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Wednesday's Afternoon Update
What you need to know about Florida today
A key insurance piece improves in Florida -- but it comes at a price
The market for reinsurance — a critical piece of Florida’s property-insurance system — is improving. But it comes at a price. Those are takeaways from new reports as Florida insurers try to bounce back after two years of homeowners losing policies and facing major rate increases because of financial troubles in the industry. Reinsurance, which is essentially insurance for insurers, helps drive the catastrophe-prone Florida insurance system. When the market for reinsurance is tight and costly, the effects trickle down to homeowners’ policies. [Source: News Service of Florida]
See also:
» Farmers Insurance is leaving Florida in latest blow to homeowners
Florida hotels have hit a snag. Was it caused by competition or politics?
Since heralding a record-setting comeback from the pandemic shutdown, data shows the state's 4,500-plus hotels saw business sag in the past three months. Figures compiled by the premiere hotel analytics firm STR show that after a strong start to the year, fortunes retreated in the spring as the three most-watched benchmarks — occupancy rates, the average daily rate per room and revenue per available room — all dropped in April and May in comparison to the same months in 2022. Occupancy rates began their slide in March. [Source: Gainesville Sun]
Florida Trend Exclusive
Florida Icon: Jeff Johnson
AARP's Florida Director. tells us: "Right now, there is a waiting list of 100,000 Floridians who need help with the activities of daily living — getting dressed, eating, moving around. That kind of stuff. They could all go in a nursing home now, but they don’t want to. They would love to stay at home, and we as a state are not prepared for that." [Source: Fllorida Trend]
Florida has 20 circuit courts. Could some of them be consolidated?
After Florida lawmakers in 2022 reorganized the state’s appeals courts, House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, is pushing to consolidate circuit courts. A committee appointed by Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Carlos Muniz will hold its first meeting Friday to begin looking at consolidation in the 20-circuit system. Muniz issued an order June 30 appointing the committee after receiving a request from Renner. [Source: WUFT]
Drive to put abortion amendment on 2024 ballot tops $1.94 million
Trying to quickly gather enough petition signatures to get on the 2024 ballot, a political committee leading efforts to pass a constitutional amendment aimed at ensuring abortion rights collected nearly $1.942 million in June, according to a newly filed finance report. As of June 30, the Floridians Protecting Freedom committee had collected about $4.719 million since being formed in April. It had spent almost $4.59 million, including about $2.52 million in June. Most of the June spending went to petition-gathering efforts, according to the report posted on the state Division of Elections website. [Source: News Service of Florida]
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
› Toxic industrial chemical infiltrated Central Florida tap water
For years and even decades, tens of thousands of people in northwest Seminole County, Lake Mary and Sanford have been drinking water containing a toxic industrial chemical at varying concentrations, the Orlando Sentinel has found. The chemical, 1,4-dioxane, is deemed likely to cause liver and kidney cancer and other illnesses by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Labeled a contaminant of “emerging” concern, it is obscure enough that not even utility managers in the county were aware of it until relatively recently and some did not know until informed by the Sentinel in recent months.
› Those huge scales at Publix? They're disappearing and they won't be back
Another of those classic weight scales you used to find in almost every Publix is likely gone. A Publix in Wellington is shutting its doors and will undergo a complete makeover. When the shiny new store opens, it likely won't have its big historic, industrial-looking scale at the front of the store. That's because Publix is phasing them out after the scale's manufacturer stopped making them.
› St. Petersburg’s Dali Museum opening experience in new dome this week
“Dalí Alive 360°,” the immersive experience showcasing Salvador Dalí ‘s works in the new dome on the grounds of The Dalí Museum, is opening to the public on Saturday, July 15. The multisensory experience will “envelop visitors in 360 degrees of light and sound” in the new space called The Dalí Dome. The dome sits in the museum’s Avant-garden.
› No new cases of locally acquired malaria reported in Sarasota County for the past week
No cases of locally acquired malaria were found in Sarasota County last week, according to a newly released Florida Department of Health report. It’s the first week since the week of June 4 that no new cases were confirmed. Separately, the manager of Sarasota County Mosquito Management Services shared some positive developments with members of the media on Monday.
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