As state emergency managers keep an eye on an approaching Tropical Storm Isaac they'll be communicating, at least for a few hours overnight, without email.

The state recently cancelled a contract with Xerox to upgrade all of state government's email systems to one unified platform. But the cancellation, due mainly to disagreements over the cost and timeline for completing the project, happened after several agencies had already switched over to the new system.

A district appeals court urged the state Supreme Court on Wednesday to weigh in on how long is too long when sentencing a juvenile for crimes other than murder, since the U.S. Supreme Court has said such kids can't spend their entire lives in prison.

A woman profoundly injured when hit by a speeding deputy sheriff who didn't have his siren on, a woman killed by chemotherapy she shouldn't have ever had, and a man wrongfully imprisoned for seven years would all be compensated by claims bills filed Wednesday in the Senate.

During his time as attorney general of Florida, Bill McCollum boosted the state's efforts to fight child predators and developed a law enforcement strategy to reduce gang violence.

But on the issue that would have set his legacy in the nation's legal history, McCollum came up just short this week when the U.S. Supreme Court narrowly rejected his argument that the nation's new health care law was unconstitutional.

More Democrats than Republicans registered to vote in Florida in May, driven by women and Hispanics, according to state registration data released early by the Democratic Party.

Democrats said they registered 5,108 more voters in May than the Republican Party did, the fourth month in a row the party has led the GOP in new registrations.

The party released the favorable figures ahead of the state, which typically lags in its reporting of the data on its website.

Gov. Rick Scott, who said while campaigning for governor that he would require employers to use the federal E-Verify system to check immigration status, now acknowledges that requiring the agriculture industry to use it would put growers at a disadvantage.

Scott said this week while addressing a gathering of the state's largest citrus growers group, Florida Citrus Mutual, that he wouldn't support any effort to require use of the system in the upcoming legislative year. Lawmakers have considered requiring its use, but failed to pass legislation the last two years.

Federal environmental officials on Wednesday told Florida that a revised state plan to improve water quality in the Everglades meets with Washington's approval, and said it may meet a federal judge's order to clean up the ecosystem.

In notifying the state Department of Environmental Protection that changes made to an earlier plan are satisfactory, the EPA will allow the state and the South Florida Water Management District to move forward with what officials say is a historic plan for the construction of stormwater treatment areas and huge new areas of water storage.

Bernie Machen, University of Florida president, on Friday announced he plans to retire next year, though he said he wants to remain at the university as a professor.

Machen, who became president in early 2004, said at the university's board of trustees meeting that he will remain at the helm until the board completes a search for his successor. Trustees chairman David Brown said that search would start this summer, with a goal of finding a successor before the end of 2013.

Machen's contract would have been up at the end of 2013.