Citizens to seek input on insurance rate hikes
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By Paul Owers, Sun Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
May 18–A committee for the state-run insurer of last resort appeared hesitant Thursday to move forward with a proposal to uncap rates for new customers next year.
The panel said it will hold a workshop this summer to give lawmakers and others a chance to offer alternative solutions to help Citizens Property Insurance Corp. avoid a revenue shortfall if a major hurricane were to strike.
Carlos Lacasa, a committee member and chairman of the Citizens board, said the insurer will have problems if it doesn’t include legislators in discussions about lifting the cap.
Lawmakers approved a 10 percent cap for Citizens rate increases starting in 2010. The insurer interprets the law to mean only existing customers are subject to a cap.
John Rollins, also a member of the committee and Citizens board, blasted the media for reports of the proposal, which could significantly increase rates for new customers in Broward and Palm Beach counties and across the state.
Some homeowners in the two counties who sign up for windstorm insurance without the cap could pay more than 50 percent more than a neighbor with an existing policy. Some new wind-only condominium customers would pay roughly twice what existing policyholders pay now. The increases would give Citizens about $100 million more in annual revenue.
Still, Rollins spoke out against some of the estimated rate hikes that would occur if the plan were to take effect Jan. 1. “It’s just not going to happen,” he said of his support for ending the cap.
State Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, said many people wouldn’t be able to afford insurance, hurting the state’s still-fragile housing market.
The Citizens board, which backed off the proposal last month, could reconsider it this summer. One idea that was mentioned Thursday was uncapping rates for new customers only in certain areas of the state.
Citizens is Florida’s largest insurer, with more than 1.4 million customers, including about 347,000 in Broward and Palm Beach counties.
If it doesn’t have enough money to pay claims after a storm, it could levy assessements against all Floridians. Gov. Rick Scott has called that possibility a threat to the state’s economy.
Powers@tribune.com, 561-243-6529 or Twitter @paulowers
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(c)2012 the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
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Read More»Allergy victim’s family in need of donations
By Alexis Stevens, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
May 18–The family of a 15-year-old who died from an allergic reaction to food is asking for help with medical and funeral costs, a family friend told the AJC Thursday.
Diallo Robbins-Brinson, of Macon, collapsed at the Golden Corral restaurant in McDonough after eating dinner with his soccer team Saturday night, his mother has said.
Diallo, a freshman at Central High School in Macon, was allergic to peanuts, but reached for two cookies he believed were safe, Larmia Robbins-Brinson said in an interview with the AJC earlier this week.
The teen never regained consciousness and died Monday at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite.
“Mother’s Day will never be the same for her,” said family friend Eurydice Stanley of the youth’s mother.
Stanley said she and Larmia Robbins-Brinson are close friends from college, and that she regarded Diallo as if he were more like a nephew.
Robbins-Brinson did not have medical insurance and expects to need $70,000 to cover hospital and funeral expenses, Stanley said. An online memorial fund was created to assist with costs, but it was well short of the goal Thursday evening.
A viewing will be held for Diallo from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. Sunday at Hicks & Son Mortuary in Macon. The funeral will be held at 4 p.m. Monday at Lizzie Chapel Baptist Church, also in Macon.
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(c)2012 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Atlanta, Ga.)
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Read More»Teachers in HISD, other area districts to see pay raises
By Ericka Mellon, Houston Chronicle
May 18–Teachers and other staff in several Houston-area school districts, most of whom endured salary freezes last year after state budget cuts, likely will see their paychecks grow next fall.
The Conroe, Cypress-Fairbanks, Fort Bend, Klein and Pasadena districts have proposed or approved 3 percent raises for all employees next school year.
Spring Branch ISD plans a 2 percent salary hike, and Clear Creek ISD agreed to pay a one-time stipend of 3 percent.
In the Houston Independent School District, Superintendent Terry Grier on Thursday proposed varied raise amounts for different groups of employees. The plan drew criticism from the teachers union’s president, who said Grier was slighting veteran teachers.
HISD teachers with 10 or fewer years of experience would receive pay increases of 2.25 percent, while those with more time on the job would get 1.75 percent raises.
The pending pay raises come as many local districts, including HISD, are suing the state, arguing that its funding for schools is inadequate.
In 2011, Texas lawmakers, seeking to balance the budget without tax increases, took the unprecedented step of failing to pay for student enrollment growth, cutting $5.4 billion from public education over this school year and next year.
“These modest salary increases certainly don’t mean that the funding crisis is over or that the structure of our Texas school funding system is constitutional,” said David Thompson, a Houston attorney representing HISD and other districts in one of the lawsuits.
Thompson noted that schools have reduced the number of teaching positions and increased class sizes over the past few years.
Houston city workers, as well as fire department union employees, did not get raises this year and won’t next fiscal year. Police are scheduled to get a 3 percent raise in June 2013.
The school districts’ proposed raises generally are in line with what employers nationwide are doling out this year, according to a recent survey by the Hay Group, a management consulting firm.
The survey, weighted more heavily toward for-profit businesses than the public sector, found that 3 percent was the median base salary increase this year, and raises were similar in 2011, said Tom McMullen of the Hay Group.
Read More»OPINION: Has marriage gone out of style?
By Keith Kappes, Grayson Journal-Enquirer, Ky.
May 16–Movie and television stars are doing it. Rock music stars are doing it. More of our friends and neighbors and other folks around us are doing it.
What are they doing? They are choosing to live together instead of getting married in the conventional sense.
They’re having babies together and buying homes together but not as married couples.
I have my own feelings on the subject but it is not my place to sit in judgement of those of you who say you are committed to each other but choose not to legalize your union with a marriage license or who are prohibited by Kentucky law from marrying each other.
To my surprise, Internet research on the topic of co-habitation or living together outside of marriage didn’t yield much information because the federal government stopped collecting data on the subject in the late 1990′s and the last government statistics were published in 2002.
The U. S. Census Bureau did not ask every household in either the 2000 or 2010 population counts any marriage-related questions beyond “are you married or divorced?”
The federal decision not to collect data on this growing trend is troublesome to researchers concerned about the breakdown of families, both through growing divorce rates and increasing numbers of couples deciding to forego marriage.
It appears to me that most live-in couples are young adults but the arrangement also is attractive to older couples, particularly in retirement communities, who want companionship but don’t want to risk affecting their personal pensions or health insurance or estate plans.
A couple in their mid-20′s, together for four years, was asked why they opted not to get married and now have two children.
They responded that they didn’t need “a piece of paper and an expensive wedding they couldn’t afford” to validate their love and respect for each other.
Neither did they want to be at risk of divorce which had shattered both of their childhoods.
There was a time when society, particularly religious leaders, condemned what used to be called “shacking up.”
Today, we see proud, unmarried parents publishing photographs of their precious babies.
We see older parents deciding that relationships with their grown children are too important to risk by criticizing a “live-in” situation.
We see more ministers taking a conciliatory approach with such couples, hoping to befriend them and perhaps eventually persuade them to get married as the Bible advises.
If someone you know is considering a live-in arrangement, please encourage them to make sure they know and understand the legal consequences of such a decision, not only for themselves individually but also for their children.
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(c)2012 the Grayson Journal-Enquirer (Grayson, Ky.)
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Read More»Robert W. Newell, 1930-2012: Insurance investigator had been a state trooper
By Mark Zaborney, The Blade, Toledo, Ohio
May 18–MILLBURY — Robert W. Newell, a longtime insurance claims investigator who as a state trooper received the Ohio Highway Patrol’s highest award, died Wednesday in Hospice of Northwest Ohio, Perrysburg Township. He was 81.
He had congestive heart failure, kidney failure, and diabetes, his wife, Janis, said.
“He was a very strong, proud, independent person,” his wife said. “It was very hard for him when he got sick, because he had to rely on other people.”
Mr. Newell of Millbury retired in 1993 from Western Reserve and Lightning Rod mutual insurance companies. Much of his career was with the Republic Franklin Insurance Co. and he became a regional claims manager.
He investigated auto, home, and business claims. He was a boater and was a specialist in marine claims. Years ago, when a tornado destroyed homes in the area, he felt no need to investigate. He grabbed his checkbook instead. He found his clients easily. Property owners had posted signs bearing the name of their insurer.
“He just looked at their homes and said, ‘You have a total loss,’ and wrote them a check.
“He liked helping people,” his wife said. “There are so many insurance companies that don’t treat people fairly. He said, ‘I can look in the mirror any day and know I treated people fairly.’”
He was a former president of the Toledo Claims Association and helped rewrite its bylaws and constitution.
His insurance career grew out of his interest in investigations while a trooper.
He joined the Ohio Highway Patrol in 1952 after Navy service aboard an aircraft carrier and a job at the former Rossford Ordnance Depot.
In 1956, he was the first Toledoan to receive the patrol’s annual O.W. Merrell Award for meritorious service. He was honored for his part in capturing three fugitives during a gun battle in which Lucas County sheriff’s Deputy Ray Westover was killed.
He served at the Toledo, Kenton, Findlay, Perrysburg, and Walbridge posts. He was assigned to the Bellefontaine, Ohio, post in 1959, but the move would have caused a hardship for his young family, and he resigned.
He was born June 28, 1930, in Toledo to Kate and Homer Newell. He was a graduate of the former Macomber Vocational High School and played on the baseball team.
Read More»BRIEF: Becker, teachers reach salary pact
By Danielle Cintron, St. Cloud Times, Minn.
May 18–BECKER — A tentative contract agreement in the Becker school district will give teachers a 1.43 percent salary increase for 2011-2012 and a 2.8 percent increase in the following year.
The agreement will cost the district an additional $298,620 for the 2011-2012 contract and $509,515 for the following school year.
The total cost to the district in 2011-2012 will be $13,579,413 and the $14,088,928 for the following year, a 6 percent increase.
The totals include the cost of benefits, extracurricular salaries, lane advancements and health insurance for two years.
The agreement sets the base salary for a teacher at $36,464 for the 2011-2012 and $36,829 for the following school year.
The district will contribute up to $750 per month toward the cost of single health insurance and $1,600 toward the cost of dependent health insurance.
The settlement provides no experience recognition in the first year of the contract and a 1 percent experience recognition in the 2012-2013 school year.
Members of the Becker Education Association have ratified the contract and the school board is expected to approve the settlement today at a special meeting.
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(c)2012 the St. Cloud Times (St. Cloud, Minn.)
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