The battle over political boundaries is heating up, with Democratic-leaning labor unions and trial attorneys helping to stoke the fire.

Fair Districts Florida, which collected enough signatures to place Amendment 5 on the Nov. 2 ballot, wants to re-engineer how legislative and congressional districts are drawn in the state.

If approved by 60 percent of the voters, the measure would:

The decades-long drive to save the Everglades isn't purely an environmental exercise. Skeptics say it's really about the money.

Three bills governing red-light cameras appear to be on a collision course.

Two bills authorizing the use of cameras -- HB 325 and its companion, SB 294 -- cleared their committees with just one dissenting vote.

HB 1235, which would prohibit camera use for the purpose of levying fines, passed its first committee Wednesday on a 7-5 vote, with two lawmakers absent.

A plan to break up the state Department of Management Services is being called a "rational reorganization" or, in less glowing terms, "rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic."

Senate Bill 1238 would disperse the 1,266-employee DMS by shifting many of its functions into the Department of Financial Services, while creating a new Agency for Asset Management to be housed temporarily under the Department of Environmental Protection.

Beleaguered condominium associations, weighed down by foreclosed units and delinquent owners, are seeking relief from renters.

At least five bills before the Florida Legislature contain provisions that would empower associations to collect past, present and future fees from tenants.

If President Barack Obama can use federal stimulus dollars in an effort to kick-start the economy, Florida lawmakers figure they can use selected tax credits to save jobs in Florida's space industry.

Two bills -- SB 1526 and HB 133 -- would establish credits against corporate income tax for companies that create, or provide investments, for spaceflight projects.

After the Florida Legislature gets through this session, and does whatever it must to fill a $3 billion budget gap, what then?

Lawmakers may congratulate themselves on not raising taxes, but several big initiatives will be left undone or unrealized.

EDITOR'S NOTE:
From education and Medicaid, to personnel and paper clips, ideas for shaping and reforming Florida's state budget are examined in this five-part Sunshine State News series.

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Lawmakers will have to correct Gov. Charlie Crist's fuzzy math if they have any hope of balancing the budget based on his K-12 spending plan.

Boosting the public schools' outlays to $22.7 billion, Crist keeps education as the single biggest item in the state budget. But, while touting a $175 increase in per-pupil spending, the governor has no firm plan to pay for it.