The House voted Thursday to allow Republican and Democratic leaders in the Senate and House to create committees that raise funds for canidiates in their politicial parties.

The billl to create party fundraising committees passed 73-42 along party lines after a heated debate. Although the committees function differently and are subject to new, more transparent reporting requirements, Democrats have stirred fears the Legislature is resurrecting the idea of so-called leadership funds banned 20 years ago.

Why did President Barack Obama choose to turn a gaffe into a crisis in U.S.-Israeli relations?

And a gaffe it was: the announcement by a bureaucrat in the Interior Ministry of a housing expansion in a Jewish neighborhood in north Jerusalem. The timing could not have been worse: Vice President Joe Biden was visiting, Jerusalem is a touchy subject, and you dont bring up touchy subjects that might embarrass an honored guest.

The Democratic leadership's struggle to pass the Senate health care bill in the House looks like a great case study for political scientists. They have many examples of the leaders of a party majority trying to push controversial legislation through a balky chamber. But seldom have the political incentives of the party leadership and the party's members been so differently aligned.

In early March, the head of the Tennessee and Greater Nashville hospitality associations sent an email to a dozen or so people that compared First Lady Michelle Obama to a chimpanzee. As word leaked of this offensive humor, pressure built and the man responsible was soon fired.

Monday, March 15

Today, the Select Policy Council on Strategic and Economic Planning met. We heard presentations on energy exploration from the Collins Center for Public Policy and the Legislatures Office of Economic and Demographic Research.

I met with my Education Policy Council staff to discuss the agendas for our committees on Wednesday.

The Florida House of Representatives passed a number of bills Thursday morning with some debate but no close votes.

Republicans took aim at trial attorneys in a measure that limits fees for private attorneys representing the state attorney generals office and also in a bill reforming slip-and-fall tort law.

The House voted along party lines to cap attorney fees by a vote of 71-40 after debate. Three Democrats voted for the measure, Rep. Joseph Abruzzo, D-Wellington, Rep. Leonard Bembry, D-Greenville, and Rep. Debbie Boyd, D-Newberry.

The decades-long drive to save the Everglades isn't purely an environmental exercise. Skeptics say it's really about the money.

Legislation shifting the burden of proof from retailer to plaintiff in slip-and-fall cases overwhelmingly passed the House Thursday and took a step toward passage in the Senate.

Proponents of the legislation say their bills shift Floridas law back to where it was before 2001. In that year, the Florida Supreme Court ruled in Owens vs. Publix that the burden of proof in such tort cases was on retailers. The next year, lawmakers adopted legislation that fell in line with the court's ruling.

GOP attorney general candidate Pam Bondi is holding a fundraiser in DC with two of the big-name Florida Republicans behind her. Make that one name in two

In an effort to make Florida recycle 75 percent of its solid waste by 2020, a state Senate committee voted Wednesday to require businesses with 25 employees or more to report their recycling rates biennially.

TheSenate Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee unanimously passed SB 570, sponsored by Sen. Lee Constantine, R-Altamonte Springs, to get businesses on board with the states recycling goals.

We are woefully behind other states, Constantine said. And, we need to promote programs that implement 'Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.'