A new national study provides more evidence that school improvements may have stalled in Florida -- yet the overall grade appears to be incomplete.

After a decade leading scholastic reform, the Sunshine State lost ground on the 2011 Education Performance and Policy Index compiled by the American Legislative Exchange Council.

While Florida received an overall grade of B+ (the same as last year), it registered declines or static performance in several areas:

A Federal Aviation Administration bill curbing costly airline-ticket subsidies broke through a four-year legislative logjam and won final congressional approval Monday.

The measure, sponsored by House Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica, was approved by the Senate, 75-20. Sens. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., voted with the majority.

After Democrats failed for four years to pass a long-term bill, this measure, which sets the nations aviation policy and programs and reforms FAA, has finally passed, said Mica, R-Orlando.

A growing nationwide trend toward toll roads could see more of them rolling out in Florida.

Under a new federal program that allows selected interstate highways to be reconstructed with tolls, Virginia will add tolls along the I-95 corridor and Missouri will toll its stretch of I-70.

Gov. Rick Scott hailed the extension of toll lanes on I-95 into Broward County last year, saying the move benefits all motorists.

Sierra Club officials in Florida aren't talking, but the environmental group is taking heat over revelations that it took more than $25 million from a gas-drilling company.

The nation's oldest and largest "green" organization accepted the donations primarily from Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy, one of the biggest gas-drilling companies in the country, and a firm heavily involved in the controversial practice of fracking, Time magazine reported this week.

New maps for Florida's congressional districts have candidates scrambling for seats across the Sunshine State.

The decennial game of political musical chairs was amplified by the addition of two districts and the anti-gerrymandering requirements of Fair Districts.

As a result, some incumbents were shifted out of their existing districts. And Republicans, who hold 19 of Florida's 26 congressional seats, were the most affected.

Republicans could go three-for-three this fall in a trio of newly drawn congressional districts in South Florida, but Democrats contend that their chances improved there under reapportionment.

The Florida Legislature kicked off a round of musical chairs when it created the sprawling 17th Congressional District to encompass portions of eight counties surrounding Lake Okeechobee.

Proving that it is less a Southern state and more of a Yankee suburb, Florida awarded former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with a 14-point victory over Newt Gingrich.

Flipping the tables on Gingrich, who carried South Carolina by 12 points just 10 days earlier, Romney piled up huge majorities in Florida's most populous counties.

In Miami-Dade, Romney beat Gingrich 69,653 to 30,394. In Hillsborough, Romney won 43,129 to 25,520 and he carried Broward 35,795 to 22,012.

The "Massachusetts moderate" won big. Let the Florida tea party recriminations begin.

Mitt Romney ran away with the Florida presidential primary. Newt Gingrich, despite an endorsement from a late-blooming tea party coalition, finished 14 points behind.

Romney's winner-take-all victory only netted him 50 convention delegates because the state's allotment was halved as punishment for jumping the primary schedule. But Gingrich's defeat was a serious blow to tea party activists in search of the "anti-Romney."

Rep. John Mica is looking for a new political home as a congressional remap chipped off chunks of the veteran lawmaker's Central Florida district.

Mica's choice appears to boil down to the 6th Congressional District, a coastal district extending northward to just below Jacksonville, or the 7th Congressional District, centered largely in Seminole County.

The conservative group Americans for Prosperity is signing up Florida tea party leaders to serve as regional coordinators, and paying groups $2 per signature to recruit Election Day volunteers.

"It's an opportunity for tea parties to raise dollars for their organizations by helping AFP with an awareness and membership drive on Tuesday," said Slade O'Brien, AFP's Florida director.

But critics say it looks suspiciously like a conservative version of ACORN, buying foot soldiers for election work.