Day: May 21, 2008

The News and the Muses Come to Me. A Quick Hello to the Library Group

Finally I finish my posting frenzy by acknowledging it is burying Nowdy’s excellent Facts and Assumtions entry which I highly encourage our visitors to read and comment upon. However I find myself compelled to mention today’s Sun Herald story on the Gulfport library. I’ll borrow Sid Salter’s phrase “editorial wood” to describe slabbed’s registration of displeasure on the mixture of the Library and Grass Lawn issues and disclose Deb is still talking to me despite my laying the smack down in the post on that subject. That entry has proven to be very popular in terms of page views.

The passage of time and some introspection has provided some perspective on the political brier patch We the People found themselves at Gulfport City Hall last month. It also allowed the group to refocus their efforts on the Library and the process involving it’s demolition. Deb sent me a pdf that explained why the County suddenly lost it’s ardor to immediately tear the storm damaged building down. Continue reading “The News and the Muses Come to Me. A Quick Hello to the Library Group”

The Rest of the Commish Heavy News Day: New Wind Markets and the Bayside Bubble

I’ll attempt to kill two birds with one stone in highlighting the new wind markets available to coastal insurance consumers and the flood insurance problem that is popping with with increasing regularity on the coast, especially in Hancock County. The wind insurance news is both promising though somewhat insignificant in scope. The flood insurance news has the potential to strike at the heart of building affordable housing though our readers may be surprised at my take. First the new wind markets as reported in today’s Sun Herald.

Four insurance companies are offering wind coverage in the South Mississippi market, although restrictions apply. 

Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney said he has recently approved the “surplus-lines” companies. Surplus-lines companies insure high-risk properties without state regulation of rates or any guaranty in case of insolvency.

They have been active for years in South Mississippi’s commercial market, but are now beginning to pick up homeowner customers as well. Continue reading “The Rest of the Commish Heavy News Day: New Wind Markets and the Bayside Bubble”

Does the Commish Read Slabbed? You Betcha. Market Conduct Study on Hold

That doesn’t mean he listens to Sop’s advice. Nope, he strikes me as smarter than that……he listens to Nowdy’s advice:

Just another reason IMO for him to ditch the State Farm market conduct study – Chaney doesn’t need to borrow trouble.

All the more reason for Chaney to grab that 10 ft pole – the idea of a State Farm paid for study coming out with the color of official light doesn’t wash – when it’s so obviously exceeding a review of how claims were handled.

The time for a market study to do that has long passed – it’s a matter the courts are deciding now and could drag Chaney in the middle of that whole mess.

In fairness to me I did suggest a possible reason Lecky King was dodging subpoenas was to impact the contents of the Market Conduct Study by omission. 😉 Continue reading “Does the Commish Read Slabbed? You Betcha. Market Conduct Study on Hold”

The Commish’s Wind Pool Education Continues: Hold the Pollyanna Please

It appears Commissioner Chaney is finding out as his predecessor George Dale did that the Sun Herald does not let up on foot in mouth disease cases until the politician extracts the foot from their mouth. In George Dale’s case he lived in his make believe world until the bitter end when he was unceremoniously booted from office. The jury is still out on Commissioner Chaney though he is the topic of two news stories and an editorial today in the Sun Herald. We’ll deal with the Op-Ed first.

First and to his credit, Mr Chaney is still pounding the pavement here telling the audience where ever he goes what he is doing to ease the insurance crisis. I met him at Gene Taylor’s Issues + Answers lecture on Februuary 29 and we spoke at length then.  I’ve also had the pleasure of hearing the Commissioner speak at his Insurance Forum on March 4th and again at the Hancock County Chamber Luncheon on April 9th. On both occasions we also had a chance to visit one on one; he impresses me as committed to bringing affordable insurance back to the coast as well as help find a solution to the wind-water problem that has vexed the politicians and since clogged our courtrooms.

For my part his straight talk and “you may not like the answer I’m giving you but I won’t make one up just so you’ll like it” attitude is refreshing. The slabbed as a group like certainty after experiencing so much uncertainty since August 29, 2005, even if it is not what we want to hear. We’ve seen enough sweet talking trash looking to make a name or score a quick buck for themselves to last several life times. Given my first hand impressions of the Commissioner I was as surprised at his mission accomplished pronouncement as the Sun Herald people. We were not the only ones so shocked as I noted in here and here. Continue reading “The Commish’s Wind Pool Education Continues: Hold the Pollyanna Please”

Senter’s decision based on assumptions – and that’s a fact

Post-Katrina Mississippi offers a life with persistent stress to those on the Coast – so much so that a recent post on the Sun Herald’s mental health blog began with I gotta say that keeping up with a blog is a whole lot more work than I thought.

If keeping up with a mental health blog is stressful, imagine what it would be like to deal with a docket of Katrina insurance cases for almost three years. So, maybe that accounts, at least in part, for Judge Senter’s application of assumptions as fact in his decision to disqualify the Rigsby sisters’ Qui Tam attorneys.

Senter predicated his decision on two assumptions that were made and heavily promoted by State Farm; parroted to a varying extent by the E.A. Renfroe and other businesses associated with the handling of the company’s Katrina policy-holder claims; and embraced by the insurance oriented blogs.
However, neither assumption has been argued and proven in any court– making his decision to the disqualify the Qui Tam attorneys similar to his deciding Broussard without presenting the case to a jury, the decision recently overturned by the 5th Circuit. Continue reading “Senter’s decision based on assumptions – and that’s a fact”