Republicans have seen their rank and file numbers grow this year in Florida by a near 3-to-1 clip against the Democrats, which remains the states largest political party in terms of overall registered voters.

While Republicans dominate the state Legislature, there are now 4,581,056 registered Democratseligible to vote in the Aug. 14 primary in Florida and 4,137,890 Republicans, according to the state Division of Elections.

Since the January primary, the Republicans have added 74,037 voters across the state.

Despite media speculation that he was being shunted to the sidelines for the sake of the presidential contest, Florida Gov. Rick Scott will take the stage during the Republican National Convention in Tampa, along with a former presidential candidate and two dark horse prospects for vice president.

Floridas Trinidadian-born lieutenant governor will head a sales mission leaving this weekend to the island nation of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the Sunshine States 23rd largest trading partner.

Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll and Enterprise Florida will fly from Miami to the Caribbean nation that is also the birthplace of calypso and chutney, and which received $557.4 million in exports from Florida last year.

The state is waiting for a response from BP after Attorney General Pam Bondiinformed the energy giant that Floridians are not being offered a fair share of the pending settlement out of the 2010 spill.

In a letter to John Lynch Jr., the U.S. general counsel for BP America Inc., Bondi expressed concerns this past week that individuals and businesses in Florida are not being equally considered for compensation as with their counterparts in other Gulf Coast states.

State legislative leaders say it remains too early to judge if this years auto insurance overhaul will bring anticipated savings to Florida motorists, because filings since the new law was made may not offer much hope of reform.

As of July 25, only a single rate filing to the state Office of Insurance Regulation has been approved that reflects any savings that could be linked with House Bill 119.

But Office of Insurance Regulation officials stated that other filings pending will include lower rates.

Gov. Rick Scott called on Congress to avoid looming cuts to the defense budget now that a U.S. Navy submarine missile system testing facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station was announced. The facility will bring 100 jobs to the Space Coast.

Scott and Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll announced the new jobs Thursday for a region that has been hit hard the past couple of years by a slowdown in the space industry.

Jim Rogers, Duke Energy president, said he will go before Floridas energy regulators to discuss how the North Carolina-based companys $18 billion merger with Progress Energy will impact customers in the Sunshine State.

During a conference call with analysts on Thursday to discuss the companys second-quarter results, Rogers said he will address the Florida Public Service Commission, at their request, on Aug. 13.

I look forward to reaffirming our commitment to our customers in Florida, Rogers said.

At a time when lawmakers have been focused on improving the national standings of Florida universities, the state landed only one school on the annual Forbes list of the top colleges that was based upon results rather than reputation.

The University of Florida landed 80th on the Forbes list, 52 places ahead of the private University of Miami and 113 slots before the Florida State University.

New College of Florida placed ahead of FSU at 189.

Florida A&M took the lowest place among Floridas schools at 629.