Latest California Headlines

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

Calif. School District Sued Over Sex Ed Program

Aug 23 2012 // A school district in California’s Central Valley is putting teens’ health at risk by failing to provide students with information about condoms and contraception, two parents and a coalition of groups said in a...

Poll: Little Faith for Lasting Workers’ Comp Reforms in Calif.

Aug 22 2012 // People overwhelmingly believe workers’ compensation premiums will rise if no reforms come out of a bill currently in the works in state Legislature to increase benefits for injured workers and reduce waste in the...

Calif. Workers’ Comp Losses, Expenses Reach Over $12B

Aug 21 2012 // A report issued on Tuesday by the California Workers’ Compensation Institute shows workers’ comp insurers’ loss and expense payments rose to nearly $12.5 billion in 2011, an increase of over $1...

Bill to Align California with Dodd-Frank Passes Legislature

Aug 21 2012 // The California State Legislature has passed Senate Bill 1216, which aligns California law with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, with unanimous support. SB 1216 was authored and carried by Sen....

You Tell Us: Can California’s Workers’ Comp System Be Fixed?

Aug 21 2012 // How do you contain upwardly spiraling costs, battle growing use and prescription of opioids, fight fraud, de-incentivize bad actors, all while sailing directly into political headwinds flowing from all the compass...

Calif. Sues Doctor Over Aggressive Billing Tactics

Aug 20 2012 // The California attorney general’s office is suing a Los Angeles County doctor over her practice of refusing to accept lower insurance company reimbursements and instead billing patients for the full amount. The...

Bondholders, Insurers Challenge San Bernardino Bankruptcy

Aug 20 2012 // Bondholders and bond insurers are challenging the eligibility of San Bernardino, California, to file for bankruptcy protection, claiming the city provided no financial information to its creditors. Their court filings...

Calif. Workers’ Comp Deal Gains Support of Government

Aug 17 2012 // A workers’ compensation proposal for California is getting the backing of the Department of Industrial Relations as well as seeming endorsement from the governor’s office, although with only two weeks left in...

Agency Outlines Ways California Firms Can Control WC Insurance Costs

Aug 17 2012 // Insurance agency Barney & Barney has outlined a series of steps to help California’s small- to mid-sized employers control the rising cost of workers comp insurance following Wednesday’s decision by the...

Auto Insurance Driver Tracking Hits Privacy Wall in California

Aug 17 2012 // California is turning into a battleground for technology that allows auto insurers to track their customers’ driving behavior and offer them lower premiums, but that privacy advocates reject as an excessive intrusion...

Workers’ Comp Reform Could Impact WCIRB’s 12.6% Pure Premium

Aug 16 2012 // The Workers’ Compensation Rating Bureau’s Governing Committee has unanimously voted to authorize the WCIRB to make a Jan.1, 2013 filing recommending an average advisory pure premium rate that is 12.6 percent...

General Star Expands Admitted Real Estate Product to California Agents

Aug 15 2012 // General Star Management Co. has made its admitted professional liability coverage for real estate agents available in California. Underwritten by General Star’s Professional E&O Division, the new offering is...

Calif. Refinery Fire Site Too Dangerous For Investigators

Aug 15 2012 // Federal and state investigators are trying to determine how to safely enter the area where a fire broke out in a Chevron Corp. refinery last week so they can examine a failed pipe blamed for the blaze, which the company...

Lawyers Throw Workers’ Comp Deal on the Rocks

Aug 14 2012 // A highly sheltered workers’ comp reform proposal being quietly passed around California’s capitol has the potential to make some noise when and if it ever gets introduced. The general consensus among those...

Arkansas, California Teen Golfers Are Trusted Choice National Champs

Aug 14 2012 // Trusted Choice announced that Summer Roachell of Conway, Ark. and Austin Smotherman of Loomis, Calif., won the girls and boys divisions, respectively, at the recent 44nd Annual Trusted Choice Big “I” National...

Calif. Prop. 33 Language Stands

Aug 13 2012 // The language for an automobile persistency initiative will stand after the California Third District Court of Appeal on Monday denied an appeal filed by the backers of the Proposition 33 campaign seeking to strike part of...

California Supreme Court Tells Insurers To Pay

Aug 13 2012 // Insurance companies must pay up to the policy limits for cleanup of the Stringfellow Acid Pits in Riverside County, the California Supreme Court ruled. The 17-acre industrial waste dump 50 miles east of Los Angeles near...

California Fire Fee Ignites Anger As Bills Go Out

Aug 13 2012 // More than 800,000 Californians who own property in wildfire country will begin receiving bills this week for a new annual fire-protection fee, rekindling outrage among rural residents and leading to a likely lawsuit...

California Judge Rejects Changes to Prop 33 Ballot Label

Aug 10 2012 // Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy Frawley has rejected in full arguments in a lawsuit by the insurance industry backers of California’s Proposition 33 and upheld the Attorney General’s Ballot Label as...

Bond Insurers Challenge Stockton’s Bankruptcy Over Pensions

Aug 10 2012 // Two bond insurers challenged the eligibility of Stockton, California, for bankruptcy, arguing that the city can cut pension benefits, a move that could have profound implications for the state. The court filings set a...