Former U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney, a Democrat from Palm Beach Gardens, had his plastic denied at Macys in The Gardens Mall on Saturday, South Florida gossip guru Jose Lambiet reports on his website.

Mahoney, who was buying clothes while wearing Tom Cruise sunglasses, then was reduced to spelling his first and last names out loud because he used another card, wrote Lambiet on his website, Gossip Extra.

Two of the four machine recounts called for following last Tuesdays primary -- both involving Democrats -- are heading to a second overtime.

In all four close contests, the numbers changed in the machine recounts that were due Sunday afternoon, but not the results.

State Senate District 27: State Rep. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, is still ahead of Rep. Mack Bernard, D-West Palm Beach.

State House District 107: Rep. Barbara Watson, D-Miami Gardens, continues to lead Rep. John Julien, D-North Miami Beach,

Two state House races, one state Senate contest and a single judicial election from Tuesdays primary are headed into weekend recounts.

Secretary of State Ken Detzner called for the recounts for House Districts 55 and 107, Senate District 27 and the 4th Judicial Circuit Court Group 1 seat as the contests were decided by a margin of 0.5 percent or less of the votes cast.

The county canvassing boards have until 3 p.m. on Sunday to complete machine recounts.

With expenses at $1.9 billion a year, Citizens Property Insurance leaders are studying the need to maintain three corporate locations across Florida, the pay and benefits given employees, travel costs, and the overall management structure.

At the same time, officials are defending the costs of sending officials to New York, Bermuda, London and Zurich as they negotiated a pair of bond placements that resulted in $47 million in savings.

After more than a year-and-a-half downward march, with schools out and many farm workers off for the summer, Floridas unemployment mark took an upward turn in July.

The state Department of Economic Opportunity announced an 8.8 percent, seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for July, with approximately 816,000 out of work from the work force of 9.27 million.

The rate is 0.2 percent above where Florida stood in June, but still 1.8 percentage points lower than where the state was in July 2011.

Jon Costello, who has been with Gov. Rick Scott since his 2010 campaign and has served as legislative affairs director since the inauguration, has submitted his resignation.

The governors office announced that Costello, 31, will still be serving Florida by taking a position on the board of directors for the Northwest Florida Water Management District.

Scott called Costello a loyal member of my team and will be missed.

Jon has been a trusted adviser and an invaluable member of my team going back to my days campaigning to become governor, Scott stated in a release.

The Florida Association of Counties isnt trying to twist arms, but it needs members along the Gulf Coast to decide rather quickly on the formation of a consortium to handle the federal cash for Deepwater Horizon oil disaster-related restoration projects.

While members seemed to support the idea, details of any unified effort remain unknown, including whether the eight most heavily impacted counties -- those that have pushed federal officials the hardest for the RESTORE Act -- should be separated out from the other 15.

Florida has reached an agreement -- in principle -- with the federal government so efforts can be restarted to clear noncitizens from the county lists of registered voters.

The Division of Elections announced Thursday that an agreement has been reached with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that will grant the state access to the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements Program (SAVE) database.

U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fort Myers, now the partys nominee for U.S. Senate, has been given a headliner role at the Republican National Convention later this month in Tampa.

Mack joins a growing list of Floridians who will be on the national stage the last week of August, as he was one of six additional headliners announced for the event to formally name Mitt Romney the partys presidential candidate.

"I am proud to be able to represent Florida and be a part of officially nominating Mitt Romney as the next president of the United States, Mack said.

The new energy giant in Florida is claiming civic pride and investments in sound leaders for its political contributions that have made the Charlotte, N.C.-based company a major sponsor of the upcoming Democratic National Convention.

Duke Energy Chief Executive Officer James E. Rogers defended the companys DNC contributions by noting that money has been given to both parties' national presidential-ticket coronation events, which because of the recent $18 billion merger with Progress Energy has put the two political showcases in their coverage area.