Nancy Smith

Marco Rubio is unfolding like a flower before American voters. It's a long, slow unfolding; little by little, easy does it.

It was an off-election year, one you might have thought would be a sleeper for the political class in Florida. But 2015 turned out to be a noisy family food fight from beginning nearly to end, a year dominated by the courts and leaving a shortage of happy people in and around the Capitol. Here is our list of stories that topped the news in the Sunshine State this year.

Some time ago I had an epiphany about climate change. I came to realize it's not so much that conservatives don't buy into it, it's that they don't trust a word out of the mouth of the Obama Administration's lawless, monster of an Environmental Protection Agency.

Scott Maxwell, veteran Orlando Sentinel reporter, has given taxpayers a powerful lesson in why they can't take their eye off the ball at city hall.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz finally blew it bigtime, threw a monkey wrench in Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign, and all she can do now is hope it can all blow over fast.

If you remember public meetings before they were televised, you can appreciate why boards desperately want to limit so-called "public" comment.

In Donald Trump's wave-making interview Wednesday with The Washington Post, the celebrity presidential candidate let it all hang out -- his attitudes toward everything from Muslims to Ben Carson to the GOP debate ratings. 

You'll probably hear a lot about Monday's Monmouth University survey. It puts Ted Cruz ahead of the GOP field in the Hawkeye State for the first time. But pay no attention. Outside of Iowa, it's virtually meaningless.

Just what the governor doesn't need: a reason for lawmakers to blow raspberries at his budget request for Enterprise Florida Inc. (EFI).

Rick Scott's critics pummel him plenty for abusing his executive privilege on bragging rights. And it's true, since 2011 our governor's self-promoting press releases have morphed into a kind of waterboard torture for those of us who get to read them daily. 

But let's be fair here. There's no getting around the fact that Scott has been a powerful magician for Florida economy good -- which is exactly what most of his press releases are about.

As much as we talk about protecting the First Amendment in this country, with each generation apparently we get further away from understanding it.

Lawmakers, if you want to add something to a student's learning experience, have at it. Not many people I know are going to hassle you for that. 

Conservatives talk a lot about American exceptionalism. So do I. It's what we're all about. But if ever there was a time to show we mean what we say -- that our values, our principles, our way of life -- soar above the ways of freedom's enemies, then it's right now, right here, embedded in our acceptance of 10,000 Syrian refugees to America's shores.

Friday's deadly terrorist attacks in Paris dramatically changed the tenor of the Sunshine Summit finale in Orlando Saturday and shifted a large part of the focus of CBS' Democratic presidential debate later that night. 

Maybe, finally, this will be the year conservative standard-bearers grow a backbone and campaign for repeal of the renewable fuel standard -- that is, prefer their principles to corn-based votes.