In throwing their support to Newt Gingrich, a group of Florida tea party leaders risk throwing away their clout and credibility, observers of the movement say.

"The Florida Tea Party Coalition With Newt" endorsed the former House speaker on Thursday, saying they would "help defeat Massachusetts Moderate Mitt Romney and then President Barack Obama."

It is clear to me and many others in the tea party movement that Newt is the Reagan conservative that America needs, said Peter Lee, founder and director of the East Side Tea Party of Orlando.

WASHINGTON -- War, said James Madison, is "the true nurse of executive aggrandizement." Randolph Bourne, the radical essayist killed by the influenza unleashed by World War I, warned, "War is the health of the state." Hence Barack Obama's State of the Union hymn: Onward civilian soldiers, marching as to war.

The House released Friday a proposed $69.2 billion budget for the next fiscal year, a slight increase from the current year, and matches Gov. Rick Scotts call for $1 billion in additional funding from the current year for Pre-K-12 education, but not the full amount of his call for Everglades restoration efforts.

A record 210,000 U.S. students are using public funds to attend private K-12 schools, and Florida leads the nation with more than 60,000 of them, a new study reports.

Nearly all of the children participating in the voucher-style programs come from low- or middle-income families, or are students with special needs.

Florida, a school-choice pioneer under Gov. Jeb Bush, currently awards:

House Redistricting Committee members strongly rejected last-minute remapping efforts offered by the group behind the voter-approved method to reduce political gerrymandering as new congressional and legislative lines were pushed forward on Friday.

If the Florida presidential primary hinges on debate performance, Mitt Romney sealed the deal Thursday night.

Bits and pieces from the Republican presidential debate in Jacksonville on Thursday night ...

With a combination of attacks on President Obama and each other -- and with the Florida primary looming on Tuesday -- the four remaining candidates for the Republican presidential nomination made their case on a wide range of issues Thursday night before a receptive audience at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.

Prompted by reports of highly paid executives at some community-based care organizations, a Senate committee on Thursday passed a proposal to cap salaries for such executives to no higher than the state's highest paid elected official.

By a 4-0 vote, the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee approved a measure, SB 596, that would cap salaries of nonprofit executives at $129,972 if the group receives more than two-thirds of its funding from the state. The bill passed despite concerns from some members that the caps could hurt other executives not targeted by the bill.