In the latest line of attack in his battle with U.S. Rep. Tom Price of Georgia to become Republican Policy Committee chairman, U.S. Rep. Connie Mack of Florida -- fifth in line in the congressional Republican leadership -- weighed in to support extending the tax cuts initiated by then-President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003. Mack sent a memo to all his Republican colleagues explaining the need for keeping the cuts.
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A day after naming Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, as president pro tempore and Sen. Andy Gardner, R-Orlando, as majority leader, incoming Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, named three more members of his leadership team.
With incoming Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merrit Island, naming his leadership team on Tuesday and Wednesday, Sen. Nan Rich of Weston, incoming Senate Democratic leader, announced the first selection of her team on Wednesday: Sen. Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa, will serve as Democratic leader pro tempore.
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More than a week after losing the gubernatorial race, state CFO Alex Sink unveiled an effort to better connect veterans in Florida to the benefits they are entitled to.
With more than 1.6 million veterans living in the Sunshine State, the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs (FDVA) has information on only 700,000 of them -- something Sink hopes will change with the new program.
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A day after naming Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, as president pro tempore and Sen. Andy Gardner, R-Orlando, as majority leader, incoming Senate President Mike Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, named three more members of his leadership team.
Haridopolos is keeping Sen. J. D. Alexander, R-Winter Haven, with financial issues, naming him chair of the Budget Committee. Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, will handle redistricting while Sen. John Thrasher, R-Jacksonville, will lead the Rules Committee.
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Our story about Supreme Court Justices Jorge Labarga and James Perry dodging the bullet at the ballot box this year confused at least one reader.
In an online comment about the article, the poster assumed that the tea party effort to unseat Labarga and Perry was the work of the Florida TEA (Taxed Enought Already) Party. In fact, the campaign was waged by mainstream, generic tea partiers and other conservative groups. The TEA Party, headed by Orlando attorney Fred O'Neal, opposed the effort and recommended retention of Labarga and Perry.
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Having held five events over the weekend, Second Amendment advocates continue to promote changing laws in Florida to allow citizens to openly carry holstered handguns. Open carry was legal in Florida until 1987 when Janet Reno, then an assistant state attorney in South Florida, lobbied the Legislature to ban the practice save in some situations -- namely hunting, fishing and at firing ranges.
The Janet Reno open carry ban will be repealed, said Sean Caranna of Florida Open Carry.
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Outgoing House Democratic Leader Franklin Sands will seek to replace Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Karen Thurman if she resigns, as some have encouraged her to do in the wake of brutal losses last week.
Gov. Charlie Crist, flanked by Attorney General Bill McCollum, Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink and Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles Bronson, presided over one of the last meetings of the Florida Cabinet Tuesday, tackling a jump in sinkhole claims and a proposed development in Polk County that led to a small flap with the Department of Community Affairs.
By appointing Mike Bennett his president pro tempore a mostly ceremonial jester of a job with a puffed-up title our incoming Senate president showed me hes one smart dude.
