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]

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» 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 [Orlando Sentinel]
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 [Palm Beach Post]
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 [Tampa Bay Times]
“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 [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]
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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› After pushback, Tamarac reverses course to study development on golf land [South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
Tamarac city commissioners backed off a plan Monday to study how they could build on a golf course they once promised to preserve from development. City leaders were scheduled Wednesday to approve a $12,500 study to review the options to turn the 77-acre Glades course at Colony West into something else: “primarily” new housing, surrounded by entertainment such as a putt-putt course, retail shops or restaurants, or a mix of all those options.

› 17 Florida restaurants named among Top 100 in U.S. for outdoor dining by OpenTable [Florida Today]
Boasting charming waterfront restaurants and rooftop bars with delicious dining options, Florida recently finished second in the U.S. among states with the most top-rated eateries for dining al fresco. The online restaurant reservation and review service OpenTable's annual list of 100 Most Popular Restaurants for Outdoor Dining included 17 restaurants from the Sunshine State. Only California, with 31, had more.

› Health warnings continue as blue-green algae flows down the Caloosahatchee [WUSF]
Red tide said goodbye to Fort Myers Beach in late April, and it hasn’t been seen again. Blue-green algae showed up at Fort Myers Shores a month later, and it won’t go away. Since then, there have been no less than seven blue-green algae health advisories in Lee County and one in Cape Coral warning of tainted water at Jaycee Park. One after another after another.

› Orlando Science Center explores cosmos with Astro Fest [Orlando Sentinel]
Orlando Science Center is hosting Astro Fest, a collection of cosmic activities and rocket science, this weekend. Among the activities will be a live stage show about the upcoming Artemis mission to the moon. There also will be guided tours through the solar system and the Astronaut Training Zone, games that represents skills needed to be a space traveler. Dr. Dare’s lab will be open with chemistry experiments. The science center recently upgraded its Our Planet, Our Solar System, which features STEM activities.