Vanguard Fire and Casualty is officially gone -- liquidated by a Leon
County judge effective Monday, March 26.

Two new companies, started by former state Sen. Locke Burt, stand
ready to pick up the 57,000 policies when Vanguard officially closes
April 25.

Under a plan submitted to the state and court, existing customers of
the failed Vanguard will be offered Royal Palm and Security First.

Former Allstate Floridian policyholders will recognize Royal Palm's
name -- its the same entity Allstate is offering them for backup
insurance as they get dropped by the "Good Hands" people. Burt had
complained in the past that many Allstate refugees were refusing his
coverage and winding up in state-run Citizens Property Insurance, even
when it wasn't legal to do so.

The biggest impact is in Brevard County, where Vanguard had 6,558
policyholders. It had 2,648 in Indian River County and 1,357 in Lee
County, followed by 894 in Leon, 558 in Escambia, 339 in Collier, and
270 in Santa Rosa counties.

Rep. Bob Allen was quick to torpedo efforts by fellow Brevard County lawmaker Rep. Mitch Needelman to add a requirement to Allen's anti-dumping bill.
The legislation is intended to stop the day cruise industry from dumping its raw and partially treated sewage in federal waters three miles off the eastern coast. It faces heavy opposition from the gambling boat industry.
Allen also asserted his fellow Brevard County lawmakers were trying to sink the ship.
Needelman wanted to add an amendment that makes sure sewage from those gambling ships doesn't wind up at treatment plants that in turn discharge their effluent in waterways.
Allen fought off the change Wednesday, declaring it hostile amendment.
Needelman, and supporter Rep. Thad Altman, also from Brevard, say that's far from the truth.
"I applaud Allen's bill," Altman said afterward, explaining he thought Needelman's amendment simply made the bill stronger.

   Unhappy that your insurance company isn't offering a bigger discount on next year's bill?
   Blame the regulators, says an industry lobbyist.
   It isn't that cuts, like the 7 percent offered by State Farm or Nationwide's 4.5 percent, are so low, says William Stander with the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America.
   It's that regulators " failed to realistically portray what reductions consumers could expect " when they calculated earlier this month the reductions would average some 24 percent.
   The discounts, to take effect on policies that renew after June 1, are in answer to a doubling of the cheap hurricane coverage Florida is willing to sell insurance companies. If a storm wipes out reserves in the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, consumers are on the hook to bail it out.
   

For the second time in a week, Gov. Charlie Crist received a
briefing from state emergency response officials on what to expect if
Fidel Castro dies. Emergency response plans center around three
potential reactions to the Cuban leader's demise -- civil unrest in
South Florida cities, a flood of Cuban refugees attempting to reach
Florida, and boaters from Florida attempting to bring Cubans here.

Major Gen. Douglas Burnett, adjutant general of the Florida National
Guard, briefed Crist last week on Florida's so-called mass migration
plan. Burnett and Craig Fugate, director of the Florida Division of
Emergency Management, met again with Crist on Monday to discuss further
details.

It is a lot of cramming in a short time. "Remember, Gov. Bush had
eight years. Gov. Crist is trying to take all this in a short time,"
Fugate said.

As officials talk about the potential for detention centers in South
Florida or on Guantanamo Bay, the lines between Florida's state plan and
that of federal defense agencies are beginning to blur.

Fugate said Coast Guard officials want to be able to "task" Florida's
resources, to fill in any holes that crop up in the federal response.
The state will remain involved in the "humanitarian" side of a national
defense issue, Fugate said.

"We're sticking to our mission, which is health and welfare of the
public," he said.

A reborn political advocacy group in Tallahassee is taking shots at
Florida's insurance reform.
CIVIC Concern calls itself an "incubator for progressive ideas and a
legislative watchdog" from a "centrist" point of view.
It's no coincidence that Civic Concern's new website bears a
registration contact address at the liberal-leaning political news
service The Fort Report.
Civic Concern spokesman Bernie Campbell, also a paid Democratic
consultant, acknowledged that Fort Report's Pamela Burch Fort is named
as the organization's chief officer on its non-profit financial reports
with the IRS.
Civic Concern's first subject is the insurance legislation passed in
January, which expands state-backed insurance and catastrophe funds, but
Campbell said the policy center intends to hold a press conference later
this week dissecting Florida's A-plus education plan. For the task, it
commissioned University of South Florida education researcher Sherman
Dorn, whose recent works include a paper showing how the Florida
Department of Education inflates high school graduation rates.
Today, Civic Concern urges reporters to call former state Rep. Doug
Wiles, an insurance agent from St. Augustine, to hear how the insurance
bill -- crafted in the heat of a seven-day special session -- is making
it harder for insurance companies to do business in the state.
"We want to focus on the parts of public policy that got overlooked,"
Campbell said.