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

Calling it a mean-spirited measure and a draconian bill, Congressman Kendrick Meek called on Gov. Charlie Crist to veto HB 1143, the measure the Legislature passed requiring a woman considering an abortion to have an ultrasound. With Meek the leading Democrat in the primary field for the U.S. Senate, he may well face independent candidate Crist along with Republican Marco Rubio in Novembers general election.

Speculation continues that Broward County Property Appraiser Lori Parrish, a Democrat who has been prominent in South Florida politics for two and a half decades, will back Gov. Charlie Crists independent bid for the U.S. Senate if he vetoes a measure requiring mothers considering an abortion to have an ultrasound. But while she has not revealed if she will back Crist, she has backed a candidate running for the congressional seat that U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, the Democratic frontrunner to take on Crist and Republican Marco Rubio for the Senate, is vacating.

The eyes of everyone affected by tourism in Florida will be on Orlando starting this weekend as the huge international trade show known as Pow Wow 2010 kicks off. The annual show is staged for global tour operators and generates hundreds of millions of dollars for state tourism industries as U.S. tourism operators meet with big tourism package operators from around the world to cut deals on packaged tours, conventions and conferences. Approximately 5,000 people are expected to take part at this year's May 15-19 event.

Further fueling the national debate over immigration, a new report finds that the percentage of U.S.-born teenagers in the workforce has fallen as the share of immigrant workers rises. The Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based group that supports tighter border controls, found that the number of U.S.-born teenagers not in the labor force increased from 4.7 million in 1994 to 8.1 million in 2007. In the summer of 2009, the figure stood at 8.8 million.