A leading discount travel site, released the March 2012 Hotwire Travel Savings Indicator, which features the top five cities in North America where hotel, air and car rental rates have dropped the most compared to this time last year.

“As we exit winter and temperatures begin to rise we’re seeing warm-weather locales like Southern California and Dallas offering great prices to entice travelers looking to get a head start on their spring vacations,” said Clem Bason, president of the Hotwire Group. “We’re also happy to report that one of the top value cities on our recently released 2012 Travel Value Index – Albuquerque – is proving its worth with big decreases in air and car rental prices this month.”

Atlantic City tops the hotel list this month with a 21% price drop. The beginning of the year tends to be slow for the Vegas of the East, so hotels always offer deeper discounts to fill their rooms. However this year, several new properties have been causing some stiff competition in the area, resulting in even lower rates.

In 2011 Dallas hosted the Super Bowl, causing hotel prices to skyrocket. This year, however, new hotels have increased the number of hotel rooms, driving down prices and putting the Dallas-Fort Worth area at second place with a 15 percent decrease.
Reno-Tahoe, Halifax and Washington, D.C., round out the list.

Last month Reno-Tahoe topped this list at first place, and although it drops to third in March with a 12 percent price drop, the city continues to be a deal market due to a weak winter demand. Halifax, Nova Scotia, makes its debut on the Travel Savings Indicator with a nine percent price drop.

Known as a beautiful leisure destination in Canada, the city is experiencing a slower tourist season than usual due to the cold winter weather. Washington DC makes a welcome return to round out the top five as the city is experiencing a lighter legislative calendar than last year, prompting less business travel and a dip in prices, especially during midweek.

Those in need of sunshine are in luck, because sunny Southern California is a deal market for airfare this month. Palm Springs tops the list with a 13% price drop and Los Angeles boasts an 11% decrease.

Chicago maintains its presence for the second consecutive month with a 13% decrease and an overall value city for 2012 as reflected in Hotwire’s Travel Value Index, Albuquerque saw an 11% decrease this month. Baltimore rounds out the top five air decreases with a seven percent price drop.

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The Department of Justice sent a letter rejecting Texas’ voter identification law saying Hispanic voters in the state are as much as 120% more likely than non-Hispanic voters to lack a driver’s license or personal state-issued photo ID.

“The announcement by the Department of Justice in opposition to Texas’ voter ID law is a prime example of a government agency putting partisan politics above reality and the law. The decision is not based on accurate data or the merits of the argument; instead, it appears that some Democrats and far left groups believe the more lawful an election the less likely they are to emerge victorious,” said David Norcross, Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA) Chair.

“Neighboring New Mexico, the state with the highest percentage of Hispanic voters, requires voter ID for city elections in Albuquerque without any problems. Just as some liberals defended corrupt election groups like ACORN, now others are attacking processes that will make it harder to cheat on Election Day.”

Rich Parsons, the communications director for the Texas Secretary of State, called the data which the Department of Justice requested “unreliable.” Parsons explained, “Texans are not required to identify themselves by race or ethnicity when they register to vote, so the data they ask for doesn’t exist.”

The Department of Justice kept asking Texas for data even if it was not accurate, so it could claim to justify blocking the voter ID law. On September 23, 2011, the Department of Justice requested data from Texas about how many Hispanic voters do not have photo identification.

After Texas responded that the data was not collected, on October 5, 2011, the Department of Justice still requested data, asking for the number of voters with Hispanic surnames — an inaccurate way to count voters of a certain racial background.

This marks the second time the Department of Justice has objected to a Voter ID law using dubious statistics and math. When they did so the first time in South Carolina, the Department of Motor Vehicles found that the numbers the Department of Justice relied upon were wrong, and actually were 86% lower than initially reported.

Every single court that has so far evaluated voter ID laws has found them constitutional. When the Supreme Court evaluated Indiana’s voter ID law, the Court upheld the law in an opinion written by liberal Justice John Paul Stevens. When Georgia’s voter ID law was challenged, an appellate court approved the voter ID law.

The Texas voter ID law received support from State Representative Joe Pickett, a Democrat from El Paso. He said, “If I really, truly thought that this would disenfranchise somebody, I would’ve voted against it. In these days and times, it’s just not the case… Having a basic identification is a function of everyday life.” Other states, including Democratic Party-controlled Rhode Island, joined Texas in passing a voter ID law this year.

After receiving requests in September from liberal organizations like the ACLU asking for the voter laws to be blocked, the Department of Justice obeyed and did the far left’s bidding.

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