Capitol to Courthouse Daily Florida Insurance Report: Friday, February 11
Feb 11, 2011
To go directly to the section of your choice, click on a hyperlink below. Other hyperlinks to meeting information, bills and news are noted in bold type.
- Daily Florida Insurance-Related Events
- Daily Florida Insurance-Related Bills Filed for 2011
- Daily Insurance-Related News
Daily Florida Insurance-Related Events
- Joint Revenue Estimating Conference; 9:30 a.m.
- Florida Workers’ Compensation Joint Underwriting Association (“FWCJUA”) Investment Committee meeting; 10:00 a.m. To view the meeting notice, click here.
- FWCJUA Operations Committee meeting; 11:00 a.m. To view the meeting notice, click here.
Daily Florida Insurance-Related Bills Filed for 2011
HB 703 relating to Liability of Spaceflight Entities by State Representative Tom Goodson
Saves from future repeal a provision that provides spaceflight entities with immunity from liability for loss, damage or death of participant resulting from the inherent risks of spaceflight activities. Effective date: July 1, 2011
Florida attacks insurance fraud in Tampa with another Personal Injury Protection squad
Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater has created a second Personal Injury Protection Fraud Squad in Tampa to combat a growing number of staged accidents and fraudulent auto insurance claims.
Jacksonville’s Brightway Insurance expands into Georgia
Jacksonville-based Brightway Insurance, which operates 70 offices in Florida, announced Thursday that it is expanding into Georgia. The company said this is the first step of a planned expansion into other coastal Southeast states.
USAA adding 160 more positions in Tampa
The military-oriented USAA bank and Insurance giant is on a hiring binge in Tampa.
Florida Senate Medicaid changes to be unveiled next week
Florida Senate leaders next week will release their first detailed proposal for overhauling the Medicaid system, calling for a shift of hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries to managed-care plans.
Spring Hill Republican wants to repeal 2009 law mandating Florida pain pill database
Governor Jeb Bush supported it. Sheriffs throughout the state, including Hernando County’s, got behind it. State Senator Mike Fasano worked for years to see it through to law.
Blog: Democrats file bills to move presidential primary date; Rubio says leave it early
A contest could be building over whether to change Florida’s presidential primary date, which is now so early it violates rules of both national parties.
Senate unveils state spending cap
Florida voters next year could be asked to approve a new cap on state spending that would limit the state budget from growing faster than the state’s population and inflation.
Scott visits embattled agency, tells employees their job “is hard and is easy to criticize.”
Governor Rick Scott on Thursday offered encouraging remarks to Florida Department of Management Services employees as he visited the embattled agency.
Haridopolos softens stance on Floridal tax cuts
Senate President Mike Haridopolos softened his stance on tax cuts Thursday but said he still thinks Florida lawmakers first must focus on spending reductions.
Blog: Florida House committtee approves cuts to unemployment benefits
The bill from the House Economic Development & Tourism Subcommittee would make it easier for employers to fire workers and deny unemployment payments and reduce from 26 to 20 the number of weeks a fired worker could receive benefits from the state.
Blog: Former Broward state attorney Shailer joins inspector general committee
With a looming deadline to selected Broward’s first-ever anti-public-corruption watchdog, the committee that will make that selection met on Wednesday and added another member.
Florida orange estimate reduced
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reduced its February orange forecast to 138 million boxes.
Biofuel Facility a First in Florida
The $130 million Indian River BioEnergy Center, scheduled to open in mid-2012, will start with a yield of 8 million gallons of ethanol annually, along with 6 megawatts of renewable power from local yard, vegetative and household wastes.
Dosal: Big Tobacco Blowing Smoke Over Tax
Companies spar over legality, ‘fairness’ in legislative battle
The Legislature’s perennial attempt to slap a tax on Florida’s only tobacco company faces some tricky legal hurdles.
Insurers’ motions for dismissal in Chinese drywall litigation denied
The federal judge presiding over the ongoing multidistrict litigation over allegedly defective Chinese drywall dealt eight insurers a blow Wednesday when he denied their motions for dismissal.
Big Insurers Ask Geithner For Dodd-Frank Slowdown
Major insurance companies are asking U.S. regulators to put the brakes on applying a key part of last year’s Dodd-Frank financial reforms to their industry, according to a letter obtained on Wednesday.
National Conference of Insurance Legislators: North Dakota, Kentucky Lead Advancement of SLIMPACT
Aiming to jump-start national momentum for reform, a North Dakota Committee this week became the country’s first legislative bodies to approve a Surplus Lines Insurance Multistate Compliance Compact.
Marsh Appoints David Bidmead to be U.S. Chief Executive Officer
Marsh Inc. today announced that it has appointed David Bidmead, currently leader of its U.S. West Zone and previously CEO of Marsh Australia and Region Head of Marsh Pacific, to the newly-created role of CEO of Marsh U.S.
Blog: Mississippi reinsurance rates could be lowered thanks to London trip
Flooding in Australia, earthquakes in Chile and windstorms in New Zealand will figure into Mississippi’s wind pool board’s reinsurance rates for the next year, but it probably won’t lead to a higher price tag, board members said this week.
Hearing set on Scruggs’ conviction
A federal judge will hear arguments April 25 on a motion by Zach Scruggs, who is seeking to have his conviction in a Mississippi judicial bribery case overturned.
China bars insurers from providing debt guarantees
The China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) said that all insurers must submit reports on whether they have engaged in such practices by the end of March, according to new rules published on its website (www.circ.gov.cn) late on Thursday.
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