With about a month until Election Day, you might want to keep this calendar of important dates handy:

Oct. 2: First day of mailing for Vote by Mail. If you are registered for it, you should get your ballot in the mail this week.

Oct. 3: First presidential debate. It's on PBS.

Oct. 9: Last day to register to vote for the Nov. 6 general election.

Oct. 11: Only vice presidential debate. It's on ABC.

Interviewing the 44th governor of Florida, Monday morning on MSNBC's "The Daily Rundown," Chuck Todd experienced for himself that old familiar Charlie Crist shuffle-ball-change.

Todd asked Crist, "What can we do to bring more transparency to state parties and state government?"

Crist, waiting to see if he'll testify in the Jim Greer trial, replied that he's very worried about transparency, too.

Entering the final month of a two-year voter education campaign, Restore Justice 2012 released a video Mondayhighlighting the decision by the Florida Supreme Court to give a confessed murderer a new trial. The justices campaigns recently defended the decision, claiming in a statement that they were protecting the killers constitutional rights.

Have a look at the video here.

There's an old Sunday school sermon called "The Lord loves a positive thinker." In that vein ...

Florida State University says it doesn't need Digital Domain Media Group (DDMG) to launch its new digital animation major this semester -- even though the university spent 18 months in routine meetings with the bankrupt animation studio to prepare for the launch.

It's going ahead with the plan anyway, relocating a class of students to its new home in West Palm Beach.

Look for a big Democratic push to register voters this weekend all over Florida -- in fact, all over the nation.

Jeremy Bird, Obama for America's national field director, emailed a call to the Obama faithful early Wednesday morning to come out and help "make sure as many people as possible are ready and fired up to support President Obama and other Democrats."

Bird, who calls it "a national weekend of action," is looking for volunteers "to talk to voters at their doorsteps, in their communities, and over the phones about the choice in this election."

Oh-oh, trouble on the Love Boat ...

The Democrats and the teachers' unions, entwined for many decades, find themselves in something of a lovers quarrel. And the fierce debate over the future of education playing out in Chicago now has sent the unions looking for love in new and unexpected places.

Lenny Curry, chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, on Thursday issued the following statement responding to President Obama turning down aid to Florida's victims of Hurricane Isaac:

So, what do you do with a community college professor caught soliciting votes for a candidate? Particularly a presidential candidate in a red-hot swing state like Florida? You grant her request for a leave of absence without pay, effective immediately.

AARP has announced it will sponsor a series of activities in Florida prior to the Oct. 22 presidential debate at Lynn University. The idea is to bring attention to the critical concerns of 50-plus voters, specifically Social Security, Medicare and financial security.

This is part of AARP's presence as a prime sponsor of the Lynn University Presidential Debate Festival and Watch Party, along with a series of on-campus, intergenerational conversations on the future of the popular, institutionalized entitlement programs.

Wendy Rosen, a Democrat running for Congress from Maryland, illegally registered and voted in both Maryland and Florida. The case is widely public, it isn't in question and Republican Party of Florida Chairman Lenny Curry wants to see her prosecuted.

Florida officials have announced they are conducting a criminal investigation.