In the midst of low-budget dollars and high unemployment discussions for the 2011 legislative session, Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, is taking a detour to help save the lives of children with the use of relatively simple technology.

Foreclosure filings in Florida fell 42 percent in November from the previous month, with one in every 267 housing units receiving a filing last month, according to a report released Thursday by Realty Trac, a California-based company that tracks foreclosed properties.

Four years ago, Alex Sink became the first Florida chief financial officer to win a contested election in her first bid for elected office.

Now, she is looking back at a term that saw her emerge as the face of a Florida Democratic Party hungry for new voices, but fall short in her bid to win the Governors Mansion for the party, which has been in the wilderness there since 1999.

Floridas lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act, the federal overhaul of health care, took another step forward Thursday as U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson heard oral arguments in Pensacola.

The deeply unpopular, $1.1 trillion spending bill -- including its more than 6,700 earmarks -- went down in flames Thursday night. And Florida Republicans in Congress can claim their opposition as some of the ammunition that shot it out of the sky.

At the end of the 1972 film The Candidate, Robert Redford, whose character has just been elected to the U.S. Senate, turns to an adviser played by Peter Boyle and demands, What do we do now?

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and other federal officials announced Wednesday that the government is suing BP and eight other defendants, seeking to recover damages from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill earlier this year.

On Wednesday, the Florida Chamber Foundation unveiled its study of ports, trade and logistics in the Sunshine State -- and argued that an increased focus on these industries could lead to an additional 143,000 jobs in the state.

Gas prices in Florida hit $3 per gallon this week, with the rest of the nation not far behind. But potential holiday motorists dont appear to be changing their plans because of it.

Despite opposition from a handful from each party, the U.S. Senate voted Wednesday on a tax deal that extends tax cuts initially backed by George W. Bush for all Americans. The measure passed 81 to 19 with both of Floridas senators -- Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican George LeMieux -- voting in favor.