Latest Illinois Headlines
All the headlines from our Illinois Topic Page, ordered by recency.
U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Illinois Decision on $10.1B Tobacco Judgement
Jun 20 2016 // The U.S. Supreme Court has left in place the top Illinois court’s ruling throwing out a huge $10.1 billion verdict against Philip Morris USA, rejecting an appeal focusing on accusations that a judge in the case was...
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Acquires KRW Insurance Agency in Illinois
Jun 9 2016 // Insurance broker Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has acquired KRW Insurance Agency Inc. located in Crystal Lake, Ill. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Established in the 1940s, KRW Insurance Agency (KRW) is a...
Spike in Metal Theft Still Rattles Illinois Task Force
Jun 6 2016 // Illinois lawmakers have convened a task force to investigate a spike in the theft of recyclable metals. There was a spike in thefts a few years ago when the price of copper and other recyclable metals rose. Copper wiring...
UnitedHealthcare Leaving Illinois Insurance Exchange
Jun 3 2016 // A company spokeswoman says UnitedHealthcare is pulling out of the Affordable Care Act insurance marketplace in Illinois. Maria Gordon Shydlo of UnitedHealthcare says the company will not offer individual exchange plans in...
Liability Insurer Accuses Surgical Robot Maker of Hiding Injury Claims
May 27 2016 // It’s health insurers’ cardinal rule: disclose pre-existing conditions. Now comes a case in which that familiar decree involves not a patient, but rather a $1.5 million surgical robot known as the da Vinci...
Whistleblower Lawsuit Leads to $190.5K Penalty for Illinois Employer
May 20 2016 // Federal safety officials say an Illinois company has been ordered to pay $190,547 in back wages and damages to a safety manager in a whistleblower case stemming from a Lansing, Ill., facility. The U.S. Department of...
2 Dead, at Least 10 Hurt as Storms Move into Ohio River Valley
May 12 2016 // Bad weather moved into the Ohio River Valley on May 10 after a series of powerful storms hit the Plains, including tornadoes that destroyed homes and left two people dead in Oklahoma. National Weather Service meteorologist...
Facebook Must Face Claims Its Photo Tagging Violates Biometric Privacy
May 6 2016 // Facebook Inc. users who say the social network’s facial scanning flouts their privacy rights won the first round of a court fight. A federal judge in San Francisco on Thursday rejected Facebook’s request to...
The Feds, the States and Self-Driving Cars
May 2 2016 // A big question looming is whether the federal government or state governments will play the primary role in setting standards for self-driving cars. Historically, the federal National Highway and Transportation Safety...
Illinois Volunteer Firefighter Accused of Starting Fires with Cigarettes
Apr 29 2016 // A 20-year-old northern Illinois volunteer firefighter accused of starting five fires allegedly tossed lit cigarettes to spark at least two of the blazes, according to court documents. Kenneth Grabow of Orangeville was...
$1M Settlement Reached with Building Owners in Fatal Illinois Apartment Fire
Apr 29 2016 // Relatives of six people who perished five years ago in an apartment building fire in suburban Chicago have reached a $1 million legal settlement. Surviving family members sued the building owners, claiming they did not...
Mercury Insurance Launches Ride-Hailing Coverage in Illinois
Apr 27 2016 // Mercury Insurance is now offering ride-hailing insurance to cover Uber, Lyft and other Transportation Network Company (TNC) drivers in Illinois. This new coverage will provide drivers with insurance that will bridge the...
Sanford Joins ECC Insurance Brokers in Illinois
Apr 19 2016 // ECC Insurance Brokers Inc., a subsidiary of Brown & Brown Inc., has added Stephen Sanford in Oak Brook, Ill., as vice president. Sanford joins ECC from Hiscox Insurance’s Executive Liability Group where he was...
Arthur J. Gallagher Acquires Insurance Plans Agency in Illinois
Apr 14 2016 // Arthur J. Gallagher& Co. has acquired Insurance Plans Agency Inc. in South Barrington, Ill. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Established in 1983, Insurance Plans Agency Inc. (IPA) is a retail insurance...
1 Killed, 3 Injured as 45-Ton Beam Falls on Illinois Construction Site
Apr 7 2016 // Federal officials are investigating two companies after a construction worker was killed and three others were injured in suburban Chicago. The accident happened early on April 5 when a 40-ton steel bridge beam fell on the...
Affirmative Insurance Ordered into Liquidation
Apr 4 2016 // Affirmative Insurance Company (Affirmative or AIC) was ordered into liquidation in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, on March 24. Acting Illinois Insurance Director Anne Melissa Dowling filed a Complaint for...
Illinois Lawmaker: ‘Uninsured’ State-Owned Vehicles Should Come Off Road
Apr 3 2016 // A state lawmaker says Illinois should pull state-owned vehicles off the road during its budget stalemate unless money is appropriated to self-insure them. Republican state Rep. Bill Mitchell of Forysth says one of his...
Chicago Auto Insurance Fraud Ring Can Be Tried in Iowa: Court
Mar 28 2016 // Three people from Wisconsin or Illinois who are charged with operating a car insurance fraud ring can be prosecuted in Iowa, even though they never set foot in the state, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled. Police say the trio...
Illinois Agency Joins Missouri-Based Insurance Agency Alliance
Mar 24 2016 // Larry Goss Insurance in Mt. Vernon, Ill., has joined Valley Insurance Agency Alliance (VIAA), a network of 100 independent insurance agencies in Missouri and Southern Illinois. Larry Goss Insurance is a full-service...
Affirmative Insurance Liquidation Hearing Set for March 24 in Illinois
Mar 22 2016 // On March 1, 2016, Affirmative Insurance Co. was declared insolvent by at least $31 million by Acting Illinois Insurance Director Anne Melissa Dowling, who filed with the Illinois Supervising Court a Complaint for...
