Rumors will continue to circulate with Media General's press release today, which confirmed that the company "is exploring the potential sale of newspaper operations." The statement said the company has received inquiries from "several third parties" regarding purchase of some of its papers. Media General owns 23 papers across the Southeast.

"We just felt as a company that it was time to issue a press release," Ray Kozakewicz, a spokesman for Media General, told CL this afternoon. "There's no pending transaction." He would not specify which properties the "third parties" were asking about.

He added that the information was released to let investors and employees know the latest about what was happening with the company. "It's come up several times on our conference calls, investor calls," he said.

Although Marco Rubio hasn't himself employed the kind of vitriolic language Bush criticizes, he also hasn't been very sympathetic to comprehensive immigration reform. He has criticized the DREAM Act, which puts him in the minority of the overwhelming amount of Hispanics who do (91 percent, according to the Pew Hispanic Center).

But because Rubio's a Cuban American whose brand continues to grow nationally, the mainstream media likes to check in with him on occasion to talk about "Hispanic issues," a discussion which always reverts to illegal immigration. The freshman Florida U.S. Senator talks with Time magazine reporter Michael Scherer in an interview now accessible online.

Whether or not he makes it to Tampa as the nominee, he still remains the best positioned candidate based on his fundraising and campaign infrastructure.

One noticeable difference between this time around and four years ago is how much money Romney is spending out of his own pocket this time around. The difference is pretty radical.

• Les Miller

Miller's plan was to have the BOCC allow citizens to vote on changing the current structure of the commission — four single-member seats and three at-large seats — to one in which there would be five single-member seats and just two-county wide. Arguing that Hillsborough is the largest county in the state with the fewest district seats, Miller said times had changed from when the charter was last revised in 1983.

But only the other Democrat on the board, Kevin Beckner, supported his proposal. All five Republicans voted it down.

Commissioner Mark Sharpe said he didn't like the idea of gerrymandering districts, though Miller denied that's what he was proposing. He added that Sharpe should ask colleagues Sandy Murman and Victor Crist about gerrymandering (they both formerly worked along with Miller in the state legislature). The proposed maps showing a new fifth single member district in fact were compact, hardly what congressional and legislative lines look like right now in Florida.

And apparently there's no indication it will be any different this year.

House Speaker Dean Cannon does not support the legislation, saying that he has personal liberty qualms about "any bill that regulates individual behavior," though critics note that he lacks such concerns when it comes to requiring women to undergo ultrasounds before having abortions.

A companion bill in the House sponsored by Sarasota Republican Ray Pilon has gone nowhere. It has yet to get a hearing by the House Transportation and Highway Safety Subcommittee, chaired by Brad Drake, who also opposes the measure.

Senate sponsor Nancy Detert from Sarasota tells the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that she hopes at least that the House can hear about the bill. "It's strictly texting. I’m not trying to take the cell phone out of your cold dead hand. I’m just saying stop weaving into my lane.”

• FCNL's Diane Randall

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta recently outlined a $525 billion budget for next year that would be the first step in a deficit-cutting plan that calls for a reduction in projected defense spending of $487 billion over 10 years.

And there are potentially even deeper cuts coming. The deficit-cutting super committee's failure last fall to come up with at least $1.2 trillion in savings means automatic, across-the-board cuts for defense and domestic programs beginning next January, which would mean an additional $492 billion reduction over a decade.

Many D.C. observers say they doubt such cuts will occur, but if Diane Randall has anything to say about it, they will.

Randall is executive secretary of the Friends Committee on National Legislation, which she calls "a Quaker lobby in the public interest." Her group is lobbying hard to see those defense cuts come through as currently laid out.