Speaker Will Weatherford expressing “serious concerns” about the Citizens board’s 3-2 vote on Wednesday in support of the package for St. Petersburg-based Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance Co., has directed Rep. Doug Holder to have his Regulatory Affairs Committee review the laws governing Citizens.

“Just a few weeks ago, we passed a comprehensive insurance bill with bipartisan support aimed at responsibly reducing the number of Citizens’ policies at no cost,” Weatherford said in a release Friday. “While we want to provide the legislatively created Citizens Insurance Corporation the flexibility to take advantage of ideas and initiatives that will reduce risk to Florida, there is a growing concern about their lack of understanding that Citizens has a greater responsibility to the public.”

Citizens President Barry Gilway was not immediately available for comment.

Gilway has called the deal “unique.” Meanwhile, Citizens Chairman Carlos Lacasa has said the takeout is “an appropriate use of our capital.”

Usually takeouts, approved by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, occur in November and December. But because the Heritage takeouts are coming closer to the June 1 start of hurricane season, the financial package was included and Citizens board approval was required.

The money is intended to provide coverage for the private company as it has not been able to build reserves through months of premiums collected on the policies.

Weatherford’s release came on the heels of a more politically directed letter to Gov. Rick Scott from former state Sen. Dan Gelber, a Miami Beach Democrat.

Gelber on Thursday questioned the $110,000 in contributions made by Heritage to the “Let’s Get to Work” political committee, which is backing Scott’s 2014 re-election effort.

“In truth, the whole thing smells,” Gelber wrote. “Floridians will rightfully wonder if Heritage gave you the money because they support you or because they were, literally, trying to get a $52 million gift from an agency over which you have great sway.”

Republican Party of Florida Chairman Lenny Curry responded that Gelber is “shepherding” former governor Charlie Crist through the Democratic Party.

Adam Hollingsworth, Scott’s chief of staff, on Friday called Gelber’s assertion “outrageous,” while also questioning the decision making at Citizens.

“As we have said before, Citizens appears to be tone deaf in earning public confidence,” Hollingsworth said in a release. “Citizens needs to review their own process for taking up risk takeout agreements to ensure that all decisions are fully, publicly vetted with enough time for board members to review the material and make the best decision possible for the taxpayers of Florida who support Citizens.”

Scott has been critical of executive level pay raises at Citizens, which has also come under fire for employee travel spending.

Under the terms of the deal, Heritage is limited in how much it can raise rates on the new policies for three years. It cannot exceed 10 percent annual increases that apply to existing Citizens policies. Heritage must also increase its own assets by $10 million, to $110 million.

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation issued a consent order for the depopulation deal on May 17.

Heritage also spent between $50,000 and $120,000 since being formed to lobby state lawmakers and the executive branch. The company employed members of the firm Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld, Karlinsky, Abate & Webb for its lobbying, including former state Insurance Commissioner Tom Gallagher.

“It’s certainly unusual for corporate profits to soar during a slow recovery. But…when it comes to the role that corporations play in the U.S. economy, the present looks very different from the past… Take taxes: one big reason that after-tax corporate profits are much higher than their historical norm is that corporations pay much less in taxes than they used to.”

“Then, there’s globalization… The global economy, even with its current woes, is projected to grow more briskly than the U.S. economy over the next decade, so corporations will continue to benefit. Finally, the decline of unions and the sluggish labor market have enabled corporations to cut payrolls, thus keeping profits high.”

FT Alphaville highlights a new forecast from Goldman Sachs predicting that the S&P 500 stock index will soar to 2,100 in 2015.

In a study of 2000 American adults, 12 percent confessed to watching ahead on TV shows they were supposed to save to watch with their partners. Ten percent admitted to being the victim of Netflix adultery, which means either 2 percent are blissfully unaware of their partners’ indiscretions, or the cheaters are hitting multiple victims. Of those who cheated, 66 percent did so “at home by themselves on the main TV.” A shocking 21 percent confessed to watching in bed while their significant other slept. (This is my modus operandi, and it is shameful.) Forty-one percent of cheaters refrained from revealing spoilers; 12 percent would rewatch and “fake it” in their reactions; 14 percent felt so guilty they confessed to cheating.

The state had argued that the legal challenge could be affected by whether Gov. Rick Scott decides to sign a bill (SB 1664) that would address some of the complaints from the teachers who filed the lawsuit contending the 2011 performance-pay law violates constitutional rights. Relying on statements that lawmakers would likely send Scott the bill in time for him to sign it before the July 1 effective date, Walker gave the state until July 8 to respond to the lawsuit.

“Given the fact that defendants are well aware of the issues and the potential changes that could occur, this deadline gives defendants ample time to fashion a meaningful response assuming the Legislature and Governor follow the custom as represented,” Walker wrote. “If the bill is not acted upon by that date, defendants are likewise positioned to file a meaningful response.”

Gilzean, a 30-year-old St. Petersburg resident and vice president of Step Up For Students, was one of 42 reappointments to state boards and committees, which failed confirmation by the Florida Senate. The listing includes Dr. John Armstrong as State Surgeon General and Michael D. Crews for Secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections.

Scott originally appointed Gilzean as the FAMU trustee March 14. He replaces retired Tampa business executive Charles Langston.

“I am humbled that the governor believes in me,” Gilzean says, “to help students and the entire (FAMU) Rattler nation.”

Since the appointment was during the active Senate assembly, the Florida appointment process allows lawmakers to put off approval during the first yearly legislative session following selection. The “Failed to Confirm/Took No Action” compelled the governor to appoint Gilzean for a second time last week.

The Senate must accept Gilzean in the second-year session. If not, his appointment will be void.

Scott has a history supporting Gilzean. In 2010, Scott appointed him to the Pinellas County School Board. Previously, Gilzean worked as a regional field director for the Florida Board of Education and served on the Florida Attorney General’s Gang Reduction Task Force.

In November 2012, Gilzean ran a heated race to keep his Pinellas School Board seat, but lost to former St. Petersburg City Councilwoman Rene Flowers.

Gilzean joins FAMU in the wake of a high-profile hazing incident, where the 2011 death of drum major Robert Champion resulted in 12-month academic accreditation probation.

“My role as trustee is to provide overall governance,” Gilzean says.

“The quality of academics produces great talented workforce,” he adds. “We want to make sure that students coming to the university have a great experience.”

The new terms for Scott’s latest reappointments began May 16. This time, when confirmed, Gilzean will be FAMU trustee through Jan. 6, 2018.

As for the Senate approval system, Gilzean is taking it all in stride.

“I’m not used to that process,” he says. “It is my first appointment that requires Senate confirmation, so it’s new to me.”

That may sound like good news for faster and more reliable in-flight Wi-Fi—and in a way, it is. But as Joe Sharkey, the New York Times’s veteran business-travel columnist, explains, the decision isn’t about making it easier for you to stay in touch with people on the ground—it’s all about selling you things while you’re up in the air:

The great advances in airplane internet connections are being driven far more by the opportunities that high-speed broadband service presents for airlines themselves to essentially sell more things to the customers, whether the product is in-flight entertainment, food and drink, customised services to elite-status passengers or products at the destination, including hotel packages, sports and concert tickets, restaurant and theatre reservations. On an airplane, you have a captive market, and with sophisticated technology, you can sell to passengers in very personal ways.

If Mr Sharkey is right, in-flight Wi-Fi may be able to finally escape the vicious cycle in which quality improvements rely on more passengers deciding to pay for bad service (and the problem of wider use on any given flight slowing down service on that flight). Instead, Wi-Fi will be the new SkyMall—provided free to passengers so they can buy things they don’t really need.

The first study was pretty straightforward. Researchers found a link between a man’s upper-body strength and their political views: the greater the bicep, the more right wing the political stance, with weaker men are more likely to support the welfare state.

 The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, collected data from people in the US, Argentina and Denmark, and controlled for socioeconomic status and other factors. 

Lead researcher Michael Peterson sees a link between politics and ‘natural selection’ within human evolutionary history.

“In all three countries, physically strong males consistently pursued the self-interested position on redistribution,” Peterson states, “However physically weak males were more reluctant to assert their self-interest – just as if disputes over national policies were a matter of direct physical confrontation between individuals.”

Peterson continued, “Many previous studies have shown that people’s political views cannot be predicted by standard economic models. This is among the first studies to show that political views may be rational in another sense…”

No links were found among women between upper-body strength and opinions on redistribution, but that’s not surprising: bicep size is not a great measure of a woman’s fitness.

So, Republican operatives, you know what this means… right? Get your voters pumping iron and they’ll be more likely to see things your way.

The next study was all about women: specifically, what makes women feel more or less confident when called to political action.

Published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, the study had individual men and women deliver speeches in front of panels of strangers. On the back wall, behind the audience, hung a picture of either Bill or Hillary Clinton.

Overall, men spoke longer and were judged as better speakers than women — except for the group of women who spoke while seeing Hillary’s face.  These women spoke longer and were judged as significantly more confident when conveying their message. Women primed with Hillary’s image also rated themselves more favorably after speaking.

“Female political role models can inspire women and help them cope with stressful situations… such as public speaking” the authors concluded.

‘Confidence’ is not among the words I would choose when describing my own emotional reaction to Mrs. Clinton’s image; but, that said, who doesn’t like a cool experiment?

Karen Cyphers, PhD, is a public policy consultant, researcher, and mother to three daughters.

The letters come as schools work toward putting in place their budgets for the 2013-14 year — which could include requests to the Florida Board of Governors for tuition increases — and amid questions about a state law that appears to provide for an automatic tuition increase to account for inflation, currently estimated at 1.7 percent. Scott has already vetoed a 3 percent tuition increase approved by the Legislature. “I want to be clear on this: we absolutely will fight to hold the line on tuition in Florida,” Scott wrote. “This would be a tax increase on our families that must be stopped. We don’t want a three percent increase or even a one percent increase in tuition on our students.” State law, though, says that “the resident undergraduate tuition per credit hour shall increase at the beginning of each fall semester at a rate equal to inflation, unless otherwise provided in the General Appropriations Act.” It doesn’t specify what happens if a tuition increase included in the budget by lawmakers is vetoed.

St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster has yet to throw out a first pitch, despite the Rays, you know being in St. Pete and the City holding the lease for the Rays to play at Tropicana Field.

Foster was invited to throw out a first pitch at a game scheduled for June 8th, but “that day is set aside for my lovely wife who turns 50,” Foster told me via text. “I’m sure there will be other opportunities over the next four years.”

In case you missed what Foster was saying, he’s not only positive the Rays will be playing at the Trop for the foreseeable future, but he, of course, believes he will be re-elected this November to another four-year term as mayor.

The bill prohibits a person from manually typing or entering multiple letters, numbers, symbols or other characters into a wireless communications device. This includes text messaging, emailing and instant messaging through smart phones.

“As a father and a grandfather, texting while driving is something that concerns me when my loved ones are on the road,” said Scott. “The 100 days between Memorial Day and Labor Day are known as the deadliest days on the road for teenagers. We must do everything we can at the state level to keep our teenagers and everyone on our roads safe.  I cannot think of a better time to officially sign this bill into law.”