Rep. Bill Hager

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File photo

Brody's car after A BSO deputy swerved into it in March 1998.

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Warning: Not for use by people who plan to ever drive a car.

SB 1810 is sitting in several Florida Senate committees and would revise the state's law regarding driving under the influence in several ways: It changes the name of the offense from "driving under the influence" to "driving while impaired" and adds provisions for blood and urine testing, which sound like relatively minor changes when you consider the big change: what authorities are testing for.More >>

"Hey, you take your giant casino drawings and you GET OUT OF TOWN, MISTER."

​The Florida House bill that would grant three licenses to developers looking to build South Florida resorts has been killed, at least for the time being. The House Business and Consumer Affairs committee postponed a vote rather than voting it down, which theoretically keeps the bill alive but makes it extremely unlikely it will go anywhere this legislative session.More >>

Kim Sargent

Bill Koch says Romney is friendly to coal mining.

​Six months ago, Bill Koch's spokesman told us the Palm Beach billionaire's political allegiances were "hard to pin down." Unlike Tea Party sugar daddies Charles and David Koch, "Wild Bill" was the Koch brother who supported more traditional Republican candidates and liked to fly under the radar. Sure, he was a member of Mitt Romney's Florida fundraising team, but by August, he had donated only a total of $165,000 to GOP candidates throughout the country.

Well, times have changed. From September through December, Koch and his energy company, Oxbow Carbon, donated a cool $1 million to Mitt Romney's super PAC, Restore Our Future. That's an undeniably large chunk of cash, putting Koch in a high-rolling category with just six other donors to the PAC.
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"What IS it with people noticing I'm crazy?"

​A cell phone company is jumping into the fight for District 22.

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Our theory: Rubio and Gingrich hit it off so well because they go to the same barber.

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Toddlers for Rick Scott.

​With the way campaign-financing laws are going these days, this may not even be surprising -- the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and a 17-year-old girl from Boca Raton are challenging a state law that prohibits minors from giving as much money to state and local political candidates as adults and corporations can.

According to the ACLU, the girl, Julie Towbin, got locked out of a Palm Beach County Democratic Executive Committee fundraising dinner last year because the $150 ticket price may have violated the state law limiting youngsters' political contributions to $100 (adults and corporations can donate up to $500 per candidate).

"The law goes overboard by restricting my ability to access the political process, effectively support candidates for office, and express my views as others do," Towbin says through the ACLU. "The state is violating a right guaranteed to me by the First Amendment -- the right to engage in political speech."

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Les gusta.

​Though a Rasmussen poll released Monday showed Newt Gingrich well ahead of the rest of the Republican presidential field, a Univision/ABC News poll released this morning revealed Florida's Latino voters overwhelmingly favor former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Of those polled, 49 percent went for Romney; Gingrich got 23 percent, and the ABC News piece leaves out how many went for Rick Santorum or Ron Paul. Everyone in the race, however, trails among Latinos to one other candidate -- Barack Obama.More >>

The before and after.

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Remember the ditzy-sounding actress Victoria Jackson? You probably know her as Saturday Night Live's worst cast member of all time. Or if you can remember black-and-white TV, you might recall her fairly ridiculous standup routines on the Tonight Show.

Well, if that's all you know of Victoria Jackson, you might not recognize her now. This week's cover story in New Times is on Jackson's rebirth as a far-right pundit. Now a regular on Fox News, the South Florida resident spouts religious-right talking points like: "I think there's a spiritual war in our country right now... and I want to encourage people who love the word of God to stand up for what they believe in."

For more, click here to read a story in which New Times reporter Gus Garcia-Roberts takes a ride in Jackson's beat-up Honda and visits her Miami Shores home. Or click "more" for a video compilation of the new and old Jackson.More >>