Capitol to Courthouse Headliners: Thursday, Feb. 14

Happy Valentines Day from Colodny Fass!

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EDITORIAL: Florida Senate making headway on property insurance

It’s become easy to find fault with the Florida Legislature. But one group of lawmakers has shown that the sausage-making process, from holding hearings to crafting law, actually does work.

 

Shell Oil to put sensors on Gulf rigs to gauge storm strength, share data with forecasters

It’s a Gulf Coast nightmare: A moderate hurricane crosses a pocket of deep warm water in the Gulf of Mexico and explodes into a top-of-the-chart Category 5 monster.

 

Text of SEC chair’s remarks to Congress

Text of Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox’s opening remarks to the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday, as provided by the SEC.

 

Florida legislators seek economic relief

With a slowing economy and a challenging financial year ahead, members of Manatee and Sarasota counties’ legislative delegation said they will do what they can to bring local citizens some relief.

 

Review Of Sales Tax Exemptions Sought

After years of avoiding the task, lawmakers may have to review and vote on whether to keep special-interest sales tax exemptions on the state books.

 

Florida’s Amendment 1 Save Our Homes portability sparks lawsuit

The ink hasn’t dried on the Amendment 1 property-tax plan overwhelmingly approved by voters last month, but lawyers in Tallahassee are already taking a key piece of the plan to court.

 

County Makes Amends To Mom Mired In Home Repair Fiasco

Angelic House was ecstatic when she learned she could get her storm-damaged home fixed through Hillsborough County’s housing rehabilitation program.

 

Group Suggests Insurance Shopping

The prolonged slump in Florida’s housing market has been blamed on a variety of factors, including prices that shot up too quickly, overbuilding, and problems in the subprime lending market.

 

Governor Crist Announces Baseline Measurement for State Government Greenhouse Gas Emissions

State government to target greenhouse gas reductions

Governor Charlie Crist today released Florida’s first comprehensive assessment of greenhouse gas emissions produced by state government. 

 

CFO Sink Joins U.S. And European Investors Confronting Climate Change Risks And Opportunities

Investors Make Bold Commitments to Energy Efficiency and Other Clean Technologies Require Closer Scrutiny of Carbon-Intensive Investments

Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink today joined nearly 50 leading U.S. and European institutional investors managing over $1.75 trillion in assets in releasing a climate change action plan at the United Nations that will boost investments in energy efficiency and clean energy technologies and require tougher scrutiny of carbon-intensive investments that may pose long-term financial risks.

 

Senior water officials flying at taxpayers’ expense

Almost 600: Times district members flew over three years +$800,000: cost of fuel, insurance, hangar space, maintenance.

 

Florida losing millions in federal Medicaid money

The hurricanes that battered Florida a few years ago are hurting the state once again in an unexpected manner: Florida is losing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicaid money.

 

CDC: Move people out of toxic FEMA trailers

U.S. health officials are urging that Gulf Coast hurricane victims be moved out of their government-issued trailers as quickly as possible after tests found toxic levels of formaldehyde fumes.

 

FEMA to continue trailer distribution

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Thursday it will distribute mobile homes to victims of last week’s tornadoes in Arkansas and Tennessee, despite a health warning about high formaldehyde levels, officials said.

 

Fire Station May Aid Insurance Rate

Property owners along the U.S. 27 corridor north of Haines City may see a break in fire insurance rates by next year.

 

To Promote Bills, Amputees Describe Insurance Travails

Lorenzo Smith was hanging out with friends in his Suitland neighborhood after school one afternoon about two years ago. That’s when the speeding car struck.

 

Bush’s Budget Would Include Millions for Hurricane Research

President Bush’s proposed budget would include millions more in funding to improve hurricane forecasts and further research the storms, a federal official said at a recent regional discussion of the budget.

 

Infinity Property and Casualty Corporation Announces Litigation Settlement and Adjustment to 2007 Earnings

Infinity Property and Casualty Corporation IPCC, a national provider of personal automobile insurance, today announced that it has reached an agreement to settle for $13.0 million a lawsuit brought against one of its insurance company subsidiaries alleging bad faith in the handling of a 1993 Florida personal automobile liability claim.

 

Spitzer, Fund Manager Ackman Due At Bond Insurer Hearing

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer will be among a broad-based lineup of witnesses appearing tomorrow at a House subcommittee hearing looking into oversight of the troubled bond insurance industry.

 

2 bond insurers snub offer

Wall Street finished mostly higher Tuesday after billionaire investor Warren Buffett offered to help out troubled bond insurers, easing some of the market’s concerns about further deterioration in the credit markets.

 

Medical Costs for Auto Injury Claims Outpacing Inflation

A new study by the Insurance Research Council (IRC) has found that medical expenses reported by auto injury claimants continue to rise faster than the rate of inflation.

 

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