After the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles reported that accidents were down at intersections with red-light cameras, the Florida League of Cities and State Rep. Daphne Cambell, D-Miami, offered their opposing views.

The report emphasizes that traffic accidents are down at intersections with red lights. But it also states that crashes have decreased overall.

The study does not detail the extent to which accidents have decreased at intersections with or without the red-light cameras.

------ 

Here is the statement from the League of Cities. ... Read more

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi was plenty proud yesterday to pose on the Capitol steps with 60 other Democratic House members, making history as the largest number of women ever in a party caucus in Congress.

But the photo was doctored.

Four members ran late -- including Florida Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Corrine Brown -- and Pelosi's office digitally added them into the shot then distributed the photo as if they were there all along. (The four women were added in the top row; see larger size below.)

“It’s an accurate historical record of who the Democratic women of Congress are," Pelosi said at a news conference today, defending the photo trick. "It also is an accurate record that it was freezing cold and our members had been waiting a long time for everyone to arrive and that they had to get back into the building to greet constituents, family members, to get ready to go to the floor. It wasn’t like we had the rest of the day to stand there, but it was an accurate reflection of who the 61 members, Democratic women members of Congress are and not only were they women, but they reflected the beautiful diversity of our country.”

Poynter reports that Pelosi's office noted the photoshopping when distributing the photo Thursday night. ... Read more

The House today overwhelmingly passed a bill providing $9.7 billion in flood insurance aid for Hurricane Sandy victims. All 67 votes against the aid came from Republicans, including Florida Reps. Ron DeSantis and Ted Yoho, both whom were sworn in yesterday.

All other Florida reps. joined the majority.

“I sympathize with the victims of Hurricane Sandy and believe that those who purchased flood insurance should have their claims paid.  At the same time, allowing the program to increase its debt by another $9.7 billion with no plan to offset the spending with cuts elsewhere is not fiscally responsible," DeSantis said in a statement.

"Congress should not authorize billions in new borrowing without offsetting expenditures in other areas.  If a family maxes out its credit cards and faces the need for new spending, it is forced to prioritize by reducing its spending in other areas.  Here, Congress has failed even to attempt to identify reductions in nonessential spending.  This 'put it on the credit card mentality' is part of the reason we find ourselves nearly $17 trillion in debt.  Indeed, the Senate passed legislation that went in the opposite direction by stuffing a bill designed to aid storm victims on the northeast corridor with money for such extraneous matters as fisheries in Alaska.  The storm occurred more than two months ago and it is sad that Congress has not used that time to find room in the budget for needed disaster relief.” ... Read more

A “faster foreclosures” proposal that faced sharp consumer outcry and protest last year has resurfaced in a more moderate form this year, with a new bill filed by Rep. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, Thursday.

The bill, HB 87, offers a slew of changes to the civil procedures governing foreclosures in Florida—the state with the highest foreclosure rate in the country.

Most of the provisions appear to be aimed at speeding up and cleaning the foreclosure process, which currently takes  more 600 days to run its course in Florida.

The bill would require mortgage lenders to certify that they have the correct paperwork proving they have the right to foreclose. Paperwork problems gummed up the foreclosure system in Florida and across the nation in 2010 and 2011, leading to a massive $25 billion mortgage settlement with banks accused of using faulty documents to foreclose on homeowners. ... Read more

A large crowd of immigrant activists went to Sen. Marco Rubio's Orlando office today urging him to support comprehensive reform. The event kicked off a march to Washington, where immigration is back on the agenda.

The group, which included farmworker advocates, pushed Rubio to support comprehensive reform that includes a new pathway to citizenship, something the Florida Republican has not supported. "He's pursing a fake immigration reform," Jose Manuel Godinez-Samperio, of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, said in an interview. "He's making a terrible miscalculation by trying to appeal to the very conservative wing to his party."

Though police showed up and some demonstrators were escorted from the building, a group met with Rubio's staff. Activist Daniel Barajas, with the Forward With Your Promise caravan, told the Orlando Sentinel that the meeting with Rubio's State Director Todd Reid was an "open and welcoming discussion."

The coalition also says it will hold President Obama accountable to his 2008 promise for immigration reform. The White House has signaled it will make a push as early as this month. Rubio had been working on an alternative to the Dream Act that would provide legal status -- but not a special pathway -- for some children of illegal immigrants. He's called for an incremental approach rather than a sprawling piece of legislation.

Background on the march to Washington below: ... Read more

Sen. Bill Nelson today assumes his new role as chairman of the Special Committee on Aging and pledged to conduct "major investigations into crimes that target seniors" including financial scams.

“Our goal is to develop laws that will help stop some of these crimes," Nelson said in a statement, adding he would work to find bipartisan solutions.

Nelson will also serve on the Senate Budget, Finance, Commerce and Armed Services committees. "On the latter, he intends make sure the Navy follows through on its commitment to move a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to Jacksonville," his office said. "Right now, the Navy has all of its East Coast carriers at one base in Virginia which Nelson argues is a big national security risk.  He’s also proposed a major reform of the tax code, which would initiate in the Senate Finance Committee."

Sen. Marco Rubio will remain on the Committee on Foreign Relations, the Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and the Small Business Committee. His statement below. ... Read more

Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity has released its annual report for 2012, its first full year of operation.

DEO, the job-creation agency created by Gov. Rick Scott in 2011, oversees much of the state’s economic development and workforce training initiatives.

Its annual report lists the highlights of Florida’s economy last year—falling unemployment, increased tourism and growing migration into the state.

The report also outlined strategies for achieving the goal of making Florida a national leader in “economic growth and prosperity,” and “economic competitiveness” for businesses.

The agency is looking to collaborate more effectively with local agencies, develop industry “clusters” in different parts of the state and push improvements in education, infrastructure and the regulatory environment.

The report, while embracing the glass-is-half-full economic positivism of Scott, acknowledged that Florida’s economy still has a number of troubles. ... Read more

TALLAHASSEE — Congress may have kept the nation from going over the fiscal cliff, but it failed to avert a multibillion dollar hit to Florida's struggling economy.

The decision to let the 2010 deduction in the Social Security payroll tax expire will cost Floridians an estimated $6.5 billion, said Sean Snaith, director for Institute Economic Competitiveness at the University of Central Florida.

With 7.1 million Florida households seeing a tax increase, the result will be a contraction in the state economy, Snaith said. "It's going to provide a headwind in terms of our recovery that's less money spent on child care, groceries or clothing,'' Snaith told the Times/Herald. "The net effect is it's going to be a drag on growth.'' (story here)