Capitol to Courthouse Florida Insurance Report: Friday, September 9
Sep 9, 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
There are no insurance-related events scheduled for today.
Scores ready to protest Citizens’ sinkhole rate hike
More than 150 people have signed up for a free bus ride to Tampa next week to protest Citizens Property Insurance Corp.’s massive rate hike before the Office of Insurance Regulation.
Former state Representative Carlos Lacasa, appointed this week as chairman of the state-run Citizen’s Property Insurance board of governors, on Thursday called an emergency meeting for Monday to discuss proposed rate increases to the state-run insurer’s sinkhole policies.
Blog: Citizens Property Insurance will consider phasing in rate hike
Citizens Property Insurance announced today that it will hold a meeting Monday to determine whether to phase in its request for a statewide rate hike of rate hike of 429 percent for the sinkhole portion of its rates.
Florida Supreme Court weighs whether to give Citizens Property Insurance legal immunity
Florida’s Supreme Court heard arguments Thursday about granting Citizens Property Insurance legal immunity.
Workers’ compensation hike would cost local businesses $17.5 million
Central Florida businesses are bracing for a second year of increases to workers’ compensation insurance rates that would cost local businesses $17.5 million more in premiums, according to an Orlando Business Journal analysis.
Florida passes up over $100 million in federal grants
Governor Rick Scott and the Republican-led Legislature have rejected or declined to pursue more than $106 million in federal grant money and returned another $4.5 million for programs linked to federal health care initiatives, including cancer prevention, leading critics to say he is putting his conservative agenda ahead of residents’ needs.
Tampa-Cuba flights resume after nearly 50 years
Commercial flights from Tampa to Cuba are back for the first time since 1962, when relations between the two countries broke off during the Cold War.
Judge: Florida’s drug possession law is constitutional; rejects ‘guilty mind’ argument
In a move that disappointed but didn’t surprise defense attorneys, Palm Beach County Circuit Judge John Kastrenakes today upheld the constitutionality of a state drug law that is used in roughly a third of all felony cases filed in the county each year.
Congressional redistricting lawsuit in Miami federal court Friday
A federal judge in Miami is hearing arguments in a lawsuit challenging a Florida constitutional amendment imposing new rules on how congressional districts are drawn.
Split Public Service Commission hires former chairman Baez as new executive director
A split Public Service Commission voted on Thursday to offer the executive director position to former commission Chairman Braulio Baez despite concerns about a 2002 ethics violation.
Republican Party of Florida chairman David Bitner dies
Republican Party of Florida chairman David Bitner died on Thursday after battling with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.
Kicking up a cloud of dust, a Florida trooper cut a U-turn across the Interstate 75 median, chased down Miramar resident Paulo Gualano and pulled him over, Gualano recalled.
End of the road for taxpayer funding of highway designations?
State funding for honorary designations and highway dedications soon could be road kill.
Governor Rick Scott tells media that drug testing law is ‘for the benefit of children’
Governor Rick Scott told The Miami Herald and the St. Petersburg Times today that he sought a law that requires temporary assistance applicants to submit to a drug test “for the benefit of the children.”
Senator sued over guest workers
In the waning days of the 2011 legislative session, Senator J.D. Alexander, one of the state’s most powerful lawmakers, delivered an impassioned floor speech against a measure that would have required employers to check the immigration status of new hires.
U.S. orders Florida museum to keep painting
U.S. authorities are ordering a Florida museum to keep a more than 400-year-old Italian painting because it may have been stolen from a Jewish family during World War II.
A Mississippi senator withdrew his amendment to flood-insurance reauthorization legislation that would have terminated the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act in 2013, a year earlier than authorized in 2007 legislation.
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