Capitol to Courthouse Headliners: Monday, July 14
Jul 14, 2008
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Kevin McCarty:Â One Policy, Multiple Coverages
This has been a sad few weeks for residents of our nation’s Heartland as flooding has caused the failure of numerous levees along the Mississippi River creating untold damage, destruction and loss of life. Many residents no doubt also have received some additional bad news – the destruction of their home by flooding is not covered by their standard homeowners insurance policy.
Time magazine revisits Florida’s problems
Time magazine is tackling a familiar topic in a story reminiscent of its classic Paradise Lost article.
Paradise has gone missing again.
Time:Â Is Florida the Sunset State?
Water Crisis; Mortgage Fraud; Political Dysfunction; Algae-Polluted Beaches; Declining Crop; Failing Public Schools; Foreclosures…
Greetings from Florida, where the winters are great!
How secure is Citizens Property Insurance?
In less than four years, Citizens Property Insurance went from being a temporary fix for Florida’s troubled insurance market to the state’s largest insurer of homes, condos and apartments.
Insurance agents say Citizens pays them too little
As the largest insurer of homes, condos and apartments in the state, Citizens Property Insurance has nearly 9,000 agents writing policies for the company.
Insurance bills passed in 2008 and 2007 contained some significant changes for Citizens Property Insurance:
Insurer: No new policies, agents
State Farm isn’t adding new agents because it is not writing new homeowners’ policies.
State Farm Florida has stopped hiring agents because of the company’s decision in February not to write new homeowners policies in the state.
Avatar says it offers lower homeowners rates
Floridians have a new option for property insurance.
Tampa-based Avatar Property & Casualty is now selling homeowners policies.
Blogs Can Get Insurance Clients ‘SLAPP’ed!
A Dade County, Florida real estate developer in January 2008 filed a $25 million lawsuit against a real estate blogger alleging, among other charges, defamation of character based on the blogger’s opinion published solely on his blog (MiamiCondoInvestments). Hollo v. Lechuga may serve as a landmark case in this relatively new debate over a blogger’s legal liability for alleged personal injury arising from the contents of a blog.
Economic Downturn Dooms Florida Hurricane Supplies Tax Break
Economic woes have forced Florida lawmakers to ax a pair of popular tax breaks as parents prepare to return their children to school next month and the state readies itself for hurricane season.
EDITORIAL:Â Insurance just one aspect of hurricane readiness
Hurricane Bertha didn’t turn out to be a threat, but maybe she’s the wake-up call we needed to look at how prepared we are for the season.
EDITORIAL:Â Â Intensify storm research
Another hurricane has confounded the experts. How long will Florida and other states in the storms’ path have to wait until Congress gives the experts more help?
Eighteen months ago, as Florida’s newly elected Democratic chief financial officer, Alex Sink was clear: Her political ambition didn’t include the 2010 governor’s race.
Crist to sell Fla. on jaunt overseas
Amid talk that he’s being considered as a vice presidential candidate, Gov. Charlie Crist is polishing his foreign policy and trade credentials.
Crist departed Sunday on the most ambitious overseas trade mission of his term.
EDITORIAL:Â GOP loses on Medicare but Florida wins big
Three weeks ago, the Senate could have followed the House and rescinded a punitive 10.6 percent cut in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients.
Palm Coast red light cameras catch hundreds of violators in first month
A silver sedan in the grainy video zooms through the intersection beneath a traffic light that’s been red for almost 26 seconds.
Sugar industry likely to remain potent political force
Industry may wield more clout after land deal
U.S. Sugar Corp.’s plan to sell its land to clear a path for Everglades restoration signals the decline of a major political player that has shaped state and national policy for decades.
Council veterans collide in House race
Democrats Jones, Lockett-Felder battle for District 14’s voters
Political veteran Pat Lockett-Felder and City Councilwoman Mia Jones are creating one of the hottest primary election battles as both campaign for the Democratic nomination in the state House District 14 race.
Novices seek GOP nomination in District 97
Two Republican political rookies hope to ultimately win the Florida House District 97 seat in a sprawling suburban district that stretches from Davie and Southwest Ranches on the south to Coral Springs and Parkland on the north.
It used to be enough for politicians to fly in from Washington, talk tough about Castro and count on the support of Cuban Miami. Things are different now.
On the surface, political life in Cuban Miami seems unchanged. Little Havana is still partly a Disney version of a displaced Cuba and partly a genuine community hub, where families who have long since left for suburbia still come for nostalgic weekend lunches.
Rooney’s dad dogs Valeche over letter
As he heads into the final weeks of a nationally watched Republican congressional primary, Hal Valeche could find himself facing not only GOP foes Gayle Harrell and Tom Rooney but also a lawsuit from Rooney’s father.
Trouble Predicted in Counting Florida’s New Ballots – Again
You used to push a button to cast your vote. Now you’ll use a pen to fill in an oval or connect two arrows.
Mortgage-and-credit crisis results in thousands of job losses statewide
Central Florida’s financial sector feels the pain — and cuts jobs.
For many in Florida’s financial-services industry, the mortgage-and-credit meltdown is the crisis that keeps on taking — job after job after job.
Debate on offshore oil drilling heats up
From his perch at the southern tip of Louisiana, port director Ted Falgout sees green: the color of money that comes from the nation’s busiest haven of offshore drilling.
Utilities must be up front about the costs of nuclear power
Florida is about to go nuclear.
Progress Energy Florida, Central Florida’s largest power provider, will on Tuesday go before the state regulatory board for approval that will take it one step closer to building two new nuclear reactors.
Transit dreams to cost billions
As local governments get ready to lay off employees and slash services to make up for shrinking property taxes, South Florida transportation officials are planning an expanded transit system that may cost an estimated $8.9 billion to $10.9 billion during the next quarter century.
JTA study names potential sites for commuter rail
A Jacksonville Transportation Authority consultant has identified 28 potential locations where commuter rail stations could be built in Northeast Florida.
The consultant, Gannett Fleming Inc. of Pennsylvania, has identified the sites as part of an ongoing $400,000 study into the feasibility of commercial rail in the Jacksonville area.
EDITORIAL:Â Disney firing sets stage for battle between gun rights and property rights
ISSUE: Stage set for a three-ring circus pitting property and gun rights against each other probably put itself in the legal cross hairs of America’s gun lobby this week when theme park officials fired a security guard who sought the law’s protection but violated company policy in doing so.
Bringing a gun to work is perfectly legal, thanks to the pliant Florida Legislature that approved a law allowing concealed weapons permit holders to pack heat as long as they leave their guns locked in their vehicles. In dismissing the employee, Disney reads the law differently. The theme park claims it is exempt from the law, which has some seeing red.
Anheuser-Busch, Including Fla. Parks, Sold to Belgium Beer Giant
One of America’s biggest cultural icons — the Anheuser-Busch Cos. of St. Louis, maker of Budweiser — agreed Sunday evening to be acquired for about $52-billion by Belgian brewer InBev NV.
Federal insurance office may assist OFC effort
Proponents of an optional federal charter for insurers and producers may have received a boost for their cause courtesy of a House panel.
N.Y. judge says workers’ comp board can’t collect assessments
Because some group self-insured trusts in New York failed, self-insured employers were assessed millions of dollars to pay the workers’ comp liabilities of the failed insurers.
However, a judge recently annulled those assessments, citing a technicality in the law. This highlighted the question of whether group trusts and those who are self-insured should be obligated to cover a failed trust’s liabilities.
TEXAS:Â EDITORIAL–An elected insurance possibility
Tired of high insurance rates? Want to vote them away?
That prospect may be about as viable as a promise from the tooth fairy, but growing public (and political) unhappiness over insurance premiums will get a full venting during next year’s legislative session.
GAO Weighs In On Terror Cover Availability
The Government Accountability Office today released a study confirming the concerns of House Democrats that commercial policyholders in high-density areas such as New York are having difficulty obtaining large amounts of terrorism risk insurance from one underwriter.
New Orleans to begin citing residents of FEMA trailers
Residents living in FEMA trailers across the city could be cited within the next few weeks for not vacating the temporary structures.
The intense struggle in Congress last week over a relatively modest Medicare reform bill has underscored a disturbing truth: many of the private plans that participate in the huge government-sponsored health insurance program for older Americans have become a far too costly drain on Medicare’s overstretched budget.
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