TweetWASHINGTON — The biggest political story over the past week didn’t involve a bus tour, sordid tweets sent from a congressman’s account or even the posturing over whether to raise the nation’s debt ceiling. Instead, it was the no-thrills release of a 16-page report by the Census bureau, which underscored a massive paradigm shift in [...]

Tweet The Saint Petersburg Times editorial board: “Elections supervisors in five Florida counties are correct to refuse to implement the state’s new deeply flawed election law until the Justice Department determines whether the changes affect minority voting standards.”  Secretary of State Kurt Browning was improperly pushing Florida’s 67 elections supervisors to adapt to the new rules [...]

TweetCouple interesting things to watch for in this video: The sheriff’s deputy explains at the start that you can have signs at the event, but the signs have to be in “support.” The deputy says he’s there on official duty and just doing what he’s told, but never says who his orders came from. (The [...]

TweetWelfare recipients, mostly women with children, will now have to be drug-free to receive cash benefits under a bill signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott today. Under the new law, applicants for the benefits will have to pay for the drug tests but will get reimbursed if they are drug-free. If they’re not, their children [...]

Tweet Gov. Rick Scott campaigned against President Obama’s “failed stimulus” program – yet the freshman politician kept almost $370 million of the federal cash in the Florida budget he signed last week. Scott’s decision to keep the stimulus money stands out in a year when the governor touted record budget vetoes of up to $615 [...]

Tweet Former U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson — beloved by liberals, loathed by Republicans — sent an email today boasting he raised more than $36,000 in one day from 1,213 donors, the latest sign he’s planning a comeback. “For each one of you who gave, I know you gave for one reason: because I was the [...]

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Tweet“Lawmakers and governors have used a broom to balance Florida’s budget during the Great Recession, sweeping out $2.8 billion from 95 dedicated pots of money and using it to keep the state in the black.” Legislators admit it’s fundamentally dishonest. They say it’s necessary to deal with contingencies in bad years. “We’ve swept these trust [...]

Tweet Six months ago, in the wake of the wipeout midterm elections, moderate Florida Sen. Bill Nelson privately vented that President Barack Obama, weighed down by his health reform effort and muddled messaging, was “toxic” for Democrats back home. Yet Obama’s approval rating has surged from 42 percent to 51 percent in the past month, and Nelson [...]

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