Washington may have lost its appeal for U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, but the siren call of the city on the hill is luring a raft of other Panhandle officials poised to take his place.

It's not exactly a wasteland, but the fourth floor of the Capitol is noticeably barren as the clock --- slowly --- ticks down on the legislative session.

Two years after knocking off a similar proposal, opponents of a medical marijuana initiative that will appear on the November ballot are gearing up for another battle.

Drug Free America Foundation and the group "No on 2" quickly issued press releases Thursday condemning the proposed constitutional amendment, a day after Orlando trial lawyer John Morgan announced that a group he leads had reached the requisite number of signatures to put the initiative before voters in the fall.

Republican Party of Florida leaders are walking back a proposal that would require GOP White House wannabes to show up in the Sunshine State this fall if they want to make it onto the 2016 presidential primary ballot.

The party's Constitution and Rules Committee unanimously approved a revised plan Thursday, a day before the state party's executive board is slated to vote on it.

The flap over Confederate flags now sweeping the nation is stirring in the Florida Panhandle, where folks who failed to get the controversial banner removed more than a decade ago have revived their efforts.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican, this week called for the flag to be removed from its post in front of the state Capitol in the aftermath of the shooting deaths of nine black churchgoers in Charleston. Haley called the Confederate flag "a deeply offensive symbol of a brutally offensive past."