So this is the way the legislative session ends: not with a bang but a whimper.

A controversial push by Florida utilities to raise consumer rates to recoup the cost of renewable energy projects suddenly lost power in the final hours of the 2010 Legislature.

The Legislature Friday settled on a $70.4 billion state budget and sent it to Gov. Charlie Crist before calling an end to the 2010 Legislature and heading off for home. The final figure increased the cost of state government by more than 5 percent over last year.

It is the most expensive state spending plan ever, the result of weeks of open haggling.

We did it in the most open and transparent process in the history of budget transactions, said Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami, the chief budget negotiator for the House.

The party may have been over this week for Gov. Charlie Crist and the Republican Party of Florida, but an unpredictable three-way race for the U.S Senate between Crist, Republican Marco Rubio and likely Democratic nominee Kendrick Meek was just beginning.

This week the Senate spent most of its time deciding whether the financial reform bill was ready for prime time on the Senate floor. The Senate GOP made several demands for concessions to alter or drop some large provisions contained in thebill.

Voters will be asked in November whether to support a Legislature-proposed plan for congressional and legislative redistricting.

In a 25-14 decision, senators added to the ballot the choice of supporting a new constitutional amendment that supporters said will ensure Florida does not break any laws or disenfranchise minority voters.

The ballot choice, supported by Republicans and some Democrats, is a response to ballot amendments 5 and 6, which were proposed by Fair Districts Florida.

Where was Jay Burmer when Charlie Crist needed him?

By all accounts, the governor's announcement that he was running for U.S. Senate as an independent lacked the energy and organization that fueled Crist's campaign events in the past.

Politico.com said the lightly attended St. Petersburg rally "had the feel of the haphazard move it was."

WASHINGTON -- When Bill Clinton said in 1992 that he wanted to make abortion safe, legal and rare, many Americans applauded. Even if one dismisses this as rhetoric, it is a sentiment shared by the large middle and provides nearly everyone a thread of hope.