Latest Florida Headlines
All the headlines from our Florida Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Florida Workers’ Comp Premiums Going Down? NCCI Files for 9.6% Decrease
Aug 31 2017 // Just under a year since Florida workers’ compensation rates shot up by 14.5 percent, Florida businesses may get some relief in their workers’ comp premiums. The National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI)...
Second Florida Highway Patrol Official Resigns Over Ticket Quota Uproar
Aug 31 2017 // Florida is confronting an uproar over whether the state’s highway patrol is requiring troopers to meet ticket quotas for drivers, including millions of tourists each year who crowd its interstate highways. Top state...
Tornado in Florida Causes Damage to Several Buildings
Aug 29 2017 // A tornado damaged buildings and cars and toppled trees in Florida but no one was hurt. The Bradenton Herald reports that the tornado struck Saturday night in Manatee County with winds of 70 mph (112 kph). The newspaper...
25 Years Later…What If an Andrew-Type Storm Hit Florida Today?
Aug 28 2017 // Though Florida hasn’t suffered a category 5 storm since Hurricane Andrew hit the north Miami area on Aug. 24 1992, the risk of such a storm has not gone away or even declined. In fact, the state’s risk of...
Suspect in Florida Auto Theft Arrested After Stopping to Watch Eclipse
Aug 25 2017 // Authorities in Florida say an auto theft suspect who wanted to watch the moon blot out the sun instead has a blot on his record. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office said on its Facebook page that Jocsan Rosado was...
25 Years Later: How Florida’s Insurance Industry Has Changed Since Hurricane Andrew
Aug 24 2017 // Aug. 24, 1992 was anything but a typical Monday for Robert Reynolds as he drove through debris-filled roads and devastation on the way to his family-run agency then located just north of Homestead, Fla. Hurricane Andrew...
Florida Domestic Insurer Sawgrass Mutual to ‘Wind Down’ Operations
Aug 23 2017 // Just a day after being downgraded by ratings agency Demotech, Florida-based insurer Sawgrass Mutual Insurance Company has revealed it is under administrative supervision by the Florida Office of Insurance...
Miami Insurance Agent Arrested Over Assisted Living Facility Fraud Scheme
Aug 22 2017 // An investigation led by the Florida Department of Financial Services (DFS) Bureau of Insurance Fraud has led to the arrest of a Miami insurance agent for attempting to evade a higher insurance premium for his assisted...
Swiss Re: Miami Is More Vulnerable to Hurricanes Like Andrew
Aug 21 2017 // Almost 25 years have passed since a Category 5 hurricane struck south of Miami, and the city’s vulnerability to catastrophic storm damage has grown exponentially, according to a new insurance underwriters’...
Florida Official Pushes Back On Reports of Highway Patrol Ticket Quotas
Aug 18 2017 // The head of the Florida agency that oversees state’s highway patrol insists troopers don’t have ticket quotas. Terry Rhodes on Tuesday told Gov. Rick Scott and members of the state Cabinet that her agency is...
Florida Police: Tiger Woods Had Marijuana, Painkillers in System When Arrested for DUI
Aug 17 2017 // Tiger Woods had the active ingredient for marijuana, two painkillers and two sleep drugs in his system when he was arrested on a DUI charge earlier this year, a report released Tuesday by police said. Police in Jupiter,...
Major Florida City to Get Rid of Red-Light Cameras
Aug 15 2017 // A major Florida city is planning to get rid of its red-light cameras after data show the devices haven’t reduced car accidents. The Florida Times-Union reports that Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams announced the...
Florida Regulators Set Date for Citizens Public Rate Hearing
Aug 15 2017 // The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) announced it will conduct a rate hearing on Aug. 31, 2017 to receive public comment on Citizens’ proposed rate changes for its business in the Coastal Account (CA),...
Geologists Descend on Florida Neighborhood to Study Massive Sinkhole
Aug 14 2017 // Geologists are studying a massive Florida sinkhole that destroyed two homes and rendered five others uninhabitable. Experts might ever know exactly what caused Pasco County’s largest sinkhole in decades, but a team...
American Meteorological Society Report Confirms 2016 Was Warmest Year on Record
Aug 10 2017 // A new State of the Climate report released today by the American Meteorological Society has confirmed that 2016 surpassed 2015 as the warmest year in 137 years of recordkeeping. The report was compiled by the National...
Swiss Re: Miami Is More Vulnerable to Hurricanes Like Andrew
Aug 10 2017 // Almost 25 years have passed since a Category 5 hurricane struck south of Miami, and the city’s vulnerability to catastrophic storm damage has grown exponentially, according to a new insurance underwriters’...
NSI Insurance Group Acquires Southeast Insurance of Boca Raton, Florida
Aug 10 2017 // NSI Insurance Group has acquired Southeast Insurance, an independent agency based in Boca Raton, Fla. Southeast President Brian Samberg and his entire team will join NSI Insurance Group, giving the company a new position...
Thousands of Homes in Florida’s Palm Beach County Now in High-Risk Flood Zones
Aug 8 2017 // Thousands of property owners in one Florida County will be in newly created flood hazard zones later this year, and that means they’ll be required to buy flood insurance for the first time. The Palm Beach Post...
Sinkhole in Florida Neighborhood Continues Growing, 2 More Homes Condemned
Aug 7 2017 // Officials in Florida said Saturday a sinkhole that swallowed two homes last month is growing. Pasco County officials during a news conference that a large chunk of the hole’s edge has collapsed. Two more homes in...
Surplus Lines Insurance Premium Up Nationwide
Aug 7 2017 // A mid-year compilation of excess and surplus (E&S) insurance premium amounts by the Surplus Lines Stamping Office of Texas (SLTX) shows a 6.6 percent increase in premium nationally compared with the same period last...
