Senate President-designate Mike Haridopolos is looking like the latest top Florida lawmaker putting his money behind fellow Republican Bill McCollum in his primary fight with multimillionaire Rick Scott.

Haridopolos Freedom First Committee recently took in $500,000 from three Broward County companies, but quickly transfered most of the cash to another political committee whose leaders are supporting McCollum in the Republican primary for governor.

Battling over names and rights, "tea party" groups sparred Wednesday in federal court in West Palm Beach.

"The defendant has overstepped his attempt at monopoly," attorney Frank Herrera told U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra, contending that Frederic O'Neal had no exclusive right to the Florida Tea Party name.

By vetoing SB 2044, Gov. Charlie Crist not only secured his place as one of the least consistent politicians in Floridas history, he also established himself as one of the most selfish.

In a crisis, Chris Thompson and the states public-private tourism marketing corporation are responsible for enticing weary travelers to Florida hotels, restaurants and beaches. And the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a crisis for the tourism industry -- an industry that generates roughly $20 billion annually.

Thompson and Visit Florida have been blitzing the states prime markets with promotions showing that Northwest Florida beaches and tourist destinations are open, in an attempt to keep the states restaurants and hotel rooms full. And they are in for a long campaign.

Florida emergency responders are looking into the Caribbean as they prepare for what could be the first storm of the 2010 hurricane season, an arrival that would not only curtail recovery operations but could require them to open up the partially capped oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

A taxpayer watchdog group with a history of opposing space projects blasted an Alabama senator for trying to keep the Constellation program alive.

WASHINGTON -- Proving ones feminist bona fides has become the latest challenge for women aspiring to public office.

Is she a real feminist who walks in lockstep with traditional feminist orthodoxy? Or is she a faux feminist, i.e., a woman who has benefited from traditional feminism, become all that she could be, but, alas, thinks independently on certain sacred tenets of the sisterhood?

The Florida Renewable Energy Producers Association will be holding a forum in Orlando on July 14 and 15 and have invited the major candidates for governor, the U.S. Senate and agriculture and consumer services commissioner. The Orange County League of Women Voters will moderate the forums for the candidates.

U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek and billionaire real estate investor Jeff Greene, the two leading candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate race, met on Tuesday morning in their first debate. Despite different styles and backgrounds, Meek and Greene showed they agreed on a number of issues -- but that didn't stop them from attacking each another.