Latest California Headlines
All the headlines from our California Topic Page, ordered by recency.
California Commissioner Spearheading National Cannabis Insurance Framework
Feb 10 2020 // California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara is at the forefront of shaping how state insurance regulators all over the U.S. will deal with the legal cannabis market. Lara is not only the chief insurance regulator of the...
United Valley in California Names Aguirre Member Services Director
Feb 7 2020 // United Valley Insurance Services Inc. has named Monika Aguirre member services director. Her expanded responsibilities include overseeing all departments providing services to United Valley members. Aguirre joined United...
On-Demand Firms Seek to Protect ‘New’ Economy, Wealth From ‘Frankenstein’
Feb 7 2020 // Uber Technologies Inc. wants to smother what the company calls California’s “Frankenstein” gig-worker protection law before state officials turn it loose. Uber and Postmates Inc. are scheduled Friday to...
Wine ‘Smoke Taint’ Disputes Linger 2 Years After California Wildfires
Feb 7 2020 // Recent wildfires in California Wine Country, particularly those that devastated parts of Napa and Sonoma counties in October 2017, have focused attention on whether insurance covers smoke taint damage to grapes and...
California Jury Awards Ex-One America News Network Employee $290K
Feb 7 2020 // An African-American man fired from his TV talk show producer job at One America News Network was not harassed on the basis of racial prejudice, but was fired in part because he lodged his complaint, a California jury...
PG&E Clears Another Bankruptcy Hurdle with Debt Refinancing
Feb 6 2020 // A federal judge has approved a settlement that moves Pacific Gas & Electric closer to getting out of bankruptcy, but the troubled utility still must navigate nettlesome obstacles being put up by the state of...
LP Insurance Services Adds Kitowski in California
Feb 6 2020 // LP Insurance Services LLC has named Peter Kitowski to the Sacramento, Calif.-area team. Kitowski has more than 30 years of insurance industry experience. Kitowski began his insurance career in 1987 with Aetna as an...
A Tale of Two Californias: Managing Wildfire Risk in the Year 2030
Feb 6 2020 // For most of the 20th century, the insurance industry considered wildfires to be little more than a benign nuisance. They occurred frequently but rarely resulted in more than a handful of claims, and underwriters priced for...
Walgreens to Pay $7.5M in California Settlement Over Phony Pharmacist
Feb 5 2020 // Walgreens will pay $7.5 million to settle with California authorities after an employee was criminally charged with impersonating a pharmacist and illegally filling more than 745,000 prescriptions in the San Francisco Bay...
California Leads Nation in Surplus Lines Premiums on 5th Year of Record Growth
Feb 4 2020 // Premium data from all surplus lines stamping offices for 2019 shows that California once again led the nation in total surplus line premiums, possibly boosted by construction spending and wildfires. The Surplus Line...
AM Best Downgrades Issuer Credit Rating of Crusader in California
Feb 3 2020 // AM Best has downgraded the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating to “bbb” from “bbb+” and affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of B++ (Good) of Crusader Insurance Co. The outlook of the Long-Term ICR has...
Judge Orders J&J to Pay $344 Million Over Vaginal Mesh Implants Marketing
Feb 3 2020 // Johnson & Johnson was ordered to pay $344 million for misrepresenting the risks of vaginal-mesh implants to consumers in California, the first state to bring its claim against the company to trial after thousands of...
Jury Orders Apple, Broadcom to Pay $1.1 Billion for Infringing CalTech Wi-Fi Patent
Jan 31 2020 // Apple Inc. and Broadcom Inc. must pay $1.1 billion in damages for infringing California Institute of Technology patents on Wi-Fi technology, a jury in California ordered. Apple was ordered to pay $837.8 million while...
California’s Topa Insurance Company Promotes Yates, Tillinghast
Jan 30 2020 // Topa Insurance Company, one of the wholly owned subsidiaries of Topa Insurance Group – a boutique insurance holding company based in Calabasas, Calif. – has promoted Kelly Yates to vice president of Claims and...
AmWINS Names Bromiley Vice President in California
Jan 30 2020 // AmWINS Group Inc. has named Christopher Bromiley a vice president and casualty broker in the AmWINS Insurance Brokerage of California’s Los Angeles office. Bromiley will focus on primary and excess placements for...
Kobe Bryant Copter Company Had 2 Other Fatal Crashes in 35 Years
Jan 29 2020 // Island Express Helicopters Inc., the California-based charter company involved in Sunday’s crash that killed retired basketball star Kobe Bryant, has been involved in four previous crashes over the past 35 years, two...
Bender Insurance Solutions in California Names Wood Vice President of Personal Lines
Jan 29 2020 // Sacramento, Calif.-based Bender Insurance Solutions has promoted Jeffrey Wood to vice president of personal lines. Wood will continue to expand the sales and service offerings of the personal lines department, and provide...
Beazley Adds Sanches as Underwriter in Southern California
Jan 29 2020 // Specialist insurer Beazley has appointed Justin Sanches as an underwriter within the U.S. healthcare liability team. Sanches joins Beazley’s Los Angeles, Calif., office to underwrite a range of global miscellaneous...
Insurers Say Proposed California Regs Could Axe Discounts for Millions
Jan 28 2020 // The American Property Casualty Insurance Association testified today in opposition to draft regulations they say could eliminate many affinity group insurance discount programs during a pre-notice workshop held by the...
2 Arrested in $20M Workers’ Comp Fraud And Kickback Scheme
Jan 28 2020 // A pair of California men have been charged with multiple felonies in a reported $20 million kickback scheme involving worker’s compensation. Bradley Dean Groscost, 59, of Westminster, and Felix Koltsov, 57, of...
