Ask almost any university or college president what their biggest concern is going into next legislative session and the short, but probably surprising, answer is PECO.

The acronym stands for Public Education Capital Outlay. It is the major funding source for new classrooms at public schools, from elementary, middle and high schools all the way to top-tier research universities.

Before the hopefuls for the Republican presidential nomination clashed in a debate Thursday night, seven spoke to the crowd at an event hosted by the Faith and Freedom Coalition, a social conservative organization led by Ralph Reed. The event kicked off the Republican Party of Floridas Presidency 5 event in Orlando by taking aim at President Barack Obama.

This weekend is the beginning of the end of the Obama presidency, Reed told a cheering crowd.

In June 1967, with ex-Vice President Richard Nixon, this writer toured an Israeli military hospital full of wounded Egyptian soldiers.

The end of the federal governments fiscal year comes next Friday, and once again Congress is scrambling to fund allour agencies without suffering a government shutdown. The speaker of the House, Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, learned Wednesday that this is not always as easy as it might seem.