Florida's Grapefruit League is lagging in the attendance race this year, losing its once-formidable lead to Arizona's Cactus League.

Since holding a 22-8 advantage in Major League Baseball Spring Training sites in 1998, Florida is now tied with the desert venue at 15 teams apiece and attendance has flattened accordingly.

Despite a reminder from the governor that he doesn't like the bill, a Senate committee on Wednesday pushed through a plan to allow property insurance companies to raise rates without regulatory approval.

Passage of the measure in the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee followed testy exchanges between members of the divided panel, hostile questions of an insurance company lobbyist and state regulatory officials, and a vote against allowing actual debate on the bill before a vote.

During the Bush years, the news media were the promoters of protest, the champions of dissent. Denouncing the president as a brain-damaged warmonger was the most patriotic thing you could do (just ask the Dixie Chicks), and it was guaranteed to please the press.

Health care continued to dominate the Florida Legislature Wednesday -- this time with nurse practitioners demanding to be able to write prescriptions.

More than 300 nurse practitioners rallied at the Capitol to lobby for legislation that would allow them to prescribe medicines. Florida and Alabama are the only two states in the nation that don't allow nurse practitioners to prescribe controlled medicine.

Bills in the House and Senate would change the law. But, neither has much of a chance of passing during the session.