Latest Florida Headlines
All the headlines from our Florida Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Southeast States Battle Prescription Drug Abuse
Jun 17 2013 // Deaths from prescription drug overdoses jumped 360 percent in the last decade in the Appalachian region, according to the Center for Clinical and Translation Science. As a result of this epidemic, states in the Southeast...
Republican Hill, Insurance Agent, Wins Florida House Seat
Jun 13 2013 // Republican Mike Hill has defeated Democrat Jeremy Lau for the vacant state House District 2 seat. The Miami Herald reported that Hill carried about 58 percent of the vote in the Northwest Florida district, which includes...
Fired Florida State Trooper Deserves Job Back: Hearing Officer
Jun 12 2013 // A state hearing officer is recommending that a fired Florida Highway Patrol trooper be given his job back. The recommended order states that Trooper Charles Swindle should have been suspended without pay instead of losing...
Walgreen Agrees to Record $80M Settlement Over Distribution of Painkillers
Jun 12 2013 // Walgreen Co., the largest U.S. drugstore chain, has agreed to pay $80 million in civil penalties to resolve allegations that it violated federal rules governing the distribution of prescription painkillers. The U.S. Drug...
Tropical Storm Andrea Weakens Over Florida After Fueling Tornadoes
Jun 6 2013 // Tropical Storm Andrea lost strength as it passed over northern Florida on Thursday evening and is forecast to drench much of the U.S. Southeast with heavy rain as it cuts across Georgia and swing up the Atlantic Coast, the...
Groups Warn N.Y. Assembly’s Insurance Reform Bills Have Potential to Backfire
Jun 6 2013 // Industry groups are warning that the New York State Assembly’s recent approval of the post-Sandy insurance reform package has the potential to backfire and are urging the state Senate not to take up this...
Florida Governor Vetoes Immigrant Driver License Bill
Jun 6 2013 // Florida Gov. Rick Scott is vetoing a bill that would have allowed some young immigrants who are living in the U.S. illegally to apply for a temporary driver’s license in the state. The Republican-controlled...
Tropical Storm Andrea Hits Florida; Warnings Posted for Eastern U.S.
Jun 6 2013 // Tropical Storm Andrea pelted Florida’s northern Gulf Coast on Thursday and was forecast to drench much of the U.S. Southeast as it cuts across Georgia and up the Atlantic coast, the National Hurricane Center...
As Hurricane Season Opens, Florida’s Citizens Touts Depopulation Deals
Jun 4 2013 // Officials at Florida’s property insurer of last resort say that it is entering the 2013 hurricane season in improved financial condition thanks in part to various private insurer policy takeouts. Those takeouts have...
Coastal Homeowners Upset with Insurers, Regulators Over Surge in Insurance Costs
Jun 4 2013 // When Stan Virden moved into his 2,400-square-foot house overlooking a rock-lined canal in 1996, he paid less than $1,000 a year for homeowners insurance. Now, as he seeks to move to Atlanta to be near family, Virden says...
Fired Florida Trooper Says Speeding Lawmakers Get Break
Jun 4 2013 // A fired state trooper, as well as some current and former troopers, testified last week that the Florida Highway Patrol had an informal policy of giving breaks to legislators caught speeding. The highway patrol maintains...
Florida Gov. Scott Signs Bill Limiting State Review of Health Insurance Rates
Jun 4 2013 // Florida Gov. Rick Scott has signed a bill that removes the ability of state regulators to challenge health insurance rates for a two-year period. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson had called for the bill to be vetoed, saying the...
East, Gulf Coast Insured Properties Top $10 Trillion: AIR
Jun 3 2013 // The estimated insured value of residential and commercial properties in just the coastal counties of the U.S. East and Gulf Coast states now exceeds $10 trillion. The estimated value of these properties in the coastal...
Hurricane Season and Florida’s Insurance System: Living on Borrowed Time?
Jun 3 2013 // Mother Nature has been kind to Florida’s coastline lately with a record run of seven years without a hurricane making landfall, allowing property insurers time to re-stock their depleted coffers. As a result, before...
Florida Alleged Insurance Fraud Leader Found Competent for Trial
Jun 3 2013 // The alleged leader of an $800 million South Florida insurance fraud scheme has been found competent to stand trial despite severe pain from a spinal cord ailment that requires him to take powerful drugs including...
Florida Fines Universal P/C $1.3M for Claims Delays, Notice Failures
May 31 2013 // Florida’s second largest property insurer is being hit with a fine of nearly $1.3 million. Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty announced that his office was assessing a fine against Universal Property &...
Florida Gov. Scott Hits Citizens for Secrecy; Signs Clearinghouse, Cap Bill
May 31 2013 // Florida Gov. Rick Scott is sounding off anew against the state’s largest property insurer. Scott on Wednesday signed a bill that includes modest steps to shrink the size of the state-created Citizens Property...
Former U.S. Federal Reserve Insurance Counsel Frank Alerte Joins Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld, Karlinsky, Abate & Webb
May 31 2013 // Ft. Lauderdale, FL, 5/31/13 – Frank Alerte, a former executive insurance counsel at the U.S. Federal Reserve, Guy Carpenter and BB&T, has joined the law and governmental consulting firm of Colodny, Fass,...
Court Tells Florida to Review Employee Drug Testing for Some Jobs
May 30 2013 // Specific government job categories must be considered for mandatory drug testing in Florida, an appeals court concluded in a ruling that said a judge went too far in blocking enforcement of across-the-board public employee...
Wrongful Death Suit Alleges Hazing Death at Florida University
May 30 2013 // A wrongful death lawsuit claims Bethune-Cookman University failed to stop fraternity hazing that led to the death of a Marching Wildcat band member. Marcus Thomas died in February 2012 when the car in which he was riding...
