Latest California Headlines

All the headlines from our California Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Tesla Slumps Below 50% Share of California’s Electric Car Market

Apr 17 2025 // Tesla Inc. is no longer selling the majority of new electric cars registered in California, the state that accounts for almost a third of all zero-emission vehicle purchases in the US. The company’s share of EV sales...

Group Sues California Department of Insurance Over FAIR Plan Surcharges

Apr 16 2025 // A consumer advocacy group has sued the California Department of Insurance and Commissioner Ricardo Lara to block hundreds of millions of dollars in surcharges that could soon appear on California homeowners’...

California’s Newsom Sues Trump Over ‘Chaos’ of Tariff Regime

Apr 16 2025 // California Governor Gavin Newsom sued to halt Donald Trump’s tariffs, setting up a high-stakes legal challenge to the president’s landmark effort to overhaul global trade. The state is challenging Trump’s...

Travelers Income Drops 65% on Catastrophe Losses, Primarily California Wildfires

Apr 16 2025 // The Travelers Cos. said first quarter 2024 fell 65% on an underwriting loss of $305 million. Travelers posted first quarter net income of about $395 million compared to about $1.1 billion during the first quarter of 2024....

Southern California Edison Lays Out $925M Plan to Rebuild After LA Wildfires

Apr 15 2025 // Southern California Edison (SCE), a subsidiary of utility Edison International, said on Friday it had submitted an initial plan to rebuild the areas within its service territory that were devastated by the Los Angeles...

Could Utility Gear Set Your Neighborhood on Fire? California Risk Maps Are 8 Years Old

Apr 15 2025 // Weeks after deadly fires swept through Los Angeles County, the state regulator in charge of overseeing utility companies declined a request that would have required California’s largest utilities to update maps...

People Moves: California Workers’ Compensation Institute Elects 2025 Board

Apr 14 2025 // Eric M. Hansen, senior vice president – underwriting at Preferred Employers, has been re-elected as chair of the California Workers’ Compensation Institute board of directors for 2025. Hansen was first elected to...

California’s Effort to Hold Oil Companies Liable for Natural Disasters Stalls

Apr 11 2025 // California lawmakers have blocked a bill to make oil and gas companies liable for damage to homes from natural disasters caused by climate change, warning it could raise gas prices. The bill would have allowed victims of...

California Bill Seeks to Beef up Consumer Privacy Protections for Insurance

Apr 10 2025 // A new bill introduced in California aims to increase transparency and accountability in California’s insurance market by bolstering consumer privacy protections and establishing a privacy rights framework for...

California Wildfires Had Little Impact on Reinsurers’ Risk Appetite During April Renewals

Apr 9 2025 // Property-catastrophe capacity remained adequate to meet demand during the April 1 renewals for US reinsurance buyers, despite the record losses from California’s January wildfires, according to Aon and Gallagher Re...

State Farm’s California Emergency Rate Request Dropped to 17%

Apr 9 2025 // Lawyers for State Farm General, the California Department of Insurance and Consumer Watchdog presented opening arguments in a hearing to determine the fate of State Farm’s request for an emergency homeowners rate...

Report Shows California Workers’ Comp Medical Review Denials Still Rarely Overturned

Apr 9 2025 // The rate of California workers’ compensation medical treatment request denials being overturned was up slightly last year, but they are still a relatively rare occurrence, a new report shows. Denials were overturned...

World Insurance Associates Acquires Royalty Insurance Services in California

Apr 7 2025 // World Insurance Associates LLC has acquired Royalty Insurance Services in Van Nuys, California. Royalty has been providing commercial trucking insurance for over 23 years. World Insurance Associates is a national financial...

California Cites Contractor $157K Following Fatal Trench Accident

Apr 7 2025 // A construction company was fined $157,500 by California for multiple violations of workplace safety regulations following a fatal trench collapse. W.A. Rasic Construction was fined by the California Division of...

An Insurance Journalist’s Perspective on Southern California’a Wildfires

Apr 7 2025 // PART ONE OF A TWO-PART SERIES It was pitch black in the house and the power was off. The Santa Ana winds were howling. As planned, my wife, Jenny, gathered our two dogs and cat and scurried them into her car as I shuttled...

Newsom Says California to Seek Tariff Exemptions From Allies

Apr 4 2025 // Gov. Gavin Newsom said he’s seeking exemptions for California-made products from retaliatory tariffs and wants to open talks with global allies over new trade relationships, casting the state as a buffer against the...

California Delivery Company Must Repay $2M for Workers’ Comp Scheme

Apr 4 2025 // A Los Angeles, California, couple was sentenced after an investigation reportedly found they underreported more than $21 million in employee payroll for their delivery companies. John Nemandoust, 70, was sentenced to 60...

California Plumbing Contractor Ordered to Pay $1M for Workers’ Comp Fraud

Apr 3 2025 // A plumbing contractor has been ordered to pay $1 million in restitution to the State Compensation Insurance Fund as part of a workers’ comp fraud prosecution. Daniela G. Birdwell, 41, owner of GPS Plumbing, pleaded...

Vivere Partners in California Raises $7.5M for Specialty Insurance Platform

Apr 3 2025 // Vivere Partners, a specialty insurance platform focused on niche lines of insurance, completed a $7.5 million Series A funding round led by General Catalyst, Pathlight Ventures and Greenlight Re. The funding is intended to...

California FAIR Plan Stabilization Act Moving Through Legislature

Apr 2 2025 // A bill that aims to enable the California FAIR Plan to seek additional claims paying capacity is making its way through state Legislature. Assembly Bill 226, the FAIR Plan Stabilization Act, passed out of the Assembly...