Had some things to take care of this afternoon, so here’s an early roundup.

• Alison Frankel says investors shouldn’t worry that they’ll get shut out of the decision-making process in principal reductions mandated by the foreclosure fraud settlement. I’ve heard the same thing from AG offices. I suspect that at least some of the “consent” is implied, and investors won’t know they’ve granted it until further down the road. Again, it would be nice if we had a TERM SHEET five days after the announcement of the settlement so we could be sure.

• Florida homeowners aren’t thrilled by the settlement.

• Considering that Fannie and Freddie represent 2/3 of the housing market, whether the Administration gets its way on write-downs of GSE-backed loans will have a lot more to do with whether or not their housing policy is successful.

• Everyone’s talking about this NYT story about how critics of the safety net depend on it themselves. This connects to additional research showing that the non-working poor get a tiny sliver of overall safety net benefits (which calls into question whether we should call it a safety net at all, or something more appropriate.

• Brad Plumer breaks down winners and losers in the Obama FY2013 budget. Education did well; the EPA and community development grants did not. 42% of the health care savings, out of $360 billion in total cuts, come from Medicaid drug rebates.

• We’ve seen the hype on “green shoots” at least twice since the Great Recession. Trust but verify.

• As Washington signs marriage equality into law, the New Jersey State Senate passes their own marriage equality bill. Downsides: everyone expects anti-equality advocates to get a repeal of the Washington legislation on the ballot for November, which would block implementation. And New Jersey Governor Chris Christie already said he would veto his state’s bill.

• Rick Santorum takes the lead in Michigan and is neck-and-neck nationally with Mitt Romney, as the National Review calls on Newt Gingrich to step aside and drop out to give Santorum more of a chance. Crazy Republican world, in’t it?

• The first-time homebuyers tax credit was terrible public policy.

• One side effect of the GOP caving on the payroll tax cut and introducing an extension without offsets – it could take us closer to the nightmare scenario of hitting the debt limit before the 2012 elections.

• Ayman al-Zawahiri, the new leader of Al Qaeda, called for the overthrow of the Syrian government, a new wrinkle into the uprising that could give Bashar al-Assad an opening to accuse his opponents of being terrorists.

• Heartbreaking stuff from the BBC about American tent cities. You heard about this in 2008, but not much anymore.

• The SEC is getting around to investigating private equity firms and their business practices.

• The new American way of war continues with an expected expansion of the euphemistically named “special operations.”

• With an imminent amendment vote scheduled in the Senate on Keystone XL, progressive groups have organized and so far delivered over 300,000 signatures in opposition to the tar sands pipeline.

• Nobody has cut more jobs in the Great Recession than the federal government.

• A US envoy will meet with North Korean negotiators in Beijing next week, for the first round of talks during the reign of Kim Jong-un.

• The Obama campaign believes that Arizona is in play in the Presidential election.

• The Daily Caller’s expose of Media Matters isn’t really worth much comment, so I’ll just say that the DC did a nice job of proving that Media Matters is fulfilling its intended purpose.

• Apple still doing damage control over its Chinese factories.

• Tucked into the budget is a money-saving measure – literally – to make pennies and nickels out of cheaper materials.

• Disgusting of Sony to immediately raise the online prices of Whitney Houston albums after reports surfaced of her death.