I recently attended the United Way Power Women’s breakfast as the guest of Cindy O’Connell, a great Floridian with a long history of public service. American sports personality Lesley Visser was the keynote, and she shared how she pushed past boundaries and challenges to enter the field of sports journalism.
When she was 10 years …
Florida legislative committees were busy holding discussions and debate on various bills in preparation for the start of the 2020 Legislative Session on January 14. They’ll return for one more “committee week” on December 9. Included is a proposed 18-day “disaster preparedness” holiday (which is double…
Recent news that FEMA is delaying its new Risk Rating 2.0 structure in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) for another year won’t impact planned double-digit premium increases beginning in April 2020. Meanwhile, progress is being made to produce a private flood insurance model act that states can adopt …
First-ever disaster aid for Florida’s timber industry hit hard by Hurricane Michael, paying for more power lines to prevent outages in future storms, reforming FEMA’s disaster contracting, and a new report urging Florida’s future coastal homes be elevated another foot. It’s all in this wrap-up of emergency and …
As we work through the open claims of Hurricane Michael, we’re seeing the same loss creep still being experienced from Hurricane Irma claims. It’s something that’s on the minds of reinsurance interests, too, along with rising costs of Assignment of Benefits (AOB) fraud. That plus a Florida roofing contractor is …
Florida’s annual red tide has returned to the west coast as the legislature begins hearing recommendations on how to tackle the state’s perennial blue-green algae problem on inland waterways and the coasts of Southeast and Southwest Florida. The public now has a new website to better monitor water quality, …
As we enter the season of open enrollments in both private and federal marketplace plans, the number of uninsured residents in Florida is growing, as are the number of uninsured children. For those who are insured, we also have a variety of news on efforts to lower healthcare costs …
In Lakeland, ten minutes from where I grew up, the local fire department is bringing their fit firefighters and some pretty pooches together for their 5th annual SPCA Florida Rescued Pets calendar! Just in time for the holidays, the buff men of the Lakeland Fire Department will be posing in photos with different rescued dogs …
