Gov. Rick Scott proclaimed Friday he will win his friendly job-creating competition with fellow Gov. Rick Perry because of the Texas governors pursuit of the White House.

I told him, now that hes running for president its going to be easier; he needs Florida, Scott said, while addressing the audience at CPAC Florida's conference at the Orange County Convention Center Friday afternoon.

The states recently appointed director of the Office of Financial Regulation says his agencys primary goal is to build trust in an industry still recovering from the 2007-2010 financial crisis and high-profile Ponzi schemes that dipped deep into Florida.

OFR Director Tom Grady acknowledged that the Bernie Madoff scandal and others that have been uncovered in Florida in the past few years can never be stopped at the origin.

Citizens Property Insurance Corp. has no choice but to accept the states vast reduction in the rate increase requested for sinkhole coverage for now, while hoping to return with better numbers in July.

The state Office of Insurance Regulation late Monday night lowered the requested sinkhole rate request for Citizens from an average of 447 percent to 32.8 percent, declaring Citizens failed to provide enough credible data under Senate Bill 408, which passed last session, to justify the full increase at this time.