Capitol to Courthouse Headliners: Monday, July 16

Click on a headline to read the complete story:

 

Borrowing money likely option for catastrophe fund

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — State officials said Monday they are considering borrowing as much as $5 billion to make sure the Hurricane Catastrophe Fund will have enough to pay claims in the event of a large hurricane.

 

State CFO reflects on Florida’s unique financial challenges

Talk about being thrown into a tough situation

Two weeks after Alex Sink was sworn into office as Florida’s new chief financial officer, lawmakers embarked on a 10-day special session to come up with ways of lowering insurance rates and providing some respite for the state’s beleaguered homeowners.

 

Fla. Insurance Problems Detailed

Serious problems in Florida’s hurricane insurance market are not abating and may be worsening, according to experts who spoke at the Casualty Actuarial Society’s annual spring meeting, the organization reported.

 

New Plan Could Make Federal Catastrophe Insurance a Reality

WASHINGTON — In the 15 years since Hurricane Andrew devastated South Florida, dozens of bills have been introduced in Congress calling for a national catastrophe insurance program. Not one has passed.

 

Don’t blow off roofs

It makes no sense to have a program for hardening homes against hurricanes that excludes money to reinforce roofs.

 

Law to punish I-95 speeders not applied to highway’s worst area: Broward

Bill sponsors’ zones benefit most from it

MELBOURNE A state law intended to punish speeders on notorious stretches of Interstate 95 bypasses the worst area — Broward County — in favor of the home counties of lawmakers who supported the bill, a newspaper reported Sunday.

 

Survey: Hospitals locally, nationally experiencing specialty coverage shortfall

Hospitals are increasingly hard-pressed to have enough specialist coverage in emergency rooms and that has prompted a greater reliance on paying the physicians to take call, a survey by the American Hospital Association shows.

 

Area’s legislative power about to expire

TALLAHASSEE – “A two-edged sword” is about to fall on Northeast Florida. Seven of the area’s 10 state representatives will leave the Legislature next year because of term limits, bringing the likely end of political careers that have put them into the upper echelons of decision-making in Tallahassee. The looming exodus has already sparked a looming crowd of candidates to replace them, from the ranks of the Jacksonville City Council to the Nassau County School Board.

 

Letter to the Editor:  Mobile-home repair program not controversial; veto is

On behalf of the Federation of Manufactured Home Owners of Florida and the Florida Manufactured Housing Association, we would like to clarify and rebut some statements made in the article “Help withdrawn: Mobile home retrofits in question”.

 

No La Nina This Summer, NOAA Says

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted that La Nina — a cooling of Pacific Ocean waters that generally brings a more active Atlantic hurricane season — will be absent for the next two months.

 

Child Health Insurance Bill Faces Veto

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration said Saturday that senior advisers would recommend the president veto Senate legislation that would substantially increase funds for children’s health insurance.

 

Medical tourism trend expected to grow for the uninsured in U.S.

VERO BEACH Eileen Clemenzi spent $11,000 on a two-week vacation in Malaysia last fall, returning home with a new artificial hip that would have cost about four times as much in the United States.

 

Hurricane Katrina Ice Going Down Drain

After nearly two years, thousands of truck miles and $12.5 million in storage costs, a cold relic of the flawed Hurricane Katrina relief effort is going down the drain.

 

Few residents covered by flood insurance

While his flooded neighbors faced an uncertain future, homeowner Bob Foust was already well under way this week repairing the water damage to his house upstream of the refinery’s oil spill.

 

If You’re So Rich, Why Aren’t You Tall?

America used to be the tallest country in the world. From the days of the founding fathers right on through the industrial revolution and two world wars, Americans towered over other nations. In a land of boundless open spaces and limitless natural abundance, the young nation transformed its increasing wealth into human growth.

 

Casinos Boom in Katrina’s Wake as Cash Pours In

BILOXI, Miss. — This seaside gambling resort along a stretch of the Gulf Coast, sometimes called the “redneck Riviera,” has 40 percent fewer hotel rooms and only two-thirds as many slot machines as it did before Hurricane Katrina. A major bridge that connects the casinos in this popular tourist destination to Alabama, the Florida Panhandle and other points east remains closed, and Mayor A. J. Holloway estimates that as many as 15 percent of the city’s pre-Katrina residents still have not returned.

 

U.S. Senate Panel Weighs Funding for Weather Satellites

Cuts to planned weather and environmental satellites will significantly affect scientists’ ability to study the Earth’s climate, experts told a U.S. Senate committee last week.

 

An Argument For Global Accounting Rules

Standard & Poor’s in a new report has issued a call for a single set of principles-based global accounting standards.

 

N.Y. Attorney General Objects to Insurer’s Ranking of Doctors by Cost and Quality

In a sharply worded letter, the New York State attorney general’s office asked a health insurance company yesterday to halt its planned introduction of a method for ranking doctors by quality of care and cost of service, warning of legal action if it did not comply.

 

Commercial Premium Costs Still Fall, RIMS Study Finds

Commercial insurance premiums of most lines, including directors and officers, continued to decline during the second quarter of 2007, according to the Risk and Insurance Management Society’s Benchmark Survey, released today.

 

Casinos Boom in Katrina’s Wake as Cash Pours In

BILOXI, Miss. — This seaside gambling resort along a stretch of the Gulf Coast, sometimes called the “redneck Riviera,” has 40 percent fewer hotel rooms and only two-thirds as many slot machines as it did before Hurricane Katrina. A major bridge that connects the casinos in this popular tourist destination to Alabama, the Florida Panhandle and other points east remains closed, and Mayor A. J. Holloway estimates that as many as 15 percent of the city’s pre-Katrina residents still have not returned.

 

Insurer Seeks Repayment from Parents of Vt. Teen Who Took Hostage

An insurance company that paid workers’ compensation to a bank employee traumatized in a Thetford, Vermont hostage-taking incident is seeking to recover the money from the family of the teenager charged in the incident.