Once a ubiquitous and tanned presence in Florida politics, Charlie Crist still has a job in politics, but it looks sadly as if he's dropped to the bottom rung of political power. 

Washington D.C. has been slightly abuzz over the missing FBI texts story. Reportedly, upwards of 50,000 text messages mandated to be stored were supposedly missing. (They have since been “located.”) To discuss the Strzok/Page controversy, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz sat in with CNN’s Chris Cuomo. After some sober and solid points, the interview took on a surreal tone.

As part of a nationwide investigation into the employment legality of workers, the Trump administration this week instigated a concentrated effort targeting 7-Eleven convenience stores. Five locations in South Florida have been visited, as well as two others in the Vero Beach area, part of a larger nationwide effort.

Florida was preparing for an influx of some 100,000 Puerto Rican refugees after Hurricane Maria. But two months after the monster storm paralyzed virtually anything normal about life on the island, Puerto Rican arrivals in the Sunshine State have already exceeded 200,000 -- and the surge is continuing.

The race for the seat being vacated by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s retirement has drawn a two-party crowd, but it's less by one now that Raquel Regalado has announced she is pulling herself out of contention. 

Rick Scott, two-time governor of Florida facing his term-limit year, has submitted his final state budget. And what a striking departure from his previous annual spending proposals it is. This time Scott is calling for a budget increase of $2.4 billion over 2017's. 

It's an annual rite in Palm Beach. President Trump’s exclusive Mar-a-Lago opens for the winter season, and in preparation, there's the hiring of new staff.

There’s a chink in Orlando trial lawyer John Morgan’s reputation as Florida’s champion for the $15 minimum wage.

You have to question when a law enforcement division has a hard time tracking down a visible politician. Beleaguered former state and U.S. Rep. David Rivera is sought by the U.S. Marshals Office, looking to serve him with papers in relation to a campaign finance lawsuit. Rivera, who claims ignorance to this attempt, managed to elude the officers -- though he couldn't have been hiding in plainer sight.