Latest California Headlines
All the headlines from our California Topic Page, ordered by recency.
California Commissioner Lowers Workers’ Comp Pure Premium
May 22 2017 // California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones issued a revised advisory pure premium rate, lowering the benchmark to $2.02 per $100 of payroll for workers’ compensation insurance effective July 1. This is 16.5 percent...
California’s Comp Insurers Had 5.1% More in Direct Written Premium in 2016
May 22 2017 // California workers’ compensation insurers wrote $12.96 billion in direct written premium last year, an increase of $628 million, or 5.1 percent, from the prior year, according to new data from the National...
Uber May Fire Key Executive in California in Self-Driving Car Dispute
May 22 2017 // Uber is threatening to fire a key executive accused of stealing self-driving car technology from a Google spin-off unless he waives his constitutional right against self-incrimination so the ridesharing service can comply...
California Small Business Advocate Produces 2nd List of ‘Good, Bad & Ugly Bills’
May 18 2017 // With a California Legislative deadline looming, a business advocate is calling attention to bills that he believes owners and managers of small businesses should take note of in his second annual list of “Good, Bad...
Workplace Regulation to Reduce Incidents at California Oil Refineries OK’d
May 18 2017 // California’s Department of Industrial Relations’ Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board today approved a regulation aimed at strengthening workplace safety and health at oil refineries across the...
2 Minor Quakes Shake California Coastal Area
May 18 2017 // A pair of small earthquakes gave a jolt and a shake to the Santa Barbara, Calif. area, but there were no reports of any damages or injuries, the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed. The USGS says in a preliminary report that...
California Division of Workers’ Compensation Suspends Two, Including Drobot
May 18 2017 // California’s Department of Industrial Relations and the Division of Workers’ Compensation has suspended two more medical providers from participating in California’s workers’ compensation...
COO Manzitto to Resign from Topa in California
May 17 2017 // Anthony Manzitto, chief operating officer of Calabasas, Calif.-based Topa Insurance Group, is resigning at the end of this month to pursue another opportunity, according to a letter from President and CEO John Donahue that...
Report: New Medical Coding System Not Yet An Improvement in California Comp
May 17 2017 // A new report shows that an updated medical coding system that went into effect in California a year-and-a-half ago hasn’t done much to better define the characteristics of worker injuries than the old one. A report...
Schnoll Named General Counsel of California Department of Insurance
May 16 2017 // Ken Schnoll has been named general counsel for the California Department of Insurance. Schnoll has more than 30 years of experience, including work in regulatory and transactional matters with health insurers and...
California Crackdown on Brand Advertising Hurts State’s Newcomers
May 16 2017 // California is an ethnically and culturally diverse state, and it is becoming more so with each day. That diversity brings with it economic strength, but also a need for public policy that consciously accounts for the...
Cavignac & Associates in California Names Laforteza Account Administrator
May 16 2017 // San Diego, Calif.-based Cavignac & Associates has named Nicole Laforteza an account administrator within the agency’s employee benefits department. Laforteza’s primary responsibility is to assist the...
Study: Comp Reform Led to Drop in Medical Payments Per Claim in California
May 16 2017 // California’s total costs per workers’ compensation claim with more than seven days of lost time have remained stable after the passage of workers’ comp reform, while most other states experienced an...
Legal and Image Woes Mount For Uber in California
May 15 2017 // A rare order from a federal judge alerting prosecutors to possible criminal misconduct by Uber or a key executive deepens the turmoil swirling around the ridesharing company at a time when it’s grappling with other...
Brightway Adds 5 Women-Owned Insurance Agencies
May 15 2017 // Insurance agency franchise operator Brightway is opening five new personal lines insurance agencies that are owned by women, two of which are the first Brightway agencies to open in California. In addition to California,...
Producer Compliance in California: The Top Three Regulatory Danger Zones
May 15 2017 // Like Big Brother, California’s Department of Insurance is watching you. Okay, perhaps not literally — and certainly not all of you, but the department definitely has its antennae up when it comes to the...
People – West
May 15 2017 // Burns & Wilcox Brokerage named Susanne M. Waite vice president and senior broker in its San Francisco, Calif., office. Waite has more than 30 years of experience in insurance, with 14 years in wholesale. Waite...
Partial Settlement for Victims of California Balcony Fall
May 15 2017 // The victims of a balcony collapse in Berkeley, Calif., that killed six college students have reached a settlement with some of the companies they sued in 2015. The settlements are confidential, said lawyers for the...
Regulators in California Hit PG&E with $8.3M Fine for Deadly Wildfire
May 15 2017 // Regulators say they have fined Pacific Gas and Electric Co. $8.3 million for failing to maintain a power line that sparked a massive blaze in Northern California that destroyed 549 homes and killed two people. The...
Weak Safety Standards Caused California Exxon Refinery Blast, Agency Says
May 15 2017 // The U.S. Chemical Safety Board concluded in a report issued earlier this month that a 2015 explosion at a Torrance, Calif., refinery then owned by Exxon Mobil Corp. could have been prevented. “This explosion and near...
