With all due respect to Kermit the Frog, it's getting easier to be green in Florida.
With more than 3,000 people descending on Central Florida for the nation's premiere cannabis business trade show this week, and a new poll again showing that voters seem poised to approve wide-ranging medical marijuana, it looks increasingly like the state might be going to pot.
Lawyers for opponents of the state's de facto school-voucher program asked an appeals court Tuesday to reinstate a lawsuit against the system, saying they had the right to bring the case under the Florida Constitution.
One year ago, there was a decent chance the Republican nominee for president would hail from Florida. Former Gov. Jeb Bush was far ahead of the pack in money and the "invisible primary" that comes before voters cast their ballots. And U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio was the second-favorite candidate for most GOP voters in the polls, signaling that he might have the most to gain as the field started to dwindle.
As Donald Trump essentially locked up the Republican presidential nomination late Tuesday, Florida GOP leaders began facing a decision none of them expected to be making a year ago: Line up behind the real-estate mogul's White House bid, or figure out how to win around him in the fall
For years, Tampa venture capitalist John Kirtley has been a largely behind-the-scenes figure in Florida's de facto school voucher program.
The website of Step Up for Students, Kirtley's scholarship-funding organization, discusses his role in helping set up Florida's system, which allows companies to offset the taxes they pay to the state by contributing to groups like Step Up for Students. That money is then used to help low-income students go to private schools.
When the Florida Supreme Court considered a dramatic change to the shape of Democratic Congresswoman Corrine Brown's district last year, she promised to "go all the way to the United States Supreme Court" if necessary to preserve her electoral territory.
Ever since the departure of the Pork Chop Gang --- a cadre of North Florida lawmakers who ruled state government through the middle part of the 20th Century --- the northern reaches of the state have sometimes seemed like second-tier parts of Florida.
Carlos Beruff, the newest member of the Republican primary field for Florida's open U.S. Senate seat, wouldn't say during a campaign stop this week in Tallahassee who got his vote in the last month's presidential primary.
But whether he voted for Donald Trump or not, Beruff appears to be taking some cues from his fellow real-estate businessman-turned-political candidate. Take, for example, the television ad that Beruff's campaign released this week. It begins with him awkwardly reading from a TelePrompTer before setting his coffee on it and turning to another camera.
No matter what the political fight, there's almost always a postscript, some lingering bit of fallout that has to be dealt with in the aftermath of victory, defeat or even agreement.
And it was a week of postscripts in Tallahassee. Not any that might require a special session --- regardless of a cruel April Fool's Day tweet from House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island --- but some that were notable nonetheless.
