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Commercial truckers want the ability to haul heavier loads over county and local roads, and they're hoping a measure that obliges them will speed through the Legislature in its last week.

Lawmakers continued hammering out a Health and Human Services budget Wednesday, but Senate and House negotiators failed to agree on how to resolve a funding cut that removes nearly $200 million in Medicaid funding to nursing homes.

Negotiators agreed to bump discussions of the funding cut for now, along with discussions of whether to overhaul the state Medicaid program, to conclude this round of conferencing of the Health and Human Services budget. The issues will be taken up again later in the process.

Cathie Dorman is fighting a legal battle to keep the bank from foreclosing on her house in Stuart, and she wants lawmakers to know it.

She joined a group of 30 homeowners and lawyers Wednesday who traveled to the Capitol to remind their lawmakers that homeowners throughout the state are still battling mortgage foreclosures and fraud.

Private property insurers might as well abandon their slim hopes for permission from the state to raise their rates, at least for the remainder of this legislative session.

A Senate challenge to Gov. Charlie Crists vow to defeat any measure to raise residential property insurance rates was halted by its sponsor Tuesday.

A Senate panel voted Monday to offer as much as $100 million in tax credits for investing in Florida ports.

The Senate Transportation Committee unanimously passed a bill that aims to improve the states 14 public ports in preparation for the widening of the Panama Canal and an expansion of trade.

This is a great step toward our future, said Jacksonville Republican Rep. Lake Ray, sponsor of the House version of the bill.

Hurricanes are a constant threat when you live on a Southeastern U.S. coast. But so are high wind-insurance premiums. Wind premiums can prove just as damaging to an insured's bank account as a high-powered windstorm can be to a home and family -- even for residents protected by state-sponsored insurers of last resort.

And in Florida, where June marks the start of crowded beaches and hurricane season, statistics in neighboring states show coastal wind-insurance for older homes is no bargain.

The Senate approved a long-awaited gaming compact Thursday that gives the Seminole Tribe of Florida exclusive rights to blackjack and Vegas-style card games and nets at least $1 billion for the state.

Senators voted 29-9 in favor of the compact, moving it quickly past the floor with much praise and few complaints. The compact still needs to pass the House and be signed by the governor to be passed into law.

I was just a quarterback, but it was a privilege to see this come in for a landing, said chief Senate negotiator Dennis Jones, R-Seminole.

After roughly a month in legislative limbo, an attempt to have businesses report their recycling rates was drastically scaled back Wednesday.

Lawmakers on the Senate Community Affairs Committee unanimously voted to approve SB 570, Sen. Lee Constantines attempt to make the state recycle 75 percent of its solid waste by 2020.

I really do think we can be the leader in recycling, and it will create jobs, said the Altamonte Springs Republican.

Leaders in Floridas business, labor and space industry urged President Barack Obama in a letter Monday to extend the space shuttle program at Kennedy Space Center or replace it with a similar manned, heavy-lift vehicle as soon as possible.

Florida State University researchers want to steer Florida toward becoming a key player in the electric vehicle industry, and they're inviting state lawmakers and others to discuss the matter with national and FSU experts.

I personally dont think we have that environment right now, said Dave Cartes, director of the FSU Institute for Energy Systems, Economics and Sustainability.