Latest California Headlines
All the headlines from our California Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Judge Rules Uber Drivers Can Seek Expense Reimbursement; Uber to Appeal
Dec 10 2015 // Uber Technologies Inc. drivers seeking to be treated as employees won a ruling that could add tens of thousands of them to the case and put hundreds of millions dollars more at stake. The drivers can now seek expense...
California Judge Breyer Expected to Combine, Expedite VW Diesel Claims
Dec 9 2015 // A San Francisco judge who is the brother of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will oversee more than 500 consumer lawsuits against Volkswagen AG over claims of economic losses connected to rigged emissions-testing...
Uber Eyes Both Nevada and California Sides of Lake Tahoe Before 2016
Dec 7 2015 // Uber plans to bring ridesharing to either side of Lake Tahoe before the end of the year. A recent agreement with Nevada allowed the company to launch simultaneously on the California and Nevada sides of Lake Tahoe, the...
Southern California Spill Spewing Gases of a Half-Million Cars
Dec 7 2015 // Call it the invisible spill. You can’t see it, but it’s there – a steady stream of natural gas seeping out of the pipe casing in a well in Southern California that may spew as much greenhouse gas into the air...
Workers’ Comp Hearing Rep. in California Caught Cashing Dead Client’s Settlement
Dec 7 2015 // A California workers’ compensation hearing representative was arrested for allegedly trying to steal a settlement check from his client. Department of Insurance detectives arrested Ramon Humerto Otero, 37, of...
Investigation Launched into Workers’ Comp Services Provider BBSI
Dec 7 2015 // A financial investigation was launched in mid-November into Barrett Business Services Inc., a giant professional employer organization that deals with many workers’ compensation carriers. The independent...
Three California Men File Suits After E-Cigarette Batteries Explode
Dec 7 2015 // Three California men have filed lawsuits against manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers of electronic cigarettes, claiming the products’ batteries exploded, causing severe injuries. The three men, one of whom is a...
California Worker Injury Rate Lowest in 13 Years
Dec 7 2015 // The California Department of Industrial Relation’s 2014 occupational injury and illness data shows that the incidence of occupational injuries remained at its lowest level in 13 years. The Survey of Occupational...
Report: Workers’ Comp Reform Saving California’s System $770M Annually
Dec 7 2015 // The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau in mid-November released this year’s evaluation of California’s workers’ comp reform law. The WCIRB Cost Monitoring Report — 2015...
Kuckenbaker Joins Brokerage Team at SierraSpecialty in California
Dec 3 2015 // Patricia Kuckenbaker has been named a surplus lines broker with SierraSpecialty’s team in Clovis, Calif. Kuckenbaker will be operating throughout the Western U.S. Her specialty is brokering contractors and...
Smooth Sailing for Most California Workers’ Comp Cases, Drugs a Problem
Dec 2 2015 // More than eight-in-10 workers’ compensation cases in California were taken care of without a hitch, and an overwhelming majority of those cases sent to review were ultimately upheld, according to a new study...
California Improves by not Getting Worse
Dec 2 2015 // Sometimes, small victories are worthy of celebration. A qualified celebration of just that variety is in order at the California Department of Insurance headquarters in Sacramento to mark the relative improvement in the...
TLB in California Affiliates with Leavitt Group
Dec 2 2015 // Walnut Creek, Calif.-based TLB Insurance has affiliated with Leavitt United Insurance Services, of which TLB will now be a subsidiary. As a subsidiary of Leavitt United, TLB will continue to operate locally. TLB is a...
California Farm Recalls Produce Used in Costco’s E. Coli-linked Salad
Dec 1 2015 // A California farm is recalling a vegetable mix believed to be the source of E.coli in Costco chicken salad that has been linked to an outbreak that has sickened 19 people in seven states, the Food and Drug Administration...
Best, Worst States for Insurance Regulation
Dec 1 2015 // Vermont, Utah, Iowa, Virginia and Kentucky get an “A” and North Carolina an “F” in one think tank’s annual grading of states on how they regulate the property/casualty insurance industry. The...
Paul Walker’s Father Sues Porsche for Negligence in Fatal California Crash
Nov 30 2015 // Paul Walker’s father has sued Porsche for negligence and wrongful death over the 2013 accident that killed the “Fast & Furious” star. Walker’s father, who is the executor of his son’s...
5 Charged in $580M Southern California Scheme Involving Workers’ Comp
Nov 30 2015 // Five people, including a former hospital executive and two surgeons, are charged with a massive kickback scheme that resulted in billing $580 million to the government and insurance companies, authorities announced. Two...
Major Fault Near California Reactors Links to Second Crack
Nov 30 2015 // The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant and earthquake faults have been uneasy neighbors for decades. Even before the twin reactors produced a single watt of electricity, the plant had to be retrofitted after a submerged...
Marijuana Processing Draws Seasonal Workers to California
Nov 25 2015 // The annual march of migrant marijuana workers throughout California’s pot-rich North Coast is in full swing but, like the pot industry itself, reaction to the workers’ presence is mixed. Some residents say the...
Federal Transportation Officials Want Self-Driving Cars Sooner
Nov 25 2015 // Federal transportation officials are rethinking their position on self-driving cars with an eye toward getting the emerging technology into the public’s hands, according to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of...
