

With the Senates version not touching those funds, expect to hear support for the Senate budget. The rally begins at 1 p.m.

How many people have you met who have walked a 500-mile trip? Well, if you're at the Old Capitol in Tallahassee around noon today, you might get a chance to meet Lauren Book. She started her walk in Aventura and will finish on the steps of the Old Capitol as part of her effort to raise awareness of sexual abuse.

The House looks set to vote on a plan to reorganize the Florida Department of Health.

Introduced by Rep. Matt Hudson, R-Naples, the legislation reduces the Department of Healths mission from 13 to seven responsibilities and would require DOH to propose a new organizational structure, including reduction of divisions and bureaus, to the Legislature by November 2010.

With two weeks left in the session, the House added homeless individuals to the Florida hate crime statues on a vote of 80-28.

Sponsored by Rep. Ari Porth, D-Coral Springs, proponents of the measure said it was needed because of a wave of violence against the homeless in Florida. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, there were 106 attacks on homeless people due to their living conditions, with 30 of those incidents in Florida.

The House and Senate started their negotiations Tuesday morning on the Health Care and Health and Human Services budget. The House proposed adding $111.4 million to the budget than the Senate. The House budget is $28.3 million; the Senate's is $28.2 million. As discussions of changes continue this evening, lawmakers will debate whether to reduce funding of Medicaid reimbursements to pharmacies for prescription drugs, how to overhaul state Medicaid spending and whether to fund or eliminate state Healthy Start Coalitions.

Today marks the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, an event precipitated by one man's delusional hatred of the government.

Granted, people like Timothy McVeigh have always been around: ones who mistakenly see cause for concern where there is none; ones who see evil in good; ones who detest the most powerful people because they, themselves, are the least powerful people. But, thank God, 99.999999999 percent of U.S. citizens have absolutely no desire to blow up a building.

Business leaders and researchers held an event in the Capitol on Monday to urge the Legislature to create more jobs in the energy industry.

The state of Florida has an opportunity and it comes only one time, said Lynda Weatherman, president and CEO of the Economic Development Commission of Floridas Space Coast. Comparing Floridas opportunity to Californias opportunity with high-tech jobs in Silicon Valley and Detroits with automobile manufacturing, she said, This is our chance.

Lawmakers are betting on $115 million of Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (FMAP) funds to supplement their proposed budgets. Whether to include the funds, which are by no means guarenteed, has been a point of contention between the House and Senate. The Senate worked $880 million in FMAP funds in its proposed budget, but that number appears to have been scaled back. Here are initial FMAP allocation charts for each committee.

Pre-K-12 0

Higher Education $25 million