A coalition of tea party groups is leading an investigation into possible voter fraud in Florida -- and telling the federal government to back off.

"From what we can see, the feds have stonewalled the state by not sharing information about noncitizens in our state," said Billie Tucker, head of the First Coast Tea Party in Jacksonville.

Tea partiers say they will actively resist U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's recent demand that Florida stop purging noncitizens from the voter lists.

After Mike Haridopolos, Adam Hasner and Jeff Atwater successively bowed out of the GOP race for U.S. Senate, ex-U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon says he is taking his turn as the "authentic conservative."

In an exclusive interview with Sunshine State News, the former seven-term Republican congressman and currentphysician specializing in internal medicine acknowledges his late entry presents an uphill challenge.

"I thought Haridopolos would have made a great senator," Weldon said of his fellow Melbourne-area resident.

Florida Supreme Court Justice Barbara Pariente may have gotten a bit more than she bargained for at Temple Emeth last month.

Even as Planned Parenthood unleashes a $1.4 million advertising campaign against Mitt Romney in Florida and a handful of other states, the nation's leading abortion provider is losing business.

From 2008 to 2011, the number of abortions dropped 19 percent in Florida, and that downward trend continues this year.

State legislators take some of the credit for the decrease, citing tougher regulations on abortion clinics.

A gadfly, disbarred attorney has filed an official complaint over state Supreme Court Justice Barbara Pariente's partisan remarks at a South Florida synagogue.

In a letter to the Judicial Qualifications Commission, Jack Thompson, of Coral Gables, called Pariente's speech "partisan, issues-related, evocative of her religion, and violative of various judicial canons."

Filling a 15-mile gap left by SunRail, a Georgia-based company proposes to connect the Orlando airport, the Orange County Convention Center, Disney World and the Florida Mall with magnet-levitation trains.

"This is the missing link," American Maglevpresident and CEO Tony Morris told Sunshine State News inan exclusive interview. "And we can do it without spending a penny of public money."

Noting that the $1.3 billion SunRail's southern line ends at Sand Lake Road and Orange Avenue, Morris predicted that his extension would "quadruple ridership."

Nearly two years after 4 million barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf, Washington, D.C., policy-makers are still wrangling over how to handle a projected $20 billion fine.

"Negotiations are going slowly without much breakthrough," said Jay Liles, a policy consultant to the Florida Wildlife Federation and a participant in the talks.

"We're hoping the pace picks up, because every day that goes by, people say, we'll just wait until after the election," he told Sunshine State News Friday after another negotiating session at the capital.

Florida Power & Light has installed 3.3 million "smart" electric meters, with another 1 million to go.

Critics say the $800 million program is a dumb waste of money, or worse.

Three counties -- Brevard, Charlotte and Indian River -- have formally requested that the state Public Service Commission allow them to opt out of the program. Volusia County has requested that the PSC enable residents only to opt into the changeover.

On Monday, the Flagler County Commission voted to draft a letter asking that the PSC permit its residents to opt out as well.

Opening his campaign headquarters in Kissimmee, former U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson says he's confident he will earn a return trip to Capitol Hill.

In an exclusive interview with Sunshine State News, the outspoken Democrat said he's raised $2 million from 50,000 contributors since last July.

That's "more than any House challenger in the United States and more than 99 percent of current House members," he reported.

Email exchanges concerning congressional candidate Al Lawson's campaign have raised questions about political involvement within the state Senate Minority Office.

The April 9 emails from and to staff director Theresa Frederick discussed Lawson and his Democratic and Republican opponents.

In the first email, posted at 6:06 a.m. that Monday, Frederick thanks a correspondent for "the info on Jay Liles" [a Democratic primary opponent of Lawson's].It is always helpful toknow what the opposition is up to."

Frederickwent on to write on her Blackberry: