Recent proposed technical changes to the Florida Building Code could have a potential impact on residential and commercial property insurance rates in the State of Florida, the University of Florida’s Center for Advanced Construction Information Modeling advised in its draft February 2018 report entitled “Economic Impact Analysis and Evaluation of Property Insurance Rate Impact Resulting from Potential Changes to the Florida Building Code form the ICC Base Code Provisions.”

The Senate advanced Corcoran’s K-12 bill by a vote of 20-17, while the House advanced the higher education bill by a vote of 84-28. Both bills now head to Governor Rick Scott’s desk for approval.  John Kennedy and Zac Anderson …

She said she isn’t running for her final term because she’s a newlywed with a ready-made family and wants time to phase into her new life.  http://sunshinestatenews.com/story/katie-edwards-walpole-i-wont-run-reelection

Here are some bragging rights that we’d rather not have. Florida is once again tops among all states with the highest number of fraud reports.  The Tampa Bay Times reports via Crain’s Miami. http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/workinglife/Florida-is-still-the-fraud-king-and-Tampa-Bay-among-worst-metros_166092785?itx[idio]=6018337&ito=792&itq=3250f3ed-337c-4887-98c7-28126e7e268f

Over the past 4½ months, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and local contractors have collected more than 736,000 cubic yards of debris — the equivalent of 61,000 truckloads — as they rush to clean up St. Thomas, St. John …

Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon has appointed Nicholas “Nick” Lorusso as chief deputy of the Louisiana Department of Insurance and Denise Dunckel as the deputy commissioner of Public Affairs, Insurance Journal reports. https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southcentral/2018/03/02/482256.htm

Colodny Fass partner Sandy Fay in Sunrise and Broad and Cassel partner Nina Gordon in Miami represented Federated National Holding Co.’s purchase through its Federated National Insurance Co. subsidiary, Lidia Dinkova reports for the Daily Business Review today, March 6, 2018.

Irma Loss Increase Triggers Reinsurance Claim For Florida Citizens Florida Citizens Property Insurance is now expecting to make some Reinsurance Recoveries related to its Hurricane Irma Claims.  Trading Risk reports. America’s Flood Insurance Chief Has A Message For All Floridians: …

The Federal Railroad Administration should identify and adopt a method for systematically communicating information to railroads and use a risk-based approach to prioritize its resources and workload, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said.

The Florida Senate on Saturday unanimously approved a bill that would curb the ability of health insurers and HMOs to retroactively deny claims, THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA reports via FloridaPolitics.com.   http://floridapolitics.com/archives/258039-senate-targets-denial-insurance-claims