The ranks of the uninsured continued to grow last year according to Gallup. Their poll found that 17.1 percent of adults did not have health insurance in 2011, which is a significant increase from the 16.4 percent in 2010. It’s part of a long run trend driven by higher costs leading to a decline in employer-provided insurance, and worsened by unemployment. One error in the ACA was that its expanded insurance coverage does not kick in until 2014.

The good news for Rick Santorum keeps on coming. Santorum now has surged to a modest two point lead over Mitt Romney in Pew Research national Republican primary polling. The poll was conducted from February 8-12 directly after Santorum’s three big wins last Tuesday.

The residents of Detroit may get to vote this summer on a city ballot initiative that would remove all city-based criminal penalties for possession of up to an ounce of marijuana for people over 21. Voters had been denied the chance to vote on this in 2010, but last Friday in a 2-1 decision the Michigan Court of Appeals concluded the city acted inappropriately in keeping the measure off the ballot.

Rick Santorum’s surprise triple win last week in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri has proven to be an amazing shot in the arm to his campaign. His polling numbers have skyrocketed both nationally and in the upcoming primary states. Santorum is surging in Michigan, where he now holds a 15 point lead over Mitt Romney.

Over at The New Republic, Noam Scheiber has a pretty decent account of how the Obama administration made its pivot to deficit reduction after the 2010 election and messed up the debt ceiling issue.

Since Tuesday, Santorum’s polling numbers jumped up 6 points. On Tuesday he was at 16 percent and now he’s at 22 percent. Over the same time period, Mitt Romney’s and Gingrich’s numbers have dropped. Romney went from 37 percent to 34 percent, Gingrich has gone from 22 percent to just 18 percent, pushing him down to third place.

The fact is that as the elected chief legal officers in their states, no one had the power to make Harris or Schneiderman accept the deal. Yes, a lot of indirect political pressure was applied to them, but that is all it was. No one literally put a gun to their heads. Nothing actually prevented them from fighting longer or harder. The deal happened because they choose to agree to it. It would not have happened without them.

No one should get a pass. Everyone should be held responsible for the choices they make.

For months the Obama administration has been pushing for a foreclosure fraud settlement that would be very favorable for the big banks. Obama finally got the deal he has long wanted today, Thursday February 9th. It was reported that a deal had been reached last night, February 8th.

This means on Tuesday February 7th, it was must have been know to people in the Obama administration that a foreclosure fraud deal had already been reached or would reached in the next few days.

Recently we have seen a string of positive economic indicators that all point to the same general pattern. While the individual pieces are subjectively good compared to pre-crisis level, the data gives the clear impression that the economy is modestly trending in a positive direction.

Just when it seems like it couldn’t possibly getting any lower, Congress’ job approval rating drops to another historic low. According to Gallup only 10 percent of the country now approves of the job Congress is doing.