Florida News That Impacts You – April 26th, 2024
Bottom Line: Your daily recap of the biggest news from around the state that impacts you in South Florida.
- On Thursday Governor DeSantis said Florida will not comply with the Biden administration's newly proposed Title IX changes that would give biological males identifying as females protection under the U.S. Department of Educaton Act. Quoting DeSantis: We will not comply and we will fight back. We are not gonna let Joe Biden try to inject men into women's activities. We are not gonna let Joe Biden undermine the rights of parents, and we are not gonna let Joe Biden abuse his constitutional authority to try to impose these policies on us here in Florida.
- In a property insurance roundtable hosted by Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis called “Putting Policyholders First”, Patronis highlighted the recently signed laws making the My Safe Florida Home Program permanent and establishing the My Safe Florida Condominium Program as “moral obligations” from the state to Floridians. The annual grant programs enable eligible Floridians to receive up to $10,000 from the state for home hardening measures which also help lower insurance rates. Florida insurance commissioner Mike Yarowsky spoke to the improving property insurance market – including at least four property insurers which have announced rate cuts for policy renewals this year. However, he also highlighted the crisis created through litigation prior to last year’s litigation reform and the challenges the state still faces with litigation from prior years stating: There is more litigation pending from (Hurricane) Ian for Citizens in Miami-Dade County than in Charlotte, Lee and Collier combined. That makes absolutely no sense.
- Numerous Florida cities rank among the best for air quality in the country according to the latest State of the Air Report from the American Lung Association, including the Cape Coral-Fort Myers-Naples and Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville metros tied for 1st in the country in particle pollution and/or ozone air pollution. Palm Beach County has the lowest particle pollution of any county in the state. No Florida locations ranked below average in air quality.
- It’ll be another nice day today with highs in the low 80’s, which is typical for this date. Similar weather is expected throughout the weekend though the wind will pick up.
- After dropping for four straight days to start the week gas prices rose on Thursday by four cents per gallon but not in South Florida as they fell by an average of three cents per gallon. The average price statewide for regular unleaded is currently $3.52 per gallon. In Palm Beach County the average price is $3.71 per gallon, in Martin the average is $3.54 and in Indian River County the average is $3.48 per gallon.