Sen. Joe Negron, one of the Legislatures libertarian stalwarts, wasted no time Monday defending the privacy rights of Florida citizens.

Speaking during an afternoon meeting of Attorney General Pam Bondi's Statewide Task Force on Prescription Drug Abuse and Newborns, Negron expressed his skepticism of online information-sharing.

Attorney General Pam Bondi was a no-show at Thursday mornings meeting of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Criminal and Civil Justice, but legislators still heard from various public agencies who warned that budget cuts are compromising the administration of justice across Florida.

Pam Bondi, unfortunately, has a conflict today, but we look forward to her joining us in the near future, announced chairman Rob Bradley, R-Orange Park, after a series of introductions by senators and subcommittee staffers.

The nations oldest and most prominent conservative lobbying organization released Wednesday its second annual ideological ratings of Floridas Republican and Democratic legislators.

On the heels of several defeats of Republican efforts to reform the judiciary and unseat three Florida Supreme Court justices -- both before and at the November ballot box -- the upcoming legislative session is shaping up to be a far quieter one as far as the courts are concerned.

An otherwise dry hour-long series of presentations on the federal health-care law ended on a colorful note Monday, as some three dozen tea-party activists, represented by a handful of speakers, took to the podium for an additional hour to present their concerns to Florida senators.

The Florida Senate's Select Committee on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) launched its first meeting Monday, with Chairman Joe Negron, R-Palm City, assuring his fellow legislators and citizen attendees that no votes would be taken that day.

The conservative Canadian think tank Fraser Institute caused a stir last Wednesday when it ranked six Canadian provinces freer than the state of Florida. But a researcher at Florida State University takes issue with some of thosefindings.

The study was published in the 2012 edition of Fraser's annual "Economic Freedom of North America" report.

It grades the economic freedom of all 50 U.S. states and each of Canada's 10 provinces on a scale from 1 (least free) through 10 (most free), and ranks these territories in comparison with each other.

Florida Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Destin, is reviewing a report published Tuesday by a pair of public policy think tanks on public ethics reforms at the county level, and his office says counties certainly have a role to play in formulating the Legislature's upcoming ethics reform agenda.