Amid predictions of an active hurricane season this year, Citizens Property Insurance Corp. is bulking up its reserves with a $2.4 billion bond offering.

Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio tangled before a national audience on "Fox News Sunday," and Republicans say the debate reinforced "defining differences" between the U.S. Senate candidates.

It also raised concerns among state party leaders.

A knock-down, drag-out fist fight between Senate candidates Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio on "Fox News Sunday" may make for good network ratings, but what does it profit the Republican Party of Florida?

A bloody brawl might have some GOP leaders nervously clutching their TV remotes. Yet, the increasingly combative race is drawing evermore intense focus on Florida as a bellwether state for the Fall elections coast to coast.

On the eve of the 2010 legislative session, all the upper echelons of state government are in flux. Lawmakers are facing a lame-duck governor running for U.S. Senate, a Senate president running for chief financial officer and the CFO and attorney general running for governor. And that's not all.

Will Sunday's Fox News showdown between U.S. Senate candidates Gov. Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio be fair and balanced?

Both men are telegenic and smooth -- even slippery in the best political tradition -- and neither camp is losing an opportunity to frame the impact of "Fox News Sunday With Chris Wallace," which will air live from Fox News' Washington, D.C. bureau (check local listings for times).

Florida's Grapefruit League is lagging in the attendance race this year, losing its once-formidable lead to Arizona's Cactus League.

Since holding a 22-8 advantage in Major League Baseball Spring Training sites in 1998, Florida is now tied with the desert venue at 15 teams apiece and attendance has flattened accordingly.

Looks like Republican leaders are backing Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Ft. Lauderdale, over Rep. Carl Domino, R-Jupiter, in their battle for the GOP nomination to replace Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, in the state senate. Incoming Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, Sen. Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, and Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, have all come out behind Bogdanoff Score one more for the Victory Group.

In an escalating political and legal battle over America's new health-reform law, Florida is again ground zero in an election year. And at stake is a renewed debate over who is setting the national agenda.

As Florida schools look for ways to cover ever-rising transportation costs, two bills authorizing districts to sell bus advertising would seem to be a natural.

But, a negative analysis by the state Department of Education has the measures going nowhere fast.

The U.S. House siphoned the so-called "Gator Aid" provision out of one health-care bill, but that wasn't nearly enough for Florida business organizations. They remain adamantly opposed to anything that smacks of Obamacare.

The erstwhile proposal by Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., would allow senior citizens on Medicare Advantage to stay in the program.

Prior to Sunday's House vote, Nelson spokesman Dan McLaughlin said, "Of the one million or so Floridians participating in Medicare Advantage, about 800,000 are expected to be protected from possible cuts."