With Gov. Charlie Crist leaving the Republican Party on Thursday to continue his campaign for the U.S. Senate as an independent, he can find little comfort in Florida history:

Former Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre has filed paperwork in Tallahassee for his campaign for the Democratic nomination for the U.S Senate election.

While the Ferre campaign has raised $130,000, including $20,000 from a loan, the campaign had less than $3,500 cash on hand at the end of the first quarter of 2010. This is a fraction of the funds that Ferres chief rival for the Democratic nomination, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, has raised. Meek had more than $3.7 million cash on hand at the end of the same period.

The Florida Senate discussed adding another proposed amendment on redistricting to the November ballot on Wednesday -- with Amendment 7 looking to join Amendments 5 and 6 to face the voters judgment.

With the House passing a similar measure Monday, senators from both parties fought to have a proposed amendment mandating the state follow federal guidelines during redistricting at both the congressional and state levels.

The House sprinted toward the end of the legislative session Wednesday, tackling almost 120 legislative items in an lengthy meeting that extended through most of the day.

The House will be set to vote on the budget after 2:59 p.m. Friday in accordance with the mandate that there need to be at least 72 hours between the publication of the budget and the final vote on it.

An event in front of the Capitol to honor Florida Fitness Day ended suddenly Wednesday when an 11-year-old boy fainted in front of the podium.

Though the child was all right, the situation was tense. Besides fainting and hitting his head on the pavement, he lay on the ground for several minutes.

During the House session Tuesday afternoon, staffers placed copies of the 2010-11 budget on representatives desks -- unveiling a state budget that rose from $66.5 billion last year to almost $70.4 billion, an increase of more than 5 percent.

At more than 400 pages long, the final agreement in the Legislature cost Florida taxpayers more than any budget in the states history -- and more than any of the three initial budgetary proposals.

Leaders in the House and Senate agreed to a $69 billion, no-new-taxes budget following an 11 p.m. conferencing meeting Monday. After the mandatory 72-hour waiting period, it will head to a vote Friday.

With more than 70 bills on the calendar when it convened, the House kicked off the last week of the legislative session by meeting all day Monday and focused on redistricting measures that Floridians will vote on in November.

The House voted to add a new constitutional amendment measure on redistricting, joining two other measures already on the ballot. Introduced by Rep. Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange, the amendment would have the state follow existing federal guidelines when creating new congressional and legislative districts. The measure passed on a 74-42 vote.

Leaders of planning and environmental groups from across the state met at the steps of the Old Capitol on Monday in a last-minute effort to push the House to reauthorize the Florida Department of Community Affairs (DCA). The DCA manages growth and development and land use across the state.

With Kendrick Meek leaving Congress to run for the U.S. Senate, a crowd of candidates has jumped into the Democratic primary to take his place.

Including Pembroke Pines, Miramar, North Miami and North Miami Beach, the district was 55 percent African American and 21 percent Hispanic as of the last federal census. The district also contains some of the largest Haitian communities in the nation, and almost 40 percent of the district was born outside the United States.