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The Arizona Legislature passed and Governor Brewer signed bill HB2677 into law.

This new law allows motorists to use their cell phone to show a police officer a copy of their vehicle identification card. For those who are REALLY into their technology you can snap a pic of your ID card and use it as proof with your cell phone.

However, if you have no cell phone connection at the time you will cited for driving without proof of insurance.

There is a glitch in this new law. If you lend your vehicle to another person they will need proof of insurance for the vehicle or risk being cited.

As an independent insurance agent I firmly believe we offer much better value than carriers who do not belong in this group.

We can shop with multiple insurance carriers for our clients. If a rate with one carrier rises, we can reshop for them elsewhere. The client can maintain their existing relationships, which they often value greatly. The agent is allowed the opportunity to find a better or similar rate for their client.

Non-independent agencies usually cannot shop around for their clients. So when rates go up the client is forced to shop once again and forge a brand new relationship elsewhere with an unknown quantity.

There are approximately 37,500 independent insurance agencies in the U.S. with a total employment around 300,000.

Why make 5, 10 or 15 calls yourself. Call your local independent insurance agent and let them shop around for you.

Thanks!
Gary Brown, Agent/Owner
(480) 659-0229

Mesa leads the metro Phoenix area in the number of distressed home sales. Short sales are driving the homeowner market in virtually every valley city, where foreclosed property sales used to dominate.

In March of 2012 Mesa had 919 transactions considered distressed sales. If you add Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert and Tempe together 2,355 distressed sales occurred in March of this year.

Higher value neighborhoods tend to fare better, such as 85215, where only 24% of home sales are in this category. Many of the distressed sales are in lower income neighborhoods.

In short sales the lender forgives the debt partially because the home does not retain enough equity for the owner to repay the debt. What helps the lender is finding a buyer quickly so the home does not sit empty. In foreclosed situations a home can sit empty for a time, often times leading to vandalism.

You can call new Peoria Police Chief Roy Minter a hands on kind of officer. He is directing Peoria police officers to reach out to their community in some unique ways not used before. Not only has Peoria seen a decrease in crime but their community is taking notice.

1) A new program was developed so high school students can now text crime tips to police

2) When reporting for duty, officers now review updated crime maps to determine problem areas and spend extra time and man-power in those areas. This means crimes are fresh and allows officers to spend time in ways that improve productivity.

3) He created the United Community Action Network, so community leaders can gather regularly to discuss community and police activities.

Mr. Minter came to Arizona from Texas when Peoria's past chief retired. Keep up the good work Peoria!

According to the Associated General Contractors of America, the City of Phoenix suffered the worst decline in construction jobs in the nation.

Upwards of 93,000 people lost constructions jobs in the Arizona capital.

Other Arizona towns significantly impacted in a negative way - Kingman and Lake Havasu. Both saw drastic construction job losses since 2009, both losing about 70% of their construction jobs to the poor economy.

Phoenix officials say that the city has seen improvement of late. In the last 12 months they report a gain of 1,900 construction jobs.

If true, a new Tempe construction project would be one of the first major office projects in development since the recession four years ago.

According to the developer, demand for office space in Tempe has been growing. The new development is scheduled for the northwest corner of Rio Salado and Mill Avenue.

It's a pretty good location, considering Tempe Town Lake, Tempe Marketplace and a new Chicago Cubs spring training facility (to be constructed) is also in the area.

Valley occupancy rates hover around 20%, while Tempe is slightly better at 16%.

Gilbert has seen a 172% increase in home construction, hopefully a significant indication of better things to come. According to city officials it has issued more permits than any other Phoenix metro town.

It issued 411 new permits through February 28. Contrast that with 2011 when only 151 permits were issued through the same time period.

And as low as the 2011 numbers were they were an increase from 2010.