It's often good fun and sometimes revealing to divide American history into distinct periods of uniform length.

Contending county election reform must start with leadership, state Rep. Gayle Harrell remains unimpressed by the state audit conducted on the election meltdown in St. Lucie County.

Now, with election supervisors due to testify over in the state Senate on Monday, she intends to seek more specific recommendations when a review of the states 2012 general election is released in a couple of weeks.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott and state health officials spent much of the week on their heels while the estimated price of the Affordable Care Act dropped faster than tree ornaments the day after Christmas.

What began Monday as a $26 billion millstone around the neck of Florida taxpayers was reduced eight-fold to a more manageable $3 billion expense after Agency for Health Care Administration officials fine-tuned their 10-year estimates for what expanding Medicaid would cost the state.