Despite recent on-field performances, Floridas three National Football League teams are among the 50 most valuable sports teams in the world.

Floridians shouldnt expect the economy to ever revert to how it was built pre-recession, the head of the Florida Chamber of Commerce told small-business owners Thursday.

Not that a full recovery wont happen, but Florida Chamber President Mark Wilson said that the biggest parts of Florida's economic engine must expand from what have been the three dominant pillars for decades: agriculture, tourism and construction.

As Floridas Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater begins a two-day forum in Tampa on the needs of small businesses, among the first complaint hes hearing from business owners is that unemployment benefits in the Sunshine State are too enticing for some people to enter the work force.

Another is that for all the talk about directing students toward science, technology, engineering and math degrees, there is a need to also maintain the basic shop courses.

The Florida Commission on Ethics has started to impose $25-a-day fines on 632 current and former state and local elected officials, government staff and appointed officials for failing to submit financial disclosure forms by July 1.

The individuals named in a report by watchdog Integrity Florida include term-limited state Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, judicial nominating commission members Joseph Lopez, John Mariani, Nilda Pedrosa and R. Kyle Gavin , and Amy Graham, a former spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Scott.

Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater will host the 2012 Small-Business Leadership Forum, in partnership with The Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship, at Florida State University on Thursday and Friday in Tampa.

The forum, at the Westin Harbour Island Hotel, brings together business leaders, investors and academic and industry experts.

Veterans administrators in Florida are expanding their online services as a means to reach out to former active-duty military personnel residing in the Sunshine State that are not taking advantage of benefits they have earned.

Fewer than half the 1.65 million U.S. military veterans living in Florida are currently accessing state and federal benefits, ranging from the GI Bill to health care services, that they are eligible to receive, said retired U.S. Army Col. Mike Prendergast, executive director of the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs.

Black voters don't like Romney? Don't tell that to U.S. Rep. Allen West, R-Palm Beach Gardens, and Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll. They have been called upon to head Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romneys come-from-behind efforts to garner inroads among black voters.

West and Carroll have been named co-chairs, with U.S. Rep. Tim Scott, R-S.C., for Romney for Presidents Black Leadership Council.

Brian Burgess, the director of communications for Gov. Rick Scott, is heading to the Republican Party of Florida.

Burgess will be replaced in the governors office by Melissa Sellers, a former communications director for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and who served as the director of regional media for the Republican National Convention in Tampa.

Scott praised Burgess as a trusted aide and a strategic and political adviser.