While Mitt Romneys Mormon faith could hurt him in the Republican presidential primary, it's unlikely to affect his support in the general election.

A new poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life finds that Romneys religion could hurt him with white evangelical Protestants an important voting bloc in the Republican primaries. Among the evangelical voters polled, more than half -- 53 percent -- said they don't think of Mormons as Christians. Asked for a single word to describe Mormonism, evangelicals are the most likely group to respond with the word cult.

The American Conservative Union (ACU) and Citizens United on Thursday announced that former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee will be the keynote speaker at CPAC 2012 -- the 39th annual Conservative Political Action Conference.

Sunshine State News is hitting the radio airwaves again for a quick point at Thursday at 3:30 p.m. Kevin Derby will be on the Ed Dean radio show to talk about presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, whom Derby interviewed while the former speaker of the U.S. House was in Jacksonville earlier in the day. Host Ed Dean is one of the most feisty, informative and entertaining conservatives in Florida. The show can be heard online here and on two stations in South Florida -- 89.3 on the west coast and 90.3 on the Atlantic coast.

At a press conference at the Dubai Air Show Tuesday, Spirit Airlines Chief Executive Officer Ben Baldanza announced the Miramar-headquartered discount carrier has signed a deal with Airbus for 45 A320neo planes and 30 A320 aircraft.

The "deal" is actually a memorandum of understanding -- short of a firm order.

Airbus' CEO John Leahy said that deal is worth $7 billion at list prices, with the wingtip configurations that Spirit requested. He and Baldanza said they hope to firm up the deal by year's end. Airbus, incidentally, is a European planemaker.

Next week,the week before Thanksgiving, retailers will prepare in earnest for their busiest time of year. And, in keeping with tradition, the Florida Retail Federation will offer up its 2011 statewide holiday shopping forecast at 11 a.m.Tuesday at the Dillard's Wing, lower level, Governor's Square Mall in Tallahassee.

According to the federation, Rick McAllister, FRF president and CEO, will announce the retail outlook, including holiday shopping trends Florida consumers can expect this year.

The South Florida Water Management District rescinded water shortage restrictions Thursday, finally giving farmers in the 16-county district a break. Lifting the restrictions will have the most impact on vegetable farmers, who saw their water allotments curtailed by 45 percent.

If ever there was a drowned rat of an event, it's Occupy West Palm Beach.

Of all the unlikely "industries" to jump on the green bandwagon, wouldn't it just be NASCAR -- where 5 miles per gallon is considered conservative fuel consumption. The sport's managing director of the three-year-old, "wildly successful" program called NASCAR Green Innovation, Michael Lynch, wason handThursdayto addressthe Florida Energy Summit in Orlando.

His story is all about "American ethanol" -- corn, mainly. This year, for example, all 43 cars in the Daytona 500 were running on that biofuel --known asE15. And some 30 million viewers tuned in to watch the race.

Adam Putnam kicked off the 500-plus-participant Florida Energy Summit Wednesday with a promise that the state Energy Office "will not get lost as some people thought," now that it's been absorbed into the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

"Energy had ping-ponged around state departments for years," DACS Commissioner Putnam said. "It was a red-headed stepchild;now it's with a real head and we're going to make sure, starting with this summit, that we openly embrace the good work coming out of universities and from entrepreneurs and established businesses ..."

Gov. Rick Scott announced a joint venture Monday between Palm Beach and Brazilian entrepreneurs Luis Claudio Goldner and Alfredo Sampaio Caruso that involves a capital investment of $25 million, the lease of a 45,000-square-foot facility at the Port of Palm Beach and a plan to launch Americas Natural Caffeine LLC.

The project is expected to produce a total of 75 jobs paying an average $62,000 a year, with 25 jobs in year No. 1, then ramping up to the full 75 jobs by year No. 3.The state will not provide any incentive package.