Jeb Bush is hoping his stature with Florida Republicans can move the needle on Amendment 2 and help defeat that medical marijuana initiative.

Even with conservative distaste over Bushs support of Common Core and immigration reform, including going out of his way to trash Arizonas immigration law, the former governor remains pretty popular with Florida Republicans. Polls show Bush coming closer against Hillary Clinton in Florida than any other potential Republican presidential candidate.

WASHINGTON -- This far into the human story, only the historically uninstructed are startled by what they think are new permutations of evil. So, when Russia sliced Crimea off Ukraine, Secretary of State John Kerry was nonplussed: "You just don't in the 21st century behave in 19th-century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext." If, however, Vladimir Putin is out of step with the march of progress, where exactly on history's inevitably ascending path (as progressives like Kerry evidently think) does Kerry, our innocent abroad, locate the Islamic State?

It gives me no joy to contradict or criticize The Stuart News, to which I happily gave 28 years of my life. But the newspaper's Sunday endorsement of Martin County Commission Chairwoman Sarah Heard begsa few choice words of dissent.

More than four years after the Gulf oil spill, the U.S. Treasury Department released information for how the state governments of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas and local governments can apply for federal funds authorized under the Resources and Ecosystem Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities, and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast States (RESTORE) Act to help rebuild their economies and restore the environment impacted by the disaster.