Latest California Headlines
All the headlines from our California Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Minor Earthquake Confirmed in California High Desert
Feb 10 2020 // A minor earthquake struck the Southern California high desert on Saturday and was was felt across the region, the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed. The USGS reports the 3.9-magnitude earthquake hit an area about 13 miles...
Tsunami Sirens in Southern California Beach City Were False Alarm
Feb 10 2020 // Tsunami warning sirens wailing early Friday morning in the Southern California city of Huntington Beach were a false alarm, authorities confirmed. “There is no current threat to our community and we are working to...
California State University to Pay $240K to Settle Pro-Life Lawsuit
Feb 10 2020 // The California State University system and Cal State San Marcos agreed to pay $240,000 to settle a lawsuit challenging their refusal to use student fees to fund a pro-life speaker on campus, according to a newspaper report...
20 Noteworthy Agency Merger Stories of 2019
Feb 10 2020 // 1. January Nationwide Acquires Liability Insurance Program Manager E-Risk Services: Nationwide acquired a New Jersey privately held program manager specializing in management liability lines. Nationwide said E-Risk will...
20 Things to Know About Surplus Lines Insurance in 2020
Feb 10 2020 // As we embark upon a new decade, the surplus lines insurance market has never been stronger. Growth in specialty products and demand for insurance protection in an increasingly dynamic, technological climate necessitates a...
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...
