You didn't really think political campaigns were getting warmer and fuzzier, did you?

In case you need confirmation of the rising negative tone of the 2012 election season, it came this week from a Wesleyan Media Project new report. The report notes that 70 percent of TV spots aired so far for the presidential race have been negative.

Sometimes eating your words is fatal. Will it be today when Michelle Bachmann appears at a Mitt Romney campaign event to throw her support behind the former Massachusetts governor?

Should be interesting to see how she tiptoes her red face into camp.

Billionaire Paul Tudor Jones, founder and chairman of the Everglades Foundation and major proponent of former Gov. Charlie Crist's failed 2008 land deal with U.S. Sugar Corp., kept his Crist-friendly foundation close to the vest and in the family Wednesday, announcing that Eric Eikenberg has become its new CEO.

Eikenberg is Crist's former chief of staff and campaign manager.

Two years after oil from a BP well began gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Department of Justice has filed its first criminal charges. They allege that a former BP employee destroyed critical evidence in the early days of the disaster.

The charges are significant because they are the first to target an individual employee for his actions.

Obamacare has inadvertently caused problems to as many as 1 million college loan borrowers so far -- as if students don't have enough to worry about.

The Department of Education has been transferring large batches of federal student loans to new loan-servicing companies --leaving in the lurch some borrowers who are suddenly encountering problems with their loans, such as payments that are mysteriously adjusted up or down.

Here are the top Florida Senate fundraisers through March 31, 2012:

Denise Grimsley (R) SD 21 $749,381

Lizbeth Benacquisto (R) SD 30 $512,844

Joe Negron (R) SD 32 $473,300

Don Gaetz (R) SD 01 $472,260

Jack Latvala (R) SD 20 $441,622

The reign of high-speed rail is mainly on the wane. At least, on one critical Washington priority list.

Ken Orski, HSR opponent and editor/publisher of Innovation NewsBriefs, claims the Democrat-controlled Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee, usually "yes" men for the White House, has disallowed the whole of the administration's $4 billion FY 2013 request for high-speed rail.

Now the news is out that, not only did Ann Romney stay at home to care for her five boys, she didn't get a lick of help from maids or nannies.

Read all about it on the website Politicker.

The Romneys' youngest boy Ben, 31, wrote this on his Facebook page: Growing up, we never had a nanny or a mommys helper. Never went to daycare."

Did the pot teach the kettle black?

Seems DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz hired Democratic strategist, CNN contributor and Ann Romney-insulter Hilary Rosen to coach her on media.

Royal Dutch Shell says a sheen of oil, 10 square miles in size, has been spotted in the Gulf of Mexico.

The company said that it hasn't determined the cause of the sheen, estimated in size to be the equivalent of six barrels of oil.

Said Fox Business, Shell issued a statement Thursday saying its operations in the Gulf are "normal with no sign of leaks" and that there are "no well control issues associated with our drilling operations in the area."