Capitol to Courthouse Headliners: Monday, Aug. 6

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PIP Law Changes Unlikely To Pass

TALLAHASSEE – The lead negotiators on legislation to replace Florida’s no-fault auto insurance law say they have a basic agreement. But the proposal has provisions and omissions that have derailed earlier bills, and it appears that it will take a lot more arm-twisting for a passable bill to surface in either the upcoming special session or even in next spring’s regular session.

 

Tom Jackson: SCHIP’s Enormous Expansion worth Political Fight

Perhaps roused by gentle observations that members of Congress should keep their mouths shut regarding progress in the Iraqi parliament until they demonstrate themselves capable of achievement, Democratic leaders in the House roused their bare majority to action last week.

 

Insurance Woes

ISSUE: Frustration over property insurance revives talk of legislative hearings and sworn testimony.

Who would have thought that the Florida Legislature holds the tool to tamp down the growing and unproductive war of words over property insurance? The lawmakers do and they should use it as soon as possible.

 

Slicko

Michael Moore’s got it wrong. The problem with health insurers isn’t that they reject too many claims but that they pay too many.

 

In New Orleans, water system at risk

NEW ORLEANS — Deep underground, an unseen crisis is threatening New Orleans’ already troubled recovery.

 

Cat Pooling Bill Introduced

WASHINGTON —Two freshman members of Congress today introduced legislation that would allow for high-risk states to pool their catastrophic risk resources and make use of the private market.

 

Publix to offer 7 popular prescription antibiotics for free

CAPE CORAL, Fla. — Publix supermarket chain is going further than most retailers trying to lure shoppers into their stores with low-cost prescription drugs, announcing Monday it will offer seven antibiotics for free.

 

Customers, politicians wonder where deep insurance rate cuts are

About six months ago, Gov. Charlie Crist signed legislation he said would lower property insurance premiums, looked into the television cameras and proclaimed, “help is on the way.” He told Floridians they would get finally relief from insurance bills that have skyrocketed due to hurricanes.

 

Evacuees feel trapped in trailers

BAKER, La. It was bad enough when Hurricane Katrina chased Carrie Lewis out of her assisted-living home in New Orleans. Now she fears the rest of her life may be spent in the isolation of a federally sponsored trailer park.

 

A storm over insurance relief

Floridians have every right to be frustrated by exorbitant insurance costs. The Legislature’s attempt to deliver rate relief to weary homeowners and businesses is fizzling. Were the reforms unrealistic? Are insurers to blame? Florida residents deserve answers to these questions.

 

Crist’s Moves May Ignite Conservative Backlash

TAMPA – Sticking your neck out is part of the job description for a governor, but not many governors commonly have theirs stuck out as far as Florida’s Gov. Charlie Crist.

 

Key Senators Question Use of 9/11 Insurance Fund Monies

Two senators want to know why a $1 billion Sept. 11 insurance fund appropriated by Congress to help ailing ground zero workers has not been used to compensate those exposed to harmful substances.

 

Op-Ed:  Florida Hurricane Fund is effective

The Miami Herald’s July 21 story Why insurance reform is falling short missed a fundamental fact about the Florida Hurricane Fund, namely that the fund is working and saving money.

 

Catastrophe fund bill would lower premiums

Just in time for hurricane season, two Florida House members introduced a bill they say will lower insurance costs.

WASHINGTON — Consumers in Florida and other disaster-prone areas across the country would see their homeowners’ insurance premiums drop under a bill introduced in Congress Friday.

 

U.S. House bill seeks to stabilize property insurance market

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The chairman of the U.S. House Financial Services committee promised Friday to quickly take up a bill seeking to stabilize the property insurance market in disaster-prone areas.

 

Insurance Rate Cuts A No-Show

TALLAHASSEE – About six months ago, Gov. Charlie Crist signed legislation he said would lower property insurance premiums, looked into the television cameras and proclaimed, “help is on the way.” He told Floridians they would get relief from insurance bills that have skyrocketed because of hurricanes.

 

Watchdog becomes regulator

TALLAHASSEE – By her own admission, Nancy Argenziano can’t generate headlines like Paris Hilton. But the decisions she makes in Tallahassee will affect you far more than those of the hotel heiress – even if you don’t realize it.

 

Briny Breezes’ road to riches detoured

A trailer town hit a detour on its road to riches when a deal that would have made residents millionaires collapsed

BRINY BREEZES — For the past seven months, the residents of this 488-unit trailer-park town in Palm Beach County were millionaires, at least on paper. They had enough money to finance the future, to commit to new homes, to pick out shiny new boats.

 

Consider the source

Privatization: Jeb’s flight of fancy

Georgia’s Capitol has big bronze markers commemorating the battle of Atlanta in terms that might give an uninformed tourist the impression that the Southerners were just sitting around sipping their mint juleps and plunking their banjos when the Yankees came along and whacked them for nothing.

Bush’s entire essay can be viewed at www.reason.org/innovators2007/innovators2007_bush.shtml.

 

Robert E. Keeton, 87, Author of Influential No-Fault Treatises Is Dead

Robert E. Keeton, a former federal judge and Harvard law professor who wrote widely influential treatises on tort law, courtroom tactics and no-fault auto insurance, died July 1 in Cambridge, Mass. He was 87 and lived in Cambridge.

 

State gains ground in burying bureaucratic babble

TALLAHASSEE — Too many cooks spoil the broth.  That is the plain language version of an old saying.

 

Transcript:  The Republicans Candidate Debate
The following is a transcript of the Republican candidates debate hosted by ABC News and moderated by George Stephanopoulos, of ABC News, and David Yepsen, of the Des Moines Register.