Capitol to Courthouse Headliners: Wednesday, July 18

Click on a headline to read the complete story:

 

Florida warns home insurers: Obey new laws on windstorm — or else

Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty put the state’s homeowner insurance companies on notice Tuesday they had better comply with new insurance laws or face state action.

 

Administration opposes proposal for wind-damage insurance

WASHINGTON – A measure that would expand the nation’s flood-insurance program to include wind damage ran into opposition Tuesday from administration officials who said it would be unfair to private insurers and would cost too much.

 

Crist signs his first death warrant

Gov. Charlie Crist has signed his first death warrant, seven months after Florida halted executions and changed protocols to prevent botched lethal injections.

 

Crist aide opposed federal wind insurance plan

TALLAHASSEE – As Gulf Coast lawmakers press Congress to add hurricane coverage to the nation’s flood insurance program, a Florida aide to Gov. Charlie Crist has tried to undermine it.

 

Time runs out for buying storm risk

State ends up taking out loans instead

Florida officials looked as far afield as the United Arab Emirates to find a buyer for the state’s hurricane risk.  On Tuesday, time ran out, and the state opted to punt.

 

No-fault law’s expiration raises concerns

In an effort to get a full understanding of how Florida drivers would be affected once the state’s no-fault auto insurance law expires in October, Alex Sink has spent several weeks analyzing the impact of the pending change.

 

S.E.C. Chief Seeks New Clout for Board Overseeing States

A top federal official is expected today to call on Congress to bolster the powers of the beleaguered board that oversees financial disclosures by state and local governments.

 

How to ‘harden’ your home

Have you made your home more hurricane resistant? Improvements such as shutters, impact-resistant windows or gable braces may earn you a break on your homeowner’s insurance.

 

Hurricane Grants Off-Limits For Many

TAMPA – The state’s My Safe Florida Home program was launched a year ago as a way to give all Floridians a chance to fortify their homes against hurricane damage.

 

Wind coverage insurance not required

For some homeowners, new law offers potential savings, but carries genuine risk

SARASOTA — Thanks to a new state law, John Day will be able to cut his homeowners insurance bill by more than a thousand dollars a year by eliminating costly windstorm coverage.

 

3 plead guilty to Mutual Benefits fraud

Three people involved with Mutual Benefits have pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit securities fraud.

 

Feds Give $1B for Emergency Radios

The government will distribute nearly $1 billion to states and cities to fix communications problems that still hamper police and fire departments six years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

 

In Mississippi, Ruling Is Seen as Racial Split

JACKSON, Miss., A federal court ruling in June that forces voters to register by party could return Mississippi to the days of racially polarized politics, as many white Democrats warn that thousands of white voters will now opt definitively for the Republican Party.

 

Citizens reaches out – to 100 at a time

The property insurer takes complaints and questions, but not many residents show up.

CLEARWATER – Maybe it was the thunderstorms. Or that word of the forum hadn’t gotten out. Or, as one Citizens Property Insurance official guessed, maybe it was simply that most policyholders don’t have any serious problems.

 

Online Insurance Sales To Double By 2011, Says Researcher

Celent, a Boston-based research group, projects that online insurance sales will double by 2011, and that the Web will play a major role in most personal insurance purchases across auto, life and health.

 

Even deep price cuts add few to ranks of insured

A 50% cut in health insurance premiums would only reduce the number of uninsured Americans by 3%, estimates a Rand study out Monday, which suggests that incentives and government tax cuts won’t lead to universal coverage.

 

Pulling Out: Citizens Picks Up Where Insurers Leave

TALLAHASSEE — Kathy Reilly knows what it is like to have business nobody wants to take.

 

Going Naked: As Insurance Costs Rise, More Go Bare

TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s home insurance crisis is starting to take a new face — those of the uncovered.

 

Someone’s fibbing about insurance solution

OK – who lied?

That’s what everyone with any interest in the insurance dilemma facing Florida is wondering.

 

Businesses cringe at entrusting land to voters

A ballot initiative would involve the public in land-use changes.

TALLAHASSEE – It’s not often that a ballot initiative gets compared to “Armageddon” or a “nuclear bomb.”

 

Boyd’s fundraising gets help from PACs

WASHINGTON – Despite a lack of competition, Rep. Allen Boyd had no problem raising money for his re-election campaign during the second quarter of the year, according to federal financial reports released Monday.

 

Health experts: E-health records privacy rules needed

Patients currently don’t have any way to keep their personal information from being shared with third parties.

The U.S. needs new medical privacy rules as the country moves toward greater use of IT to store health records, a group of health-care experts said Wednesday.

 

Doctors, Democrats scrutinize September 11 dust

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Pilar Albarado spent five months after September 11, 2001, cleaning pulverized building material from apartment buildings and offices near the site of the World Trade Center. A chronic cough came two years later, and she is also battling asthma, memory loss and acid reflux.