For years, the insurance industry has lulled the Florida Legislature into a cozy alternative reality in which the industry’s failures were caused by forces that the industry could not control: catastrophic storms like Michael and Ian, erroneous adjusters, unscrupulous roofers, ill-informed consumers, and, of course … attorneys.

However, a series of bombshell reports in recent months have shed new light on this reality. The most recent report, first detailed in the Miami Herald and Tampa Times by reporter Lawrence Mower, has upended the industry’s narrative.

Mower’s story detailed a secret 2022 study the Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) withheld for two years despite multiple public records requests.

The study, which cost taxpayers $150,000, found that insurer parent companies were steering billions of dollars to affiliate companies, including Managing General Entities (MGAs), while claiming losses. Mower’s reporting pulled back the curtain and revealed the true cause of our insurance crisis — the industry’s own questionable business practices.

True to form, the industry has responded to these reports with attempts to rewrite reality.

The most recent attempt came Friday when a Tallahassee insurance agency executive, Allen McGinniss, lashed out at Mower’s reporting with a scathing attack on the reporter’s ethics while implying that we all need to be educated on “the structural realities of Florida’s insurance market.”

McGinniss defends the industry’s reliance on Managing General Agents (MGAs), the subject of the OIR study uncovered by Mower, and a business model Florida’s current Insurance Commissioner Mike Yaworsky has said needs a closer look. The Commissioner even proposed legislation seeking greater oversight of MGAs.

McGinniss clearly seeks to rewrite this reality as he quotes former Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty’s support for the model; the problem is — McCarty has not been Commissioner since 2016.

Unfortunately, narratives like this from the industry have led us here.

Relying on industry misinformation, Florida’s elected officials passed a series of pro-insurance, anti-consumer laws in pursuit of “market stability.” Now, the industry and even state regulators claim that Florida has achieved this mythical nirvana of market stability, and Florida’s insurance woes are on the mend.

However, that is not the story lawmakers hear every day in their communities, where they face truly challenging questions from voters. This was clear in recent committee meetings to prepare for Session, and as the South Florida Sun-Sentinel headline explained: Two years after reforms, lawmakers share insurance horror stories.

The story details comments made during a recent House Subcommittee on Insurance and Banking by Rep. Daniel Alvarez. During the committee meeting, the Republican from Riverview in Hillsborough County remarked, “When I’m on the street, I simply don’t know how to talk to my constituents … This is what I know: I know I voted on a bill that every insurance expert told me, ‘Give me two years, Danny, before you start getting hot, right? And you will see either prices stabilize and come down or come down, and I do not know that I have seen either of those two. And when I am the guy who faces the consumer, I just do not know what to tell them anymore other than, ‘I’m sorry.’ I have got people leaving because they cannot afford it anymore, and this is the main driver.”

Here is the reality – in the four years since the Legislature began passing insurance industry reforms, the rate at which insurers deny claims has increased significantly. According to the OIR data, pre-reform storms, Ian and Irma had claims denial rates of 28% and 31%, respectively. Compare that to post-reform storms. Hurricane Milton claims have been closed without payment at a rate of 43%, and Hurricane Helene claims have a 53% likelihood of being denied without any benefits paid.

Insurance companies have attempted to blame flood damage for many of these denial rates and implied that Floridians should have been more responsible and purchased flood insurance, regardless of how high and dry their property was situated.

For years, Florida’s homeowner policies have been allowed to include “anti-concurrency causation” provisions. In simple terms, an ACC provision allows the insurance company to deny an entire claim if it says that any part of the damage was caused by a factor not covered in the policy. ACC abuse is not new; it has been increasingly common since Hurricane Michael in 2018, but Florida’s 2022 and 2023 tort reform laws have empowered insurance companies to deny claims with impunity, knowing that consumers will have an uphill battle to challenge their insurance company.

The trend was concerning enough that Insurance Commissioner Yaworsky sent a memo to Florida insurers on Feb. 20, 2025, requiring them to provide additional data and noting that regulators had “recently learned of potentially concerning behavior relating to anti-concurrent causation policy language and the explicit avoidance of applying coverage for policyholders.”

Due to the excellent reporting of Mower and countless other reporters who have given a voice to the Floridians victimized by their own insurance companies, OIR was finally forced to act.

It is now clear that the industry that exists to support Floridians in their greatest times of distress has manufactured a crisis and used the call for “market stability” to leave their customers blowing in the wind … while they made record profits.

Profits that give many Floridians anxiety.

In a recent poll of 2026 likely General Election voters conducted by the Associated Industries of Florida Center for Political Strategy, one in three likely voters said the cost of property insurance was the most pressing issue facing the state. When asked what costs were causing them the most “anxiety,” four of the top five responses were insurance-related – property and auto insurance, and mortgage and health care costs all topped the list.

AIF was one of the leading voices in support of tort reform, and it speaks volumes that their own polling shows that Floridians are still feeling the pain of the insurance crisis four years into Florida’s failed tort reform experiment.

All of this proves that President Trump was 100% correct two years ago when he called Florida’s industry-backed tort reform law “the biggest insurance industry BAILOUT to Globalist Insurance Companies, IN HISTORY” and “the worst Insurance Scam in the entire Country.”

McGinniss, the Tallahassee insurance agency executive, called Mower’s factual reporting “reckless,” reliant on “cherry-picked data,” and said it was “a clickbait narrative that fuels the public anger while doing nothing to solve the real issues at hand.” But as the saying goes, “A kicked dog howls.”

Instead of attacking journalists for exposing the truth and blaming consumers when their claims are denied, Florida’s insurance companies need to do the hard work and hold themselves and their industry accountable for upholding the contracts that Floridians pay for and deserve to have honored. If they are unwilling or unable to do that, then the Florida Legislature should make them.

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Todd Michaels is president of the Florida Justice Association.

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Miami Beach broke up with spring break last year and city leaders still aren’t interested in couples counseling.

Officials recently announced they were bringing back enhanced security measures for practically the entire month of March, including parking restrictions and increased fees for nonresidents.

The new rules were introduced last year after three consecutive years of spring break violence. The city is again warning visitors to expect curfews, bag searches at the beach, early beach closures, DUI checkpoints and arrests for drug possession and violence.

“Last year’s spring break was a success on any level you measure it,” Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner said. “We had zero fatalities, zero shootings, zero stampedes. The majority of our businesses did very well and actually thanked us for the measures we took.”

Most spring break activity centers around a 10-block stretch of Ocean Drive known for its Art Deco hotels, restaurants and nightclubs. Before spring break last year, city officials launched a marketing campaign that said, “Miami Beach Is Breaking Up With Spring Break.” A video featured residents “breaking up” with spring breakers and warning them to expect restrictions if they decided to come anyway.

This year, officials followed up with a “Reality Check” video featuring a group of young people on a fictitious reality show having their spring break ruined by the city’s enhanced rules.

“We broke up a spring break,” Meiner said. “Some people ask, are you getting back together? No, we’re done.”

City leaders want visitors to come and enjoy the beaches, hotels and restaurants, as long as they behave, Meiner said, noting that overall hotel occupancy actually increased in 2024 over 2023.

“And that’s because when you walked around Ocean Drive and South Beach, you felt welcoming, you felt safe,” Meiner said.

Miami Beach isn’t the only Florida city bracing for spring breakers this year. Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Tampa are among the top 10 domestic spring break destinations, according to AAA booking data.

Following a particularly rowdy Presidents Day weekend in Daytona Beach, Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood recently announced plans to crack down on bad behavior from spring breakers.

“They don’t bring any financial benefit,” Chitwood said. “All they do is bring chaos, and if they want to bring chaos, I am going to bring chaos in return.”

Some Miami Beach business owners see the restrictions as necessary to ensure public safety, while others are concerned that driving away spring breakers could irreparably damage Miami Beach’s status as an iconic tourist destination.

Louis Taic, owner of the Z Ocean Hotel, said he welcomes visitors to Miami Beach any time of the year, but he understands why city officials have taken to actions that they have.

“What we don’t like is people that take advantage of Miami Beach, that take advantage by doing things here that they would never do at home,” Taic said.

David Wallack, owner of Mango’s Tropical Cafe, said Miami Beach has thrived as an entertainment destination for nearly a century, even through Prohibition and the Great Depression.

Instead of trying to scare people away, city officials need to organize events such as concerts, art festivals and sporting events to attract people who will spend money, Wallack said.

“Miami Beach is magical, but you’ve got to still give customers what they want,” Wallack said.

Some civil rights advocates believe the restrictions are racially motivated.

South Beach became popular among Black tourists about two decades ago as promoters organized Urban Beach Week during the Memorial Day weekend. Many locals have complained about violence and other crime associated with the event, which led to an increased police presence. But the event’s continued popularity correlates to a bump in Black tourism throughout the year.

Stephen Hunter Johnson, an attorney and member of Miami-Dade’s Black Affairs Advisory Board, said city leaders are using a brief spike in violence as an excuse to discourage Black visitors.

Most of the problems experienced by Miami Beach in recent years began during the pandemic, when Florida remained open while other popular tourist destinations around the U.S. were locked down, and officials are unfairly crediting the new spring break restrictions with decreasing violence last year, Johnson said.

“Arrests were down, and no one was shot,” Johnson said. “Those things were going to occur anyway, because the farther we get away from COVID restrictions, the more normalized things are.”

Meiner has repeatedly rejected the notion that the restrictions are racially motivated. He always hates the idea of anyone getting injured, but as an elected official he feels an additional sense of responsibility when people are shot and killed in the city he serves, he said.

“We are going to keep people safe,” Meiner said. “Law and order is the number one priority in our city. There is no compromising on that.”

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Sunday he does not see the U.S. as an unreliable ally, but Europe must continue to provide funding for Ukraine to put it in a stronger position if peace is negotiated.

Wrapping up a security summit in London with other European and world leaders, Starmer said that nobody wanted to see the breakdown in talks that happened Friday at the White House but that the U.S. remains an important ally.

“The U.S. has been a reliable ally to the U.K. for many, many decades and continues to be,” Starmer said. “There are no two countries as closely aligned as our two countries.”

Starmer said the plan he is working on for peace in Ukraine is intended to receive U.S. backing. The U.K. will use 1.6 billion pounds ($2 billion) in export financing to supply 5,000 air defense missiles for Ukraine, he said.

The meeting comes two days after U.S. support for Ukraine appeared in greater jeopardy after President Donald Trump lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and said he wasn’t grateful enough for U.S. support.

And he warned that Europe had to do the heavy lifting in defending itself.

The meeting has been overshadowed by the extraordinary scolding of Zelenskyy by Trump, who blasted him Friday at the White House as being ungrateful for U.S. support against the invasion by Russia.

Starmer said he’s focused on being a bridge to restore peace talks, whose collapse he used as an opportunity to re-engage with Trump, Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron rather than “ramp up the rhetoric.”

The London meeting has taken on greater importance in defending the war-torn ally and shoring up the continent’s defenses.

Sunday’s summit is likely to include talks on establishing a European military force to be sent to Ukraine to underpin a ceasefire. Starmer said it would involve “a coalition of the willing.”

Starmer told the BBC he does not trust Russian President Vladimir Putin but does trust Trump. “Do I believe Donald Trump when he says he wants lasting peace? The answer to that is yes,” he said.

Starmer said there are “intense discussions” to get a security guarantee from the U.S.

“If there is to be a deal, if there is to be a stopping of the fighting, then that agreement has to be defended, because the worst of all outcomes is that there is a temporary pause and then (Russian President Vladimir) Putin comes again,” Starmer said. “That has happened in the past, I think it is a real risk, and that is why we must ensure that if there’s a deal, it is a lasting deal, not a temporary pause.”

The three essentials Starmer listed for a successful peace deal were: arming the Ukrainians to put them in a position of strength; including a European element to guarantee security; and providing a “U.S. backstop,” to prevent Putin from breaking promises.

“That’s the package. All three parts need to be in place, and that’s what I’m working hard to bring together,” Starmer said.

Starmer hosted the meeting at Lancaster House, a 200-year-old mansion near Buckingham Palace, following a charm offensive last week to persuade Trump to put Ukraine at the center of negotiations and tilt his allegiances toward Europe.

Leaders from Germany, Denmark, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Canada, Finland, Sweden, the Czech Republic and Romania were at the summit. The Turkish foreign minister, NATO secretary-general and the presidents of the European Commission and European Council were also in attendance.

Zelenskyy received broad support from leaders across Europe after the White House fiasco, an exceptional attack on an ally broadcast on live television.

Starmer embraced Zelenskyy as he arrived at the meeting Sunday.

Europe has been anxious since Trump initiated direct peace talks with Putin, who had been isolated by most Western leaders since invading Ukraine three years ago. The scramble to remain relevant and protect European interests as their once stalwart ally appeared to be cozying up to Putin was even more troubling when Trump called Zelenskyy a dictator and falsely said Ukraine started the war.

Meetings in recent days had provided some hope — until Zelenskyy’s visit to the White House.

Visits to the Oval Office by Macron, who had declared his visit a “turning point,” and Starmer were seen as steps in the right direction. The meetings were cordial and Trump even took a gentler tone toward Ukraine, though he would not commit to providing U.S. security guarantees and maintained Europe would need to provide peacekeeping troops.

Within 12 hours of Starmer’s return from Washington, the talk of peace seemed to collapse as Vice President JD Vance berated Zelenskyy for challenging Trump’s assertions that Russian President Vladimir Putin could be trusted.

“Starmer did an impressive job of asserting Europe’s agency in the war on Ukraine and conveying to President Trump that Europe is willing and able to take a leading role in implementing any credible peace deal,” said Rachel Ellehuus, director-general of Royal United Services Institute, a defense and security think tank. “Unfortunately, Friday’s White House meeting was a major step backward.”

Ukraine can no longer count on military or political support from the U.S. after Trump declared himself neutral in negotiations, Ellehuus said. She said Europe needs to step in and could release some 200 billion euros ($207 billion) in seized Russian assets to help fund that effort.

“The immediate goal of the meetings in London must be to keep Ukraine in the fight so it can negotiate from a maximum position of strength,” she said.

Starmer pledged this week to boost military spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product by 2027. Other European nations may follow suit.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said Saturday that Europe faces a historic test and has to look after itself. He said European countries have to increase their arms spending to reach at least 3% of GDP.

“If we don’t increase our effort fast enough and let the aggressor dictate its conditions, we won’t end up well,” he said.

Macron, who said it was legitimate for the U.S. to shift its focus to dealing with China and Asia, also called for more defense spending as he called for unity.

“We should have woken up earlier,” Macron said. “I’ve been saying for years that we need a more sovereign, more united, more independent Europe.”

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

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