Facing a well-funded Republican opponent with no extra help from his own party, Democrat Jim Roach has taken on what many consider a quixotic quest to represent the residents of Congressional District 19 in Southwest Florida.

A decorated Vietnam veteran and former GM engineer, the 60-year-old underdog says he understands the odds but still thinks he's got a shot to become the next congressman for the residents of the Republican stronghold district in Collier and Lee counties.

A controversial list of 2,600 allegedly illegal voters has been whittled to 207, Florida election officials said Wednesday after running the names through a federal immigration database.

Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner said the names, about 8 percent of the initial list, will be forwarded to local election officials as early as next week.

The revised list was released the same day as an agreement was announced between the state and voting rights groups over efforts to remove noncitizens and other ineligible voters from the ranks.

Citizens Property Insurance Corp. would offer $300 million in loans to encourage private companies to take policies out of the state-backed insurer under a plan unveiled Thursday that backers say could reduce Citizens' noncoastal ranks by a third.

The Citizens board of governors is scheduled to meet Friday to consider the plan aimed at reducing the ranks of state's largest property insurer, which now covers more than 1.4 million policies in some of the riskiest areas of the state.

Controversial "stand your ground" laws that have come into the spotlight since the shooting of Trayvon Martin have found their way into the Republican Party's national platform.

Nestled in the massive document, which outlines in minute detail the national party's agenda for the next four years, is a provision that expands earlier support for Second Amendment rights to specifically include self-defense outside the home.

"We support the fundamental right to self-defense wherever a law-abiding citizen has a legal right to be" the plank reads.

State health officials Friday said an effort to identify and contain an outbreak of tuberculosis within Jacksonville's homeless community has so far found a single active case and 311 non-infectious cases out of more than 3,000 people tested.

Six weeks after launching an aggressive push to contain a new strain of the contagious disease that has shown up in the region, Florida Surgeon General John Armstrong said more than 150 state and local health officials have descended on the city to screen potential carriers.

Gov. Rick Scott on Monday said Florida is poised to help its Gulf state neighbors as Tropical Storm Isaac appeared to spare much of the state from significant damage.

But the governor cautioned that the next 36 hours will be critical for residents of the far western Panhandle, who may face up to 18 inches of rain and tropical storm winds between late Monday night and sunrise Wednesday.

With 50,000 people expected to converge on the Tampa area in a matter of days, all eyes turned to the Caribbean this week as Tropical Storm Isaac churned its way toward Florida and the Republican National Convention.

Twenty years after Hurricane Andrew flattened the southern part of the state, Gov. Rick Scott met repeatedly with local reporters and national networks and repeated a mantra befitting the state's head cheerleader: Come to Florida, we can handle a little wind and rain.

Buoyed by relatively strong economies, especially in Latin America, overseas tourists flocked to Florida in recent months, with the number of foreign visitors jumping by 10 percent for the quarter ending June 30.

The year-to-year increase in overseas visitors came atop steady domestic travel numbers, a combination Florida's top tourism official said has put the state on track for a banner year.

Candidates scurried across their respective districts this week, putting the finishing touches on campaigns aimed at gaining their party's endorsement in this Tuesday's primaries.

In many cases, however, Tuesday's vote will determine the winner, with victors facing no opponent, or only token opposition, on Election Day, Nov. 6.