By an 86-5 vote, the Senate passed the Minibus Appropriations bill, H.R. 5895 -- the Energy and Water, Legislative Branch and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act of 2019 -- at 6 p.m. Monday. And with it are two of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's amendments, both necessary to ensure the Everglades restoration plan will continue to be implemented, and implemented according to "the will of the Florida delegation."

Whoever said midterm elections lack enthusiasm hasn't been following the progress of the Florida Sunshine Summit. The Summit is the election season's main event -- its heart and soul, the excitement generator for Republican leadership across the state clear up until Aug. 28. And it all happens Thursday and Friday.

An email I received Thursday pointed out a glaring omission in my Wednesday column, "Russians Are Using Florida Environmental Groups to Manipulate the Energy Market." I think it deserves a public reply.

It sure helps when the board chairman of an agency charged with deciding whether your environmental impact plan meets muster is also your bought-and-paid-for consultant. So, approval worked out very nicely, thank you, for All Aboard Florida/Brightline.

There's a tangible money trail that links Vladimir Putin’s Russian government with U.S. environmental groups -- and, yes, some of those groups are in Florida. Why can't we find a word about it in the mainstream media?

Because the Left decrees environmentalists' motives are pure, they mustn't be questioned. And that's the truth of it. 

Yet, the Kremlin is, and has been for a long time, manipulating environmental groups to smash the oil and gas industries in the U.S. and return America to its dependency on foreign products.  

California, probably the only state whose cuckoo complex can rival Florida's, this week came up with the granddaddy of all OMG ballot proposals.

Philip Levine really should stop touting his "successful" police reforms in Miami Beach. He doesn't have any.

There has to be a better way to find good leaders for Florida than riding the checkbook of another self-financing, mouthy millionaire or -- in Jeff Greene's case -- billionaire.

Jim Bleyer painted a grim picture of a debt-ridden, fast-sinking and wildly unethical Tampa Bay Times Tuesday on his blog site, Tampa Bay Beat.

Right on schedule, state Sens. Linda Stewart, D-Orlando, and Kevin Rader, D-Delray Beach -- water carriers for a giddy Florida Democratic Party -- have called for a special Senate investigation of Concealed Carrygate.