Bottled water could get a few cents more expensive in Florida under a proposed surcharge to pay for environmental cleanup work.

The first crack at an Arizona-style immigration overhaul has been filed in the Florida Senate, with a proposal that would let law enforcement officers ask suspected illegal aliens to prove their immigration status and could penalize some legal immigrants who arent carrying proper documentation.

When Gov.-elect Rick Scott unveiled his economic plan on the campaign trail this summer, there was a portion that caught many law enforcement professionals by surprise: a proposed $1 billion cut to the states corrections budget.

The highly contentious teacher merit pay proposal that was shot down by Gov. Charlie Crist last spring has re-emerged, but with some preliminary concessions to teachers and also perhaps to Gov.-elect Rick Scott, who -- as the father of a special education teacher -- voiced concerns about the proposals fairness to some educators.

Newly elected House Speaker Dean Cannon blasted the Florida Supreme Court in formal remarks before the House Tuesday accusing the court of overstepping its constitutional duty as an impartial arbiter of the law.

The final days of campaigning for former Hillsborough prosecutor Pam Bondi and state Sen. Dan Gelber to be the next attorney general likely wont be very polite.

The states ethics commission is looking into the financial disclosure forms of incoming Senate President Mike Haridopolos, finding probable cause to investigate a Vero Beach mans complaint that Haridopolos didnt fully complete his forms.

Lawmakers could look at changes next year to make it more difficult for political candidates to switch parties midcampaign, a proposal directly in response to Gov. Charlie Crists defection from the Republican Party this past year.

Twenty-one years after Miami judges set up a diversion and treatment court specifically for drug offenders, Florida is poised to do the same for military veterans who have run afoul of the law.

A Republican state Senate candidate hand-picked by GOP leadership was ruled ineligible on Friday for the November ballot.