Latest California Headlines
All the headlines from our California Topic Page, ordered by recency.
California Court Rules Workers’ Comp Benefits Don’t Apply at Conference
Dec 17 2007 // The family of an employee is not entitled to workers’ compensation death benefits if the death occurs while the employer is attending an educational conference, the Court of Appeal in California has ruled. In City of...
California Fines Health Insurer Blue Shield $12.6 Million
Dec 14 2007 // California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner is seeking $12.6 million in fines and penalties against health insurer Blue Shield for violations regarding healthcare rescissions and irresponsible claims processing. The...
California Store Director Sentenced for Workers’ Comp Fraud
Dec 14 2007 // Roseville, Calif., Bel Air Market Store Director Nichole Leddy and Assistant Store Director Amy Looper have been sentenced each to one count of workers’ compensation insurance fraud in Placer County, Calif., Superior...
Flood Control Agency Formed in California Counties
Dec 13 2007 // A new flood control agency for California’s Butte and Sutter counties will start considering levee rebuilding and repairs that could cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The Sutter-Butte Flood Control Agency will...
‘Most Secure Places to Live’ Are In Ore., Calif. and Wash.
Dec 11 2007 // Health, prosperity, safety and security are all desirable aspects when it comes to seeking a place to live, work or raise a family. According to the fourth annual Most Secure U.S. Places to Live rankings from Farmers...
Study: California Workers’ Comp Insurer Needs Significant Reforms
Dec 11 2007 // California’s State Compensation Insurance Fund “has weak corporate governance, inadequate internal controls in various areas and a general inability to plan for the long-term,” according to an operational...
Advocacy Group Challenges Liberty Mutual’s California Insurance Rates
Dec 11 2007 // The Greenlining Institute, a multi-ethnic advocacy organization, has fiiled a petition with the California Department of Insurance challenging Liberty Mutual Insurance Co.’s insurance rates. According to the advocacy...
Union General Offers Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Market in California
Dec 10 2007 // Union General of Concord, Calif., has an “A+” rated carrier offering coverage for facilities specializing in care and treatment of drug and alcohol abusers, including for profit and nonprofit centers and...
California State Fund Receives $153,000 in Fraud Case
Dec 10 2007 // A San Diego businessman was ordered to pay $153,779 in restitution to California’s State Compensation Insurance Fund as part of his conviction on workers’ compensation fraud. Marco Rangel pleaded guilty to one...
House Passes Bill to Create National Registry of Convicted Arsonists
Dec 7 2007 // Two House lawmakers from fire-struck California won approval this week for legislation to set up a national registry to track convicted arsonists. The bill, which was passed by voice vote, requires convicted arsonists to...
Consumer Group Challenges Farmers Insurance’s California Homeowners Rate Increase
Dec 7 2007 // A California consumer group is challenging Farmers Insurance Co.’s request for a rate increase of 6.9 percent. The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR), in a petition filed Monday with the state...
California Court Rules on Age Discrimination in Workers’ Comp Claim
Dec 7 2007 // The California Court of Appeals in Sacramento has, in an unanimous decision, ruled that a disabled employee’s age cannot be used to reduce workers’ compensation benefits. In January 2003, while working as a...
California State Fund Names McCkissock Operations Manager
Dec 7 2007 // Mark McKissock has been promoted to operations manager of state contract services claims for the California State Compensation Insurance Fund’s north region. State Contract Services is a third-party administrator of...
USGS Finds Southern California Ash May Pose Health Problems
Dec 6 2007 // Ash from October and November’s southern California wildfires may pose problems to health and the environment, according to preliminary results from a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) study released to the Multi-Agency...
Ketcham Named Program Manager for Calif. State Fund
Dec 4 2007 // Diane Ketcham has been named program manager for the California State Compensation Insurance Fund’s Project Services Office (PSO), which supports the development and implementation of State Fund projects and...
Storms Threaten Southern California Wildfire Areas with Mudslides
Dec 3 2007 // Southern California’s weather turned from dangerously dry to extremely wet Friday as storms brought the threat of mudslides and flash floods to areas burned by recent wildfires, causing evacuation orders. Residents...
Catastrophic Events Raise Business Interruption Coverage Questions
Dec 2 2007 // Considering the number of people who lived and worked in the area, the destruction of the World Trade Center complex was the functional equivalent of obliterating a small- to medium-sized city. Several recent and...
Malibu, Calif., Faces Wildfires, Again
Dec 2 2007 // For the second time in a little more than a month, residents in Malibu, Calif., faced destruction caused by wildfires. The coastal community had been recovering from October’s 4,565-acre Canyon Fire that destroyed...
S&P Report Examines Calif. Earthquake Insurance
Dec 2 2007 // The Golden State got a jolt on Oct. 30 with a 5.6 magnitude earthquake just outside of San Jose. An article published by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, “Is California’s Earthquake Insurance...
Deregulation Pushing Banks Into Insurance Industry
Dec 2 2007 // As the financial services industry has evolved since deregulation, there has been a rise in “bancassurance: the joint effort of banks and insurers to provide insurance services to the bank’s customer...
