A $1 billion program to help struggling homeowners pay their mortgages is getting a massive overhaul, potentially opening the door for thousands of previously ineligible Floridians to receive aid.
Since last year, only about 5,500 homeowners have received aid from the Florida Hardest Hit Fund, and thousands of Floridians have been rejected or discouraged from applying due to the program’s strict eligibility rules. Florida Housing Finance Corporation, which runs the program, moved to loosen those rules Friday.
The federally-funded program offers two types of help: Monthly mortgage payment assistance to borrowers suffering from “financial hardship” such as unemployment, and lump sum aid to help borrowers catch up on overdue mortgage bills.
The program was slated to help tens of thousands of homeowners, but so far only about 5,500 have qualified. Only $101.8 million of the $1 billion has been reserved for homeowners so far, and even less than that has actually been paid out. After reviewing the program’s first year performance, FHFC pushed for aggressive changes, including scrapping the 6-month cap on mortgage delinquency (translation: Homeowners who are more than six months behind on their mortgage can qualify).
FHFC also raised limits on how much aid homeowners could receive, doubling aid to unemployed borrowers to $24,000 and tripling mortgage “catch-up” assistance to $25,000.
The Florida Supreme Court on Friday quietly upheld a lower court ruling allowing Hialeah Racetrack to offer slot machines.
The court dismissed appeals by Calder Race Course, West Flagler Associates with owns Magic City Casino and Florida Gaming Centers, which owns Miami Jai Alai, who argued that when voters approved slot machines in Miami Dade and Broward they intended to limit the number of permits to the seven parimutuels that were currently operating.
The notice came quietly Friday on a a day otherwise focused on the court's ruling on the Legislature's redistricting maps. The ruling validates a decision by the First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee last November which affirmed a lower court decision and said that the law passed by the legislature to allow Hialeah Racetrack to offer slot machines was constitutional.
It also puts an end to the years' long appeal by the racetrack's local competitors who wanted to prevent them from getting the slot machines. The state issued a slots license to the track in 2010 but owner John Brunetti has not installed them.
The appeals court said "the Legislature has broad discretion in regulating and controlling pari-mutuel wagering and gambling under its police powers." Judge Judge Marguerite H. Davis wrote that the constitutional amendment approved by voters "provides no indication that Florida voters intended to forever prohibit the Legislature from exercising its authority to expand slot machine gaming beyond those facilities in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties meeting the specified criteria.
In a 17-page concurring opinion to the court decision to validate the Senate map, Justice Barbara Pariente concludes that Florida’s redistricting process, while improved because of the new Fair District amendments, still contain flaws that could result in the will of voters not being served.
“The bottom line is that while the goal of the new amendment is laudatory, it is imperative that there be further exploration of the limitations of time, process, and the language of the ―intent standard,’’ Pariente wrote.
Pariente explored that time constraints imposed by existing Constitutional provisions and concluded they are unrealistic. She said the process by which legislators draw maps with an "intent" not to favor or incumbents or political parties is inherently conflicted and the will of the voters might better be served to require that districts be “competitive” rather than to suggest that political intent be barred.
Pariente showed us again how she has become the court’s most vocal redistricting critic with her treatise on the requirement in the Fair District amendments requirement that the maps be draw with no intent to protect incumbents or political parties.
She then included this list of comparisons – between the invalidated Senate plan, the redrawn Senate plan, the coalition‘s alternative plan, and the Democratic Party’s alternative plan which show that despite Democratic voter performance and registration numbers, Republicans were given the numerical advantage in the maps. “This partisan imbalance naturally raises questions,” she wrote.
The Senate voted 68-31 yesterday to renew the Violence Against Women Act, and as predicted, the vote is factoring into election year politics. The Florida Democratic Party is using it to raise money, by pointing out that Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson voted for it and Republican Sen. Marco Rubio did not.
"At least Florida has one senator who stands for women," the party wrote in its fundraising solicitation. "While Senator Bill Nelson voted yes, Senator Marco Rubio voted "NO" last night on the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, a bill that protects women and families from violent crimes, domestic abuse and rape."
Democrats are asking for $18 donations to symbolize every year the "has been helping women overcome abuse." The 18-year-old federal law created a national strategy to prevent domestic violence against women and pours resources into efforts to help victims of domestic violence.
The original act passed in 1994 with bipartisan support, but some opponents are trying to block the legislation because they fear it would broaden American Indian tribal rights and has too many protections for gay and illegal immigrant victims of violence. Conservative Republicans -- already feeling political heat this election year for being insensitive to women -- complain such provisions are unneeded.
The 31 no votes in the Senate came from Republican men. All of the Republican women in the Senate voted for the legislation. Rubio offered this explanation on his blog for his vote, saying he would vote for the legislation as written, but not as amended.
PEMBROKE PINES – Obama for America today announced the release of a Spanish-language ad in Florida featuring Rodrigo Rios, an Obama for America volunteer from Broward County. In the ad, Rios discusses the financial concerns he has with paying for his eldest daughter’s higher education and why it is one of many reasons he is getting involved with the Obama re-election campaign.
The President has strengthened early learning programs, like Head Start, of which Hispanics comprise a third of all participants. He also spurred 46 states to raise K-12 standards with no new mandates, and doubled Pell Grant funding so 150,000 more Hispanic students can afford a college education that leads to a well-paying job. These reforms are particularly important for the over 692,000 Hispanic students enrolled in Florida’s public elementary, middle and high schools. But he also knows there is more work to do. Hispanic voters have a lot at stake in this election, and the President’s commitment to a quality and affordable education for all Hispanic students is clear.
The release of this ad coincides with the launch of Hispanics for Obama, the largest ever national effort to engage Hispanic Americans in their communities and involve them in the upcoming election through voter outreach, volunteering and voting.
In a major victory for Florida's Republican-led Legislature, the Florida Supreme Court on Friday validated the redrawn map of the Florida Senate, allowing the boundaries to serve as the political borders for the next 10 years.
In its unanimous opinion, the court noted that the opponents to the Senate map, the Florida Democratic Party and a coalition of voting groups including the League of Women Voters, the National Council of La Raza and Common Cause of Florida, "failed to demonstrate that the revised Senate plan as a whole or with respect to any individual district violates Florida's constitutional requirements."
But in two concurring opinions, Justices E.C. Perry and Peggy Quince, the court's black justices, and Justice Barbara Pariente each focused on the flaws remaining in the redistricting process. Perry and Quince dissented on the portion of the map that includes Volusia County, saying it ''splits the historically black Democratic community in Daytona Beach when it was feasible for it to be kept whole."
Pariente, the author of the March 9 opinion that invalidated the Senate's first map as "rife with indicators of improper intent" concurred with the majority but issued her own opinion pointing out what she considers major flaws in Florida's redistricting process.
Alan Mendelsohn, the Hollywood physician and ex-GOP fundraiser imprisoned for four years on a tax-related fraud conviction, has lost his federal appeal to reduce his sentence.
Last year, U.S. District Judge William Zloch slapped Mendelsohn with the sentence, saying he corrupted the democratic process in the Florida Legislature by secretly funneling $82,000 through a legislative aide to a former state senator in exchange for political favors.
Zloch rejected the Justice Department’s recommended prison sentence for Mendelsohn, between two and 2½ years, and his defense attorney’s bid for probation with no jail time. The judge said both failed to address the seriousness of his criminal behavior.
Almost four years ago to the day, then-and-now Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said "It's not worth moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person." And months before, according to an Aug. 4 2007 Reuters article, "Mitt Romney criticized Barack Obama for vowing to strike al-Qaeda targets inside Pakistan if necessary."
Obama went on to win the presidency. He made good on his pledge. Osama Bin Laden was killed. Now Obama's campaign is trying to make this soft-on-Bin Laden charge stick to Romney. Will voters buy it?
*Update: Romney camp responds and some Republicans** note that the president might be making the very type of political hay he wants decried: “The killing of Osama bin Laden was a momentous day for all Americans and the world, and Governor Romney congratulated the military, our intelligence agencies, and the President. It's now sad to see the Obama campaign seek to use an event that unified our country to once again divide us, in order to try to distract voters' attention from the failures of his administration. With 23 million Americans struggling for work, our national debt soaring, and household budgets being squeezed like never before, Mitt Romney is focused on strengthening America at home and abroad.”
**An email from Republicans:
Obama 2011: “We Don’t Need To Spike The Football”… CBS’ Steve Kroft: “Did you see the pictures?” President Barack Obama: “Yes.” Kroft: “What was your reaction when you saw them?” Obama:” It was him.” Kroft: “Why haven't you released them?” Obama: “You know, we discussed this internally. Keep in mind that we are absolutely certain this was him. We've done DNA sampling and testing. And so there is no doubt that we killed Osama bin Laden. It is important for us to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence. As a propaganda tool. You know, that's not who we are. You know, we don't trot out this stuff as trophies. You know, the fact of the matter is this was somebody who was deserving of the justice that he received. And I think-- Americans and people around the world are glad that he's gone. But we don't need to spike the football. And I think that given the graphic nature of these photos, it would create some national security risk. And I've discussed this with Bob Gates and Hillary Clinton and my intelligence teams and they all agree.” (CBS’ “60 Minutes,” 5/8/11)
Obama Campaign In 2008 Attacks Hillary Clinton For “Invok[ing] Bin Laden To Score Political Points”…
In 2008, The Obama Campaign Criticized Hillary Clinton For Trying To “Invoke Bin Laden To Score Political Points.” “As the clock ticked down on the state campaign on Monday, Obama's camp accused Clinton of trying to scare Americans, after the release of a dark new campaign ad featuring Al-Qaeda kingpin Osama bin Laden. The 30-second broadcast does not mention Obama by name, but the Illinois senator's spokesman Bill Burton fired off a robust response and brought up Clinton's vote in 2002 to authorize the Iraq war, which his boss opposed. ‘It's ironic that she would borrow the president's tactics in her own campaign and invoke bin Laden to score political points,’ Burton said.” (Stephen Collison, “Pennsylvania To Vote In Must-Win For Clinton,” AFP, 4/22/08)
Obama Campaign In 2008: “We Already Have A President Who Plays The Politics Of Fear, And We Don’t Need Another”… http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/04/clinton_ad_stre.html
The Obama campaign accused Clinton of fearmongering with the ad. “When Senator Clinton voted with President Bush to authorize the war in Iraq, she made a tragically bad decision that diverted our military from the terrorists who attacked us, and allowed Osama bin Laden to escape and regenerate his terrorist network. It's ironic that she would borrow the President's tactics in her own campaign and invoke bin Laden to score political points. We already have a President who plays the politics of fear, and we don't need another,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement. Obama's camp also sent out a 2004 quote from former president Bill Clinton: “Now one of Clinton’s Laws of Politics is this: If one candidate's trying to scare you and the other one's trying to get you to think; if one candidate's appealing to your fears and the other one's appealing to your hopes, you better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope. That's the best.”
