John O'Connor

Lawmakers and Gov. Rick Scott reached a compromise on $480 million in raises for teachers and other school workers.

The raises are part of a $74 billion spending plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

Districts will have flexibility in how the money is awarded based on local collective bargaining agreements.

Florida school districts will lose more than $85 million after President Obama and Congress failed to reach a compromise to avoid automatic federal budget cuts.

The cuts -- known as sequestration -- trim $85 billion for the military, schools, airports, national parks and other programs.

StateImpact Florida reporter John O'Connor spoke with WUSF's Craig Kopp about just how soon school districts will start feeling the pinch.

Citing his experience at many levels of education and his work on new, national Common Core standards, the State Board of Education unanimously chose Tony Bennett as Florida's next education commissioner.

Board members said there will be no learning curve for Bennett when he takes over in Florida.

"I think Tony's experience in being a teacher, a superintendent, a coach and a statewide elected leader brought a lot more real-time, real recent experience in terms of where we need to get to," said board member Kathleen Shanahan.

Florida’s economy presents a challenge to the two presidential candidates.

The state’s unemployment rate has fallen over the past year. And home prices in Tampa and Miami markets are starting to rebound.

President Obama is trying to argue that’s a good reason for his reelection.

Republican nominee Mitt Romney wants voters to think things would have been better if not for Obama.

First, they were sent to a hotel an hour's drive away from the convention.

And then, they were forgotten.

At least that's how the Florida Delegation feels after the buses failed to show to pick them up earlier today.

Delegates said it took almost three hours for the last of three buses to finally arrive around 2:30 p.m.

Meanwhile, they sweated in 90-degree heat in a tent outside the Innisbrook Resort. They didn't go inside because they thought the bus might arrive at any moment.

With thousands of out-of-town reporters expected this week, it’s inevitable Tampa gets reduced to a series of exotic stereotypes.

There’s the strippers.

And that Tampa is an anti-urbanism dystopia run by paranoid conservatives.

Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema has done some reconnoitering in the political convention hosts cities of Tampa and Charlotte and his conclusion is that "both are equally ... middle of the road" when it comes to dining.

But Seitsema found a few things to like in both cities.

Leading the list in Tampa is Bern's Steakhouse (duh). Sietsema says it is as much an institution in Tampa as the Supreme Court is in Washington, D.C.