No doubt about it -- Florida Republicans loathe President Barack Obama and are looking forward to defeating him in November.

A Sunshine State News Poll of likely Republican presidential primary voters finds Obama floundering badly with these voters. Only 6 percent of Florida Republicans in the poll, conducted by Harrisburg, Pa.-based Voter Survey Service (VSS), approve of Obamas performance in the White House, while 89 percent of them disapprove of the job he has done.

U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Tequesta, called a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rule announced Tuesday to ban the importation and interstate transportation of four non-native constrictor snakes that threaten the Everglades a half-measure that wont provide enough ecological protection for the region.

Designed to be more palatable for medical associations, House members on Tuesday supported an enforcement effort of doctors linked to pill mills and the overprescription of narcotics.

The less potent effort would allow the states surgeon general to restrict, rather than suspend, the license of a doctor facing criminal charges involving prescribed narcotics.

"They're vultures that are sitting out there on the tree limb, waiting for a company to get sick, and then they swoop in ... eat the carcass ... and ... leave the skeleton."

On the eve of the presidential nomination of Barry Goldwater at the 1964 Republican National Convention, Pennsylvania Gov. William Scranton released a letter to the senator accusing him of "nuclear irresponsibility" and "supporting a whole crazy-quilt collection of absurd and dangerous positions."

Two weeks away from the Presidential Preference Primary, Mitt Romney holds a commanding lead over the Republican presidential pack in Florida, according to a Sunshine State News Poll of likely primary voters.

Romney tops the poll, which was conducted by Harrisburg, Pa.-based Voter Survey Service (VSS), with 46 percent. When he ran in the 2008 primary, Romney placed second in Florida, taking 31 percent and winning 18 of the 67 counties in the Sunshine State.

With the Senate expected to take a floor vote this week on the once-a-decade redistricting of legislative and congressional seats, the House committee overseeing its remapping efforts should be ready to make its recommendations on Jan. 27.

House Redistricting Chairman Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, has released a timeline for reviewing the proposed legislative and congressional maps that has the full committee voting on the final maps a week after a workshop this Friday.

Florida Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, says she is disappointed the candidate she backed for the GOP nomination has suspended his campaign, but added that former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman made the right decision Monday.

I believe he made the right decision to get out of the race as he was unable to gain the traction necessary to continue, Dockery, one of Huntsmans handful of Florida legislative backers, stated in an email Monday.

The number of Florida school employees earning $100,000 or more jumped 818 percent from 2005 to 2010, a new report shows.

By contrast, the ranks of private- and public-sector workers making $100,000-plus inched up only 7 percent during the same period, according to the Foundation for Government Accountability.

In 2005, just 103 of Florida's public-education employees earned $100,000 or more. By 2010, that number had swelled to 946, the FGA said.