The state has already had 1,200 wildfires since the start of the year, consuming 20,000 acres.

And Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam said conditions are ripe for a repeat of 2011 for state firefighters.

The same conditions that created a very significant and active wildfire season last year are still present in the state, Putnam told reporters Wednesday.

With the much-anticipated energy bill sitting on Gov. Rick Scotts desk pending approval, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam said opposition to his legislation, which includes a coalition of Florida tea party groups, is rooted in a lack of good information.

Putnam defended the first comprehensive energy plan in the state since 2007 as one that replaces alternative-energy mandates with market-driven incentives while playing up Floridas natural competitive advantages.

People may be able to dye baby chicks for at least a year, as a tradeoff in the state Department of Agricultures effort to fight the growth of Africanized honey bees, which have been tagged as "killer bees."

Florida business leaders are more optimistic about adding employees, according to a Florida Chamber of Commerce Small Business Council survey.

The nonscientific, random survey found 37 percent of employers in the Sunshine State plan to hire in the next six months, up from only 7 percent last July.

Meanwhile, only 3 percent anticipate layoffs, while 8 percent of business owners and operators in July 2011 were looking to cut staff.

The second anniversary is approaching of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion that claimed the lives of 11 workers and spewed economic shock waves along the Gulf of Mexico.

That means the media can be expected once again to highlight the tragedy, again causing a dip in efforts to revive the image of seafood harvested from the Gulf of Mexico, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam said Wednesday.

Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, wants Gov. Rick Scott to meet with her and students at the University of South Florida Polytechnic before he decides on breaking the campus into the states 12th university.

Dockery, who sent her request in a letter to Scott on Tuesday, was one of four Republican senators to vote against the $39 million plan backed by Sen. J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales, to begin moving the Lakeland campus toward independence.

Florida Sen. Chris Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale, says the state doesn't have time to wait for a task force to be named to review the Stand Your Ground law. So hes starting his own local investigation into the law he says is now hurting Floridas reputation.

But Gov. Rick Scott said the state needs to complete the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigation into the Feb. 26 death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford that has thrust the 2005 law into the national spotlight.

Entering the historic downtown, visitors are greeted by a sign outside McRoberts Auto Center with a simple message: Sanford is still a good little town.

The sign is a statement from employee Jimbo Carter to the outside world declaring that life in the quiet lakefront community at the southern terminus of the Auto Train isnt what people see on television.

Optimism is slowly growing among Florida voters, but consumers in the Sunshine State tended to be a little more pessimistic in March than February, according to recent surveys by the Florida Chamber and University of Florida.

A Florida Chamber Political Institute study released Friday showed that voters were a little more supportive of the direction of the state and Gov. Rick Scott.

There have already been complaints from those in Little Havana that they havent seen the promised benefits from the construction of a salsa-pulsating $640 million, retractable-roof stadium that replaced the Orange Bowl and dwarfs their community.

Miami and Miami-Dade taxpayers will see an amortized tax of $2.4 billion over 40 years due to the local contributions into the construction ofMarlins Park that is still in search of a corporate sponsor.