With a little over three weeks to go until the Iowa caucus, the candidates for the Republican presidential nomination are looking to make a big splash in the Hawkeye State.
While former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich leads polls at the national level and surveys of Iowa, some of the other candidates are looking to build campaign organizations to ensure they will do well in the Jan. 3 caucus.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder continued to draw criticism last week from Republicans representing Florida in Congress over Operation Fast and Furious, the failed sting operation launched by theBureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that allowed 2,000 guns to fall into the hands of Mexican criminal cartels -- one of which was used to killed U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry in 2010.
Gov. Rick Scott will soon take a close look at the special taxing districts -- as he did the water management districts last summer -- that proliferate across Florida.
Meanwhile, hospital districts in Florida could be ranked as part of efforts to reduce Medicaid reimbursement costs and make the facilities more efficient.
Jerry McDaniel, director of policy and budget in the executive office of the governor, said an executive order may be issued by Jan. 1 regarding the special taxing districts.
A panel of state environmental regulators unanimously approved new statewide water pollution standards Thursday, following public testimony that included criticism from environmental groups over the new rules.
The vote puts the new standards a step closer to being final, but they still need legislative approval and an OK from the federal government.
House Redistricting Committee members will narrow the list of proposed maps for new congressional lines to three in the new few weeks.
The House, on Tuesday, released seven potential versions of how it could redraw the new congressional lines for once-a-decade redistricting.
On Thursday, the House Congressional Redistricting subcommittee reviewed the maps, but made no decision on which maps to move on to the full committee.
Subcommittee Co-Chair Doug Holder, R-Sarasota, said there is no favorite among the seven maps as of Thursday.
WASHINGTON -- In the first month of his presidency, Barack Obama averred that if in three years he hadn't alleviated the nations economic pain, he'd be a "one-term proposition."
Two of the leading candidates for the Republican presidential nomination -- former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas -- added to their teams in New Hampshire on Thursday. Romney has led the polls in the Granite State, which holds the nations first presidential primary, though both Paul and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich are running strong out in Iowa and hope a strong showing there will help them in New Hampshire.
Romney announced on Thursday that 10 New Hampshire state representatives endorsed him -- giving him a grand total of 58.
Sinking in the national polls but still a factor in New Hampshire, which will hold the first presidential primary, Republican presidential hopeful former Gov. Jon Huntsman of Utah took aim at his opponents and Washington in a speech at the National Press Club on Thursday.
In the speech, Huntsman insisted that there were two deficits facing America: an economic deficit" and a trust deficit.
"America suffers from a deficit of dollars and jobs, Huntsman said. We also suffer from a deficit of trust -- trust in our institutions of power, from Washington to Wall Street."
