Rising conservative star Marco Rubio paid homage to President Ronald Reagan Tuesday when the Florida Republican senator spoke at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library as he continued a swing through California, raising his national profile and speculation that he is angling for the vice presidential spot on the 2012 Republican ticket.

Before giving the speech there was a little drama: Rubio came in with former first lady Nancy Reagan,now 90, who had a fall, and Floridas junior senator helped her recover.

Florida school districts are flooded with applications for new charter schools, motivated by several new laws that make it easier to start traditional and virtual charters.

Nearly 100 more new charter school applications have been filed for the 2012-13 school year than were filed at the same time last year --a 38 percent increase, according to statistics from the Department of Education.