Florida

Two pieces of legislation proposed in Lee County, Fla., might give parents the power to review and fire underperforming school staff, while teachers will have to grade how parents are doing too.

The Parent Empowerment Act, also known as House Bill 1191, would allow parents to analyze how the school staff, including teachers and administrators are doing, and create a reform plan which, with enough signatures, can remove teachers and administrators from their position and move their children into virtual classrooms if their teacher has a low rating. The bill would even give parents the power to turn the school over to a charter company, Wink News reported.

"The more we can do to empower parents and give them tools to enhance their children's education, the better outcomes we're going to get," said Rep. Michael Bileca, one of the co-sponsors of the bill. more >>

Most evangelical Republicans in Florida believe that Mormons are not Christian, but they also find Mitt Romney an acceptable nominee for the Republican Party.

According to a recent NBC/Marist Poll in Florida, 62 percent of evangelicals likely to vote in Tuesday's primary say that members of the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints are not Christian. Only 40 percent of the full sample believe the same.

When asked who they would vote for, more evangelicals chose Romney (34 percent), a Mormon, than any other candidate. more >>

Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich recently suggested that he would win the Florida primary against Mitt Romney if Rick Santorum dropped out of the race. A recent poll indicates this is not the case. The poll also shows that Romney gets strong support among conservatives, Tea Party supporters and evangelicals.

"The fact is, when you combine the Santorum vote and the Gingrich vote ... the conservative combined would clearly beat Romney," Gingrich said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

A recent NBC/Marist poll shows that if Santorum dropped out of the Florida primary his supporters would not "combine" with Gingrich, who trails Romney by about 15 percentage points in Florida. Romney would get the same amount of support (35 percent) as Gingrich (36 percent) among those whose first choice is Santorum (margin of error is 4.4 percentage points). (Sixteen percent would support Ron Paul and 14 percent would be undecided.) more >>

Rick Santorum's daughter has made a "miraculous turnaround," according to the Republican presidential candidate, who shared news of her condition at a tele-town hall on Sunday night.

Isabella, or "Bella," as the family calls her, suffers from a rare and serious genetic disorder, called Trisomy 18, that kills about 90 percent of children before or during birth, ABC News reported.

The former Pennsylvania senator has been forced to cancel appearances during the weekend so that he can tend to his daughter in the hospital, a decision which former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin highly praised and described as a "Christ-like" example. more >>

New York City authorities continue their fight to publicly disclose the cause and manner of death of Zachery Tims, the former senior pastor of New Destiny Christian Center (NDCC) in Apopka, Fla. Tims' August death remains a mystery to the public as the legal battle between the minister's family and the City continues.

The lawyers representing New York City and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) claimed in paperwork filed Friday, Jan. 27 that the minister's mother, Madeline Tims, acting as the representative of Tims' estate, has no legal standing to prevent officials from releasing the information on the cause of the pastor's death.

The medical examiner's office had planned to publicly disclose the minister's cause and manner of death months ago, but was prevented from doing so when Tims' family sued in October to keep that information private. In December, Manhattan State Supreme Court Judge Cynthia S. Kern ruled the medical examiner's office has legal standing the to release Tims' cause of death, as there is no specific law prohibiting it from doing so. In response, on Jan. 11, Madeline Tims appealed Kern's decision, therefore temporarily preventing the City from making that information public. more >>

The new campus of LifeChurch.tv in Wellington, Fla., cost $6 million and yet it is under no financial strain thanks to the megachurch's members from across the country who showed "irrational generosity" in the face of a bad economy.

About 700 people will attend the third worship service on Sunday at the new 32,500-square-foot campus on State Road 7 south of The Mall at Wellington Green. As Oklahoma-based LifeChurch.tv's founder and Senior Pastor Craig Groeschel delivers a sermon via satellite, there won't be any appeals for funds for the new facility.

The megachurch, known for its innovative ways of reaching out to people, draws about 40,000 attendees across the country and they responded to Groeschel's call for donations during previous weeks. more >>