Senate President Jeff Atwater

Inside his spacious Capitol office, Senate President Jeff Atwater lost his cool as he worked feverishly to save major rail projects and keep a special legislative session from becoming a political disaster.

Running out of time as he bargained separately with fellow Republicans, Democrats and the state AFL-CIO, Atwater made a move Tuesday to secure the necessary 21 votes.

He wanted a written guarantee from Gov. Charlie Crist's administration that the state was willing to try to protect eight unionized railroad signalmen's jobs on the CSX freight corridor in Central Florida as part of the state's purchase of the track for the new SunRail commuter line.

» Read story from St. Petersburg Times