Florida public schools, faced with fierce competition for students from private schools, raised their scores on standardized tests slightly after the creation of the states business-supported private-school-voucher program, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research report recently released.

As if Northwest Florida coastal towns don't have enough problems, they were told earlier this week that the world's largest auto club issued a travel advisory urging its 50 million members to stay away from their beaches because of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

But a spokeswoman for the association insisted Wednesday there was no such travel advisory.

British Petroleum Senior Vice President Bob Fryar tried to soothe frustrated members of the Florida Cabinet Tuesday with the promise of a new $25 million check for the state.

For years, the fight over whether to expand school choice in Florida has been a bitter struggle waged by lawmakers, teachers unions and parents.

But its only part of a larger national struggle to give economically disadvantaged parents opportunities to take their children out of failing schools and into schools they cant normally afford, according to a New York City-based documentary film due out this week.

A glimpse of the ugliness and of the battle for expanded school choice can be seen in screenings of The Lottery in two Florida cities today.

As tar balls washed up on a Florida beach for the first time, Panhandle and state tourism officials began grappling with how to escape a disastrous summer season for the local economy. Angst was most acute in Pensacola Beach, where the mostly-pellet-size oil globs began to appear early Friday.

The University of Central Florida is getting nearly $6 million from the state budget for a new business incubator facility that will help it keep jobs in its area and boost the creation of high-tech, specialized small businesses looking for a way to get off the ground.

Gov. Charlie Crist requested in a letter to the U.S. Department of Commerce Wednesday that the federal government declare a commercial fishery failure in Florida due to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The designation would pave the way for Florida to receive federal money to compensate for the losses the commercial and charter fishing industry sustains from the spill. Florida would be the fourth Gulf state to receive the designation since the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil rig sank more than a month ago.

Businesses hoping to escape paying fees for some of the U.S. Small Business Administrations premiere loan programs are at the mercy of Congress.