Today is a special day to spend with family and friends and enjoy the festivities.

Were celebrating this Thanksgiving Day with a roast turkey, gravy made from the turkey drippings, roasted spaghetti & acorn squash, sweet potatoes casserole with mini marshmallows on top and homemade pumpkin pie.  We are certainly grateful for being able to enjoy this peaceful day.

We also hope Charlie Crist is enjoying his Thanksgiving Day. Here’s a little insight of our newly elected Florida Governor, it’s been just over a year. “Charlie Crist now serves as Florida’s 44th Governor in the State of Florida. He vows to work as “The People’s Governor” because he is working for the people of Florida—the people he calls his boss. Today, he is ready to lead Florida onward, to new opportunities and to Florida’s brightest future.”

Here is a another blurb regarding the State of Florida Citizens Property Insurance Company:

Property Insurance – Governor Crist praised the Legislature for continuing the work of lowering property insurance rates by ensuring affordability and consumer choice within Florida’s insurance market. Rates for homeowners insured by Citizens Property Insurance Corporation will not be increased until January 1, 2009, and consumers can qualify to purchase insurance from Citizens when comparable coverage from private insurers is more than 15 percent higher than Citizens rates. Private insurers will also be required to report their national profits when filing for rate increases, and no new Florida-only subsidiaries companies, will be permitted to insure property in Florida.

Here’s the problem, the Florida ran Citizen Insurance Company are not affordable. In fact in the South West Florida area, Citizen’s Insurance Company more than doubled in all Associations including our own. Since Hurricane Wilma some Association Insurance costs has almost tripled. All of us here in the State of Florida are spending a huge amount of money on property insurance. The high costs are mostly due to Wind coverage.

The legislation reports the rates will not increase until 2009: Our rate already more than doubled. The pledge of having our insurance not increases for a couple of years are insulting to us who live in South West Florida, not having an increase does not lower our costs. If a private company comes to Florida and offers just fewer than 15% for insurance, you can add another insult to injury. Lastly, private insurers are now required to report their national profits when filing for rate increases. This begs the question of how much did these insurance companies make before they left town and why is the legislation requiring such reporting? This pledge also doesn’t add any kind of significant changes to our insurance costs.

Aside from vacating Florida, here’s one attempt we can make to lower our insurance premiums. Write a letter. Don’t waste your time with emails, we’ve already tried and received no feedback. Below is a sample letter:

Your name
Your address
Name of your Association
Phone number or other contact information.
Today’s date

Charlie Crist
The Capitol, 400 S. Monroe St.
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001
Phone: (850) 488-7176
Fax: (850) 487-0801

Regarding: High Cost of Insurance Premiums

Dear Mr. Crist:

It’s been a while now since you Charlie Crist have taken office with the promise of reducing our insurance rates. As you know Citizen’s, which is a Florida State insurance company is and had been charging enormous insurance premiums for our community. These high rates are causing a hardship for our members of our Association, especially those who are on fixed incomes. It has more than doubled since Hurricane Wilma.

So far the only relief from Citizen’s Insurance, is from having a mitigation inspection to our roofs. These inspections performed by a licensed contractor add additional costs to our association. The reduction is not significant and barely puts a dent in the amount we are charged by Citizen’s.

Speaking on my behalf and our Association, please take the necessary steppes in an expedient way to reduce our insurance premiums.

Sincerely,

Your name
Carbon copy: your association’s name

Happy Thanksgiving!!!
PEOPLE’S GOVERNOR, PEOPLE’S LEGISLATURE, PEOPLE’S AGENDA
I want to take the opportunity to thank the members of the Florida House and Senate for their hard work and dedication. Under the leadership of Senate President Ken Pruitt and House Speaker Marco Rubio, this group of men and women has served as the People’s Legislature – listening to, and responding to, the needs of Floridians.
We have accomplished many great things for the people of Florida – our bosses – but we still have much work to do. The Legislature will return to Tallahassee soon to finish the business of lowering property taxes. I remain optimistic that this tax reduction will happen this year – and that Floridians will get relief.
Accomplishments achieved during the 2007 legislative session include the following:
· Public Safety – Florida’s communities will be safer because of Senate Bill 146, the Anti-Murder Act, which Governor Crist signed as the first law of the 2007 legislative session. The legislation will require brutal felony offenders who violate probation to return to jail until the court determines whether the individual poses a danger to the community.

Expanding the number of child predator fighters by 50 in the Attorney General’s Child Predator/CyberCrime Unit will help stop predators and sex offenders before they prey on our children. The unit was established by then-Attorney General Crist in August 2005 as a pilot project in response to several tragic murders of children in Florida.
· Election Reform – Legislation will preserve the integrity of Florida’s elections by replacing touch-screen voting machines with optical scan machines statewide for Election Day voting and early voting sites. Moving Florida’s presidential primary to an earlier date – the last Tuesday in January – will increase Florida’s influence in national elections.
· Education – Senate Bill 1226, signed into law by Governor Crist earlier this session, will create the Merit Award Program for public school teachers, providing five-percent to 10-percent performance bonuses to the state’s best educators. The legislation recognizes the important contributions that principals, librarians, reading and math coaches, guidance counselors, psychologists, and social workers make to school-wide student achievement by also rewarding them with performance bonuses.

An additional 80 reading coaches will guide more teachers to help students develop strong reading skills. Reading coaches help teachers more effectively improve the reading skills of struggling students.

Virtual tutors will give parents the tools they need to help their own children do better in school. The Virtual Tutors program will provide parents, teachers and administrators with clear, concise information regarding student skill levels. Virtual tutoring enables parents and teachers to track children’s progress and identify skill areas where a child needs additional help.
· Economic Development – Florida’s economy will be stronger because of Florida’s enhanced business friendly environment. Legislation will allow Florida to attract more high-wage businesses, such as film and entertainment. For the first time, the fast-growing digital media industry, the commercial and music video industry and Florida’s own filmmakers will be able to participate in the incentive program.

The expansion of the Innovation Incentive Program to $250 million will increase Florida’s ability to attract clean, vital industry and high-wage, high-skill jobs to Florida. The goal of the program is to draw cutting-edge, world-class research centers and high-impact business projects to Florida. Innovation industries generate private investment and spin-off businesses.

A $45-million Quick Action Closing Fund will allow Florida to respond quickly to economic opportunities for business expansion, recruitment and retention. The fund will empower the state to succeed in the fiercely competitive global economy.
· Healthier Florida – Several measures will ensure a comprehensive approach to keeping Floridians healthy. Senate Bill 2260 will refocus the Florida Department of Health to be headed by the State Surgeon General. Secretary of Health Dr. Ana Viamonte Ros will act as the leading advocate for wellness and disease prevention.

Elementary school students grades K-5 in Florida public schools will be required to have 150 minutes of physical education each week. Additionally, the Governor established the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness to ensure the swift implementation of the bill as well as to develop a state plan of action to promote physical fitness and nutrition for all Floridians.
· Environment – Governor Crist has made improving the health of the Florida Everglades, Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries an environmental priority. Florida’s economy and quality of life are connected to the health of Lake Okeechobee, the coastal estuaries and the long-term protection for the northern Everglades.

Governor Crist praised the Legislature for appropriating $100 million for Everglades restoration; $54 million – double current funding levels – to expand Lake Okeechobee’s water-storage areas and treatment marshes; and $40 million to improve the environmental health of the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers, which are important estuaries that affect the quality of life and economy of nearby communities. Additionally, $16.5 million will go toward restoring the St. Johns River.
· Leadership – Governor Crist also thanked the members of the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee for approving all pending appointments of agency heads, including his recent appointments of consumer advocates former Senator Nancy Argenziano and Nathan Skop to the Public Service Commission.

House Bill 1309 will create the Office of Adoption and Child Protection within the Executive Office of the Governor to encourage adoption so that every child will have an opportunity to live in a loving, safe and permanent home. The office will coordinate and streamline Florida’s adoption efforts and will develop a statewide public awareness campaign to provide Floridians information about adoption options and services. Additionally, subsidies will help families who adopt children through the state’s foster care system.

Governor Crist applauded the leadership of House and Senate members for passing Senate Bill 2968 that will allow the Martin Lee Anderson claims bill to be paid promptly. The legislation will justly compensate Martin Lee Anderson’s family $5 million for the loss of their young son.

Governor Crist also thanked the members of the Legislature for supporting his efforts to change the Rules of Executive Clemency so that the civil rights for certain ex-offenders can be restored. While the rule change did not require legislative action, Governor Crist credited the support of legislators in helping achieve this historical change. Under the new rule, ex-offenders who have committed less severe crimes and meet certain requirements qualify for approval for restoration of civil rights without a hearing.
· Property Insurance – Governor Crist praised the Legislature for continuing the work of lowering property insurance rates by ensuring affordability and consumer choice within Florida’s insurance market. Rates for homeowners insured by Citizens Property Insurance Corporation will not be increased until January 1, 2009, and consumers can qualify to purchase insurance from Citizens when comparable coverage from private insurers is more than 15 percent higher than Citizens rates. Private insurers will also be required to report their national profits when filing for rate increases, and no new Florida-only subsidiaries, or “pup” companies, will be permitted to insure property in Florida.
ABOUT CHARLIE CRIST
Charlie Crist’s life illustrates the American dream, beginning nearly 100 years ago when his grandfather Adam came to America from Cyprus. Nearly penniless, Adam sought a better life by first shining shoes. Later, he would own a small business, and eventually raise a family of seven children. One son became a doctor who married and raised four children in St. Petersburg, Florida. One of those four is Adam’s grandson, Charlie Crist, who now serves as Florida’s Governor.
Charlie Crist has never forgotten his humble roots and remains committed to the values that have made America the envy of freedom-loving people for more than two centuries. His public service is defined by tireless devotion to the citizens of Florida, a fundamental belief in the goodness of people, and a rock-solid commitment to the core principles that have allowed his family to succeed—lower taxes, less government and more freedom.
Charlie Crist was born in 1956 in Altoona, Pennsylvania, but the family soon settled in St. Petersburg, where his father is a respected family physician. Charlie learned the importance of public service from an early age, beginning with his father’s tenure on the Pinellas County School Board. As a public school student Charlie quickly learned the value of participation, leading him to serve as class president at St. Petersburg High School and, later, as student body vice president at Florida State University.
His leadership qualities carried into other pursuits. He was the starting quarterback in high school and played at Wake Forest University before transferring and receiving his undergraduate degree from Florida State in 1978. Charlie then earned his law degree from the Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham, Alabama.
Crist received invaluable experience in Florida’s criminal justice system while interning in the State Attorney’s Office, before accepting a position as general counsel for the minor league division of the Baseball Commissioner’s Office. Charlie began his government service as state director for U.S. Senator Connie Mack before later returning to the private practice of law with the Tampa firm of Wood and Crist.
The desire to serve the public remained strong. In 1992, he won a seat in the Florida Senate, where he represented the interests of citizens concerned about such issues as education, crime, the environment and elder affairs. During his six years in the Senate, Crist served as Chairman of the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee and as Chairman of the Appropriations Criminal Justice Subcommittee. A strong voice for public safety, he sponsored, among other legislation, the Stop Turning Out Prisoners (STOP) bill requiring prisoners to serve at least 85 percent of their prison sentences. This achievement earned him numerous honors, including appointment as an Honorary Sheriff by the Florida Sheriffs Association—only the third person to receive the honor in the organization’s long history.
After Charlie completed his Senate service, Gov. Jeb Bush appointed him as Deputy Secretary of the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. In 2000, he won a special election and became Florida’s last elected Commissioner of Education, where he worked to implement reforms in school accountability and direct more resources into Florida classrooms.
Charlie’s path of public service next led him to seek election as Attorney General in 2002 as Florida’s first elected Republican Attorney General. He has been a tireless advocate for consumers, law-abiding citizens, innocent crime victims, and those who have nowhere else to turn for help. Under his leadership, the Attorney General’s Office recovered millions of dollars for consumers ripped off by scam artists; prosecuted or sustained the convictions of hundreds of murderers, rapists and other criminals; crafted agreements to protect the state’s environmental resources and taxpayers; and promoted effective new tools to combat domestic violence, stop child abductions, prevent Medicaid fraud and address numerous other problems.
Charlie worked with the Legislature to pass new laws that dramatically toughened the penalties for identity theft and counterfeiting or dealing in prescription drugs. He proposed and worked to pass Florida’s landmark civil rights legislation, the Marvin Davies Civil Rights Act of 2003, to pursue those who engage in willful discrimination against others. He also won approval for legislation targeting those who distribute illegal spam on the Internet.
Charlie Crist now serves as Florida’s 44th Governor. He vows to work as “The People’s Governor” because he is working for the people of Florida—the people he calls his boss. Today, he is ready to lead Florida onward, to new opportunities and to Florida’s brightest future ever.