Latest Florida Headlines
All the headlines from our Florida Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Scott Still Trails Ex-Gov. Crist in Florida Gubernatorial Poll
Jan 31 2014 // Former Gov. Charlie Crist is leading Republican Gov. Rick Scott by 8 points in a new poll. The poll by Quinnipiac University also found that 54 percent do not think Scott deserves a second term as governor and that 41...
Florida Weighs 15-Day Hurricane Supply Tax Holiday
Jan 29 2014 // Floridians would get a 15-day sales tax holiday on hurricane preparedness supplies ranging from portable generators to radios this coming June under a proposal outlined Monday by Gov. Rick Scott. Scott, making the...
Florida’s BB&T-Oswald Trippe Adds Dunford in Personal Lines
Jan 28 2014 // Micah Paul Dunford has been appointed a personal lines sales agent for homeowners and personal auto coverage at BB&T-Oswald Trippe and Company. Dunford, who has 20 years of experience in the industry, will be based in...
Florida Homeowners Market ‘More Competitive,’ McCarty Finds
Jan 27 2014 // Homeowner insurance rates are finally coming down in Florida nearly a decade after the last hurricane hit, the state’s insurance commissioner says. But the report by Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty also showed...
Homeowners Choice Sells First Flood Policy in Florida
Jan 24 2014 // Homeowners Choice Property & Casualty Insurance Co., Inc., a Florida based provider of admitted homeowners insurance and wholly-owned insurance subsidiary of HCI Group, Inc., is now selling flood insurance to existing...
Report Finds Florida PIP Reforms Helping to Lower Rates
Jan 24 2014 // Florida drivers are starting to see the benefits of a 2012 re-write of the state’s no-fault automobile insurance law as insurers have reduced their personal injury protection (PIP) rates by a statewide average 13.2...
Florida Jury Awards $12.5M in Baptist Minister Sex Abuse Case
Jan 23 2014 // A central Florida jury has awarded $12.5 million in damages to a young man who was sexually abused by a Baptist minister when he was a child. But an attorney for the Florida Baptist Convention said that the organization...
Reinsurance Costs Helping to Lower Florida Homeowners Rates: OIR Report
Jan 21 2014 // Florida’s top insurance regulator says that state residents are starting to benefit from a more competitive homeowners market as rates have started to trend downward due in part to the reduction in reinsurance...
Florida Bill Would Restrict Insurers in Underwriting Gun Owners
Jan 17 2014 // Florida lawmakers say they want to protect policyholders’ second amendment rights to bear firearms by preventing insurers from issuing, renewing or canceling a policy based on whether the policyholder possesses a...
Florida Citrus Crop Weathers Overnight Cold
Jan 17 2014 // Cold weather overnight did not harm oranges and other fruit across Florida’s citrus-growing regions, the state’s leading growers association said on Friday. “Came through in good shape. No reports of...
University of Florida Lab Tests Fluid-Filled Helmet As Guard Against Injuries
Jan 16 2014 // In a ground floor lab of the New Engineering Building at the University of Florida, radiologist Keith Peters and mechanical engineer Ghatu Subhash are building the football helmet of the future. They’ve spent several...
Turk Joins Florida’s Century Risk Advisors as VP, Private Client Division
Jan 14 2014 // Boca Raton, Florida-based Century Risk Advisors (CRA), has hired insurance industry veteran Katherine Turk as vice president/private client manager of the company’s Private Client Division. Turk brings 35 years of...
BB&T-Oswald Trippe in Florida Names Bolduc Assistant Agency Manager
Jan 14 2014 // Shelley Bolduc has been appointed assistant agency manager for commercial lines at BB&T-Oswald Trippe and Co. in Fort Myers, Florida. With six years of industry experience, Bolduc will manage the daily supervision of...
Florida Panel Takes First Step To Creating Private Flood Market
Jan 13 2014 // With thousands of Florida residents facing dramatic increases in their flood insurance premiums, state lawmakers are preparing the groundwork for a private market option to premiums charged by the federal flood insurance...
Florida Has High Rate of ‘Underwater’ Properties: RealtyTrac
Jan 10 2014 // A new report says Florida has the nation’s second-highest rates of residential properties that were deeply underwater last month. The research firm RealtyTrac said that just over a third of Florida’s...
Florida ‘Pill Mill’ Doctor Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison
Jan 9 2014 // A South Florida doctor has been sentenced to more than five years in federal prison for his role in a major pill mill operation that illegally dispensed oxycodone and other painkillers. Court documents show that...
Liberty Mutual Selling Workers’ Comp Unit Summit Southeast to American Financial
Jan 9 2014 // Liberty Mutual Insurance said it has agreed to sell Summit Holdings Southeast Inc. and its related companies to American Financial Group (AFG) in an all-cash transaction valued at $250 million. Based in Lakeland, Florida,...
Widow Drops $100M Wrongful Death Suit Against Florida Hotel Magnate
Jan 8 2014 // A $100 million lawsuit filed against a Florida billionaire over a 2012 helicopter crash in the Bahamas that killed a prominent tax attorney has been withdrawn. The widow of attorney Lance Valdez filed the wrongful death...
U.S. Crops Escaping Cold Snap with Little Damage
Jan 8 2014 // U.S. crops are escaping record- setting cold weather with little damage, while the arctic blast drove cattle prices to a record as animals struggle to gain weight. The coldest spots in Florida citrus groves were near...
Florida Oranges Dodge Bullet, Escape Damage From Freezing Temperatures
Jan 7 2014 // Orange groves in Florida, the world’s biggest grower after Brazil, escaped cold weather damage overnight as frigid air set records across the Midwest. The coldest spots in Florida citrus groves were near freezing,...
