Florida’s Republican leadership in the House of Representatives has banned the word “uterus” from the House floor. So Uterus has joined Facebook, hoping to find some friends to say there’s nothing nasty or ‘inappropriate’ with “uterus.”

House Speaker Dean Cannon said Thursday that a House budget proposal that would cut the number of attorneys who work at the Supreme Court in half wasn’t part of his effort to rein in a court he says has overstepped its bounds in recent years, but a realistic idea in a year when the state [...]

Rebuilding Tampa Bay Together just sent out this urgent appeal: Dear Friends, Supporters and Volunteers of Rebuilding Together Tampa Bay Today, one of our targeted neighborhoods in need of residential repairs and rehab was hit by a tornado. Progress Village’s low income residents are devastated by the amount of damage in the their homes and [...]

During a debate about a Senate proposal to cut the budget for Rick Scott’s security detail, Senator Mike Fasano reportedly suggested that security might need to be beefed up because of “some of the decisions coming out of” the Capitol.  From the Buzz: Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, attempted an amendment to restore it. Senate [...]

The Florida Children’s Services Council (FCSC) Board of Directors announced Brittany Birken, Ph.D., as the organization’s new chief executive officer.  Dr. Birken is currently the Director of the Office of Early Learning at the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation (AWI).  She will assume her new post with the FCSC on July 1, 2011. “Brittany is [...]

State Representative Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, issued remarks today as Co-Prime Sponsor with Rep. Janet Adkins, R-Fernandina Beach, as CS/HB 39 passed the House. This bill outlaws certain synthetic cannabinoids such as “K2” and “spice” which have appeared all over the state.   Representative Rouson agrees that one of the many dangerous of substance abuse is that it begins at a [...]

Carl Littlefield, who abruptly resigned from his job as director of the Agency for Persons with Disabilities late last month, has been hired by the Department of Children and Families reports Christine Jordan Sexton. The decision by DCF to rehire Littlefield came shortly after he sent an e-mail to a top aide to Gov. Rick Scott saying he was [...]

From Public Policy Polling: It doesn’t look like Florida will be losing its status as one of the most competitive states in the country at the Presidential level next year- voters in the state are almost evenly divided on Barack Obama’s job performance and although he leads all six of the Republicans we tested him [...]

Bipartisan opposition has arisen in the Florida House to a Republican-backed proposal that breaks Florida’s commitment to provide a dedicated source of funding for cancer research. Late Thursday in the House Appropriations Committee, two Republicans — Reps. William Proctor (R-St. Augustine) and Marti Coley(R-Marianna) – joined Democrats in opposing a bill sponsored by Rep. Matt [...]

A coalition of affordable housing advocates is urging the Senate to drop a proposal that would permanently redirect real estate transaction tax revenue from the Sadowski Housing Trust Fund to General Revenue, reports the News Service of Florida. The section of the proposed bill (SB 7200) would cripple affordable housing efforts, the advocates say. “Permanently [...]