Latest California Headlines
All the headlines from our California Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Insurance Questions, Lawsuits Arise in Wake of Target’s Data Breach
Dec 22 2013 // U.S. retail giant Target Corp. is busy dealing with the aftermath of the massive data breach that exposed account details of some 40 million credit and debit cards. Already, at least two lawsuits seeking class-action...
Milliman to Acquire McGinn Actuaries in California
Dec 20 2013 // Seattle, Wash.-based Milliman Inc., a consulting and actuarial firm, has acquired McGinn Actuaries Ltd., an Anaheim, Calif.-based consultancy specializing in multiemployer pension plans. In addition to serving the...
Wildfire in California’s Big Sur 79% Contained
Dec 20 2013 // Rain and higher humidity on Thursday helped firefighters battling a wildfire in California’s Big Sur region that has destroyed an estimated 22 homes. The fire in the Los Padres National Forest was 79 percent...
Former California Broker Charged With Identity Theft And Forgery
Dec 19 2013 // Former insurance agent Eugene Shy-Ren Hsu, 31, of West Covina, Calif., was arrested by Department of Insurance officers and charged with multiple felony counts. The charges include grand theft, forgery, and identity theft...
California’s $1.1B Paint Ruling Could Prompt More Suits
Dec 19 2013 // Paint makers could face a surge of lawsuits after a California state court judge ordered three companies to pay $1.1 billion to help government agencies get rid of lead from an estimated 5 million homes in the state. The...
Rate Hikes in California Workers’ Comp: SNL Financial
Dec 18 2013 // AmTrust Financial Services Inc. hiked rates by 15 percent on its California workers’ compensation business in 2013, and it is not alone. SNL data shows multiple companies took rate during the first half of 2013. The...
Paint Manufacturers Held Liable for $1.1 Billion in California Lead Paint Case
Dec 18 2013 // Sherwin-Williams Co., NL Industries Inc. and ConAgra Grocery Products LLC were ordered by a judge to pay $1.1 billion to replace or contain lead paint in millions of homes after losing a public-nuisance lawsuit brought by...
‘Crouching Tiger’ Actress Settles Website Claim in Southern California Court
Dec 18 2013 // “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” star Zhang Ziyi settled a lawsuit for libel against a U.S.-based Chinese news website, which today apologized for false reports that she had sex with Chinese officials including...
California Tops ‘Judicial Hellhole’ List
Dec 17 2013 // California isn’t just a warm place to live, which is often the case even in winter, but it turns out the state is considered a “judicial hellhole.” The American Tort Reform Foundation issued its annual...
California School District Faces $17 Million In Claims
Dec 17 2013 // The San Juan Unified School District in California faces $17 million in claims over harassment allegations, with ten lawsuits alleging that Superintendent Glynn Thompson created a hostile workplace. The Sacramento Bee...
PG&E Worker In California Wins $1 Million In Lawsuit
Dec 17 2013 // A former power line worker for Pacific Gas & Electric has been awarded more than $1 million in a wrongful termination suit that claimed he was fired after making safety complaints. The Santa Cruz Sentinel reported...
Autopsy: BART Workers in California Didn’t Follow Safety Rules
Dec 16 2013 // Autopsies conducted on two workers who were struck and killed by a Bay Area Rapid Transit train during a labor strike have revealed that the men did not follow the agency’s safety protocols. The Contra Costa Times...
Toyota to Begin Talks to Settle Acceleration Claims
Dec 16 2013 // Toyota Motor Corp. will begin talks to potentially settle hundreds of lawsuits alleging that defects caused some of its vehicles to unexpectedly accelerate, according to a court filing. Last Thursday’s order from...
Business Moves
Dec 16 2013 // AmWINS Acquires Bliss & Glennon, eReinsure AmWINS Group Inc. has reached a definitive agreement with Fortegra Financial Corp. to acquire Bliss & Glennon, an excess and surplus lines wholesale insurance broker and...
Northern California Agent Nabbed For Bogus Insurance Certificates
Dec 12 2013 // Property/casualty agent Rodger Edward Winkler, 64, a was arrested by Shasta County District Attorney investigators in Northern California and charged with numerous felonies, including grand theft, insurance fraud and petty...
Deep Freeze Damages California Citrus Crop
Dec 12 2013 // A weeklong blast of sub-freezing temperatures across California has damaged the state’s $2 billion citrus crop, but it will take several weeks before the extent of the loss is quantified, agricultural industry...
Hub Names Perez-Reyes Vice President in California
Dec 12 2013 // Hub International Insurance Services Inc. named Arturo Perez-Reyes vice president and privacy and errors and omissions lead in its San Francisco, Calif. commercial division. In addition to his production role and client...
Heffernan Hires Prout in Northern California
Dec 11 2013 // Heffernan Insurance Brokers named Jeff Prout assistant vice president North Bay office in California. Prout will focus on new business development for all Commercial Lines for Heffernan. Prout’s background includes...
Big Brains at Big ‘I’, Insurance Information Institute Give Their Take on 2014
Dec 11 2013 // Most economists are upbeat about next year, but just what does that mean for insurance agents in 2014? For independent agents 2013 was a year in which one entity forecasted their eventual demise, and for the rest of the...
Ehrlich Named CAMICO VP, Chief Claims Officer in California
Dec 11 2013 // San Mateo, Calif.-based CAMICO, a CPA-focused program of insurance and risk management for the accounting profession, named Rachel Ehrlich vice president and chief claims officer. Ehrlich has served in various legal, claim...
