Capitol to Courthouse Headliners: Wednesday, Aug. 29

Click on a headline to read the complete story:

 

Nationwide Doubling Policy Cut

Florida’s beleaguered home insurance market took another hit Tuesday as the state’s fifth-largest property insurer expanded its withdrawal from the state.

 

National Hurricane Center Hires Acting Deputy Director

The head of a Texas National Weather Service office will join the staff of the National Hurricane Center, officials announced Monday.

 

GOP Leadership Strips Craig Of Committee Assignments

BOISE, Idaho, Aug. 29 — Sen. Larry Craig went on vacation with his wife Wednesday, according to aides, as calls for his resignation intensified, Republican leaders stripped him of his committee assignments, and support in his home state appeared to be eroding.

 

FEMA: No Second Claim For Public Entities

WASHINGTON —The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it is working on clarification of language in a bulletin that says if a public entity collects once for damage on a property, FEMA won’t pay a second claim if another disaster strikes.

 

Lines In New Orleans For Katrina Suit Deadline

On the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s 2005 arrival in New Orleans, attorneys in the city were marking the event by filing last-minute lawsuits against insurers.

 

OFC No Harm To States, Says Ex Gov. Racicot

Former Montana governor Marc Racicot, who heads a trade group backing legislation for optional federal chartering of insurers, said such a measure will be good for consumers and won’t impact state revenues.

 

‘Rock’ puts Crist in hard place

The governor finds out what happens when his promises create high hopes in the constituency.

TALLAHASSEE — For months, Gov. Charlie Crist has utilized his knack for compressing complex issues into crisp sound bites to create high hopes that insurance rate relief was on the way and property taxes would “drop like a rock.”

 

Ron Brown:  Floridians need system that protects them

Drivers don’t need no-fault — despite the claims in an Aug. 8 commentary, “Florida drivers need the PIP coverage.” What Florida drivers need and deserve is auto insurance that protects them without sky-high rates and which holds people responsible for the accidents they cause. Come Oct. 1, that is exactly what we will have.

 

Working With The Flood

Since Katrina, many New Orleanians have begun elevating their old houses on tall foundations to comply with new federal flood guidelines – and to be clear of the water when the next big flood comes.

 

Low land prices lure Cabinet

Despite a deficit, it wants Florida Forever to snap up environmentally sensitive acres.

TALLAHASSEE – After years of paying top dollar for environmentally sensitive land, Florida wants to jump into the buyers’ real estate market.

 

1 in 5 Floridians uninsured

But incomes improved and poverty rates fell last year, a survey shows.

Floridians closed the income gap with the rest of the country last year, but a lack of medical insurance remained a huge and growing problem, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday.

 

NCCI Proposes Reduction for Workers Compensation Rates in Florida

Driven by significant declines in claim frequency and improvement in loss development (i.e., claims are developing to a lower ultimate value) the National Council on Compensation Insurance is proposing that Florida officials drop the workers compensation rate by 16.5 percent, effective Jan. 1, 2008.

 

Baby born to House Speaker Marco Rubio
 
TALLAHASSEE — As lawmakers meet this week in committees, working through the difficult task of figuring out ways to cut the state’s spending by a billion dollars, a ray of sunshine broke through.

 

Companies step up protection for workers in violent relationships

Gloria Holmes-Mason tried to get away from her abusive husband again and again.  She was in the process of divorcing him, but he was still abusing her when she finally got the help she credits with saving her life — at work.

 

Political hotshot finds himself in hot water

Michael Duga — Taravella High grad, aide to a former U.S. senator, longtime political wonk — got tangled up in a bizarre political web this week.

 

Insurer ordered to pay $8.1 million to condo

WEST PALM BEACH — In what was described as a victory for condo owners who are battling their insurers, a federal jury today found QBE Insurance acted in bad faith and ordered it to pay a Boca Raton condominium $8.1 million for damages it sustained in Hurricane Wilma.

 

Hurricane recovery, Republican-style

Many are still struggling on the Gulf Coast. But casino and real estate investors are living large — thanks to Republican officials.

Aug. 29, 2007 | As residents of Mississippi’s Gulf Coast gather today to commemorate the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, they will recall a cataclysmic storm that spared no one, rich or poor, from its destruction. Virtually every structure along the 90-mile stretch of coastline was either wrecked or swept away after Katrina’s 140-mile-an-hour winds and 40-foot storm surge came ashore like a steamroller from hell.

 

Va. Firm Grows Fast, But Katrina Aid Lags

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco went to New Orleans last August to oversee the opening of the city’s first housing-assistance center aimed at people whose homes were destroyed or damaged by Hurricane Katrina. “This is not just a real estate transaction, but an emotional transaction as well,” Blanco said, adding: “Full-speed ahead!”