MetLife Inc. may have to pay up to $500 million over its handling of death benefits from life insurance policies issued decades ago.
The deal, part of a multistate probe headed by Florida insurance investigators, also requires MetLife to improve its system for identifying unclaimed life-insurance policies.
Overshadowed by Gov. Rick Scott signing a bill to speed the creation of a science and technology-geared university on Friday were the rejections of the University of Floridas plan to shift employees out of the state health system and a last-minute effort in the Legislature to bulk up the states hurricane catastrophe fund.
More than eight months since withdrawing from the U.S. Senate race, as pressure mounted between the dual jobs of running the Florida Senate and a statewide campaign, Senate President Mike Haridopolos continues to have more cash on hand than any other Republican in the contest.
Haridopolos, R-Merritt Island, retained $1.4 million from the $3.5 million he raised for his abandoned campaign as of March 31, according to Federal Election Commission records.
The creation of a vital university to expand Florida's number of science and technology graduates will take on life this summer, despite objections from some legislators, students and officials in the Lakeland area.
Gov. Rick Scott signed HB 1994 on Friday creating the independent school by splitting off the 14-year-old branch campus in Polk County from the University of South Florida.
Four months ago, the states top economists, sitting as the Florida Economic Estimating Conference, forecast unemployment would hold at about 10.6 percent for the first quarter of 2012.
With sluggish growth expected to continue through the current fiscal year and a moderate increase in the next fiscal year, an 8.7 percent mark was foreseen as attainable in 2014.
On Friday, the latest numbers from the state Department of Economic Opportunity pushed the unemployment figure down to 9 percent, the lowest number since January 2009.
George Zimmerman, who once dreamed of becoming a police officer, had bond set at $150,000 Friday on a second-degree murder charge in the shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford.
Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. accepted the arguments that Zimmerman, 28, wont be a flight risk in what has become an intensely racially-charged case drawing international attention.
Jon Costello is comfortable where he is right now.
His wife Nicole just gave birth to their second son, hes putting the finishing touches together on the syllabus for his fall graduate course in political communications at Florida State University, and hes just completed a second session as legislative affairs director for Gov. Rick Scott.
State leaders say nothing will be done half-cocked by the task force named Thursday to review the Stand Your Ground law likely to be used as a defense in the Feb. 26 shooting of Trayvon Martin.
Gov. Rick Scott and Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, in announcing the 17 members of the Citizens Safety and Protection Task Force on Thursday, said the panels series of statewide meetings that will be conducted throughout the summer and fall will have a slow and deliberate focus on measures involving public safety.
A circuit judge is working against the clock to decide the validity of Florida's newly drawn congressional districts in time for this year's election deadlines.
The deadline for candidates to qualify for the 2012 election cycle is noon, June 8. The primary is set for Aug. 14; the general election is Nov. 6.
The Fair Districts amendments require congressional districts to be compact and follow geographical boundaries, where feasible, and forbid the districts from being drawn to favor incumbents.
The task force being formed by Gov. Rick Scott in reaction to the Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman shooting in Sanford will be announced within two weeks, the governor said Wednesday.
Theyre going to review laws like Stand Your Ground to make sure Floridians feel safe, Scott said while appearing on WBDO 96.5 FM in Orlando.
Were at a 40-year low in our crime rate, weve done the right things in our state. The prison population is coming down because weve done the right thing.But whenever something like this happens, you have to look at it.
