While he no longer chairs the U.S. House Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) Appropriations Subcommittee, U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., helped craft the THUD funding bill that cleared Congress this week as lawmakers looked to avoid another federal shutdown. 

Diaz-Balart weighed in on what the THUD Appropriations Subcommittee, now chaired by U.S. Rep. David Price, D-NC, put together. 

The last four Scott-appointed Governing Board members had come to Thursday's South Florida Water Management District meeting with something to say. And boy, did they say it.

I came away a greater fan at noon than I was at 9 a.m. when the meeting started.

Michael Minardi, the general counsel for Florida NORML, unloaded on a House committee this week over the state’s ban on smoking medical marijuana.

Minardi, whose website proclaims he’s “The Gold Standard of the Green Industry,” joined other medical-marijuana smoking proponents in urging the House Health & Human Services Committee to pass a bill that would eliminate the ban.