Capitol to Courthouse Headliners: Thursday, May 17

Crist: Budget cuts won’t hurt storm response

Gov. Charlie Crist vowed Wednesday that any eventual property-tax relief would not compromise state or county efforts to help Floridians prepare for and respond to hurricanes or other disasters.

”People should not be worried about that,” Crist said during the Governor’s Hurricane Conference, which runs through Friday at the Broward Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale.

 

U.S. Will Bail Out Fla. CAT Fund, Says Ex-Sen.

PHILADELPHIA —A former Florida state senator predicted at an insurance conference here that if devastating losses deplete the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, the federal government will step in to shore it up.

 

Guard is prepared for storm season, Crist adviser says

FORT LAUDERDALE — Florida has 10,500 National Guard troops at home heading into the 2007 hurricane season — more help for disaster recovery than the state has had in six years, a top commander said Wednesday.

 

Crist: Residents need hurricane plan

Self-sufficiency is a mustafter a storm, officials say

FT. LAUDERDALE — Sixteen days from the start of another hurricane season, Florida officials are unsure of what to expect from the federal government, and everyone is urging the state’s 18 million residents to do more on their own.

 

Insurance

State Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink announced Wednesday appointees to the task force on Citizens Property Insurance Claims Handling and Resolution created during January’s emergency session on property insurance. The group’s first meeting is May 21 in Jacksonville.

 

Sink pulls Aspire plug

TALLAHASSEE — Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink today pulled the plug on one of the three big state outsourcing projects that has already cost the state $89 million and not delivered as promised.

 

Florida sues home-services firm

The state of Florida has sued a Pennsylvania company selling what it called “insurance-like” products to seniors in the state. According to Attorney General Bill McCollum, Homeward Bound Services of North America Inc. sells policies intended to pay for a specified number of hours contracted for personal home services to seniors. According to the lawsuit, which was filed in state court in Tallahassee, Homeward Bound subcontracts to local providers but then routinely fails to pay them for the services provided to consumers.

 

Crist to residents: Be prepared; key stations must have generators

FORT LAUDERDALE — Floridians should be ready for hurricanes. It’s not like the season that starts June 1 is a big secret.

 

Director: FEMA more prepared than ever for hurricane season

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is more prepared than ever for the 2007 hurricane season, having at the ready helicopters, generators, disaster medical teams and road clearing crews to react within hours, FEMA Director R. David Paulison said Wednesday.

 

Reader Opinion:  Home-inspection highlight

With the Florida Legislature now adjourned, many are disappointed with what wasn’t accomplished. But I think it’s important to touch on what legislators did accomplish. One highlight was a bill relating to the regulation of the home-inspection industry. This bill, sponsored by Sen. Stephen Wise, if signed by Gov. Charlie Crist, will require that individuals who perform home inspections meet certain training, testing and insurance standards. The way things are right now, anyone with a flashlight and a ladder can market himself as a home inspector. It’s happening in Orlando right now.

 

Editorial: Citizens an insurance rival, not just a last resort.

You know there’s an insurance crisis when people want to get into Citizens Property Insurance Corp. instead of getting out.

 

Hurricane satellite might fail

QuikSCAT probe can reveal storm strength

A vital satellite for determining a hurricane’s power could soon go kaput.

 

National insurance fund gains support, but maybe not enough

Unlike Florida’s Capitol in Tallahassee, where lawmakers have taken a number of actions to address the state’s insurance crisis with arguable results, solutions at the federal level have been hard to come by.

 

House Democrats offer detailed property tax relief plan

House Democrats tried to rev up Florida’s plodding search for property tax relief and equity Wednesday by unveiling a detailed plan of exemptions linked to local median housing values or – for commercial taxpayers – indexed to inflation.

 

FAU unaware of probes into donor’s insurance practices

Florida Atlantic University leaders were unaware of state investigations into the insurance practices of school donor Barry Kaye dating to 2002, including last week’s allegation that his company may be involved in defrauding a 73-year-old woman.

 

Insurance:  Former Mutual Benefits Exec Pleads Guilty

A former Mutual Benefits sales manager who used a shell company to avoid paying taxes pleaded guilty to two counts of tax evasion.

 

Small businesses disaster planning needs to be more sophisticated than in the past

NEW YORK — The tornado that decimated Greensburg, Kan., this month and the upcoming official start of the hurricane season should serve as a reminder to small business owners that they need to prepare their companies for the absolute worst — physical devastation of their premises and an indefinite interruption of operations if a catastrophe strikes.

 

For first time, nation’s minority population tops 100 million

When Ketly Blaise Williams started her translation service in West Palm Beach, she thought she would be in business about five years. That’s how long she imagined it would take Creole- and Spanish-speaking clients to assimilate and settle into English-language lives.

 

State community college chief to be BCC president

The chancellor of Florida’s community college system, J. David Armstrong Jr., was chosen Wednesday as the new president of Broward Community College.

 

After 20 years, Broward prosecutor leaves for private practice

He’s leaving behind a job he loves.

After 20 years with the Broward State Attorney’s Office, 13 of those as a homicide prosecutor, Tony Loe is reluctantly moving to the civil arena. He says he can’t afford to stay. His last day is today.With two college-bound sons, Loe, 51, stands to triple his income as a civil trial attorney.

He’ll join Garfinkel Mager, representing property owners fighting insurance companies to honor hurricane-related repairs, Loe said.

 

NAM Pays Lobbyist Headed to Safety Board

WASHINGTON — The National Association of Manufacturers will pay $150,000 to one of its lobbyists when he leaves to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the association said Wednesday.

 

BellSouth rings up a $1 million bill for lobbying

In just three months, telecom giant BellSouth spent at least $1,020,110 — an average of $11,460 daily — to lobby state agencies and lawmakers, making it the biggest-spending firm in the Capitol, according to disclosure reports posted Wednesday.