BEN WOLFORD

Special report: Scenes of the recession have dominated the narrative of the 2012 election cycle since the candidates lined up. Now, indications of a recovering economy are emerging in Florida, changing the narrative and potentially dulling the edge of challengers ...

Opponents of Internet cafés say the establishments expose a loophole in state gaming laws. Patrons pay to use a computer game that resembles a slot machine, which reveals whether they have won a sweepstakes. To critics, that sounds too much ...

The Department of Economic Opportunity said Friday that unemployment in Florida dipped to 9.4 percent in February — its lowest number in three years. The report also noted that 10,100 new jobs were created.

President Obama leads both former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum in polling of voters in Florida, according to a Quinnipiac University Polling Institute survey released Wednesday.

Clerk of Court offices throughout Florida along with hospitals, universities and school districts have learned of cuts, both shallow and deep, in a $70 billion state budget. Florida's public sector must be more frugal next fiscal year, local officials said ...

A streamlined-foreclosure bill and a bid to give parents more power over schools appeared dead among hundreds of other casualties as the regular legislative session wore on Friday night. However, a Health De

The Florida Supreme Court has rejected the state Senate's plan to redistrict itself but has upheld the House's map.

Just seven areas in the state meet new specific criteria, and two of them are in Collier County: the Ave Maria Stewardship District, which provides infrastructure to the development, and the Big Cypress Stew

Lawmakers in Tallahassee this year are steps away from enacting the first major streamline to the state's foreclosure process in nearly 20 years. Rep. Kathleen Passidomo, a Naples real estate attorney, said her bill, HB 213, will prod lenders to ...

Several Democrats said Rep. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, convinced them her bill actually protects consumers. The passage was a major success for the first-term Republican.

TALLAHASSEE — A few dozen Floridians converged in Tallahassee on Thursday for one reason: homeowner rights.

TALLAHASSEE — A sweeping Florida Department of Health overhaul pioneered by Naples Rep. Matt Hudson may be in peril after a Senate panel Thursday passed a scaled back measure that left out Hudson’s most dramatic provisions.

TALLAHASSEE — A bill passed the Florida House on Wednesday that would would ease the tax burden for oil companies that attempt to drill in old wells in eastern Collier County.

The bill — sponsored by Reps. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, and Greg Steube, R-Sarasota — aims to put houses back on the market faster by expediting Florida’s foreclosure process, which is among the slowest in the nation.

Mitt Romney performed even better in Southwest Florida this year than he did in the 2008 GOP primary, sweeping up solid majorities of the hotly contested Collier and Lee county vote.

Florida voters saw a flurry of campaign activity in the past week, building toward today’s GOP primary vote. The vote, Gingrich said, was a choice between “people power” and “money power,” a reference to the

Newt Gingrich landed at Page Field this afternoon greeted by 400 supporters and joined by Herman Cain and Michael Reagan, son of President Ronald Reagan. The former House Speaker came to Southwest Florida as part of a daylong tour across ...

Rubbing shoulders with prominent Southwest Floridians, Mitt Romney blasted rival Newt Gingrich and proclaimed himself a champion for American exceptionalism in a final appeal to Naples supporters Sunday.

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney will stump Sunday afternoon at the Sugden Plaza on Fifth Avenue South in downtown Naples. The stop comes along a weekend campaign sweep through the Panhandle and parts of s

About 6,000 people turned out, some children hanging from trees, for the Gingrich rally, delayed an hour by a late Fort Myers stop. Organizers said it was the largest crowd ever gathered at the park.

The chair of the House subcommittee on health-care spending says the budget he will unveil Tuesday will not include Gov. Rick Scott’s proposed Medicaid reforms. Rep. Matt Hudson of Naples did not say Friday

“I spent $20,000 on dog racing because the law says they have to race,” said Weber, whose investment return is now tied to a bill moving through the Legislature that would end a state mandate coupling greyho

TALLAHASSEE — To save about $900 million, the Department of Corrections will close seven prisons and four work camps by June, including Hendry Work Camp in Immokalee.

Connie Mack's Senate campaign announced this morning it had raised $758,395 in his first quarter of fundraising and has nearly $1 million on hand.

Hudson, who chairs a key appropriations committee, had been reticent on Gov. Rick Scott's proposed $1.85 billion reduction in Medicaid reimbursements. But during and after a meeting of the Health Care Appropriations Subcommittee, he skewered the idea of forfeiting more ...

Minutes after the commencement of the 2012 legislative session, Gov. Rick Scott redelivered an ultimatum on education funding, asking for a big increase without raising taxes.

The EB-5 investment visa program was created as an economy booster by Congress in 1990. Some who run regional centers that funnel investments into projects, say the risk is too high for investors, who are left utterly without protection. Others ...

Florida's unemployment fell to its lowest mark in 31 months in November but 10 percent of the workforce remained jobless.

The consolidation, approved last week, shrinks the number of precincts in Collier County from 94 to 62, and reduces the number of polling sites from 82 to 60. It will affect the Jan. 31 presidential preferen

Recent visits to several Collier schools appear to have doused the Republican governor with cold realities of education and its importance for the state’s workforce, Southwest Florida educators said.

TALLAHASSEE — As legislators renew a push to slash dog racing requirements from state law, animal rights activists released a report today highlighting extreme cases of greyhound abuse.

The father of a child reported abducted from his mother's California home is pursuing paternity rights in Collier County, adding a third party to those who have sought guardianship of the 12-year-old boy.

Speaking Thursday to the Tiger Bay Club of Southwest Florida, Goodlette doubted a questioner’s speculation that the White House would try to influence congressional redistricting. But, he said, “there’s always going to be politics in the process. I don’t think ...

Three days after a state Senate committee released two proposed redistricting maps, former state Rep. Dudley Goodlette praised the maps and said the public participation in the process has been "unprecedented."

He posed for photos and met personally with a few “VIP” guests before speaking generally to as many as 200 supporters about jobs and the economy, according to attendees spilling from the club’s parking lot i

U.S. Rep. Connie Mack on Tuesday defended his decision to announce his U.S. Senate candidacy on national television, rather than in a local news conference.

Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney will solicit more support in Naples on Tuesday as part of a multi-stop fundraising swing through Florida.

Rebutting accusations that he supports amnesty for some illegal immigrants, Gingrich told a packed room at Hilton Naples that "some of my friends thought they would articulate alternative versions of what I said that weren't exactly what I said." "I ...

Public-private partnerships have become an attractive solution for hard-up government agencies because they invite creative financing methods that ease the taxpayer burden, experts said. And with budget cuts affecting all levels of government, it could be a way to stimulate ...

Griffin Perry, the baby-faced son of square-jawed Texas Gov. Rick Perry, pocketed his hands as he entered the Calistoga Bakery Cafe in North Naples on Sunday and settled in to chat with a handful of supporters who knew he was ...

By announcing its intentions, the Lee County dog track wades deeper into a statewide battle over gaming, and it joins three other Florida pari-mutuels taking advantage of a court ruling that upheld any count

Collier County's unemployment rate dropped, as well, to 10.7 percent — down from 11.4 percent in September and 12.3 a year ago. Lee County's jobless rate fell 0.6 percent from September.

“There was a lot of interest, but there were very few early commitments” from sponsors, said Dolly Roberts, executive director of Searching for Solutions Institute, Inc., the event’s nonprofit.

Congressman Connie Mack IV hasn't entered the Senate race and he's already jumped ahead of the field in a new poll.

This morning was the start of a long school day for Gov. Rick Scott. He is playing teacher on his sixth stop working regular jobs across the state.

NAPLES — Donald Rumsfeld came to town, and Republicans flocked.

News that Rep. Connie Mack is running for the U.S. Senate rocked the Republican field Thursday and ignited local speculation over his abandoned congressional re-election bid.

It would directly affect Seminole Casinos, including the one in Immokalee, by stripping the tribe’s monopoly on games like roulette and blackjack. And it clouds the future of the Naples-Fort Myers Greyhound Track. “It’s not going to be long for ...

Pushing his new jobs agenda, Gov. Rick Scott toured the heavy equipment mechanics wing of the Immokalee Technical Center this morning while his staff passed out placards listing his "seven initiatives."

The North Naples man accused of fleeing the scene after fatally hitting a sign holder was ordered held on $500,000 bail Wednesday in Collier County Court.