House and Senate leaders confirmed Sunday what had become increasingly obvious in recent days: The proposed Medicaid overhaul is dead for this year.

I still believe it is good policy, said Rep. Denise Grimsley, R-Lake Placid, chairman of the House Health Care budget committee, and an architect of the sweeping House proposal that would push the states 2.7 million Medicaid recipients into managed care over the next five years.

We will just have to bring it back next year, Grimsley said.

Florida Republican Party Chairman John Thrasher said Friday that Gov. Charlie Crists name didnt emerge at the huddle of the GOPs executive board, but those attending clearly see him as central to the troubled era of ousted chairman Jim Greer.

The governor is the guy who pretty much placed Chairman Greer in the position he did, Thrasher said, during a break in an expected daylong, closed-door meeting of party leaders.

Florida Republican leaders Friday removed the last ties ousted former chairman Jim Greer held to the party, stripping him of his position on the state executive board and his post as Seminole County state committeeman.

House Speaker Larry Cretul endorsed Marco Rubios candidacy for U.S. Senate on Tuesday ripping into Gov. Charlie Crist as a politician ready to do just about anything to preserve his political ambitions.

Talk of the Legislature heading toward overtime emerged Friday as House and Senate leaders struggled to reach agreement on how much money they have to spend in the 2010-11 budget.

With a mid-afternoon deadline looming for setting the start of negotiations this weekend, the two sides remained snagged over whether to include $880 million in long-anticipated Medicaid cash from the federal government.

Five hours after vetoing the teacher merit-pay bill pushed by House and Senate Republican leaders, Gov. Charlie Crist exited the Capitol for Leon High School, where he was cheered by teachers and students in a rally on the school steps.

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, April 6, 2010.Gov. Charlie Crist defied the incoming legislative leaders of his own Republican Party by vetoing a measure Tuesday that would have given them unbridled control of millions of dollars in campaign cash.

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, April 5, 2010..The House will unveil a wide-ranging, multi-year effort Tuesday to revamp Floridas costly Medicaid program a plan that surpasses the Senates already ambitious approach to expand managed-care coverage for low-income Floridians, according to those familiar with the proposal.

Former Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer pushed back Thursday against state GOP officials, threatening to sue the party to comply with terms of a severance package which officials say was never properly completed.

Greers attorney, Damon Chase of Lake Mary, has a seven-page agreement signed by Greer and top party leaders, dated Jan. 4, that would have paid him $11,250 monthly for 11 months. In turn, Greer was to step down as chairman.

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, March 26, 2010Floridas unemployment rate has hit 12.2 percent, the highest level since records first began being kept 40 years ago, the Agency for Workforce Innovation reported Friday.

The February jobless numbers grew .2 percent from the previous months figures, with Florida now distancing itself further from the national unemployment level of 9.7 percent, which has been generally holding steady.

Some analysts, though, found some silver lining in the darkening jobless picture.