While a national confidence index showed Americans worried about gas prices, the job market and the ongoing housing slump, University of Florida researchers say Floridians have a different concern: the state budget.

Nationally, the Conference Boards Consumer Confidence Index fell in May to 61, the lowest reading since November and down 30 points since late 2007.

Gov. Rick Scott will never win any popularity contests with the liberals at Florida's teacher union. Now, his curious call to shift budget savings back to education threatens to undermine his conservative base, as well.

As Florida heads into another hurricane season, the state has a friend in Washington. A knowledgeable and storm-savvy friend.

Craig Fugate, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), was battle-tested when he served as Gov. Jeb Bush's director of emergency operations. During Fugate's tenure from 2001 to 2009, Florida was wracked by an unprecedented series of storms, including back-to-back hurricanes that slammed into the peninsula's east coast in 2004.

The Republican Party needs Marco Rubio on its 2012 ticket.

Conventional wisdom among the media elites (and their self-reinforcing polls) is that President Barack Obama is unbeatable. It's an odd, even disconnected, line of thought, considering $4 gas, high unemployment and an economy that continues to slump.

With strong backing from business interests and tea party conservatives, the way appears clear for Gov. Rick Scott to make "significant" cuts in the Legislature's $69.7 billion spending plan.

Before Scott signs the budget at a scheduled ceremony at The Villages Thursday afternoon, he is expected to exercise his line-item veto power to eliminate hundreds of millions, if not billions, of expenditures.