U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder (Photo: Flickr/ryanjreilly)

During a speech given in Texas last night, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder criticized legal challenges launched by states — including Florida — against the section of the Voting Rights Act that requires approval of election laws in certain areas. Holder also affirmed the need for vigilance against laws aimed at rolling back voting rights.

According to a draft of his speech released to the press, Holder also said that he was taking a “thorough” look into Florida’s controversial new elections law.

“We’re also examining a number of changes that Florida has made to its electoral process,” he said, “including changes to the procedures governing third-party voter registration organizations, as well as changes to early voting procedures, including the number of days in the early voting period.”

“Although I cannot go into detail about the ongoing review of these and other state-law changes,” he continued, “I can assure you that it will be thorough — and fair. We will examine the facts, and we will apply the law. If a state passes a new voting law and meets its burden of showing that the law is not discriminatory, we will follow the law and approve the change. And where a state can’t meet this burden, we will object as part of our obligation under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.”

Florida has not been the only state facing scrutiny from the federal government. Holder also mentioned interest in other states such as Texas and South Carolina. Both states were among several that enacted new photo ID requirements to vote.

Holder said during his speech (according to the prepared remarks):

Despite this history, and despite our nation’s long tradition of extending voting rights – to non-property owners and women, to people of color and Native Americans, and to younger Americans – today, a growing number of our fellow citizens are worried about the same disparities, divisions, and problems that – nearly five decades ago – LBJ devoted his Presidency to addressing. In my travels across this country, I’ve heard a consistent drumbeat of concern from many Americans, who – often for the first time in their lives – now have reason to believe that we are failing to live up to one of our nation’s most noble, and essential, ideals.

As Congressman John Lewis described it, in a speech on the House floor this summer, the voting rights that he worked throughout his life – and nearly gave his life – to ensure are, “under attack… [by] a deliberate and systematic attempt to prevent millions of elderly voters, young voters, students, [and] minority and low-income voters from exercising their constitutional right to engage in the democratic process.” Not only was he referring to the all-too-common deceptive practices we’ve been fighting for years. He was echoing more recent concerns about some of the state-level voting law changes we’ve seen this legislative season.

Since January, more than a dozen states have advanced new voting measures. Some of these new laws are currently under review by the Justice Department, based on our obligations under the Voting Rights Act.

Holder also spoke about recent challenges to the Voting Rights Act, specifically the section of the law that requires federal “preclearance” of election laws in certain areas. In October, Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning launched a legal complaint against that requirement.

In his filing, Browing argued that federal preclearance requirements for state election laws are “unconstitutional” and that “subjecting Florida counties and other jurisdictions covered exclusively under the language minority provisions of the [Voting Rights Act] to pre-clearance is not a rational, congruent, or proportional means of enforcing the Fourteenth and/or Fifteenth Amendments and violates the Tenth Amendment and Article IV of the U.S. Constitution.”

Last night, Holder said:

Despite the long history of support for Section 5, this keystone of our voting rights laws is now being challenged five years after its reauthorization as unconstitutional in no fewer than five lawsuits. Each of these lawsuits claims that we’ve attained a new era of electoral equality, that America in 2011 has moved beyond the challenges of 1965, and that Section 5 is no longer necessary.

I wish this were the case. The reality is that – in jurisdictions across the country – both overt and subtle forms of discrimination remain all too common. And we don’t have to look far to see recent proof.

Holder described recent problems with Texas and Louisiana’s redistricting efforts, which he said “failed to show the absence of discrimination.” Holder said, “To those who argue that Section 5 is no longer necessary — these and other examples are proof that we still need this critical tool to combat discrimination and safeguard the right to vote.”

The attorney general also announced that the issue of protecting voting rights in the country was a moral imperative that required public support.

“As concerns about the protection of this right and the integrity of our election systems become an increasingly prominent part of our national dialogue, we must consider some important questions,” he said. “It is time to ask: What kind of nation — and what kind of people — do we want to be? Are we willing to allow this era — our era — to be remembered as the age when our nation’s proud tradition of expanding the franchise ended? Are we willing to allow this time — our time — to be recorded in history as the age when the long-held belief that, in this country, every citizen has the chance — and the right — to help shape their government, became a relic of our past, instead of a guidepost for our future?”

Holder said new legislation that was formerly introduced in the Senate by then-Sen. Barack Obama, would be reintroduced by Sens. Charles Schumer and Ben Cardin. The law “would establish tough criminal penalties for those who engage in fraudulent voting practices — and would help to ensure that citizens have complete and accurate information about where and when to vote,” he said.

“Despite so many decades of struggle, sacrifice, and achievement — we must remain ever vigilant in safeguarding our most basic and important right,” he concluded. “Too many recent actions have the potential to reverse the progress that defines us — and has made this nation exceptional, as well as an example for all the world. We must be true to the arc of America’s history, which compels us to be more inclusive with regard to the franchise. And we must never forget the purpose that — more than two centuries ago — inspired our nation’s founding, and now must guide us forward.”

Via The Hill:

The Department of Health and Human Services said Indiana and Louisiana do not need an adjustment from the health law’s medical loss ratio. That provision requires insurers to spend at least 80 percent of premiums on medical care or offer rebates to their customers starting next year.

HHS can grant a temporary waiver if regulators determine that the requirement looks likely to destabilize a state’s individual health insurance market.

The agency determined that the health plans of Indiana and Louisiana can meet the threshold and that consumers will get better value without an adjustment, said Gary Cohen, acting director of oversight at the HHS Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight.

The federal government announced two weeks ago that Florida would not hear a decision from Health and Human Services about its own waiver of the medical loss ratio (MLR) waiver until around Dec. 16, 30 days later than originally planned.

MLRs are used to set a standard on the amount of money collected by premiums that health insurance companies must spend on actual services, as well as a limit on how much goes to administration. In this case, insurance companies in Florida will be required by federal law to spend 80 percent of the money they collect on health services and 20 percent on administration.

Florida asked the federal government for permission to phase in the MLR over three years, as opposed to meeting the requirements as soon as they kick in.

Advocacy groups such as Florida CHAIN (the Community Health Action Information Network) have asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services “to reject a request by Florida’s Insurance Commissioner to grant insurance companies a reprieve from new Affordable Care Act requirements intended to ensure that consumers get value for the health insurance premiums they pay.”

GOP state legislators have longed disliked federal mandates requiring companies to spend a certain amount of their premiums on services. One legislator claimed the MLR was an example of the state “commandeering” Florida’s budget.

President Barack Obama aboard Air Force One (Pic by The White House, via Flickr)

North Dakota is on its way to becoming the first state in the country to have an operating health insurance exchange program. Each state is required by the Affordable Care Act to have some infrastructure in place by January 2013 for an exchange. Florida remains one of the lone states dragging its feet.

The Grand Forks Herald reports that North Dakota is on track to pass legislation that would set up its state exchange.

According to the Herald:

House Bill 1474, drafted by the Health Care Reform Review Committee after the regular legislative session ended this spring, would create a North Dakota health insurance benefit exchange system.

Under the federal legislation, all states must have an operational health benefit exchange by Jan. 1, 2014 or the secretary of Health and Human Services must create one.

Pam Sharp, director of the North Dakota Office of Management and Budget, said the key component of the exchange would be a new website that would allow residents to compare costs and benefits of affordable health insurance plans.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released a report (.pdf) that said as of “August 17, 2011, 39 states and the District of Columbia have introduced some form of legislation promoting exchange implementation.”

“Among the 34 states where the legislation would fully establish a state exchange program, ten states enacted such bills into law,” the group reports.

Only 11 states, Florida among them, have not introduced any legislation to establish a state exchange program.

Florida is among only five states not using federal grants meant to help the state plan and research for an exchange. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says that “Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire and Oklahoma reportedly will return exchange grant funds.”

This week, health advocates touring the state warned that Florida had done “virtually nothing” to follow the law’s mandates. The groups also warned that the state would cede their authority to the federal government if the state did not meet the deadlines.

Via the AP:

About 90 percent of the Gulf coast has been deemed clean, according to officials. The plan spells out protocol for when an area still needs to be cleaned and when BP’s responsibility for that ends.

Louisiana officials wouldn’t give their approval because they were concerned about what they perceived as a lack of long-term monitoring in the document. They also complained that the Coast Guard gave them only five days to review the plan, according to a letter sent to the agency by Garret Graves, a top aide to Gov. Bobby Jindal for coastal affairs.

Fishermen from the Florida panhandle echoed those sentiments, telling the AP that the fish they catch don’t look the same as they did pre-spill. “It’s not OK at all. We aren’t scientists or anything, but we are out there all the time and we can tell things aren’t right,” said one, who added that many species caught off the beach pier “have oily deposits in their intestines when they are carved up for cleaning.”

Coast Guard reps said that cleanup will remain ongoing in especially sensitive areas but, for most of the gulf, cleanup will now move to the next phase: restoration. Edward Owens, a technical adviser for BP, compared the next phase to getting a “nice shine on your car,” but environmental advocates would likely disagree.

Writes the AP:

A bit more oil will be allowed to remain on remote wild beaches where intense cleanup could do more damage. On beaches where people live and play, BP will be off the hook once there is no visible oil or oil is “as low as reasonably practicable” to clean up.

Marshes will be deemed clean when there is no thick oil left or when officials decide that it’s best to let nature clean up the mess.

As previously reported by The Florida Independent, sightings of a large volume of oil were reported as recently as September. According to the Coast Guard, the recent sheen is likely a result of last year’s spill — and may be emanating from a riser pipe of the Transocean rig, whose explosion led to last year’s disaster. (That rig now sits on the ocean floor.)

Image from the Louisiana Department of Education

As reported by TAI last Thursday, Roemer received $20,000 in donations from East PAC last week, one of the four “Big PACs” affiliated with The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI), an organization claiming to promote the“free-enterprise system.”

The campaign gift appeared to exceed state limits on electoral contributions by $10,000; State campaign financial reports indicate the Roemer campaign returned that same amount on Friday.

Chris Sommers, Director of the Louisiana Campaign Finance Division within the Louisiana Board of Ethics, told TAI the Roemer campaign “realized [the $20,000] as soon as it happened.” Pressed for the date campaign officials first notified her over the excess amount, Sommers said she could not say.

TAI attempted to reach the Roemer campaign by contacting the number made public through state financial disclosure forms but was greeted by Mr. Roemer at Roemer Robinson Melville And Company, a venture capital firm, who agreed to speak to us at a later time.

Roemer, the son of former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer, narrowly missed earning the majority vote in an Oct. 22 election that would have resulted in his outright taking the BESE seat — instead receiving 45 percent of the vote. Donald Songy finished second with 28 percent. A run-off between the two is scheduled for November 19.

While Roemer’s fundraising far exceeded that of his opponents in the BESE seat election, as previously reported by TAI, his supporters are aggressively raising money on his behalf.

A Louisiana Republican group affiliated with Gov. Bobby Jindal is asking supporters to help raise $200,000 for the Roemer’s reelection.

An e-mail attachment directs users to the 2011 Republican Victory Fund donation page. Contribution requests range from $5,000 to $100,000. Those limits are defined by state laws that say individuals can contribute up to $5,000 to a candidate per election — or up to $100,000 to a Political Action Committees (PACs) over a four-year period.

Filings after October 11 show Roemer added an additional $16,149.48 from state Republican Party contributions, plus an additional $53,500.

Songy, meanwhile has added $5,000 to his campaign purse strings following donations from a local SEIU chapter and the Louisiana affiliate of the National Education Association. The available records as ofl ast week on Songy indicate his campaign has raised $13,830.00. Roemer’s earnings total $222,125.50, based on last week’s figures.

Yet state campaign finance records also show Roemer has spent less than $25,000 since January of 2010 through last week on his reelection effort. In the same period, Songy spent just over $6,400 on campaign expenses.

Roemer’s membership on BESE has been a source of rancor for groups opposing his unabated support for charter schools. Roemer’s sister, Caroline Roemer Shirley, is executive director of the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools (LAPCS). The group advocates for expanding charter schools in the state and loosening restrictions on teacher tenure. In 2008, the state’s top ethics committee ruled Caroline Roemer cannot appear before BESE, but LAPCS is not restricted. Chas Roemer was not asked to recuse himself from hearings when LAPCS is present, though sections 1112 and 1120 of the Louisiana Code of Governmental Ethics indicate that he should.

A look at BESE meeting minutes in January of 2011 reveals (PDF) Chas Roemer voted on renewing the charters of multiple charter schools (Type 5 Charter Schools) that are members of the charter school association his sister leads. Some of those include the McDonogh schools, which belong to the KIPP and Algiers charter school networks.

A review of state financial reports by The American Independent found that East PAC, one of the four “Big PACs” affiliated with The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI), an organization claiming to promote the“free-enterprise system,” made the donation to Roemer on Monday.

Image from the Louisiana Department of Education

Alainna Giacone, communications director for the Louisiana Board of Ethics, the body that regulates election campaign finance, told TAI: “The campaign finance chart limits the amount Big PACs contribute per election to no more than $10,000.”

The contributions were made ahead of November 19 run-off elections pitting Roemer against Donald Songy, a former educator and parish superintendent. The election results will determine whether Gov. Bobby Jindal will enjoy a “pro-reform” majority on the school boards sympathetic to expanding charter schools and weakening teacher tenure rules.

Giacone said The Board of Ethics will likely not take up the issue until December during its monthly meeting.

“Once we receive notice of a report for a possible violation, then it will be put on the docket,” she said. Giacone pointed to state laws indicating that the candidate and the PAC can face anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000 in fines for the violation.

Roemer, the son of former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer, narrowly missed earning the majority vote in an Oct. 22 election that would have resulted in his outright taking the BESE seat — instead receiving 45 percent of the vote. Songy finished second with 28 percent.

While Roemer’s fundraising far exceeded that of his opponents in the BESE seat election, as previously reported by TAI, his supporters are aggressively raising money on his behalf.

A Louisiana Republican group affiliated with Gov. Bobby Jindal is asking supporters to help raise $200,000 for the Roemer’s reelection.

Friends of Bobby Jindal circulated an e-mail on Wednesday that read, in part:

“This is a must win race.  We will need to raise $200k quickly to wage a strong campaign for Chas [Roemer] and provide him the support he needs to win election in 4 weeks.  Winning this last BESE race will give us a pro-reform majority on the BESE board, giving the Governor and strong partner in reforming our education system so every child can attend a good school and receive a great education.”

An e-mail attachment directs users to the 2011 Republican Victory Fund donation page. Contribution requests range from $5,000 to $100,000. Those limits are defined by state laws that say individuals can contribute up to $5,000 to a candidate per election — or up to $100,000 to a Political Action Committees (PACs) over a four-year period.

Friends of Bobby Jindal, however, is not a registered PAC. It cannot raise money but does not violate state laws soliciting on behalf of groups like The Republican Victory Fund.

On a comprehensive campaign finance filing dated October 11, Roemer’s records show he collected $117,250 to Songy’s $965.

Chris Sommers, Director of the Louisiana Campaign Finance Division within the Louisiana Board of Ethics, told The American Independent, “Certainly the Republican Party can spend unlimited amounts of money; however, just from what I have seen, solicitations aren’t often made in this way.”

Filings after October 11 show Roemer added an additional $16,149.48 from state Republican Party contributions, plus an additional $53,500.

Songy, meanwhile has added $5,000 to his campaign purse strings following donations from a local SEIU chapter and the Louisiana affiliate of the National Education Association. The available records on Songy indicate his campaign has raised $13,830.00. Roemer’s earnings total $222,125.50

Yet state campaign finance records also show Roemer has spent less than $25,000 since January of 2010 on his reelection effort. In the same period, Songy spent just over $6,400 on campaign expenses.

“Customarily, there isn’t a lot of money spent on these elections,” Sommers said, referring to BESE seats. “There is definitely more financial activity compared to before in connection with those races.”

Many corporate interests have backed Roemer.

LABI, made up of four regional PACs (West PAC, East PAC, North PAC, and South PAC) that each gave Roemer  $10,000, also through East Pac contributed an additional $20,000 on Monday. The state Republican Party gave nearly $34,000. While Gov. Jindal, who needs a two-thirds majority in BESE to have his choice for state superintendent of public schools appointed, donated to Roemer $5,000 through his campaign committee. His father Buddy Roemer has donated $10,000, spaced over the two campaign periods.

Roemer’s membership on BESE has been a source of rancor for groups opposing his unabated support for charter schools. Roemer’s sister, Caroline Roemer Shirley, is executive director of the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools (LAPCS). The group advocates for expanding charter schools in the state and loosening restrictions on teacher tenure. In 2008, the state’s top ethics committee ruled Caroline Roemer cannot appear before BESE, but LAPCS is not restricted. Chas Roemer was not asked to recuse himself from hearings when LAPCS is present, though sections 1112 and 1120 of the Louisiana Code of Governmental Ethics indicate that he should.

A look at BESE meeting minutes in January of 2011 reveals (PDF) Chas Roemer voted on renewing the charters of multiple charter schools (Type 5 Charter Schools) that are members of the charter school association his sister leads. Some of those include the McDonogh schools, which belong to the KIPP and Algiers charter school networks.

California, Pennsylvania and New York had a higher number of mass layoff actions than Florida. The Bureau of Labor Statistics explains that “each mass layoff involved at least 50 workers from a single employer.” The bureau indicates that “employers took 1,495 mass layoff actions in September involving 153,229 workers, seasonally adjusted, as measured by new filings for unemployment insurance benefits during the month.”

The agency indicates the “number of mass layoff events in September decreased by 92 from August, and the number of associated initial claims decreased by 12,318. Florida had 78 mass layoff actions in August, well below June and July levels.

The bureau also reports (.pdf) that Florida had the sixth highest number of initial claimants for unemployment insurance in September behind Illinois and North Carolina, even though the Sunshine State had more mass layoff actions than those two states.

The bureau defines an initial claimant as “a person who files any notice of unemployment to initiate a request either for a determination of entitlement to and eligibility for compensation, or for a subsequent period of unemployment within a benefit year or period of eligibility.”

According to the mass layoff summary, with 376 seasonally adjusted events, the manufacturing sector was the most affected by mass layoff actions through September.

Last week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that Florida had the largest over-the-month increase in employment adding 23,300 jobs, followed by Texas and Louisiana.

The PAC in question, Alliance for Better Classrooms, spent at least $300,000 in contributions on behalf of generally pro-charter, anti-teacher-tenure and anti-union candidates running for positions on the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE).

The elections were this past Saturday, and though a couple of races are still inconclusive, state campaign finance reports show the business lobby, buttressed by Bloomberg dollars, far outspent groups aligned with teacher union positions.

Voters also re-elected Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) to a second term and a swath of state and local legislative positions. Jindal’s likely selection for the state superintendent of education is John White, current superintendent of New Orleans-dominated Recovery School District and former deputy school chief of New York City’s public school system. RSD has overseen the aggressive closure of schools in New Orleans which has led to the city leading the nation in the percentage of charter schools that make up its school buildings — around 70 percent.

Mayor Bloomberg has been a staunch supporter of charter schools, and White helped the mayor roll out his reform-styled education plans in New York.

Interestingly, the largest Bloomberg Trust donation occurred four days before the election; other smaller $5,000 donations from the Trust came through even closer to the day voters headed out to the polls.

BESE officials work part-time and are unpaid, but implement the laws the state Legislature passes and preside over the Louisiana Department of Education. In recent years, BESE has become a battle ground for moderates, progressives and business-backed reform candidates who seek to curb or dramatically expand loose teacher tenure laws and the presence of charter schools.

Implications and the money

The implications of this election are at first glance not deserving of the big money coming from the likes of an organization bearing the billionaire mayor of New York City’s name. But the 11-member BESE determines whether the radical education reforms taking place in Louisiana will continue at even greater pace, and whether big-business groups sympathetic to the now re-elected Gov. Jindal can have even greater sway in the state’s education system.

Alliance for Better Classrooms is backed by Lane Grigsby, founder and Board chairman of Cajun Contractors, Inc., a successful construction firm that in the last two years alone was awarded $300 million in civil projects from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A Times Picayune article indicates Cajun Contractors earns $400 million a year.

Also behind the PAC is Mike Wampold, a construction developer whose company builds luxury residential and large commercial properties.

Grigsby has gone on record complaining about teacher tenure in the Pelican State, saying not enough teachers have been let go. In the same Times Picayune article, the semi-retired businessman stressed performance is improved through competition, something of a rallying cry for education reformers who seek to buffer public education with a free-market sheen.

In total, Alliance for Better Classrooms donated $300,000 to what they call “pro-reform” candidates. The PAC received large donations from a few individuals and companies: $90,000 from Cajun Industries; $100,000 each from Grigsby’s wife Barbara Grigsby and the Bloomberg Trust; $25,000 from ISC Constructors; and four $20,000 donations from private citizens, including lawyer Michael C. Moran and Todd W. Grigsby, the elder Grigsby’s son.

Reform-style candidate, backed by business lobby, under scrutiny for loose ethics

Chas Roemer, son of former governor Buddy Roemer, is a BESE member squarely in the reform camp who benefited from the business community’s financial largesse.

The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI), a self-proclaimed promoter of the “free-enterprise system” that benefits the business community, set up four regional PACs (West PAC, East PAC, North PAC, and South PAC) that each gave Roemer, an incumbent, $10,000. The state Republican Party gave nearly $34,000. Gov. Jindal, who needs a two-thirds majority in BESE so that his choice for state superintendent of public schools is appointed, gave Roemer $5,000 through his campaign committee.

Roemer’s membership on BESE has been a source of rancor for groups opposing his unabated support for charter schools. Roemer’s sister, Caroline Roemer Shirley, is executive director of the Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools (LAPCS). The group advocates for expanding charter schools in the state and loosening restrictions on teacher tenure. In 2008, the state’s top ethics committee ruled Caroline Roemer cannot appear before BESE, but LAPCS is not restricted. Chas Roemer was not asked to recuse himself from hearings when LAPCS is present, though sections 1112 and 1120 of the Louisiana Code of Governmental Ethics indicate that he should.

A look at BESE meeting minutes in January of 2011 reveals (PDF) Chas Roemer voted on renewing the charters of multiple charter schools (Type 5 Charter Schools) that are members of the charter school association his sister leads. Some of those include the McDonogh schools, which belong to the KIPP and Algiers charter school networks.

Why Gov. Jindal cares about BESE

Jindal can appoint three BESE representatives; though the reform camp has a one-member majority, an additional member sympathetic to the pro-charter reform movement would put the coalition over the top. The governor’s likely selection for the top education position, White of the Recovery School District (RSD), is also an alumnus of Teach for America (TFA).

One BESE election that had the attention of many was between incumbent Louella Givens and the head of TFA in New Orleans, Kira Orange Jones. Neither candidate won, and a run-off is set for mid November.

Jones is viewed as a potential member of the Jindal coalition on BESE.

Givens, known as a supporter of teachers unions and a constant critic of RSD and charter schools, took in $11,000 from the state affiliates of the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers. Another $2,000 came in from the Louisiana School Board Association (LSBA), an organization very critical of the state’s education policy moves.

Jones, meanwhile, received $40,000 from the four PACs created by LABI and $5,000 amounts from dozens of contributors, including the Bloomberg group, and donors from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

American Federation for Children, a non-profit that is regarded as the leading group in advocating for school voucher programs, donated heavily in the Saturday elections. It raised $100,000 from ISC Construction, $25,000 from Cajun Industries and $1,000 from a group called Friends of Bobby Jindal.

Charter schools are semi-autonomous education institutions with private school boards. In New Orleans, they operate as miniature school districts and have been fraught with incidents of poor student treatment, aggressive punishment tactics, lackluster academic gains and testing improprieties. National studies suggest the success of charter schools is limited, and more charter schools underperform compared to traditional neighborhood schools than those that compare more favorably.

However, parents have higher marks for charter schools, including in New Orleans, and prefer the experimental schools to traditional neighborhood programs.

Florida’s unemployment tax currently averages about 0.5 percent of all wages, which is eighth among the 50 states.

The Associated Press reports:

Florida’s average benefit of about $230 a week is the fifth lowest. Florida ranks behind only Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Arizona.

The report also says Florida is one of three states that have made significant cuts in benefits and eligibility over the past two years.

Starting Jan. 1, Florida will cut the 26-week maximum benefit period. It’ll go on a sliding scale with a 23-week maximum if the unemployment rate is more than 10.5 percent.

It’ll be only 12 weeks if the jobless rate falls below 5 percent.

The latest jobs reports show that the state faces a persistent unemployment problem. The rate stayed static at 10.7 percent from July to August. The September jobs information shows that the number of individual who were jobless for 27 weeks and over was 6.2 million in September, or 44.6 percent of the unemployed.

Just last week, the Natural Resources Defense Council, a nonpartisan environmental advocacy group, filed a petition with the FDA, demanding that the agency “recognize the hazards posed by PAHs in seafood and set a health protective standard.” PAHs, or Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, are pollutants that have been shown to cause cancer in both animals and humans. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, they usually don’t dissolve easily in water and have been shown to cause higher rates of birth defects and lower body weights in mice.

According to the NRDC, the problem isn’t that the seafood isn’t being tested, but rather that the FDA isn’t testing it well enough. As blogged by the NRDC’s Miriam Rotkin-Ellman and Dr. Gina Solomon, the FDA has failed to properly assess levels of PAHs in gulf seafood in six major ways. According to Rotkin-Ellman, the FDA:

• assumed everyone weighs 176 pounds,
• underestimated the amount of seafood consumed by Gulf Coast residents,
• ignored the cancer risk from naphthalene,
• failed to address the increased vulnerability of pregnant women and children,
• allowed for a high cancer risk,
• and assumed that the contamination will only last five years.

Consumer confidence in gulf seafood has remained low since last year’s Deepwater Horizon disaster, which led to nearly 5 million gallons of crude oil seeping into waters off the coast of Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Alabama and Florida. Gov. Rick Scott aimed to change the public’s perception of gulf seafood during an appearance in the Florida panhandle last year.

“We know that it is safe,” Scott said in April. “The bigger concern would be if it wasn’t. Our job is to make everyone in the world know that not only does it taste good but it’s safe.”

In addition to undergoing tests by the FDA, some Florida seafood has also been tested by the state Department of Agriculture’s Division of Food Safety, and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam has repeatedly said that gulf seafood is safe. Just last month, the department launched an online training program for Florida restaurant workers to learn to answer common questions about the safety of gulf seafood.

The Department of Agriculture did not return calls for comment on the NRDC’s petition.