Alternative New Media for the Gulf South
Judge Biggers issued an Order for the James hearing today. The Defense filed a renewed Motion to exclude other crime evidence and a Response to the Government’s Motion to release the taint team evidence. h/t to folo.
A good time to reflect on how this all started – Look for the jonesing for justice followup post later this evening.
More insurance news, Sop – Senator Gollott had 21 co-sponsors for his Resolution.
Senate Concurrent Resolution 527, authored by Sen. Tommy Gollott, R-Biloxi, urges Congress to adopt the bill that is pending before the Senate, which would extend the National Flood Insurance Program to include wind damage and other coverage. Taylor has been pushing the plan hard.
Gollott pointed to the slow recovery in the hard hit areas of South Mississippi where private sector insurance troubles have slowed rebuilding as proof government issued multi-perils coverage is needed.
“I’m really going to push this because we direly need it on the Coast,” Gollott said.
Gollott said he plans to send the resolution to officials in every state, as well as every member of the U.S. Senate.
Read the full story here and the Resolution here.
This has been one of those weeks insurance companies would love to forget. Since November 2007, Washington State voters overwhelmingly passed R-67, the Insurance Fair Conduct Act, Florida is trying to bar Allstate from doing business there, two executives at insurance giant Marsh and McLennan have been found guilty of price fixing, five executives at AIG and General Re were found guilty of fraud, Allstate was fined the $250,000 maximum in Louisiana for bait and switch policy cancellations and the GAO has exposed massive flaws and conflicts of interest in NFIP.
This week the pace has picked up with California finding Allstate has been overcharging for auto insurance there, Michigan’s legislature is moving to stop the use of credit scores in auto insurance underwriting, Senators Cochran and Wicker join Senators Landrieu and Vitter in placing holds on industry backed S. 2284, and Florida is moving to suspend American General Life Insurance’s license for violating Florida’s “Freedom to Travel Act”. All in all this is not shaping up to be a good week for big insurance.
In other news AM called me and asked for help in publicizing Gene Taylor’s campaign website, especially the insurance reform page. Gene was fighting for us on insurance issues long before it became fashionable in certain GOP circles but he still needs our help to have multi peril insurance enacted for us. Please visit Gene’s website and click on the “Click here Become a Partner in Insurance Reform” hyperlink on the right side. Lobbying the Senate is the key; Gene and coastal people in this country need your help to make that promise a reality.
I read today’s Clarion Ledger Op-Ed in support of HR 3121 and found some very interesting tidbits buried in the piece most notably that Senator’s Cochran and Wicker have joined Louisiana Senators Landrieu and Vitter in placing a senatorial hold on S. 2284, the re-authorization bill for the National Flood Insurance Program. As we previously noted, S. 2284 does not bring structural change to NFIP and does not contain the multi peril wind provisions found in HR 3121. While the old saying “better late than never” certainly applies to Senator Cochran and his newly found zeal to represent the interest of his coastal constituents we do appreciate both he and Senator Wicker joining the fight to solve our coastal insurance crisis. Continue reading “Clarion Ledger Editorial Reveals Behind the Scenes Politicing”
Today is a very busy news day with unrelated but very newsworthy items. The windpool premium reductions are one of a three news stories we are tracking related to Katrina issues, the other two being State Farm further restricting coverage in Alabama and the Hancock County press conference today involving Haley Barbour, Gene Taylor and Roger Wicker.
Yesterday afternoon we were greeted with breaking news that the Mississippi windpool was reducing rates for coastal residents. I read today’s Sun Herald story and was reminded of Commissioner Chaney’s Insurance Forum on March 4. Though I have not recapped either that forum or Gene Taylor’s Issues+Answers lecture on February 29th as both were lost in the corporate tax shuffle I was reminded of a post I penned on the Yahoo! Allstate Message Board about Commissioner Chaney’s Forum when I read Anita Lee’s story today.
Mr Shumaker with the wind pool was also enlightening but also exhibited what is wrong with the current system. The wind pool was not created to be palatable for it’s members but neither was it created to hold wind insurance for people living in Pearl River County. I got the impression Mr Shumaker didn’t understand how much structural change has occurred in his market since 8-29-05. Continue reading “Mississippi Windpool Rates Going Down. Commissioner Chaney Makes Good on his promise to Coastal Residents”
We at slabbed have been scratching our heads over Alabama Senator Dick Shelby’s opposition to the Senate companion of HR 3121, S. 2284 as residents in coastal Alabama face the same problems with wind insurance as their neighbors in Florida and Mississippi. Following the money reveals Senator Shelby is a big recipient of campaign ca$h from lawyers and insurance companies, the two main constituencies that actually benefit from the current dysfunctional system of wind-water peril coverage.
Scanning the news today reveals Senator Shelby’s home state of Alabama was just invited to the coastal residents need not apply party by the people over at State Farm. Unbelievably it appears concepts like Hurricane Deductibles have been foreign ones for our neighbors to the east but no longer. This process of limiting coastal property coverage can take several years; in Mississippi it began after Hurricane Georges in 1998. Continue reading “Welcome to the party Senator Shelby…….”