NEW YORK -- It is hard to think largely about the sweep of events when one is reacting instantaneously to breaking ... tweets.

As the state Legislature considers comprehensive Medicaid reform and Gov. Rick Scott recommends Medicaid recipients join managed-care plans in his budget, health care companies in Florida announced Friday the release of a new website and videos designed to show the public and the Legislature the positive impact of their health plans.

A 2009 law authorizing a statewide prescription drug database is "on the way out," says state Sen. Joe Negron.

More than a few times on the campaign trail, Gov. Rick Scott made reference to marrying his high school sweetheart. So it comes as no surprise that the new governor has issued a proclamation declaring National Marriage Week in Florida, which ends Monday, Valentines Day.

In a subdued and mostly empty committee room, a Senate committee gave the first-up vote Thursday to a new bill setting out how teachers would be paid.

The House Appropriations Committee pondered Gov. Rick Scotts proposed budget Thursday afternoon and began the long, difficult process of crafting a budget despite a large shortfall.

Senators on the PreK-12 Appropriations Subcommittee took issue with Gov. Rick Scotts proposed education budget Thursday morning, hours before a separate committee passed a bill that would tie teacher pay to performance.

WASHINGTON -- Today, everyone and his cousin supports the "freedom agenda." Of course, yesterday it was just George W. Bush, Tony Blair and a band of neocons with unusual hypnotic powers who dared challenge the received wisdom of Arab exceptionalism -- the notion that Arabs, as opposed to East Asians, Latin Americans, Europeans and Africans, were uniquely allergic to democracy. Indeed, the left spent the better part of the Bush years excoriating the freedom agenda as either fantasy or yet another sordid example of U.S. imperialism.