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

Gov. Rick Scott will be in at the Saint Frances Barracks Parade Field in St. Augustine Friday afternoon to attend the retirement ceremony for Gen. Craig McKinley. McKinley, an Air Force general, was the 26th chief of the National Guard Bureau.He has served in that position since 2008. He is the first officer from the National Guard to ever achieve the grade of a four-star general. The ceremony gets underway at 3 p.m.

Shortly after concluding arguments on behalf of client Rep. Mack Bernard, D-West Palm Beach, before a three-judge panel of theFlorida 1st District Court of Appeal, former Republican state representative J.C. Planas told Sunshine State News another of his clients, Rep. John Patrick Julien, D-North Miami, will "probably" be appealing his own trial court defeat to the Florida House of Representatives. "We're looking at a House challenge," Planas told the News.

No wonder a candidate doesn't want to be called a "liberal," or see his name linked to the "tea party." According to a Rasmussen Reports 1,000-likely-voter poll, voters across the nation still see those as the two most negative political labels. Of the two, the "tea party" label is considered the worse, with 44 percent of those polled in a telephone survey calling the t-words bad news; 26 percent say they're positive words; another 26 percent think of them as somewhere in between.

Florida recognized seven businesses for being exceptional employers of people with disabilities on Thursday. Employment is one of my top priorities, as most people know, and that includes people with disabilities, Gov. Rick Scott stated in a release. I am happy to see so many businesses that are inclusive of all individuals in their companys work force. There is always an opportunity to be more inclusive. I hope additional companies will follow suit and be open to considering all people who can compete for a position.