Ashley Lopez

After this year's disastrous election in Florida, state lawmakers are looking to make some changes to some of the culprits for the long lines and delayed ballot-counting.

Among the changes: Democratic state Sens. Gwen Margolis of Miami and Arthenia Joyner of Tampa have introduced bills that would make early voting more accessible and last longer.

The Miami Dade County Commission will consider a policy next month that would allow prayer before every commission meeting.

For years, the commissioners have simply observed a moment of silence before meetings, which allowed people to pray or not pray.

However, at the urging of a conservative Christian group, the commissioners are moving to change that policy back to a few years ago when praying was allowed before meetings.

Local officials around the coast in Florida have already started to deal with the price of sea level rise. Now, another report has put a price tag on the cost of water pollution throughout the state-- the verdict: it's about $10.5 billion a year.

According to the Stockholm Environment Institute, which conducted the study, a lot of the pollution we are dealing with in our water comes from human activities.

Just this week, news circulated that former leaders of the Florida Republican Party have admitted that Florida's voting law was aimed at suppressing the vote this year during President Obama's reelection.

Democrats in the U.S. House are clamoring for a federal investigation.

For the fourth year in a row, state lawmakers are going to take a stab at passing a law that would ban texting while driving all around the state.

State Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, has introduced the ban: Senate Bill 52. Her bill was among a small list of bills that have been introduced already for the upcoming Florida Legislative session, which starts in March 2013.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has been riding a wave of popularity in the last few years. Members of the Republican Party have been clamoring for him to seek higher office as he travels around the country taking on some of the more extreme positions recently taken by members of his party.

Among his credentials, which are currently prompting all the focus, is his popularity with the Latino community and his credentials as a successful education policy innovator.

The Latino vote was one of the most talked about voting blocs this year, mostly because this demographic helped propel President Obama into his second term in office this year -- especially in important swing states such as Florida and New Mexico.

The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles has opened up voting for a new design for the state's license plates.

The department is allowing Floridians to vote for the tag design they prefer from November 26 to December 14 at Vote4FloridaTag.com.

The Food Network-- a famous cable channel featuring popular cooking shows and competitions-- has broken into the restaurant biz, and its first location is (believe it or not) the Jet Blue terminal at Fort Lauderdale International Airport.

It's  the only restaurant serving hot food at the terminal and it has the Food Network logo plastered over every bit of the cafeteria-style decor. 

This week, you can find Bigfoot at the Miami Beach Botanical Gardens... that is, a large sculpture of a man with unusually large feet.

Idan Zareski's "Bigfoot" will be unveiled on Tuesday at the Gardens. The sculpture, "Bigfoot," has already been featured in other countries all over the world. 

Gov. Rick Scott issued a challenge to colleges all over the state asking them to find a way to offer a bachelor's degree program that costs no more than $10,000 for all four years.

A look into the City of Miami's finances this year shows the city failed to meet its own financial rules and benchmarks.

According to The Miami Herald, "Miami failed to comply with eight of its 13 financial standards in the 2010-11 budget year, according to an internal audit published late last month."

Among the shortcomings:

The past couple of years have been difficult for the state's real estate market-- particularly in South Florida. However, real estate agents now say that Miami's market is finally booming after years of a lull.

According to Bloomberg News,

Everyone knows that the some of the busiest shopping days of year are in full force. Between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, so much of South Florida will spend their next few days buying things.

For those who would prefer doing something other than shopping, fear not! 

Here are some things you can do this weekend:

President Obama announced last week that his administration would back off on a part of the health care reform law (which is currently being rolled out in full force) that would have allowed insurers in  small group markets to charge smokers a 50-percent higher premium than nonsmokers.

The catch: smokers have to prove they are trying to quit.

Kaiser Health News reports,

An internal investigation of Citizens Property Insurance in Florida, a government-run home insurer of last resort and the state's largest insurer, found that the company has a sordid history of sex scandals, cover-ups and big spending. 

Recently, Citizens has gotten a lot of scrutiny because it has been consistently hiking up premiums or removing coverage from large numbers of people in the state.

However, a recent investigation found that the problems with the 10 year-old not-for-profit insurer starts with the people running the show over there in Tallahassee.

Florida Senate President Don Gaetz was sworn in Tuesday along with his plans to move ethics reform forward in the  Legislature this year.

Gaetz has said in the past that he will make anti-corruption measures for state lawmakers a focus of his leadership in the Senate. In the past, bills aimed at passing ethics reform have failed in the Florida Senate.

Howevever, Gaetz has already made good on his promise to change ethics rules by changing some Florida Senate rules.

A non-profit investigative news site found an interesting link between whom a state voted for in this election and the rate of traffic deaths there.

According to FairWarning, a state that voted for President Obama in this past election (a blue state) is likely to have fewer deathly traffic accidents compared with  a state that went for Mitt Romney in November (a red state).

The news outlet also reports that there is really no concrete explanation as to why there is this red state-blue state divide when it comes to traffic deaths.

Even though activists were sure earned sick pay would be an easy fight in Miami-Dade, a proposal that required employers to give earned sick pay to all workers died on first reading in a county commission meeting Tuesday.

The Miami Herald's Patricia Mazzei tweeted the vote count:

Earned sick time legislation at Miami-Dade commission failed 8-4. In favor: Edmonson, Jordan, Monestime, Suarez.

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, R-FL, gave reporters some details about what the GOP version of the Dream Act might look like recently.

Florida's Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that five of the country's biggest mortgage companies are forking over $3.6 billion dollars for "foreclosure abuses and unacceptable mortgage servicing practices," which spurred the state's foreclosure crisis.

Richard DeNapoli, the Chairman of the Broward Republican Party, has announced he will not run for a second term.

Miami-Dade County Commissioner Barbara Jordan is going to introduce an ordinance on Tuesday mandating earned sick pay for workers in the county.

Remember back in August when there was a community uproar because someone left a dog on a roof of a factory building?

Following his loss to President Obama for the Presidency, Mitt Romney didn't have a lot of nice things to say.

Annette Taddeo's race to become the chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party just got a little easier. 

A court in St. Lucie County is allowing Rep. Allen West  two hours on Friday to make his case for recounting the election that may have cost him his seat in Congress. 

Right now, unofficial results show that Democrat Patrick Murphy has a 0.58 percent lead over West.

Daniel Smith, a professor at the University of Florida and expert on election data, says that Florida's new voting law, which cut early voting days from 14 to 8 days, limited voter participation among minorities.

Smith had long warned legislators that last year's voting law would disproportionately affect minority voters, who use early voting significantly more than other groups.

He says that his warnings months ago were right.