Because of a civil rights law, election officials in five Florida counties are at work on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Early voting for the Jan. 31 GOP primary begins Monday in five Florida counties: Collier, Hardee, Hendry, Hillsborough and Monroe.
For the rest of the state, the early voting period gets under way next week.
The folks you see out there yahooing and happy dancing and sending up fireworks -- figuratively speaking, anyway -- are probably Democrats.
Speaker-in-waiting Will Weatherford continues to overshadow all other House candidates in raising cash for this fall's elections, collecting $130,400 during the final three months of 2011, new reports show.
In all, the Wesley Chapel Republican, who is set to become House speaker in November, has amassed a total of $397,150 to help fuel his re-election bid in District 61. Rep. Dana Young, R-Tampa, has the next-highest amount, with $248,324.
State lawmakers kicked off an election-year, budget-cutting, once-a-decade-political-remapping session this week as Gov. Rick Scott called for further tax cuts and $1 billion more for education while assuring Floridians that good times are returning.
Ushered into a January session in a constitutionally mandated effort to draw new political boundaries in time for the 2012 elections, legislative leaders took little time to caution voters of potentially painful cuts as they work to craft a budget that may fall up to $2 billon short of last year.
Of course President Obama is not concentrating on campaigning, White House press spokesmen assured us -- as the president headed off to Chicago for three fundraisers and a drop-in at his campaign headquarters, two days after a high-roller fundraising choked off traffic five blocks from the White House, with the assistance of a score of D.C. police cars.
Faced with a $2 billion budget shortfall, and receiving word Thursday that little change is expected in the projected revenue stream, Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, got bipartisan backing Friday from senators to delay -- if necessary -- the session for the budget process.
Sens. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, and Chris Smith, D-Oakland Park, gathered the signatures as a sign of support, giving Haridopolos the discretion to hold off the budget process while awaiting updated revenue projections made closer to the start of the next fiscal year.
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Thanks to globalization, and to containerized shipping that began in 1956 and makes globalization work, commodities swiftly move vast distances around the planet. Wal-Mart alone imports 400,000 containers a year.
With state leaders looking to overhaul education, increasing emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math majors, the presidents of the University of Florida and Florida State University said the state could increase tuition for students in the STEM fields.
Bernie Machen, University of Florida president, and Eric Barron, Florida State University president, told legislators on Friday that the hike would help cover the cost for the additional faculty needed to provide more STEM courses without increasing the costs for students in other fields.
