Capitol to Courthouse Headliners: Monday, July 23

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Why insurance reform is falling short

Seven months after Florida lawmakers expanded the government’s role in the state’s insurance market, rates should be lower and insurers should be willing to write more policies.

 

Insurance companies gear up for new round of battles

In the increasingly antagonistic Florida insurance environment, an industry trade group is sharpening its quills for the next battle.

 

House votes to extend OPIC through 2011

The House agreed Monday that worker rights and the environment should be factors in projects approved by a federal agency that backs private investment in less-developed countries.

 

Coping with storm insurance

Growing up in Louisiana, Henry Landry saw first-hand the destructive force of hurricanes that knocked down buildings and flooded homes with a surge of water that brought snakes inside.

 

Crist urges jilted homeowners to shop for insurer

Florida’s problems with property insurance won’t be going away anytime soon.  Gov. Charlie Crist said legislators will need to do more work to reduce property insurance rates and increase insurance availability to homeowners, beyond what they did during the special session in January, according to spokeswoman Erin Isaac.

 

Medicare health insurance plans run by America’s Health Choice in Florida terminated

Federal officials Friday said they terminated Medicare health insurance plans run by America’s Health Choice in Florida because of delays and denials of medical care and other issues, the first termination ever made for substandard coverage.

 

Less than half of Florida’s mobile homes are insured

ST. PETERSBURG More than half of Florida’s 800,000 mobile homes no longer are covered by homeowner’s insurance, another sign of the state’s soaring insurance costs.

 

Column: State insurance market remains too unsettled

Like a bad neighbor, State Farm soon won’t be there for 50,000 customers in Florida. Let’s all hope that the hurricane season is calmer than the state’s property insurance market.
 
  

Home Insurers Head for Higher Ground

Property insurance companies in Florida are increasingly picking and choosing the kind of risk they want to insure – and it’s all inland and safe.

 

Editorial–Our view: Another day, another sellout

State Farm’s massive policy dumping again shows lawmakers owned by the industry.

 

New Comp Profits Threats Seen

The workers’ compensation insurance sector’s rising profits may face a threat now from increasing accident year losses, according to a new study by Conning Research and Consulting.

 

Clinton, Obama address La Raza

Democratic front-runners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama vowed Sunday to crusade for immigration reform if elected president, though they didn’t promise everything asked of them at the nation’s largest gathering of Hispanic community leaders.

 

Governors tackle online predators

Vigilant parents and well-educated children remain the first line of defense against online predators, even as social networking sites toughen standards and police crack down, experts told a panel of governors Sunday.

 

Florida splits on picks for ’08

Presidential hopefuls from New York lead in donations in South Florida, but they aren’t tops here.

In the intense chase for presidential cash in Florida, new campaign finance reports show two distinct Sunshine States. There are clear Republican and Democratic front-runners in the Tampa Bay area, and there are clear – and different – front-runners in South Florida.

 

The Origins of Crist’s Climate Crusade

Just six months after taking office, Gov. Charlie Crist has leaped to the forefront of an issue his predecessors rarely mentioned: global warming.

 

Big political donors hedging their bets

Several thousand political contributors have donated to two or more presidential candidates this year, an overlap in giving that tilts decidedly to the Democrats.

 

John Glisch: Politics of self destruction

Public opinion already rendered Bob Allen’s verdict

It’s the rerun of a bad movie:  A politician gets caught in a sexual fandango, claims it’s a misunderstanding, proclaims his innocence and, as a kicker, says he’ll still seek higher office.

 

Home tax break gathers steam

After looking like it was headed toward a January ballot as a political orphan, the Legislature’s big property-tax initiative is finally attracting a few sugar daddies.

 

Hurricane Season Update

When the tropics are calm, the daily update issued by the National Hurricane Center says: Tropical cyclone formation is not expected during the next 48 hours.

 

Insurance agent books ‘Papa’ Hemingway title

KEY WEST A white-bearded insurance agent from Palm Harbor won the Ernest Hemingway Look-Alike Contest, a highlight of the annual festival honoring the famed writer.