The Florida Department of Law Enforcement denied former Sen. Nan Rich's request to be admitted to the Capitol on Saturday. The Democratic gubernatorial candidate was shut out because "the Capitol is closed at 5 p.m. Friday and the public is not allowed to enter the (building) until it opens for business on Monday at 8 a.m.," FDLE spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger wrote in a press statement.

Aaron who?

He lost his freedom, lost his job and his jersey with the NFL's New England Patriots, and now maybe the unkindest, hurtingest cut of all -- at least for any University of Florida alum -- Aaron Hernandez has lost his standing as a Florida Gator.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has announced an initiative beginning this week to make Floridas beach waters and other recreational waters safer.

In a written press statement the department said it has new laboratory tools and assessment methods to identify and reduce the sources of pathogens in recreational waters. It will develop new rules that refine water quality standards to take advantage of this new technology and the data.

President Barack Obama would have a lot more credibility as he arm-twists the 31 states with Stand Your Ground laws if he would just admit he was wrong in 2004 when he co-sponsored a bill that strengthened his own state's Stand Your Ground law.

Just say it, Mr. President: "I sponsored bad law."

It seems confidential tax records of several political candidates and campaign donors were improperly accessed by government officials, but guess what? The Justice Department didn't want to know. The Washington Free Beacon reported Monday it declined to prosecute any of the officials involved, even in one willful violation of the law.

A University of South Florida graduate student has begun a petition drive on behalf of the exhumation of bodies buried under suspicious circumstance at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys.

Maryann Cairns of Tampa hopes a petition will motivate Gov. Rick Scott, Secretary of State Ken Detzner and Attorney General Pam Bondi to expedite USF's work at the site

The conservative newspaper National Review -- highly critical of Jacksonville State Attorney Angela Corey since the Zimmerman trial ended -- sees a sinister collusion between Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and Gov. Rick Scott.

Bad news for summer vacationers. Gas prices across the nation, back on the roller coaster, could hit $4 a gallon by Labor Day.

Stephen Schork, editor of The Schork Report, an energy newsletter, blames a surge in crude oil prices.

Gov. Rick Scott on Wednesday suspended Liberty County School Superintendent Gloria Gay Uzzell, whoadmitted that since taking office in January, she has run up $12,000 on a school district credit card, with interest and fees mounting.

The card has a $10,000 limit. She was arrested and charged with grand theft.

In the culmination of a whopper of a wetlands violations case in Panama City Beach, the feds' general revenue fund gets cash, and plenty of it -- and the Environmental Protection Agency gets ... what else? ... acreage.