Report typos and corrections to: corrections@rawstory.com.
Stories Chosen For You
Ron DeSantis ignored a real crisis in Florida because he is obsessed with owning the libs: columnist
May 19, 2022
From far-right Gov. Ron DeSantis to the GOP-controlled Florida State Legislature, Republicans in the Sunshine State have been aggressively fighting the culture wars, defending the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, railing against critical race theory and punishing Disney for not being on board with their agenda. Washington Post opinion writer Lisette Alvarez, in a biting column published on May 19, argues that Florida Republicans have been putting so much time and energy into owning the liberals that they neglected a very real problem: Florida’s “property insurance crisis.”
That crisis, Alvarez writes, is so “dire” that DeSantis has “ordered state lawmakers back into a special session” that is scheduled to start on Monday, May 23. In Florida, property owners are facing a combination of canceled policies and major rate hikes.
Republicans in the Florida State Legislature, Alvarez observes, “squandered weeks of the regular session trying to control what teachers and corporations can say and do instead of addressing a mess that alarms millions of Floridians: a meltdown in the home insurance market.”
“Let’s look at what Floridians face: skyrocketing property insurance premiums, up 25% from 2020 to 2021 on average, but in some cases tripling in one year, according to the Insurance Information Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit trade group that tracks industry trends,” Alvarez writes. “The average cost of homeowner’s insurance in Florida was $3600 in 2021, double the rate for the rest of the country. That’s if you can even get insurance.”
Alvarez continues, “In the past 12 months, more than 400,000 Florida home policies have been dropped, most of them in the past 90 days, according to the Institute. One insurance holding company, this week, announced 68,200 cancellations.”
Mark Friedlander, spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute, has described Florida as the “most volatile property insurance market in the country,” warning that it is “headed for collapse.”
In Florida, Alvarez notes, private insurance companies are “reluctant to take new clients” — which is why “many homeowners have no choice but to enroll with Citizens, Florida’s state-run, nonprofit insurer.”
“Funded by premiums and taxpayers, Citizens was designed to be a last-ditch insurer, yet it is now the largest in Florida,” Alvarez explains. “The 420,000 policies it had in October 2019 have more than doubled. Soon, it will top 1 million, according to the insurance institute. If a large hurricane hits Florida, Citizens will quickly deplete its reserves — it had $166 million in underwriting losses last year — and taxpayers will have to make up the difference.”
Alvarez adds, “Plus, Citizens is limited: It only insures houses valued less than $700,000, or $1 million in Miami-Dade and the Florida Keys.”
Alvarez points out that because of its insurance crisis, Florida is becoming increasingly “inaccessible” for first-time homeowners.
“Those who do have private insurance often face new, arbitrary rules — such as requiring roofs to be younger than 15 years old — or risk being cut loose, even by Progressive and other large insurers,” Alvarez warns. “The spiraling costs of property insurance have made Florida, one of the most expensive housing markets in the country, even more inaccessible, especially for first-time and middle-class buyers.”
CONTINUE READING
Show less
Herschel Walker, the Georgia Republican candidate running for the U.S. Senate endorsed by former President Donald Trump, is facing scrutiny for failing to report more than $3 million in earnings over a five-month period as part of his federal financial disclosure.
According to Business Insider: "Walker's original candidate report, filed in December 2021, listed him and his spouse cumulatively earning $927,886 from late 2020 to the end of 2021 through various corporations, including a $100,000 salary from 'Renaissance Man Food Services, LLC.'"
Five months after filing the original candidate report, Walker reportedly amended it to include that he'd garnered an additional $3.2 million through a company called "H. Walker Enterprises." Business Insider's review of the amended documents indicates that he "amended his overall income in the disclosure to $4.1 million, more than four times higher than the original candidate report."
Per the H. Walker Enterprises' website, the company stated that its mission is to "establish a business structure capable of servicing food service, corporate and retail customers with a variety of products on a national level." However, it remains unclear what Walker's role is within the company as his campaign report describes the "partnership distributions."
Speaking to Business Insider, Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette, who serves as the government affairs manager for the Project on Government Oversight, weighed in on Walker amending his reports. According to Hedtler-Gaudette, Walker's decision to do so at such a late point on the campaign trail "undermines 'the basic compact between a person running for office and the people they are trying to recruit to support them.'"
"There's some potential a voter who may find him supportable may have already contributed some money on the basis of the information they had at that point," Hedtler-Gaudette said. "But as we're seeing now, that information was incomplete."
Under the laws stated in the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics, all candidates are required to submit candidate reports that disclose "their honoraria payments, income, assets, liabilities, compensation, and other personal financial details within 30 days of becoming a candidate," per Insider.
Candidates that do not may face a number of different penalties including but not limited to a fine or an inquiry launched by the U.S Department of Justice (DOJ).
CONTINUE READING
Show less
Madison Cawthorn calls for ‘Dark MAGA’ movement to defeat 'cowardly and weak' Republicans
May 19, 2022
Controversial Rep. Madison Cawthorn lashed out at his critics on Thursday after Republican voters made him the youngest member of Congress to lose a primary.
Cawthorn took to Instagram where he posted a photo of the people who stood with him.
"When the establishment turned their guns on me, when the Uni-party coalesced to defeat an America First member very few people had my back. This list includes the lion share of figures that came to my defense when it was not politically profitable," he wrote.
The list included Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), along with Fox News personality Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon, among others.
IN OTHER NEWS: Bill Barr negotiating cooperation with Jan. 6 select committee: report
"These are honorable men and women who are the type of friends anyone yearns to have," he claimed.
Cawthorn said he has a new mission in life.
"There are other National figures who I believe are patriots, but I am on a mission now to expose those who say and promise one thing yet legislate and work towards another, self-profiteering, globalist goal. The time for gentile (sic) politics as usual has come to an end," he wrote. "It’s time for the rise of the new right, it’s time for Dark MAGA to truly take command."
"We have an enemy to defeat, but we will never be able to defeat them until we defeat the cowardly and weak members of our own party. Their days are numbered. We are coming," he warned.
CONTINUE READING
Show less
Copyright © 2022 Raw Story Media, Inc. PO Box 21050, Washington, D.C. 20009 | Masthead | Privacy Policy | For corrections or concerns, please email corrections@rawstory.com.
{{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}