With Rick Santorum suspending his bid for the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday, the preliminaries are over and the two leading candidates in the 2012 presidential election are warming up for the main event as President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, now almost certain to be the GOP candidate, are increasingly focused on each other.
It's like that scene from "The Godfather," when Don Corleone tells the undertaker Bonasera, "Some day, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me."
Considering Rick Santorum's sudden departure from the race, it's time to quit dancing around and bluntly state what the problem is for the man likely to become the Republican nominee for president.
Duval County State Attorney Angela Corey announced Wednesday that neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman will be charged with second-degree murder in the Feb. 26 shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford.
Zimmerman, 28, claimed he acted in self-defense under the states Stand Your Ground law in what escalated into a nationwide racially charged case.
Called "courageous" by House Republicans and branded "extreme" by Democrats, Rep. Paul Ryan's budget bill has split the GOP's conservative base.
The measure, which would cut federal spending by $5.2 trillion over 10 years, was approved by the House. But it has no prospect for passage in the Democrat-controlled Senate, and some fiscal hawks are saying the plan doesn't go far enough.
The states legal community is coming together to protect three of its own.
More than $450,000 has been cobbled together in the first three months of the year for the retention efforts of state Supreme Court justices R. Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince.
Players in the ongoing fight over casino gambling and one of the state's biggest medical insurance providers led the list of heavy donors to the Republican Party of Florida, which raked in more than $3.1 million for the first three months of 2012.
Meanwhile, unions and health-care interests helped fill coffers at the Florida Democratic Party, which collected $1.2 million for the quarter ending March 31, according to reports filed with the Florida Division of Elections within the Department of State.
CNN is reporting that George Zimmerman, who shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26, will be charged in the teen's death.
A special prosecutor in the Trayvon Martin shooting case is expected to announce a decision within the next four hours regarding whether she will file charges against George Zimmerman, the network reported.
The report did not state what charges Zimmerman would face.
Zimmerman has claimed he acted in self-defense under the state's Stand Your Ground law.
Associated Industries of Florida has graded the Republican-dominated 2012 Legislature as the most friendly to business since 2008.
The business lobbying organization gave the GOP members an average score of 89 in the House and 85 in the Senate, based on more than 13,200 votes cast on 114 business-related bills.
With Rick Santorum suspending his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, what little chance there was for an alternative to Barack Obama versus Mitt Romney in November has evaporated -- setting the stage for a contest that will be far different from the 2008 election.
