It's that time of year when America celebrates the donor we used to call "Dad."

Granted, many children still have an in-house father, but millions don't. Some fathers have become alienated through divorce. "Baby daddies" never were invited to the commitment party. Still others are anonymous in the truest sense -- mere DNA donors who made a deposit and picked up a check.

WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama doesn't do the mundane. He was sent to us to do larger things. You could see that plainly in his Oval Office address on the Gulf oil spill. He could barely get himself through the pedestrian first half: a bit of BP-bashing, a bit of faux-Clintonian "I feel your pain," a bit of recovery and economic mitigation accounting.

As the state attempts to combat the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Christopher Holley is trying to make sure the 26 Florida counties now placed in a state of emergency are able to cope with the environmental and economic damages.

Targeting Republican lawmakers who raised taxes and green-lighted the "Train to Nowhere," the TEA Party of Florida has nearly 20 legislative candidates on the fall ballot.

"We're going after some of the big boys -- Dean Cannon, Chris Dorworth, Bryan Nelson and Steve Precourt -- because they voted for (Central Florida's billion-dollar) SunRail. They're on the hitlist," Doug Guetzloe, a consultant for the new TEA Party, said Friday morning.

With U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, under fire for his comments about the federal government demanding BP establish a $20 billion escrow account to clean up the oil spill on the Gulf, U.S. Rep Jeff Miller is calling out his Republican colleague.

Gov. Charlie Crist clarified on Thursday that he thinks judges ought to be allowed to decide on a case-by-case basis whether gay couples can adopt children rather than continuing a statewide ban, the only one in the nation.

I think thats a decision best left to judges, Crist said while speaking to a group of newspaper editors in Sarasota. A better law would be to allow judges to make that decision on a case-by-case basis.

In his first address in the state capital, Republican Rick Scott told a crowd of about 350 on Tuesday that, if elected governor, he will fight for reduced regulation, tighter control on immigration and less taxation.

Hoping to push lawmakers into a cleaner, renewable future, a new business group announced Thursday that it will convene a Florida Energy Summit July 8 in Orlando.

Citizens for Clean Energy -- a coalition of businesses, educational institutions and community groups -- will host the conference at the Orlando World Center Marriott. State Senate President-designate Mike Haridopolos will moderate discussions on clean energy and future energy policy.

Between the filing appearances of GOP gubernatorial candidates Rick Scott and Bill McCollum at the Division of Elections on Thursday, former Tallahassee Mayor Scott Maddox filed his paperwork to run for commissioner of agriculture and consumer services -- and announced he was being backed by one of his chief rivals for the Democratic nomination.

Accompanying Maddox was former Suwannee County Commissioner Randy Hatch, who had been running for the nomination for the Democratic nomination for more than a year