Latest California Headlines
All the headlines from our California Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Moody’s Changes Calif. Earthquake Authority’s Bond Rating to Negative
Mar 16 2010 // Moody’s Investors Service announced it has affirmed the A3 rating on the California Earthquake Authority’s 6.169 percent fixed rate Series 2006-B revenue bonds (mature July 20, 2016) and changed the rating...
Trucking Led To $480 Million in Calif. Workers’ Comp Payments
Mar 15 2010 // Injuries in the trucking industry led to more than $480 million in workers’ compensation medical and indemnity payments, according to the California Workers’ Compensation Institute. The group, which released a...
Calif. Low Cost Auto Insurance Program Participation Up 30%
Mar 15 2010 // California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner announced that in February, the California Low Cost Auto Insurance Program (CLCA) saw the highest number of enrollees in any one month during the past three years. The CLCA...
Calif. Makes Appointments to Workers’ Comp Insurance Rating Bureau
Mar 12 2010 // Calif. Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner announced that he has reappointed Lee Pearson of Rancho Murieta, and Bruce Wick of San Bernardino, to the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau Governing Committee....
Calif. Workers’ Comp Insurer Records $143 Million Net Income for 2009
Mar 12 2010 // The California State Compensation Insurance Fund, reported it ended 2009 with $1.25 billion in net premium earned, and $143 million in net income, compared with $75 million in net income earned in 2008, Doug Stewart,...
Calif. Earthquake Authority CEO Testifies In Support of Cat Insurance Bill
Mar 11 2010 // California Earthquake Authority CEO Glenn Pomeroy testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity and Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government...
EPIC Names Two Principals in California
Mar 10 2010 // EPIC (Edgewood Partners Insurance Center), a retail property, casualty and employee benefits insurance brokerage, has added Beth Ward as a senior principal in its San Francisco office, and Bruce Norris as a principal in...
Toyota to Investigate Prius California Police Say Accelerated
Mar 9 2010 // The driver of a 2008 Toyota Prius said his car uncontrollably accelerated to over 90 miles per hour on a San Diego County freeway before a California Highway Patrol officer helped him stop the car, police said. The driver,...
California Regulator Considering Regs to Alleviate Underinsurance
Mar 8 2010 // The California Department of Insurance is considering proposing new regulations governing standards and training for estimating replacement value on homeowners’ insurance. Among the ideas that was floated at a recent...
California Reducing Licensing Fees 6%
Mar 8 2010 // The California Department of Insurance announced it will be implementing a 6 percent licensing fee rate reduction on July 1, 2010. This is the second year CDI has reduced licensing fees. The first 6 percent rate reduction...
Fairfax Financial to Buy Remaining Shares of Zenith National Insurance in $1.4 Billion Deal
Mar 8 2010 // Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. and Woodland Hills, Calif.-based Zenith National Insurance Corp. have entered into a merger agreement in which Fairfax will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Zenith...
IRS, States Target Employer Abuse of Classification of Independent Contractors
Mar 8 2010 // The Internal Revenue Service and 37 states are cracking down on companies that try to trim payroll costs by illegally classifying workers as independent contractors, rather than as full employees, The Associated Press has...
California Proposal To Withhold Independent Contractor Fees on Hold
Mar 8 2010 // In February, California legislators considered a proposal that would have mandated a 3 percent withholding of fees paid to independent contractors. But the proposal has since been placed on hold, much to the delight of...
IRS, States Target Employer Abuse of Classification of Independent Contractors
Mar 7 2010 // The Internal Revenue Service and 37 states are cracking down on companies that try to trim payroll costs by illegally classifying workers as independent contractors, rather than as full employees, the Associated Press has...
IRS, States Target Employer Abuse of Classification of Independent Contractors
Mar 7 2010 // The Internal Revenue Service and 37 states are cracking down on companies that try to trim payroll costs by illegally classifying workers as independent contractors, rather than as full employees, The Associated Press has...
I.I.I.’s Hartwig Contrasts Impact of Chilean, Haitian Earthquakes
Mar 3 2010 // Why was he death toll over 200,000 when an earthquake struck Haiti, while so far less than 1000 people have died from the one that struck Chile, which was approximately 500 times more powerful? One of the answers lies in...
Calif. Construction Company Sued for Misclassifying, Underpaying Workers
Mar 3 2010 // California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. has filed a lawsuit against Livermore-based Country Builders Inc. after he said the company “cheated workers out of wages,” falsified the company’s payroll...
Union General Offers California Market for Adult Day Care Centers
Mar 2 2010 // Available to California agents, Union General has an “A+” rated carrier offering coverage for all types of basic daily care facilities for the elderly. The company provides physical/sexual abuse coverage, as...
Restaurant Work Injury Claims Account for 4% of Calif. Workers’ Comp Benefit Payments
Mar 2 2010 // Restaurant workers accounted for 6.1 percent of all California job injury claims, but only 4.1 percent of the state’s workers’ compensation benefit payments from 2000 to 2008, the California Workers’...
Ratings: Western, Hanover (debt), Public Service/Magna Carta, First Hawaii
Mar 2 2010 // A.M. Best Co. has downgraded the financial strength ratings to ‘B++’ (Good) from ‘A-‘ (Excellent) and issuer credit ratings to “bbb” from “a-” of Western Insurance Company...