Latest California Headlines
All the headlines from our California Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Camino, Calif. Resident Charged with Fraud
Aug 5 2002 // John Eugene Carter, 38, of Camino, Calif. was arrested on one felony count of insurance fraud, one count of attempted perjury and booked into the El Dorado County Jail. Investigators with the CDI Criminal Investigations...
Community Investment Reporting and theIndustry – “CRA” California Style
Aug 5 2002 // With the recent spotlight being placed on the 25th anniversary of the federal Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), legislation enacted in 1977 which requires banks to increase their investments and loans to low income...
Alternative Markets Offer a Variety of Risk Management Options
Aug 5 2002 // How do I insure thee? Let me count the ways.” With apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, that question’s become increasingly meaningful for risk managers, insurers, agents, brokers, consultants and...
Programs, Beacons of Stability in Tumultuous Markets
Aug 5 2002 // Now that the hard market has firmly set, it’s no secret that more and more standard property and casualty insurance carriers are seeking to stem losses by restricting coverage and revamping underwriting habits. As in...
A.M. Best Places Ratings for State Farm’s Calif. and Texas Subsidiaries under Review
Aug 1 2002 // A.M. Best Co. has placed the financial strength ratings of B+ (Very Good) for two separately rated subsidiaries of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, State Farm General Insurance Company (Bloomington, Ill.),...
Calif. Commissioner Applauds Passage of AB 2984
Aug 1 2002 // California Insurance Commissioner Harry Low applauded Gov. Gray Davis for signing Assembly Bill 2984, which will help the California Department of Insurance (CDI) to preserve California’s high licensing standards...
XLCA Receives Calif. License, Opens Walnut Creek Office
Aug 1 2002 // XL Capital Assurance Inc. (XLCA) has received its financial guarantee license from the State of California and opened an office in Walnut Creek. Neil Pack, managing director for West Coast public finance, heads the Walnut...
Garamendi Committee Reaches Fund-Raising Goal
Aug 1 2002 // California Insurance Commissioner candidate and former Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi announced that his campaign committee achieved its fund-raising goal of $1 million by July 1. “We have $1,048,000 cash in...
Workers’ Comp Fraud Investigation Leads to Felony Arrest of Calif. Police Dispatcher
Jul 30 2002 // Lenette Weishaar, 42, of Vallejo, Calif., was arrested and charged with three counts of felony insurance fraud in one of the largest individual workers’ compensation fraud cases in the city of Vacaville. Weishaar was...
WCIRB Votes to Increase Workers’ Comp Rates 11.9 Percent
Jul 26 2002 // California’s Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau’s (WCIRB) Governing Committee approved the filing of a proposed 11.9 percent increase in pure premium rates effective January 1, 2003 for new and...
CDI Orders Garden Valley, Calif. Group to Cease and Desist
Jul 26 2002 // The California Department of Insurance issued a Cease and Desist Order July 25 on New Life Christian Care Society Inc. The Order states that the Society cease and desist transacting any and all insurance business in the...
Tarzana, Calif. Agent Arrested
Jul 23 2002 // Investigators with the California Department of Insurance (CDI) Criminal Investigations Branch arrested Alfred Galoustian, 34, on a felony warrant charging six counts of grand theft. Galoustian’s bail was set at...
Body Shop Goes Belly-Up for Fraud
Jul 22 2002 // An investigation by the California Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR), the Kings County District Attorney’s Insurance Fraud Unit, and the CDI Criminal Investigations Branch’s Fraud Division led to the conviction...
Surplus Lines, The Industry’s Safety Valve
Jul 22 2002 // It is a rare occurrence today, but not so long ago tying down the safety valve was viewed as an acceptable way to improve a steam boiler’s performance when demand peaked. The objective was to increase the...
NAII VP Takes a Look at California’s State of Insurance
Jul 22 2002 // Sam Sorich, vice president with the National Association of Independent Insurers (NAII), says that despite the challenges facing agents and companies in California, the industry is still moving along and meeting its...
Calif. Lawyer Sunk with Sentence
Jul 22 2002 // A California lawyer accused of scheming to sink a yacht off the coast of Italy was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Lourdes Baird, according to the Associated Press. Rex DeGeorge, of Beverly Hills,...
Calif. Lawyer Sunk with Sentence
Jul 22 2002 // A California lawyer accused of scheming to sink a yacht off the coast of Italy was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Lourdes Baird, according to the Associated Press. Rex DeGeorge, of Beverly Hills,...
Body Shop Goes Belly-Up for Fraud
Jul 22 2002 // An investigation by the California Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR), the Kings County District Attorney’s Insurance Fraud Unit, and the CDI Criminal Investigations Branch’s Fraud Division led to the conviction...
Calif. Authorities Bust Major Auto Fraud Ring
Jul 18 2002 // In its largest bust to date, the Los Angeles County Organized Auto Fraud Interdiction Task Force and 120 law enforcement officers and investigators executed arrest warrants July 16 for 28 individuals charged with insurance...
A.M. Best Rates CAP-MPT ‘Excellent’ for 4th Straight Year
Jul 18 2002 // The A.M. Best Company has again assigned a rating of “A” (Excellent) to the Cooperative of American Physicians, Inc.-Mutual Protection Trust (CAP-MPT), a provider of medical professional liability protection...
