The speaker has resisted a get-tough management approach in the past. But the shackles are off now. Voting against John Boehner’s bid for a third term as speaker has been very bad for Rep. Richard Nugent. The speaker’s friends and aides thought the Florida Republican was a trustworthy ally. Nugent had privately signaled he would…
Wading into a high-profile issue in the insurance industry, a South Florida appeals court Wednesday sided with contractors who do emergency repair work for homeowners and pursue payments from insurance companies. The controversial issue centers on a practice known as “assignment of benefits,” which involves homeowners signing over insurance-policy benefits to contractors who do work…
TALLAHASSEE — Florida Senate President Andy Gardiner is rallying his troops as the legislative session ends and campaign season begins. In an email sent to his Republican members Monday, Gardiner said Majority Leader Bill Galvano will be in charge of overseeing the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, which raises campaign cash and coordinates Republican state…
The first salvos in the war for the White House were fired in Miami on Monday with the two families most heavily backed by pollsters, bookies and donors officially beginning a dynastic battle unprecedented in American history. Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton have been their parties’ putative frontrunners for the 2016 presidential election since December…
TALLAHASSEE —With less a week remaining in the special legislative session, the consumer-advocacy group Florida Association for Insurance Reform sent out a release Monday calling for lawmakers to overrule Gov. Rick Scott’s veto of a bill that deals with the “depopulation” of customers from Citizens Property Insurance Corp. to private insurers, intended to provide additional…
TALLAHASSEE — The Legislature may spend $10,000 on a study showing how Uber and other hired-car services are helping reduce drunk-driving accidents and arrests in Florida. The study appeared in “proviso language” Monday night as lawmakers continue their work on a 2015-16 state budget. More importantly, the language would prohibit local regulation of ride-booking services…
Researchers trying to figure out what makes some hurricanes strengthen into catastrophic monsters have a new lab that allows them to generate tropical storm conditions with the flip of a switch. The lab is at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. It’s known as the Surge-Structure-Atmosphere Interaction, or SUSTAIN. The…
When asked to pinpoint where Jeb Bush’s presidential effort began running into trouble, many confidants utter a single word: Dallas. Mike Murphy, Bush’s political alter ego, decided early on to hold regular senior staff meetings at an unusual location: a Hyatt hotel inside a terminal at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The idea was that it…
Jacksonville, Fla. — During those two electric Novembers, the chance to elect a black president, and then keep him in office, seized Regenia Motley’s neighborhood. Nightclubs were registering voters. Churches held fish fries after loading buses that ferried parishioners to the polls. A truck hoisted a big sign that said “Obama.” And residents waited in…
Jeb Bush is just days away from formally launching his presidential campaign and already a shake-up is underway. In a surprise move Monday, Bush tapped Republican strategist Danny Diaz to serve as his campaign manager, shoving aside another aide, David Kochel, to head his still-unofficial presidential operation. Diaz’s promotion is a frank acknowledgment that Bush’s…