Gov. Rick Scott signed a $70 billion budget this week as he touted new money for education, but wielded more than $142 million in vetoes for projects he said the state can't afford.
Facing a budget that had already been cut after successive years of tough economic times, the governor's veto pen used less ink this time, as he marked out far less than the $600 million he axed a year ago.
Two years after an explosion killed 11 workers and sent oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, BP has paid nearly $2.7 billion in claims to Florida businesses and individuals for damages caused by the worst spill in U.S. history.
A $2 million veto by Gov. Rick Scott will mean fewer attorneys to represent low-income residents through foreclosure proceedings, domestic violence hearings and consumer fraud cases, legal aid officials and a top Democrat lamented Wednesday.
Even before he began rallying for contributions after calling 80 progressive Democrats communists, Rep. Allen West was among the national leaders in the fundraising pack for the quarter ending March 31, according to documents filed with federal election officials.
With $1.8 million in contributions for the first three months of 2012, West has positioned himself among the best-heeled candidates in the nation for the 2012 election cycle, having raised more money in his re-election bid than all but two House members, putting him seventh among all 535 members of Congress.
The national debate over guns, racial profiling and Florida's controversial self-defense law continued this week as murder charges were brought against a neighborhood watch volunteer who shot and killed a 17-year-old black teenager.
National news networks all went live as Special Prosecutor Angela Corey ended weeks of speculation by announcing Wednesday that 31-year-old George Zimmerman would face second-degree murder charges for the death of Trayvon Martin, whose shooting in a gated community in Sanford has sparked a national furor.
Players in the ongoing fight over casino gambling and one of the state's biggest medical insurance providers led the list of heavy donors to the Republican Party of Florida, which raked in more than $3.1 million for the first three months of 2012.
Meanwhile, unions and health-care interests helped fill coffers at the Florida Democratic Party, which collected $1.2 million for the quarter ending March 31, according to reports filed with the Florida Division of Elections within the Department of State.
Characterized over the past several years as a place from which people move, Southeast Florida has seen a new mini-boom in population growth following a decade of contraction, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday.
Between 2010 and 2011, 92,045 residents moved to the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach area, a 1.7 percent increase. The region boasted the sixth largest increase in the country, according to data compiled by the Census Bureau in the first major revision to the 2010 Census.
The circuit judge's ruling invalidating the state's 3 percent employee pension contribution requirement will be decided directly by the Florida Supreme Court.
In a short memo, the 1st District Court of Appeal said it would not rule on the decision by Circuit Judge Jackie Fulford that invalidated a state law passed last year that requires employees to pay 3 percent of their salaries toward their retirement plans.
Sharkey's restaurant had just gone back to regular hours in the Capitol when lawmakers returned again this week to redraw political boundaries stricken a week earlier by the state's highest court.
Though not likely to draw the crowds that kept the 10th floor coffee bar pumping espresso at a Neapolitan clip, the special session on reapportionment did its part to extend the capitol's busy season, assuring another week of more people in suits than kids in school groups.
