A bill to allow public secondary school students to run their own prayer sessions at organized events has now received its third Senate committee backing.

The American Civil Liberties Union said a lawsuit should be expected.

The bill, SB 98, supported Monday by the Senate Rules Committee, would allow school districts to adopt resolutions that let students use inspirational messages, without backing or influence from the district or district employees, at school-sanctioned exercise or assemblies.

Sen. John Thrasher, R-Jacksonville, said his ethics bill to prohibit employees of a state college or university from serving in the Legislature is designed in part to eliminate a huge public perception problem.

However, as the bill, SB 1560, narrowly got the support of members of the Rules Subcommittee on Ethics and Elections on Monday, several senators argued for the need to have more diverse backgrounds when deliberating on laws and budget impacts.

With opposition announced from members of both parties, a proposal to change the August primary date -- closer to the Republican National Convention in Tampa and the start of the school year -- has been postponed in the Senate.

Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, announced he would withdraw the bill, SB 1596, so he could address concerns about the one-week change in primary election date.

Lawmakers on the Senate Rules Committee, after a contentious three-hour hearing Monday, supported the two bills -- SB 2036 and SB 2038 -- aimed at privatizing some correctional facilities and outlining how such efforts for other state agencies could be handled in the future.

Before a room packed with correctional employees opposed to the bills, senators on the committee back the effort, saying privatization will help the Legislature working to craft a budget that faces a $1.4 billion shortfall from the current year.

A bill inspired by the infamous missing girl investigation and murder trial of an Orlando mother continues to advance in the state Legislature.

The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously supported SB 858, which would make it a third-degree felony for any person who provides misleading information to law enforcement during a missing child investigation where the child -- age 16 or younger -- is later found to have been injured.

Currently, providing false information is a misdemeanor.

School districts across Florida are rolling a little closer to being able to plaster ads on the side of the buses that travel residential neighborhoods picking up and dropping off children.

The Senate Transportation Committee, behind an 8-2 vote on Thursday, became the second committee to support SB 344, which would allow individual school boards to decide if they want to sell space on school buses to create revenue.

The Senate Education Pre-K-12 Committee backed the bill in a 4-2 vote on Jan. 9.

The Senate version of the prison privatization effort will get a second stop before a full floor vote that is expected to again have the state seeking to outsource 26 correctional facilities in Central and South Florida.

Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, announced Friday that the bill, SB 2038, will go to the Budget Committee on Wednesday if, as expected, the bill gets a favorable review from the Rules Committee on Monday.

Floridas unemployment rate for December stood at 9.9 percent, down from 10 percent in November and marking the first time the state has been below double digits since April 2009, according to the state Department of Economic Opportunity.

Gov. Rick Scott, in a conference call with reporters on Friday, said Floridas growth is the strongest since 2007; the result, he said, of a reduction in business regulations and streamlining government.

This proves the changes we're implementing, with the help of our friends in the Legislature, are working, Scott said.

After hearing from private prison operators and correctional officials Thursday, the House Appropriations Committee is considering a bill to readdress a plan to privatize 26 correctional facilities in Central and South Florida.

But the committee may not include a companion effort, as has been introduced in the Senate, that changes how future privatization efforts are handled by the state.

Committee Chairwoman Rep. Denise Grimsley, R-Sebring, said if a bill moves forward in the House, she expects a single bill aimed at reauthorizing the action approved last year.

The House has upped its call to complete the budget, without the need for a mid-session spring break, in the regular 60-day session.

But the prodding isn't expected to change the pace of the Senate's budget deliberations.

House Speaker Dean Cannon on Thursday posted a budget allocation package for the next fiscal year that matches Gov. Rick Scotts call for at least $1 billion in additional funding for education while challenging the Senate to confront a tough budget within the scheduled timeline.