Over the five years I’ve written for Sunshine State News, I rarely get personal but a recent honor from the Florida Wildlife Federation (FWF)  makes me forego my usual policy. 

Donald Trump continued pounding former Gov. Jeb Bush in the launch of his presidential bid. Calling Common Core a “disaster,” Trump ripped into Bush for supporting it. 

“How the hell can you vote for this guy?” Trump asked before hitting Bush from the right. 

“Bush is totally in favor of Common Core,” Trump said. “He is weak on immigration.”

Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he is running for the Republican presidential nomination and called for the “right people” to lead the nation. 

“This will be an election, in my opinion, based on competence,” Trump said, hitting politicians for failing to stand up to Mexico and China and making a hash of the Middle East. 

Trump noted that GOP rivals former Gov. Jeb Bush, R-Fla., and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., had problems providing an answer on how they would have handled Iraq had they been in George W. Bush’s shoes in 2003.

From his perch as the chairman of the U.S. Senate Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., fired away at President Barack Obama after administration members met with Diosdado Cabello, who leads Venezuela’s National Assembly, over the weekend. Cabello is being investigated by the U.S. government for drug trafficking.

Moments before former Gov. Jeb Bush launched his presidential bid, U.S. Rep. Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., explained whey he was backing the former Florida governor for the Republican nomination. Bush beat out Crenshaw in the Republican gubernatorial primary back in 1994. 

Florida Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, running in 2016 for an open Florida Senate seat, will help kick off a new Republican group in North Central Florida. 

On Tuesday night in Ocala, Baxley and prominent national conservative leader Lloyd Marcus, the chairman of the of the Conservative Campaign Committee PAC, will launch the  Pacyderm  Club. 

“Our core conservative Republican values are good for restoring America,” Baxley insisted in an email mail on Monday promoting the event. 

Space Florida will be taking over the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center, Gov. Rick Scott announced on Monday. 

President Barack Obama signed the “Girls Count Act" into law on Friday. The bill from Republican presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.,  carves out funds from current foreign aid programs to create birth registries in underdeveloped countries.

Former Jacksonville City Council President Matt Carlucci is staying on the Florida Commission on Ethics.

Daniel Diaz Leyva came up short against Rep. Jose Javier Rodriguez, D-Miami, in the 2014 elections but the Republican attorney landed on  the Miami Dade College District Board of Trustees.