Five of today’s top Florida political stories at your fingertips:

Florida schools get ready for flood of border kids: With more than 51,000 unaccompanied Central American children already here, and more expected to come, school officials ask the federal government for a helping hand. Border kids costs more to educate, about $1,900 per head. Teachers must be bilingual. The students will need health care and psychological services because many arrive sick and traumatized by things they’ve seen and experienced on their journeys north. Daisy Gonzalez-Diego, communications officer at the Miami-Dade County Public School, said up until now, the school district have relied on their emergency funds to help cover the costs. Read more

Jeb Bush on border: Send the kids home: Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says in a new op-ed that the vast majority of children who have crossed the border illegally must be sent back home, and he called on House Republicans to take action on immigration reform. “Now is the time for House Republicans to demonstrate leadership on this issue,” Bush wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Wednesday evening that he co-authored with Clint Bolick of the Goldwater Institute. “Congress should not use the present crisis as an excuse to defer comprehensive immigration reform.” Read more

IRS investigating a 537 consulting-related, tax-violations complaint against Annette Taddeo: The Internal Revenue Service is processing a complaint against Annette Taddeo, gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist’s running mate, for alleged violations of tax law involving employees, including failure to pay tax and failure to withhold tax, while she was chairwoman of the Miami-Dade Democratic Executive Committee. The federal agency has had the complaint, filed on an “Information Referral” Form 3949 A, since October 2013. Read more

Florida judge skeptical about fixing map now: A Florida judge said Thursday that he’s “extremely skeptical” about changing the state’s congressional districts before the 2014 elections. During a three-hour hearing that included echoes of past Florida courtroom clashes over elections, lawyers argued over how soon a new congressional map should be drawn up. Circuit Judge Terry Lewis earlier this month threw out Florida’s current congressional map, saying it is illegal because districts were drawn to benefit the Republican Party. Read more

Brazen Wasserman Schultz called out for being flat wrong: ‘That’s OK. That’s not even the point’: Big Dem attack dog Debbie Wasserman Schultz was barking up the wrong tree. During an appearance this week on a political talk show in Nevada to discuss the court perils facing Obamacare, the Florida congresswoman and chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee cited Nevada’s Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval as being one of the many state leaders who declined to participate in a state-run insurance exchange. Read more

Bonus: Average net worth of Fla lawmakers at least $1.2-mil

For more Florida political news, visit BPR’s FLORIDA NEWS page

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Tom Tillison

Senior Staff Writer
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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.

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