After 10 Glorious Years, Sunshine State News and I Are Passing the Baton

Employees at Florida's Department of Transportation can be grateful they're not working at the Department of Community Affairs. In his opening remarks to the department employees gathered at the DOT's assembly hall in Tallahassee Monday afternoon, Gov. Rick Scott said he's heard great things about the DOT, but not so much at the DCA.

Senate President Mike Haridopolos is putting his focus on the 2011 regular legislative session, which begins Tuesday, attempting to put behind him the recent furor over his $150,000 book deal with Brevard Community College that produced one copy. He pointed to large, transformative bills that are set to be passed in the Senate this week dealing with opting out of the federal Affordable Care Act, capping state revenues, merit pay for teachers and a tort reform bill. "Look at what we're doing the first week of session," Haridopolos said.

House Democrats fired back at the plan unveiled by Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, on Monday morning which would create two state Supreme Courts, one for civil matters and one for criminal cases.

Talking to the media on Monday, House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, unveiled a number of reforms that will be pushed out of the Judiciary Committee tackling immigration and the courts. Cannon said the proposal would mandate every private company in Florida with more than 100 employees to use E-Verify to check the immigration status of every potential employee starting in 2013.