SAN ANTONIO -- In the 1850s, on the steps of the Waco courthouse, Wallace Jefferson's great-great-great-grandfather was sold.

Which past leader does Barack Obama most closely resemble? His admirers, not all of them liberals, used to compare him to Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt.

In naming Gerard Robinson as Floridas next education commissioner, the State Board of Education this week turned to someone with a compelling background --- and an affinity for school-choice programs.

The Board of Education unanimously voted Tuesday to appoint Robinson, who serves as secretary of education in Virginia. He will replace Eric Smith, who was pushed out of the commissioners job by Gov. Rick Scott.

Part of the United States' next spacecraft, the Orion, is on display in Tallahassee at the Challenger Learning Center in Kleman Plaza this weekend.

Orion's multipurpose crew vehicle (MPCV) resembles a space pod out of science fiction, and is designed to help transport astronauts into low Earth orbit as well as into deep space.

Originally part of the defunct Constellation program to build a heavy-lift rocket to replace the retiring space shuttle, the Orion project was culled out of the program after President Barack Obama closed it over concerns of cost overruns.