Backers of individual items in Floridas budget did a better job this year of demonstratinghow their projects could economically help the state.

Gov. Rick Scott signed a budget Tuesday that increases education spending by $1 billion from last year, while slashing $142.7 million from individual legislators projects, less than a quarter of the total he axed a year ago.

Scott said lawmakers were able to explain the economic returns on their projects this year.

Gov. Rick Scott, calling the taxpayers of Florida the winners, signed a budget Tuesday that increases education spending by $1 billion from last year and trims extra spending on lawmakers' favored projects.

With the signing Scott slashed $142.7 in spending for programs such as the Science and Discovery Center of Northwest Florida, the Frank Lloyd Wright House at Florida Southern College and the Bay of Pigs Museum in Miami.

With one of his key priorities having been to increase Pre-K to grade 12 education by $1 billion, Gov. Rick Scott will use an elementary school on Tuesday as the backdrop for signing the 2012-2013 budget.

The governors office announced Monday that Scott will sign the $70 billion budget at noon Tuesday at Cunningham Creek Elementary School in St. Johns.

The signing ceremony, Scotts second, will continue his form of traveling away from the political trappings of Tallahassee to highlight the fiscal package.

Attorney General Pam Bondi wants a federal judge to delay the recently announced BP settlement because she says it doesn't give full compensation to Floridians.

Bondi has filed a statement of interest asking the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana, to review the pending $9.6 million settlement in the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The states first comprehensive energy bill in five years, considered a more modest approach than past diversification efforts and approved with overwhelming bipartisan support by the Legislature, will become law without the governors signature.

In announcing Friday that he will allow the bill to become law effective July 1, Gov. Rick Scott expressed mixed feelings on the pro-business legislation due to the addition of targeted tax credits that he threatened to later try to repeal if they dont work as advertised.

State Sen. J.D. Alexander has at least one reason to breathe easier.

Controversial funding for a new university in Lakeland championed by the Lake Wales Republican is not on the annual "turkey" list compiled by Florida TaxWatch. This year, the group is seeking line-item vetoes from the governor for 143 projects worth $150.6 million, ranging from the Brevard Community College Public Safety Institute to a land purchase next to the governors mansion and a Bay of Pigs Museum in Miami..

Bolstered by games played at the Miami Marlins' new ballpark, the Grapefruit League reported record-setting attendance this spring.

The 233 exhibition games played by Major League Baseball teams in Florida this year had a combined attendance of 1,622,957, or 6,965 per game, up from the previous record of 6,640 in 2010.

Sen. J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, got to make a last-minute pitch Thursday for Gov. Rick Scott to maintain funding for the birth of the states 12th university focused on science and math.

And while Scott hasnt indicated what hell do with the bill, Alexander left upbeat that the governor wouldnt veto the $39 million designated by the Legislature for the new campus when the deadline for the bill is up at the end of next week.

Duval County State Attorney Angela Corey announced Wednesday that neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman will be charged with second-degree murder in the Feb. 26 shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford.

Zimmerman, 28, claimed he acted in self-defense under the states Stand Your Ground law in what escalated into a nationwide racially charged case.

The states legal community is coming together to protect three of its own.

More than $450,000 has been cobbled together in the first three months of the year for the retention efforts of state Supreme Court justices R. Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince.