They sometimes start out as drivers, errand boys or executive assistants to the states most powerful in politics and government. Sometimes, theyre just volunteering for a cause, and they do a good job. Often, theyre in jobs where theyre expected to go out for the coffee and at all hours.

A few years later, they wind up as campaign managers, lobbyists or elected officials.

Frequently, its simply their dedication they always are on the clock that gets them noticed.

Speaking to students at Miami Central High School on Friday afternoon, President Barack Obama delivered a dual and sometimes conflicting message that called for more education spending and sweeping budget cuts everywhere else.

After touring the once-failing campus with former Gov. Jeb Bush, Obama hailed Central as an academic success story in progress. After 10 years of receiving D's and F's from the state, Central has pulled its campus grades up.

Amid spiraling costs, Florida's "Bright Futures" scholarships will be under the gun again at the 2011 Legislature -- riddled by funding raids and what some call lax eligibility rules.

The program, which once granted tuition-free rides to Florida's top high-school graduates, is moving deeper into a financial hole. Its founder says some of that hole has been dug by legislators who, he charges, have shifted away lottery funds earmarked for education.

Launched in 1997 with a price tag of $70 million, Bright Futures' budget has soared to $437 million, and climbing.

The Florida Supreme Court on Friday rejected the lawsuit of two state senators seeking to overturn Gov. Rick Scott's rejection of $2.4 billion in high-speed rail funds.

The unanimous decision came after less than an hour of oral arguments Thursday at the court, where justices peppered the senators' attorney with skeptical questions.

In its one-page ruling, the court said the plaintiffs did not give the justices any reason to reverse Scott's decision.

A year ago Charlie Crist was a Republican, Marco Rubio was lying in the weeds in Miami and Bill McCollum was so far ahead in the governor's race he struck a pose and fell asleep.

What fun 2010 was. Sunshine State News came along at just the right time.

We had no idea last March that a staunchly conservative, anti-establishment revolution was about to turn Florida government upside down.

We certainly fit right in -- if not in the Capitol press corps, at least in the temper and tumult of the day.

A federal judge excoriated the government Thursday for moving forward with the federal health care law despite his ruling against it, but he put a stay on his own order to give the government a week to appeal.

U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson in essence ordered the government to get that appeal moving quickly saying the matter was of such consequence it should be fast-tracked. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice said the government will appeal to the 11th Circuit, but didnt say when.

A skeptical Supreme Court aggressively questioned the attorney for two state senators seeking to overturn Gov. Rick Scott's rejection of federal high-speed rail funds.

Saying that legal action "may be premature," Justice Barbara Pariente expressed doubt at Thursday's oral arguments that the court should intervene.

"Should the court interfere with the relationship between the federal government and the governor, and the governor and the Legislature," she mused.