With as many as 182,000 noncitizens on Florida's voting rolls -- no one knows for certain -- U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney is calling out the U.S. Department of Justice for failing to provide the state with the tools it needs to identify illegal voters.

Mainstream media reports parroting the Obama administration and Democratic Party operatives persist in branding the state's efforts as a "voter purge."

"That's absolute hogwash," said Rooney spokesman Michael Mahaffey.

Florida Power & Light Co.'s proposed $690 million-a-year rate increase, adding 16 percent to the current base rate, will be vigorously opposed by the Florida Office of Public Counsel and a conservative group.

With a series of nine public hearings set to conclude by month's end, J.R. Kelly sees "no way" FPL's full request is valid, and if past is prologue, the Public Service Commission will chop the utility's rate bid significantly.

FreedomWorks, a national tea party organization, is wading into Florida's U.S. Senate race with a strong call to support U.S. Rep. Connie Mack's bid to knock off Democrat Bill Nelson.

Comparing the four-term Naples congressman's record with the 16 months that rival Republican George LeMieux served in the Senate, the FreedomWorks analysis argues that Mack is the more reliable conservative.

"Perhaps most significantly, Mack was one of the few members of Congress in 2008 who voted against the TARP/Wall Street bailout -- twice.

Florida's implementation of "Common Core standards" for math and English Language Arts could cost taxpayers as much as $780 million -- could, but shouldn't, says a national education think tank.

As a follow-on to No Child Left Behind, the "Common Core" is the latest effort to lift educational standards by aligning K-12 curricula across America. A total of 45 states, including Florida, have signed on.

While citizen activists slog through jury excusal records and voter-registration rolls, a former U.S. Justice Department official says the federal government is illegally harassing Florida and U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis is demanding answers.

Hans von Spakovsky, a former counsel for civil rights at DOJ, charged that a letter from his former employer ordering Florida to stop removing noncitizen voters "directly abets vote thieves in a key state as [Attorney General Eric] Holder's boss seeks re-election."

The attorney representing three Florida Supreme Court justices branded as "baseless" any suggestions that his clients have acted improperly.

Speaking for Justices Barbara Pariente, Fred Lewis and Peggy Quince -- all of whom face retention election this November -- attorney Dan Stengle said the judges "have done nothing even beyond what a candidate for merit retention without opposition may lawfully and appropriately do."

Raising more Florida money than President Obama and Newt Gingrich combined, Mitt Romney appears to hold a financial advantage heading into the fall election.

The former Republican governor from Massachusetts drummed up $7,829,150 compared with Obama's $5,867,102. Add Gingrich's $1,44,912, and Romney is still the cash king.

The figures, based on Federal Election Commission data available through May 21, show Romney's fundraising machine rolling over Obama in Republican strongholds from Jacksonville to Naples.

A resolution calling for the House to hold U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt has garnered the signatures of 118 House members.

But Rep. Sandy Adams, one of Holder's leading critics, has not signed on. Instead, the Orlando Republican is going her own way.

"The congresswoman reads every bill before co-sponsoring and she had concerns about the language of the personal references in the resolution," Adams' spokeswoman Lisa Boothe told Sunshine State News on Monday.