Scott Signs Property Insurance Rewrite
May 18, 2011
A sweeping and controversial measure aimed at reducing costs to property insurers and liability for taxpayers was signed into law Tuesday by Gov. Rick Scott, who said it was a significant first step in restoring the private insurance market in Florida.
Equally important, Scott said the measure (SB 408) will help lower the number of Florida coastal residents now insured by the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state’s largest property insurer with 1.3 million policies, by making it easier for private companies to compete.
“We’ve got to recruit other companies, other insurance companies,” Gov. Rick Scott said Tuesday in an interview with the News Service. “We’ve got to make sure Citizens goes back to being the insurance company of last resort.”
Among its changes, the bill allows insurance companies to charge more for policies that pay replacement costs up front while offering discounts to policyholders who opt to get reimbursed for lost items as they are replaced.
A major provision places more restrictions on sinkhole coverage. The law makes it easier for insurers to challenge claims and shortens to two years the window in which policyholders can file claims.
“This bill focuses on addressing cost drivers in the system and will yield long-term benefits for Florida by stabilizing the property insurance market and attracting new capital investment to our state.” Said Kevin McCarty, Florida’s insurance commissioner, who supported similar changes that were vetoed last year by then Gov. Charlie Crist.
Less enthused, however, were critics of insurers, led by Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, who said the changes left many policyholders at risk of losing private insurance altogether and being forced to go into Citizens – the opposite of one of the bill’s intended effects.
“Unfortunately, what happens next is that every home owner, every condominium condo owner, every mobile home owner, and every small business owner will be paying higher premiums to private insurers and will see their rates go up in the next 18 months,” Fasano said in an interview.
Scott’s decision drew immediate praise from the Senate sponsor, business groups, and the industry as a whole.
“(The bill) closes loopholes that invite fraudulent claims by restricting misleading advertising and misleading solicitations,” said Richter, R-Naples, sponsor of the bill. “It also attacks cost drivers in an effort to responsibly lower insurance premiums. With hurricane season quickly approaching, this legislation is critical to ensure a solvent industry that policyholders can rely on.”
The insurance industry lobbied the issue hard. State Farm, Florida’s second largest property insurer behind state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp, spent at least $150,000 for the quarter to press its case to lawmakers. FCCI, a regional commercial insurer, spent more than $250,000 in lobbying fees.
Business groups including the Florida Chamber of Commerce and Associated Industries of Florida lauded the signing Tuesday, calling the measure a good first step.
“We should not be requiring all Floridians including businesses, charities, homeowners, churches and automobile policyholders to pay hurricane taxes,” said Jose Gonzales, of AIF. “We should not be subsidizing million dollar beach homes on Florida’s coast and we should not be going into every hurricane season hoping for a miracle.”
Fasano, however, said he hopes to return to the issue when lawmakers return next year after policyholders feel the effects.
“Gov. Scott ran on a platform of no new taxes or fees,” Fasano said. “The law pretty much ensures that we will see a rise in fees, a tax if you will, on all rate payers,”
By Michael Peltier
The News Service of Florida
Robert “Earl” Gafford
May 18, 2011
Mr. Robert “Earl” Gafford, Sr., age 58, passed away Monday, May 16, 2011, at a Crestview hospital.
Mr. Gafford was a native of Pensacola and a resident of Holt for the past 11 years, coming from Pensacola. He worked as a surveyor and was of the Baptist faith. He loved to watch his grandchildren play sports, was a loving family man, and an avid LSU fan. Mr. Gafford was preceded in death by his father, Mr. Otto Stokes, Jr.
He is survived by his mother, Barbara Stokes of Century; his wife, Teresa Broxson of Holt; two sons, Robert Earl Gafford, Jr. of Holt, Jamie Gafford of Century; daughter, Charity Gafford of Milton; stepsons, Joshua and Joseph Johnson of Holt; stepdaughters, Sara Booker of Baker, Amanda Mackey of Pensacola; brothers, John William Gafford of Century, and Otto Stokes III of Century; sisters, Ruby Patricia Tolbert of Brewton, and Barbara Ann Flowers of Pensacola; and 16 grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held on Thursday, May 19, 2011 at 11 a.m. from the chapel of Flomaton Funeral Home with Rev. Robert Barrow officiating. Interment will follow in Bay Minette Cemetery.
Visitation will be held at Flomaton Funeral Home on Wednesday from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m.
Katherine R. Cooper
May 18, 2011
Mrs. Katherine R. Cooper, 91, passed away on Tuesday, May 17, 2011, at a local hospital.
Mrs. Cooper was a native of Talasheek, LA, a resident of Atmore, for the past 41 years, a retired co-manager of the Super 5 & 10, and attended the Baptist church. She was a loving wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. She lived here as a child and was a 5th and 6th Grader at Rachel Patterson School.
She was preceded in death by her parents, John E. and Olive Ritchey, Sr., and four siblings, Herbert Doyle Ritchey, Thelma Ritchey Nall, Margaret Ritchey Pattillo, and John E. Ritchey, Jr.
She is survived by her Husband of 70 years, Benjamin Yancy Cooper, Jr. of Atmore; two sons, Benjamin Yancy and Kay Cooper II of Falls Church, VA, and Kenneth Milton and Dawn Cooper of Atmore; her daughter, Kay Cooper Porter of St. Louis, MO; five grandchildren, Claire and Peter Newton, Colin Porter, Alex and Maggie Cooper, Benjamin Yancy Cooper IV and Courtney Cooper; and a great-grandchild, Cooper Newton.
Funeral services will be held Thursday, May 19, 2011, at 4:00 p.m. at the Petty-Eastside Chapel Funeral Home with the Rev. Jerry Keese officiating Burial will follow at Oak Hill Cemetery.
Visitation will be held Thursday, May 19, 2011 from 2:00 p.m. until funeral time at the Petty-Eastside Chapel Funeral Home.
Gladys M. Middleton
May 18, 2011
Gladys M. Middleton, 89 of Atmore, died Saturday May 14, 2011, in Atmore. She was born on July 05, 1921, in Milton to the late Nealy Jefferson and Nettie Sanders Martin.
Earlier in her adult life, Gladys was an auto parts salesperson at her family’s business, Martin Automotive Supply in Atmore, and later with Haskew owned and operated Middleton’s Grocery in Atmore.
She was preceded in death by a grandson, Will Middleton.
She is survived by her husband of 70 years, Haskew Middleton of Atmore; one son, Bob Middleton of Orange Beach; one daughter, Pam Middleton of Irvington, NY; one sister, Edna Barrentine of Spanish Fort; two grandchildren, Adam Middleton of Atlanta and Jill Middleton of Daphne; and one great-grandchild, Will Middleton.
Services were held Tuesday May 17, 2011, from Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. Arnold Hendrix officiating, Interment followed in Oak Hill Cemetery. Active Pallbearers were Floyd Adams, Adam Middleton, Steve Jernigan, James Norris, Fritz Curry and Lowell McGill.
Family received friends Monday evening May 16, 2011, at Johnson-Quimby Funeral Home.
Charles Van Kilgore
May 18, 2011
Mr. Charles Van Kilgore, age 70, passed away Wednesday, May 18, 2011, at his Flomaton residence.
Graveside funeral services for Mr. Kilgore will be held on Friday, May 20, 2011, at 10 a.m. at Green Acres Memorial Gardens.
Visitation will be held at Craver’s Funeral Home on Thursday from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m.
I-65 Wreck, Detour Causes Traffic Problems In Atmore, Nokomis
May 17, 2011
A wreck on I-65 between the Perdido and Jack Springs Road exits had northbound interstate traffic detoured through Atmore Tuesday evening. For about two hours, traffic was detoured along Highway 31 to Industrial Drive and then to Jack Springs Road and back to I-65.
The detour was caused by a 18-wheeler wreck and fire at the 46-mile marker on the interstate, according to the Alabama Department of Transportation. Further details about the I-65 wreck were not available from Alabama State Troopers.
There was also a three-vehicle accident on Highway 31 near Main Street during the detour period that caused additional problems in Atmore.
By 8:15 p.m., traffic in Atmore and Nokomis had returned to normal as I-65 northbound reopened.
One Dead, One Injured In Escambia County Shooting
May 17, 2011
One person is dead and other is recovering after a double shooting in Escambia County.
Escambia County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to Diego Circle of Massachusetts Avenue about 11 p.m. Monday where they found Broderick J. Jermaine, 31, shot to death in a driveway. Michael V. Wells, 24, suffering from a non-life threatening gunshot would to the leg, was found in a nearby park.
Several witnesses were located but provided few details about the shootings, according to the Sheriff’s Office. There were no arrests.
Popular ‘Blueberry Jamboree’ Festival Won’t Be Held This Year
May 17, 2011
Despite being heralded as a huge success and a two-year attendance of about 10,000 people, the Blueberry Jamboree in Barrineau Park will not be held this year.
“It’s very disappointing, but we were just not able to make it happen this year,” said Brandi Daigle, an Escambia County public information officer. Daigle was the major coordinator behind the original Blueberry Jamboree in June 2009 when she worked for the county’s parks and recreation department. She continued to coordinate the festival in 2010 despite her job moving from parks and recreation to the public information office.
“With my new job, we were just not able to support it this year,” she said. “We talked to the volunteer committee, and they were also unable to support it.”
About 60 vendors took part in each year’s jamboree and most considered it very successful, Daigle said. “We had plenty of vendors who were wanting to come back this year.”
Many of those vendors were small North Escambia area businesses, including many that sold blueberries or other produce products at the Blueberry Jamboree. The event also included the 5K Race for the Blueberries that had about 170 runners and walkers last year, and a Blueberry Bake-Off that had dozens of entries each year.
The Blueberry Jamboree also had several sponsors that supported the event — including the Escambia County Farm Bureau, International Paper, Wind Creek Casino, Navy Federal Credit Union, Winn Dixie and NorthEscambia.com.
“By all accounts, it was a very successful festival,” Daigle said. “We were just not able to make it work this year.”
Pictured above: Scenes from the 2010 Blueberry Jamboree at the Barrineau Park Community Center. Pictured below: Blueberry Dream Pie, a Blueberry Bake-Off winner. NorthEscambia.com file photos, click to enlarge.
Community Delivers Over 100,000 Pounds Of Food To ‘Stamp Out Hunger’
May 17, 2011
Area residents really delivered Saturday when asked to help the hungry during the annual “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive.
MANNA Food Bank brought in over 100,000 pounds of food to stock up for the summer with the help of letter carriers and over 200 volunteers. MANNA serves Escambia and Santa Rosa counties with food distributions in Ensley, Gonzalez, Jay , Milton, Molino, Myrtle Grove and Pensacola.
In Atmore, letter carriers collected 8,973 pounds of food to benefit the hungry through Atmore Christian Care Ministry.
Each year the National Association of Letter Carriers holds the “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive, where U.S. Postal Service employees pick up donations of non-perishable food along their routes.
Florida Approves Move To Digital Textbooks
May 17, 2011
Backpacks for lugging heavy textbooks may be a thing of the past under a budget proposal approved by lawmakers that requires schools to adopt digital textbooks in four years.
Florida would be one of the first states in the country to set up a timeline for a conversion to electronic textbooks if this measure, which was contained in an education budget bill, is signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott.
“Everyone realizes that digital seems to be the wave of the future and in many respects, the future is now,” said Sen. David Simmons, R-Maitland, who helped craft the education budget.
The proposal (SB 2120) requires Florida public schools to adopt digital-only textbooks by the 2015-16 school year, and spend at least 50 percent of their textbook budget on digital materials by that time.
It also permits school districts beginning next year to set up pilot programs to test electronic textbooks.
“Florida is out front in producing a mandated switch to digital,” said Bob Boyd, a lobbyist for the Association of American Publishers, a national textbook industry group. “I don’t know of any that have passed legislation like this that says by a certain date everything should be digital.”
The Florida Department of Education is supportive of the switch, saying that it is coupled with a mandate to begin conducting all statewide assessments online and that is easier to update electronic textbooks.
“We don’t want to set up a situation where the first time a student has access to a computer it’s a test day or a practice test day,” said Mary Jane Tappen, the chancellor for curriculum, instruction and student services for the Florida Department of Education. “They should be comfortable accessing content and interacting electronically.”
Rep. Marti Coley, R-Marianna, who also helped craft the education budget, said it will “meet the students where they are in their learning styles.” Coley said the timeline was needed in order to take advantage of federal grant money available through Race To The Top. A pot of money is set aside for technology upgrades under the program, she said. “The timing was critical to be able to use those Race To The Top dollars now,” Coley said.
But some schools say they are uncomfortable with a hard deadline, especially given the severe budget cuts schools have suffered in recent years, which has left them with little wiggle room to pay for big-ticket expenditures.
Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, said school superintendents are “supportive” of the move towards electronic textbooks. “But the issue is always the same, which is how do you afford it?” Montford said. “We have to be careful that we don’t expect school districts to enter into a program that is not funded.”
Some school lobbyists echoed Montford’s concern, saying it has the potential to become an unfunded mandate.
“In a year when you’re cutting the budget by 8 percent, that doesn’t give you a whole lot of resources,” said Vernon Pickup-Crawford, a lobbyist for several school districts. “It is four years down the road. That gives us some time to start looking at what we need to do and hopefully in four years we can scrounge up the resources.”
While the cost of purchasing the digital textbooks will be about the same as digital textbooks, school districts would also have to pay for the supporting hardware, such as computers or handheld devices such as a Kindle or iPad.
“There is some cost savings, but most of the cost goes into producing the materials,” Boyd said. He explained that the cost of producing textbooks comes from the research and development, not printing costs. “My industry does not own a printing press,” Boyd said, explaining they had no stake in traditional textbooks.
Coley, meanwhile, believes that “in the long run it is cheaper to provide content through digital technology.”
Other lawmakers said they were concerned that going digital would leave students who don’t have access to the Internet at home further behind. “I am very concerned that there are children in low income families who don’t have computers or don’t have all the same resources that other children do,” said Rep. Marty Kiar, D-Davie.
The digital textbook proposal was born from separate education budget bills the House and Senate produced earlier in session which grappled with the issue in different ways. The Senate wanted a slower approach, using only an optional pilot program. The House wanted a more aggressive switch to digital textbooks, requiring school districts by the 2013-14 school year to spend half of their textbook dollars on digital materials.
The two chambers compromised, extending the deadline by two years and including the pilot program.
There are hints already that lawmakers intend to revisit the issue in upcoming sessions, perhaps delaying the deadline by a few years if the pilot schools find that digital textbooks aren’t helping students.
So far there is only one school in Florida that has gone all-digital: Clearwater High School in Pinellas County. That school issued a Kindle e-book reader to each of its students this school year to use as digital textbooks. Publishers say they are content neutral and have no preference about which device schools use.
“There will be time for the Legislature to amend the time period if nothing is found to have worked,” Simmons said. “It’s so far off, we’re talking about 2015 and this is 2011.”
No matter what lawmakers decide on timelines, it’s clear the state is ready to leave traditional textbooks behind – literally. The bill makes another seemingly minor tweak that eliminates all use of the word “textbook” replacing it with the more neutral “instructional materials” to include digital materials.
By Lilly Rockwell
The News Service of Florida
Pictured: The Amazon Kindle, which retails for $139.