Help Floridians buy flood insurance
It is time to again discuss tropical storms, hurricanes and other such weather that may cause flooding.
Consider the flooding damage done by Tropical Storm Debby and hurricanes Helene and Milton just in 2024! So many people throughout the United States lack flood insurance.
No flood damage at my home this time, but I carry flood insurance, contradictory to FEMA flood maps.
As a retired veteran and senior citizen, sadly with a mortgage, I do not want to end up with a flooded home, regardless of the cause, later to be told my property insurance will not cover the damage.
Another monthly payment is unwanted.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will begin next year allowing monthly payments for flood insurance, but even more changes are needed.
Consider requiring mortgage company and mortgage servicing providers to allow homeowners with a mortgage the option of carrying the flood insurance cost within their escrow accounts.
Companies decline this option when the insurance is not required by FEMA. I call on Gov. Ron DeSantis to add this change to improve on Florida homeownership!
Let homeowners add flood insurance to their escrow accounts, no matter what the FEMA map indicates.
Dan Patterson, Sarasota
New College enters new age of freedom
We should mark the passing of the Florida Sunshine Law with the trip to Italy taken this month by the New College president and four of the trustees, as advertised on the NCF website.
It’s suitable that the final journey should also include alum Robert Allen, the dealmaker connected with possible Sunshine violations involving the college last year.
Evidently, the precedent set by Finch v. Seminole County School Board, which ruled those kinds of trips strictly off-limits, no longer applies. Farewell, oppressive Sunshine!
Welcome, a new age of freedom in shadowy backrooms!
I’m sure the deal concocted in Italy with USF President Rhea Law and the Sarasota-Manatee campus will be purely on the up-and-up.
Thanks, political operatives!
Irwin J. Birnbaum, Bradenton
Free immigrants from detention centers
We all need to read the Nov. 19 article, “Many US farm laborers are not documented.” It details how mass deportation will affect our economy.
Perhaps looking at how mass deportation, which President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to carry out, will affect our lives will make us pay attention. Migrants are essential to our well-being.
President Joe Biden has the power to keep thousands of families from immediately being deported. He can free them from immigration detention. He knows he can. At the end of Trump’s administration, at the height of the COVID pandemic, immigration officials released hundreds of immigrants from detention centers.
There is no need to keep most people in detention. Most are there simply because they are undocumented.
People in detention have a harder time accessing legal help. Without a lawyer they’re 10 times more likely to be deported.
I volunteered at two welcome centers in Texas. The families I met had fled their homes to save their lives. Now they are here, working hard to build new lives.
Immigrants (documented and undocumented) are giving far more than they are getting from us.
Those released from detention would do the same.
Please urge Biden to free as many refugees from detention centers as possible before Jan. 20.
Mary Ginley, Venice
Find issues that unite Americans
A Venezuelan immigrant, convicted of murdering a young Georgia college student while she was jogging and sentenced to life imprisonment, has become a rallying cry for conservatives pushing for a crackdown on immigration.
So reports the Wall Street Journal. The same paper (and others) has reported rallies in Tel Aviv by Israelis seeking release of hostages, Russians seeking an end to war in Ukraine, French rallying for repeal of modified retirement rules and Venezuelans rallying for fair elections.
Only in the U.S. do we have rallies for conservatives and rallies for liberals. Isn’t this case a rallying cry for Americans? Are conservatives rallying for a crackdown on immigration or a crackdown on illegal immigration? Or perhaps Americans would like a definition of the two.
There are issues that transcend the labels, and until liberals and conservatives can agree as to which and cease knee-jerk opinions simply because they are the positions of the other, we will continue to have issues rallying conservatives and liberals, rather than Americans.
Lee Hoffman, Lakewood Ranch
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Alice J. Roden started working for Trending Insurance News at the end of 2021. Alice grew up in Salt Lake City, UT. A writer with a vast insurance industry background Alice has help with several of the biggest insurance companies. Before joining Trending Insurance News, Alice briefly worked as a freelance journalist for several radio stations. She covers home, renters and other property insurance stories.