Saturday, January 7, 2012
Saturday, January 7, 2012 2:48 PM
George Flint
You have these people NOW being investigated by the state and the Federal Investigation units. A indictment is soon forth coming. We are working hard for that indictment. Never paid the state and the federal taxes, never gave money from Bingo to a public charity organization, Never kept books on Bingo winnings, Hired a bus, full of his friends to a very expensive dinner in Orlando, $75.00 a plate. Fill up his car with gas and food for his home. Bought Hundreds of T-Shirts, Play Golf with Bingo money. He told Joe Hunter that I was placing my cards on golf carts when in fact I was up north in Maine. Have plane tickets to prove it. Bingo Paul is a crook and a lair. You tell me why this guy is running Bingo? And his wife is in charge of CDD and Paul Pontious is on the HOA. ? Get this crooks out of there. You have all the proof where the money went and you want me to face this bookkeeper who never kept books and stole money from the residents of Lake Ashton playing Bingo., this was their winnings . Do you think she loves me. Thousands of dollars is missing and unaccounted for. See Papers. Both of them are totally involved in the scam, see all papers enclosed. He has Five bank accounts, not one or two, but five. You think more highly of these crooks than you do me telling the truth and Paul goes around calling me a idiot in front of everybody even when John Chickness was there to witness him saying this, and you expect me to be at the CDD meeting. Yes this community is in deep trouble because you are not doing your job. Lets bring this community together and make it a honest community or keep it going with crooks calling the shots. You have all the proof, lets act on it. And by the way, there are hundreds of business cards in the books on the table. Don't pick on me.
Friday, January 6, 2012
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Thursday, January 5, 2012
Don't worry, the Arabs get the $200 Million Back, they raised the gasoline price.
OOPS !
This brand spanking new Airbus 340-600, the largest passenger aeroplane ever built, sits just outside its hangar in Toulouse , France without a single hour of airtime.
Enter the Arab flight crew of Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies (ADAT) to conduct pre-delivery tests on the ground, such as engine run-ups, prior to delivery to Etihad Airways in Abu Dhabi .
The ADAT crew taxied the A340-600 to the run-up area.
Then they took all four engines to take-off power with a virtually empty aircraft. Not having read the run-up manuals, they had no clue just how light an empty A340-600 really is.
This brand spanking new Airbus 340-600, the largest passenger aeroplane ever built, sits just outside its hangar in Toulouse , France without a single hour of airtime.
Enter the Arab flight crew of Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies (ADAT) to conduct pre-delivery tests on the ground, such as engine run-ups, prior to delivery to Etihad Airways in Abu Dhabi .The ADAT crew taxied the A340-600 to the run-up area.Then they took all four engines to take-off power with a virtually empty aircraft. Not having read the run-up manuals, they had no clue just how light an empty A340-600 really is.
The takeoff warning horn was blaring away in the cockpit because they had All 4 engines at full power. The aircraft computers thought they were trying to take off, but it had not been configured properly (flaps/slats, etc.)Then one of the ADAT crew decided to pull the circuit breaker on the Ground Proximity Sensor to silence the alarm. This fools the aircraft into thinking it is in the air. The computers automatically released all the brakes and set the aircraft rocketing forward.
The ADAT crew had no idea that this is a safety feature so that pilots can't land with the brakes on.
Not one member of the seven-man Arab crew was smart enough to throttle back the engines from their max power setting, so the $200 million brand-new aircraft crashed into a blast barrier, totalling it.
The extent of injuries to the crew is unknown due to the news blackout in the major media in France and elsewhere. Because.........Coverage of the story was deemed insulting to Muslim Arabs.
Finally, the photos are starting to leak out.
.
One French Airbus: $200 million dollars
Untrained Arab Flight Crew: $300,000 Yearly Salary
Unread Operating Manual: $300
Aircraft meets retaining wall and the wall wins.
PRICELESS!!!
"And that's why God gave them camels"!
Kim Jun Un
Kim Jung Un
Are you really concerned about North Korea's appointment of the "dear leader", Kim Jung Ill's youngest son to be the new leader of North Korea -- a nuclear power!
After all, Kim Jung Un (pronounced Kim's young-un?) had NO military experience whatsoever before daddy made him a four-star general in the military. This is a snot-nose twerp who has never accomplished anything in his life that would even come close to military leadership: he hasn't even so much as led a cub scout troop, let alone coached a sports team or commanded a military platoon. So, setting that aside, next they make him the "beloved leader" of the country. Terrific!!!
Oh, crap! I'm sorry. I just remembered that we did the same thing here, we took a community organizer, a guy who has never led anything more than an ACORN demonstration; one who has never even worn a uniform, and made him Commander-in-Chief - the leader of this country. Guess we’re not so different from North Korea after all……
Deaf Italian Bookkeeper
>
> >
>
> A Mafia Godfather finds out that his bookkeeper, Guido, has cheated him out of $10,000,000.00
> His bookkeeper is deaf. That was the reason he got the job in the first place.
> It was assumed that Guido would hear nothing so he would not have to testify in court.
> When the Godfather goes to confront Guido about his missing $10 million, he takes along his lawyer who knows sign language.
> The Godfather tells the lawyer, "Ask him where the money is!
> The lawyer, using sign language, asks Guido, Where's the money?
> Guido signs back, "I don't know what you are talking about." The lawyer tells the Godfather, "He says he doesn't know what you are talking about" The Godfather pulls out a pistol, puts it to Guido's head and says, "Ask him again or I'll kill him!"
> The lawyer signs to Guido, "He'll kill you if you don't tell him."
> Guido trembles and signs back, "OK! You win! The money is in a brown briefcase, buried behind the shed at my cousin Bruno's house.
> The Godfather asks the lawyer, "What did he say?" The lawyer replies, "He says you don't have the balls to pull the trigger."
>
Pat Boone on Obama...Simply outstanding
THIS IS AN EXCELLENT COMMENTARY ,
AND SHOULD BE READ BY EVERY AMERICAN !
The President Without A Country
By Pat Boone
"We're no longer a Christian nation." - President Barack Obama, June 2009
" America has been arrogant." - President Barack Obama
"After 9/11, America didn't always live up to her ideals."- President Barack Obama
"You might say that America is a Muslim nation."- President Barack Obama, Egypt 2009
Thinking about these and other statements made by the man who wears the title of president. I keep wondering what country he believes he's president of.
In one of my very favorite stories, Edward Everett Hale's "The Man without a Country," a young Army lieutenant named Philip Nolan stands condemned for treason during the Revolutionary War, having come under the influence of Aaron Burr. When the judge asks him if he wishes to say anything before sentence is passed, young Nolan defiantly exclaims, "Damn the United States ! I wish I might never hear of the United States again!"
The stunned silence in the courtroom is palpable, pulsing. After a long pause, the judge soberly says to the angry lieutenant: "You have just pronounced your own sentence. You will never hear of the United States again.. I sentence you to spend the rest of your life at sea, on one or another of this country's naval vessels - under strict orders that no one will ever speak to you again about the country you have just cursed."
And so it was. Philip Nolan was taken away and spent the next 40 years at sea, never hearing anything but an occasional slip of the tongue about America. The last few pages of the story, recounting Nolan's dying hours in his small stateroom - now turned into a shrine to the country he fore swore - never fail to bring me to tears. And I find my own love for this dream, this miracle called America , refreshed and renewed. I know how blessed and unique we are.
But reading and hearing the audacious, shocking statements of the man who was recently elected our president - a young black man living the impossible dream of millions of young Americans, past and present, black and white - I want to ask him, "Just what country do you think you're president of?"
You surely can't be referring to the United States of America , can you? America is emphatically a Christian nation, and has been from its inception! Seventy percent of her citizens identify themselves as Christian. The Declaration of Independence and our Constitution were framed, written and ratified by Christians. It's because this was, and is, a nation built on and guided by Judeo-Christian biblical principles that you, sir, have had the inestimable privilege of being elected her president.
You studied law at Harvard, didn't you, sir? You taught constitutional law in Chicago ? Did you not ever read the statement of John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and an author of the landmark "Federalist Papers": " Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers - and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation - to select and prefer Christians for their rulers"?
In your studies, you surely must have read the decision of the Supreme Court in 1892: "Our lives and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian."
Did your professors have you skip over all the high-court decisions right up till the mid 1900's that echoed and reinforced these views and intentions? Did you pick up the history of American jurisprudence only in 1947, when for the first time a phrase coined by Thomas Jefferson about a "wall of separation between church and state" was used to deny some specific religious expression - contrary to Jefferson 's intent with that statement?
Or, wait a minute: were your ideas about America 's Christianity formed during the 20 years you were a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ under your pastor, Jeremiah Wright? Is that where you got the idea that " America is no longer a Christian nation"? Is this where you, even as you came to call yourself a Christian, formed the belief that " America has been arrogant"?
Even if that's the understandable explanation of your damning of your country and accusing the whole nation (not just a few military officials trying their best to keep more Americans from being murdered by jihadists) of "not always living up to her ideals," how did you come up with the ridiculous, alarming notion that we might be"considered a Muslim nation"?
Is it because there are some 2 million or more Muslims living here, trying to be good Americans? Out of a current population of over 300 million, 70 percent of whom are Christians? Does that make us, by any rational definition, a "Muslim nation"?
Why are we not, then, a "Chinese nation"? A "Korean nation"? Even a "Vietnamese nation"? There are even more of these distinct groups in America than Muslims. And if the distinction you're trying to make is a religious one, why is America not "a Jewish nation"? There's actually a case to be made for the latter, because our Constitution - and the success of our Revolution and founding - owe a deep debt to our Jewish brothers.
Have you stopped to think what an actual Muslim America would be like? Have you ever really spent much time in Iran ? Even in Egypt ? You, having been instructed in Islam as a kid at a Muslim school in Indonesia and saying you still love the call to evening prayers, can surely picture our nation founded on the Quran, not the Judeo-Christian Bible, and living under Shariah law. Can't you? You do recall Muhammad's directives
[Surah 9:5,73] to "break the cross" and "kill the infidel"?
It seems increasingly and painfully obvious that you are more influenced by your upbringing and questionable education than most suspected. If you consider yourself the president of a people who are "no longer Christian," who have "failed to live up to our ideals," who "have been arrogant," and might even be "considered Muslim" - you are president of a country most Americans don't recognize.
Could it be you are a president without a country?
All who love their Christian Beliefs and their Country, Forward to all in your address book .
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Wednesday, January 4, 2012
| A man wakes up one morning in Alaska to find a bear on his roof. So he looks in the yellow pages and sure enough, there's an ad for "Bear Removers." He calls the number, and the bear remover says he'll be over in 30 minutes. The bear remover arrives, and gets out of his van. He's got a ladder, a Baseball bat, a shotgun and a mean old pit bull. "What are you going to do?" the homeowner asks. "I'm going to put this ladder up against the roof, then I'm going to go up there and knock the bear off the roof With this baseball bat. when the bear falls off, the pit bull is trained to grab his testicles and not let go. The Bear will then be subdued enough for me to put him in the cage in the back of the van." He hands the shotgun to the homeowner. "What's the shotgun for?" asks the homeowner. "If the bear knocks me off the roof, shoot the dog! |
Who gets your Social Security when you die....
KEEP PASSING THIS AROUND UNTIL EVERY ONE HAS READ IT....
KEEP PASSING THIS AROUND UNTIL EVERY ONE HAS READ IT....
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
THE ONLY THING WRONG WITH THIS CALCULATION IS THEY FORGOT TO FIGURE IN THE PEOPLE WHO DIED BEFORE THEY COLLECTED THEIR SOCIAL SECURITY!!!! WHERE DID THAT MONEY GO?????????????
This was sent to me, I am forwarding it because it does touch a nerve in me.
This is another example of what Rick Perry called
"TREASON in high places" !!! Get angry and pass this on!(In this rare case, Rick is right!)
Remember, not only did you contribute to Social Security but your employer did too. It totaled 15% of your income before taxes. If you averaged only $30K over your working life, that's close to $220,500.
If you calculate the future value of $4,500 per year (yours & your employer's contribution) at a simple 5% (less than what the govt. pays on the money that it borrows), after 49 years of working you'd have $892,919.98.
If you took out only 3% per year, you'd receive $26,787.60 per year and it would last better than 30 years (until you're 95 if you retire at age 65) and that's with no interest paid on that final amount on deposit! If you bought an annuity and it paid 4% per year, you'd have a lifetime income of $2,976.40 per month.
The folks inWashington have pulled off a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madhoff ever had.
Entitlement my ass, I paid cash for my social security insurance!!!! Just because they borrowed the money, doesn't make my benefits some kind of charity or handout!!
Congressional benefits ---- free healthcare, outrageous retirement packages, 67 paid holidays, three weeks paid vacation, unlimited paid sick days, now that's welfare, and they have the nerve to call my social security retirement entitlements?
We're "broke" and can't help our own Seniors, Veterans, Orphans, Homeless
In the last months we have provided aid to Haiti , Chile , and Turkey . And now Pakistan ......home of bin Laden. Literally, BILLIONS of DOLLARS!!!
Our retired seniors living on a 'fixed income' receive no aid nor do they get any breaks while our government and religious organizations pour Hundreds of Billions of $$$$$$'s and Tons of Food to Foreign Countries!
They call Social Security and Medicare an entitlement even though most of us have been paying for it all our working lives and now when it's time for us to collect, the government is running out of money. Why did the government borrow from it in the first place? Imagine if the *GOVERNMENT* gave 'US' the same support they give to other countries.
Sad isn't it?
99% of people won't have the guts to forward this.
I'm one of the 1% -- I Just Did.
This takes 3 minutes
Video of the 50 states ~ it's awesome!
When you click on, the outline of the United States will appear and frame all of the subsequent pictures slowly, in a slide type presentation. Put your speakers on in a low tone, to go along with the mood that is created.
This is better than Good, it's spectacular so key down and click on
Make sure your sound is on. Absolutely beautiful!!! ;Click here > > http://oldbluewebdesigns.com/mybeautifulamerica.htm
Video of the 50 states ~ it's awesome!
When you click on, the outline of the United States will appear and frame all of the subsequent pictures slowly, in a slide type presentation. Put your speakers on in a low tone, to go along with the mood that is created.
This is better than Good, it's spectacular so key down and click on
Make sure your sound is on. Absolutely beautiful!!! ;Click here > > http://oldbluewebdesigns.com/mybeautifulamerica.htm
Ed came home drunk one night, slid into bed beside his sleeping wife, and fell into a deep slumber.
He awoke before the Pearly Gates, where St. Peter said, 'You died in your sleep, Ed.'
Ed was stunned. 'I'm dead? No, I can't be! I've got too much to live for. Send me back!'
St. Peter said, 'I'm sorry, but there's only one way you can go back, and that is as a chicken.'
Ed was devastated, but begged St. Peter to send him to a farm near his home. The next thing he knew, he was covered with feathers, clucking and pecking the ground..
A rooster strolled past. 'So, you're the new hen, huh? How's your first day here?'
'Not bad,' replied Ed the hen, 'but I have this strange feeling inside. Like I'm gonna explode!'
'You're ovulating,' explained the rooster. 'Don't tell me you've never laid an egg before?'
'Never,' said Ed.
'Well, just relax and let it happen,' says the rooster. 'It's no big deal.'
He did, and a few uncomfortable seconds later, out popped an egg! He was overcome with emotion as he experienced motherhood. He soon laid another egg -- his joy was overwhelming..
As he was about to lay his third egg, he felt a smack on the back of his head, and heard.....
"Ed, wake up! You shit the bed!"
Getting OLD just ain't what they said it would be!
No virus found in this message.Checked by AVG - www.avg.comVersion: 10.0.1392 / Virus Database: 1520/3893 - Release Date: 09/12/11 No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2012.0.1890 / Virus Database: 2108/4688 - Release Date: 12/18/11
He awoke before the Pearly Gates, where St. Peter said, 'You died in your sleep, Ed.'
Ed was stunned. 'I'm dead? No, I can't be! I've got too much to live for. Send me back!'
St. Peter said, 'I'm sorry, but there's only one way you can go back, and that is as a chicken.'
Ed was devastated, but begged St. Peter to send him to a farm near his home. The next thing he knew, he was covered with feathers, clucking and pecking the ground..
A rooster strolled past. 'So, you're the new hen, huh? How's your first day here?'
'Not bad,' replied Ed the hen, 'but I have this strange feeling inside. Like I'm gonna explode!'
'You're ovulating,' explained the rooster. 'Don't tell me you've never laid an egg before?'
'Never,' said Ed.
'Well, just relax and let it happen,' says the rooster. 'It's no big deal.'
He did, and a few uncomfortable seconds later, out popped an egg! He was overcome with emotion as he experienced motherhood. He soon laid another egg -- his joy was overwhelming..
As he was about to lay his third egg, he felt a smack on the back of his head, and heard.....
"Ed, wake up! You shit the bed!"
Getting OLD just ain't what they said it would be!
No virus found in this message.Checked by AVG - www.avg.comVersion: 10.0.1392 / Virus Database: 1520/3893 - Release Date: 09/12/11 No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2012.0.1890 / Virus Database: 2108/4688 - Release Date: 12/18/11
Sinkholes become Florida's latest insurance disaster
A Spring Hill couple notices cracks creeping across the floors of their home. They claim sinkhole damage and their insurance company cuts them a check for $206,000.
A widower returns from his wife's funeral to find one room filled with water and a 2-inch gap between floor and door. He files a sinkhole claim and gets $211,000.
And a retiree from New York puts in a claim after his insurer says it plans to drop sinkhole coverage. He gets $260,000.
Article Courtesy of The Tampa Bay Times
By Susan Taylor Martin and Dan DeWitt
Published January 2, 2012
It's the Great Florida Sinkhole Lottery and the payouts are big in Hernando County.Published January 2, 2012
A Spring Hill couple notices cracks creeping across the floors of their home. They claim sinkhole damage and their insurance company cuts them a check for $206,000.
A widower returns from his wife's funeral to find one room filled with water and a 2-inch gap between floor and door. He files a sinkhole claim and gets $211,000.
And a retiree from New York puts in a claim after his insurer says it plans to drop sinkhole coverage. He gets $260,000.
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Austin Naughton, left, and Anthony Pezanowski keep pressure on a pipe while pumping grout under the home of Michael Caughlin, right. TOP: This hairline crack and others like it at a home in Spring Hill’s Pristine Place cost Citizens Insurance a total of $237,000 to repair. |
from local governments already hard hit by the recession.
Since 2005, the Florida Legislature has repeatedly tried to find ways to ensure that legitimate sinkhole damage is covered and repaired while cutting down on the number of questionable claims. The latest attempt came in May with major changes to state law that require homeowners to repair damage and that make it less attractive to sue their insurance companies.
But despite all of the tinkering in Tallahassee, what lawmakers call "Hurricane Sinkhole'' still roars unabated.
• The number of residential sinkhole claims filed with Citizens Property Insurance Corp., which insures more Florida homeowners than any other company, has nearly tripled in the past five years, from 1,482 claims in 2007 to 4,024 last year. The average claim now costs Citizens nearly $90,000. In 2010, the last year for which figures are available, the state-run company said it took in $32 million in premiums but incurred $245 million in sinkhole losses.
Soaring losses mean higher premiums for all of Citizens' nearly 1.5 million policyholders, not just those in sinkhole-prone areas. Even homeowners who have policies with private insurers would be liable for a 6 percent surcharge.
• Citizens has contributed to its losses by opting in some cases to handle the sinkhole repairs itself.
Homeowners complain that contractors hired by Citizens do shoddy work, leading to lawsuits and settlements that can run into six figures. Citizens shelled out more than $350,000 in repairs, legal fees and settlement costs on a Hernando County house with a market value of just $39,500.
• Aggressive marketing by lawyers, contractors and public insurance adjusters drives up costs by encouraging homeowners with even minor cracks to file claims and, in many cases, sue.
The payoffs can be great — the public adjuster, who works for the homeowner, typically gets 10 percent of any insurance settlement while the lawyers walk away with up to 40 percent.
• Collusion among unscrupulous engineers and contractors costs insurers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
A contractor who worked closely with a well-known Brooksville sinkhole repair company faces felony charges of insurance fraud in what State Farm Insurance says was a conspiracy to inflate the cost of grout used to fill sinkholes under dozens of houses in the Tampa Bay area.
• Critics say Florida's new sinkhole law is so flawed that there will be more, not fewer lawsuits against insurance companies.
And because the law exempts homeowners who sue and settle from the requirement to make repairs, houses with unrepaired sinkhole damage will continue to be a drag on property values and tax collections.
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wasn't even listed among the seven Florida counties with the highest number of sinkhole claims. A decade later, Hernando leads the state.
"The incidence of claims is generally driven by the awareness of sinkholes or some type of scare tactics or advertising to homeowners saying, 'You've got coverage now, you may not have coverage later so if you have a claim file it now,' " said George Sinn, a geotechnical engineer who works for both insurers and homeowners. "So you get people who are used to living with typical small hairline cracks filing claims.''
In 2005, Citizens received 113 sinkhole claims from Hernando. In the year just ended, there were 1,920 — more than twice as many as runner-up Pasco.
As the number of claims has soared, the value of Hernando homes and businesses has plunged. With nearly 3,000 owners since 2005 requesting an adjustment in values because of sinkhole activity, Hernando County Property Appraiser Alvin Mazourek pegs losses to the county's market value at a staggering $283 million.
"Sinkholes do exist and the impact of such can be quite devastating, not to mention dangerous,'' Mazourek wrote to a state lawmaker before the 2011 legislative session.
"But unfortunately . . . it seems that while the general public is now very quick to have the problem diagnosed, the desire to remedy the problem is not being met with the same urgency and more often than not, goes completely unrepaired.''
Mazourek wasn't exaggerating.
Under state law, any insurance company that pays a sinkhole claim is supposed to file a notice with the clerk of court. The Tampa Bay Times looked at 593 notices Citizens filed in Hernando in 2008, 2009 and 2010, the years for which the notices clearly stated that a claim had been paid. (The forms changed in 2011.)
Of the 593 homes for which Citizens made payouts, county building records show no evidence that 282 were ever repaired — nearly half of the total.
Island of cement
The experiences of two Hernando County families insured by Citizens help explain why there are so many unrepaired houses and big insurance payouts.
Ronald Kotecki knew little about sinkholes when he and his wife moved from California to Spring Hill in 2004. Then water seeped into a back bedroom from a crack in the slab foundation.
Kotecki asked the foreman of a construction crew working nearby to take a look. Instead, the foreman sent over a public adjuster, a licensed insurance adjuster who works on behalf of the homeowner instead of the insurance company..
"He's there five minutes and said, 'You got a sinkhole,' " Kotecki recalled. "He said, 'It's not going to cost you anything.' ''
When Citizens denied their claim, the Koteckis sued. They settled for around $217,000, the limit of their policy, with the lawyer taking a third, the adjuster 10 percent and the Koteckis the rest. They considered making repairs until the adjuster pointed out that there are companies that buy unrepaired sinkhole homes.
So instead of stabilizing the sinkhole and fixing the cracks, estimated to cost $300,000, they paid off their mortgage and other debts and sold the house for $190,000.
Six years and two owners later, that house remains unrepaired.
The Koteckis moved to another home in Spring Hill that also developed sinkhole-related problems. This time Citizens invoked its right under the Koteckis' policy to make the repairs itself. It hired a contractor to stabilize the hole with grout at a cost of about $150,000, Kotecki said.
Citizens also wanted to be in charge of cosmetic repairs, which included painting, replacing a tile floor and installing pavers in the driveway and pool areas.
"That started taking forever," said Kotecki, a retired magazine sales representative. "People weren't showing up. When you've got a heart condition you don't want all that stress."
The Koteckis sued Citizens again, eventually settling for $117,000. After the lawyer and public adjuster took their cuts, the Koteckis were left with enough to make some but not all of the cosmetic repairs. New cracks already are appearing.
Still, "I feel a lot more comfortable when sitting on $150,000 of cement and grout,'' Kotecki says. "You're pretty much on an island of cement."
Citizens' odd logic
Judith and James Pierce are sitting on a lot of cement, too. But they're not happy.
There are two main ways to fix sinkhole problems — stabilizing the hole with tons of grout, a cement-based material, or securing the house with steel pins or piers drilled deep into the ground. Engineers often recommend both methods to reduce the odds of the house developing future problems.
So the Pierces called a lawyer when Citizens, invoking its right to repair, chose to do grouting only, followed by cosmetic repairs.
"The lawyers said, 'Let them do whatever they want and don't say anything because they'll screw up and then we can sue them,' " Judith Pierce, 53, recalled. "It's a big game."
Sure enough, there were problems. Newly installed pavers raised the floor level in the sun room so much the sliding doors to the pool didn't work. A hot tub was left sitting outside so long that rats chewed through the wiring. Painting was sloppy.
The Pierces sued Citizens. They settled for $133,000, of which they got $71,000 after the lawyers and a public adjuster took their shares. A judge awarded the lawyers an additional $123,000.
Judith Pierce tallies what Citizens spent: At least $110,000 for grouting and inferior repairs followed by the settlement and extra attorney's fees. A total of $366,000 for a house that the Pierces had on the market for three months and got one offer: $20,000.
Citizens won't comment on matters involving individual policyholders. The company said it stopped its "election to repair'' program in 2010 although it still considers handling repairs itself on a case-by-case basis.
Unintended effects
The Times analysis of Citizens' paid claims in Hernando County found that 124 of the 593 policyholders who got payouts subsequently sued Citizens — one out of every five.
And of those who sued, 40 percent have never made repairs.
"Some of my colleagues have suggested that the largest expansion of gambling in the state of Florida has been with Citizens," says Sen. Garrett Richter, a Naples Republican and chairman of the committee that pushed for Senate Bill 408 with its radical changes to sinkhole insurance in 2011.
The new law is supposed to reduce the number of claims and lawsuits in several ways:
• If an insurer denies a claim without testing for a sinkhole, the homeowner must pay up to $2,500 for testing if he wants to appeal. (The insurer refunds the money if a sinkhole loss is found.) Before, the homeowner could demand testing and not have to pay for it.
• Insurers don't have to pay for below-ground stabilization until the homeowner contracts to have the work done according to recommendations in the insurer's engineering report.
• Benefits are restricted to "structural damage" of the principal building (typically the house), and the definition of damage is now based on Florida construction and engineering codes.
"Structural damage really wasn't defined very tightly in the statutes at all,'' said James Knudson, a Senate attorney who helped draft the bill.
While some insurers said the damage had to be severe enough to affect a home's structural integrity, attorneys for homeowners argued that it simply meant the structure was damaged. "You can see a huge difference between those two things,'' Knudson said.
Critics say the new law hurts policyholders.
"Once that bill got in the hands of lobbyists, it created a lot of push to do anything that would discourage valid claims," said Ted Corless, a Tampa lawyer who once represented State Farm and now represents homeowners. "It's one giant mashed potato."
Corless predicts the changes will lead to more litigation, not less. If so, the number of unrepaired houses could climb. Homeowners who settle a lawsuit with their insurers are exempt from a requirement that they use the money to stabilize the sinkhole.
"If you reach a settlement, then you're outside of the sinkhole statute" and don't have to make repairs, Knudson acknowledged.
The full impact of changes in the law won't be known until all current policies are up for renewal. Insurers can now require an inspection at the homeowner's expense before writing sinkhole coverage.
"We got one house approved (by Citizens) and it was an older home, but it was in pristine condition," said Karen Lund, an agent with Whiting Insurance in Spring Hill. "We have two others in review, but in talking to other agents, they've gotten more declines than approvals."
The likely result? Homeowners will complain and Florida lawmakers will continue to tinker. And that could scare even more homeowners into thinking they need to get in a claim before the law changes yet again.
A cheaper way
That's what happened with Amy and Freddy Blackburn.
When it became a "tug of war" to open the French doors at their Spring Hill home, the couple suspected a sinkhole. Fearing the Legislature might let insurers drop sinkhole coverage, Amy Blackburn, the owner of record, filed a claim with Citizens. She sued after Citizens said it intended to have the hole filled with $150,000 worth of grout.
"We didn't want grout," Freddy Blackburn said. "You start putting grout in the ground, what's that grout going to do to the environment?"
Citizens settled, and the Blackburns used the money to install steel piers for about $45,000. They wonder why Citizens didn't consider that much cheaper fix.
"Even if you spent $4,000 or $6,000 on another opinion, you're still $94,000 ahead," Freddy Blackburn said. "That concerns me they didn't try to find another option. That's why they have to raise rates. Can you imagine getting $3,000 on a policy in premiums and then paying out $150,000 on sinkhole claims?"
Article and Video Courtesy Channel 47 Action News
Reporter Erica Bennett
Published January 3, 2012
JACKSONVILLE , Fla.-- Folks here in the Sweetwater subdivision say "enough is enough." All they want to do is decorate for the holidays, but the Homeowner's Association is making it hard."It's like they won't leave us alone," Larry Murphree said.
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Murphree isn't the only one frustrated. Several other homeowners have had their decorations taken down, and in some cases, trashed.
The paperwork Timpone is referring to is the agreement each person had to sign before moving to Sweetwater. The HOA says the rules were made clear, and in order for the neighborhood to look neat, the rules must be enforced.
Murphree says the HOA makes up rules as it goes, and that he and neighbors won't back down.
"They're just trying to band together and see what we can do about stopping these over the top restrictions they have on our lives here," he said.
Murphree's lawsuit also includes an American flag he has displayed in his flower pot. He says the HOA has a problem with that too, and has demanded he take it down.
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Monday, January 2, 2012
June Young with Ashtonliving
June Young wants nothing from you and cares less about what you say. All replies to her web site is being rejected and unanswered. She gets paid $500.00 from us and you can't E-Mail anything to her. In other words, the hell with you. You can't post anything.
Dead for two weeks
A woman living in the west at Lake Ashton died two weeks ago and her body wasn't discovered until recently. It is believe she lived alone on Pebble Beach Blvd. Her mail box had to be filled with mail which is always a good sign that something was wrong.
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Lake Ashton Veterans Memorial from China
Veterans Memorial here at Lake Ashton should be 100% American. Sad to say it is not. All the stones came from the country of China, yes China. Why, because they were cheap. This memorial is not 100% America, we fought against the Chinese and when we look at the Lake Ashton Memorial, China looks at us in the eye. The names of the US Branches are engrave on the stones from China. Did you ever thought that China would buy stones from America on their Memorial. Guess again, what a memorial, when Americans die for this country they are still hunted by Communist China. They would turn over in their grave. This was a very bad decision by Frank Ota. We were all made a fool of. The only thing is American is the flag and flag pole. Welcome to China.
To help save the economy, the Government will announce next month that the Immigration Department will start deporting seniors (instead of illegal's) in order to lower Social Security and Medicare costs.
Older people are easier to catch and will not remember how to get back home.
I started to cry when I thought of you...
Then it dawned on me ... oh, crap ... I'll see you on the bus!
Sunday, January 1, 2012
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