U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., the top Republican on the U.S. House Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee, continues to urge the Trump administration to support Taiwan, offering warnings about the threat posed by communist China. 

At the end of last week, Yoho sent a letter to U.S. Sec. of State  Michael Pompeo urging him to attend the upcoming East Asia Summit (EAS) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Thailand.  

Three Democrats representing parts of Central Florida in Congress--U.S. Reps. Val Demings, Stephanie Murphy and Darren Soto--helped reel in more than $3 million to help Orlando secure itself from terrorism. 

At the end of last week, the three members announced that Orlando will be receiving a $3.25 million grant from the  U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS)Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI). Last year, after not getting funds since 2014, Orlando received $1.5 million in a UASI grant. 

Sen. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, said Sunday if it's not too late, she will try to amend one of the Legislature's 2019 insurance bills to mandate all insurers inoculate at-risk people in areas identified by the Centers for Disease Control as having been hit by Hepatitis A.

"Local health departments usually insure Medicaid patients, the uninsured and the underinsured," said Harrell. "But this is a rising epidemic and we have to look for the vulnerable who might otherwise fall between the cracks."

In 1988, Florida lawmakers approved a bill requiring parental consent before minors could have abortions.

The next year, the state Supreme Court issued a controversial ruling that said the requirement was unconstitutional.

Now, three decades later, the debate is back. The Florida House during the coming week could pass a parental-consent measure, and the Senate also has started moving forward with its version of the bill.

It’s not every day that the Senate’s top Democrat has to clarify, “I am not anti-Semitic.”  

But that is what happened this week.

It all started Monday, when Senate Minority Leader Audrey Gibson, D-Jacksonville, voted “no” on a bill (SB 1272) that is designed to treat discrimination against Jewish students in public schools and colleges like the way acts of racial discrimination are treated.

The term “bridge to nowhere” conjures up many different images from short-sighted government planning to outright corruption.

The term spans the entire spectrum of negative perception about government performance. We all know that bridges are built to connect two areas divided by some type of geographic barrier. If one or both sides are not connected, then the term "a bridge to nowhere" has been used throughout the world to designate such a structure. 

A Florida Republican congressman wants to build economic ties with Mongolia which is located between two major powers in China and Russia. 

This week, U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., the top Republican on the U.S. House Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee, introduced the “Mongolia Third-Neighbor Trade Act” in the House along with U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev. On the other side of Capitol Hill, U.S. Sens. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Ben Cardin, D-Mass., are championing the proposal. 

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is looking for the federal government to crack down on slumlords, and he's got  some bad actors close to home in mind. 

This week, Rubio brought back the “HUD Inspection Process and Enforcement Reform Act" which, he insists, will “improve the federal housing inspection process, hold slumlords accountable for misusing taxpayer dollars and ensure they are not endangering the health and safety of tenants.”

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., wants only licensed health care providers to conduct medical disability examinations (MDEs) on behalf of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

Last week, Rubio paired up with U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., to bring out the “Better Examiner Standards and Transparency for Veterans Act" (BEST for Vets Act) after reports surfaced that physicians with revoked medical licenses were conducting MDEs for the VA. 

The Tallahassee-based Florida Assisted Living Association (FALA) announced Thursday dire findings from a study that found Florida’s more than 3,000 ALFs facing challenges in collecting revenue and finding skilled workers to fill vacancies.