Age: 68

Residence: Weston

Time in the Legislature: 10 years

Political Affiliation: Democrat

Spouse: David

Children: Laurie Levinson, Larry, Marcie, Jennifer

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

I never thought I'd be a state senator. I was an English major in college at the University of Florida.

What do you consider to be your biggest political achievement?

Few spectacles these past two months have been as nauseating as Big Powers goose-stepping march through the Florida Legislature.

Actually, I've known whole countries that put up a lustier fight against the enemy than this group of grasping lawmakers did to protect Florida's long-suffering energy consumers.

BUDGET TOPS $70 B
Bottom line on the 2010 budget that hit lawmakers desks Tuesday just before 3 p.m.? $70.4 billion. The House earlier proposed a $67.2 billion spending plan. And the Senate approved a $69.4 billion version. But weeks of negotiations that followed seemed only to fatten the spending plan, a swelling that occurs almost every year once anticipated federal dollars, trust funds and agency "reversions" of money are calculated. A vote on the measure Friday will be one of the last acts of the spring session.

EARLIEST SINE DIE: POSSIBLE IS 2:59 PM FRIDAY

The Legislature moved closer Tuesday to giving Floridas largest investor-owned utilities the power to raise rates as they gain ground in the states renewable-energy sector.

Despite fears of imposing a new fee upon Florida taxpayers and putting smaller energy producers at a disadvantage, the House voted 83-34 to give the utilities the power to raise rates to fund renewable-energy projects.

During the House session Tuesday afternoon, staffers placed copies of the 2010-11 budget on representatives desks -- unveiling a state budget that rose from $66.5 billion last year to almost $70.4 billion, an increase of more than 5 percent.

At more than 400 pages long, the final agreement in the Legislature cost Florida taxpayers more than any budget in the states history -- and more than any of the three initial budgetary proposals.

Two bright lights shine amid the carnage of Florida's record unemployment: health care and private higher education.

The state's jobless rate hit 12.3 percent in March -- 2.6 percentage points above the national average.

WASHINGTON -- Once you've gone viral, there's no turning back.

That's the hard lesson for a Seattle cartoonist who sketched some doodles and unwittingly launched a movement.

U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown intends to run for another term. While there were rumors that she was considering pulling out of the race, she filed paperwork Monday for her tenth term in Congress. Four of the Republican candidates battling it out in the primary to take Brown on engaged in an often acrimonious debate in Clay County on Monday night U.S. Rep.

WASHINGTON -- "Misguided and irresponsible" is how Arizona's new law pertaining to illegal immigration is characterized by Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She represents San Francisco, which calls itself a "sanctuary city," an exercise in exhibitionism that means it will be essentially uncooperative regarding enforcement of immigration laws.