Attorney General Pam Bondi is rarely out of the news. Her name was among those that surfaced amid speculation about Gov. Rick Scott's next lieutenant governor after Jennifer Carroll resigned. She's nationally known for Florida's lead role in a 26-state lawsuit against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. And she's following a full slate of legislation, in some cases for the third year.

Senate budget chief Joe Negron also chairs his chamber's Select Committee on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. He was the Senate's budget vice chair for the last two years and had held the top budget spot in the House. It's all readying the Stuart Republican for his anticipated run at the Senate presidency for 2015-16.

The controversial "stand your ground" self-defense law would be repealed under a bill filed this week by a House Democrat.

The law, which allows those who feel threatened to shoot back at assailants out in public, seized the national spotlight last year with the February shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Sanford.

Rep. Alan Williams, D-Tallahassee, filed the measure (HB 4009) on Wednesday.

Nearly two years after Nubia Barahona's gruesome death at the hands of her adoptive parents, the state Department of Children and Families on Wednesday held what amounted to the grand re-opening of the Florida Abuse Hotline.

DCF Secretary David Wilkins showed reporters through the statewide call center and explained the improvements the 10-year-old girl's death inspired a revamped system that quickly researches a family's history and sends crucial data to child protective investigators.

Rep. Matt Hudson, R-Naples, represents District 101 in the Florida House of Representatives. His district spans the state from I-75 in Collier County to Pembroke Pines on the east coast. He was elected in 2007 in a special election to fill the unexpired term of the late Mike Davis, whom he considered a friend and mentor.

As chair of the House Health Care Appropriations Subcommittee, Hudson is the top health care budget writer in the House and will have to deal with all the difficulties that come with that.