Latest Legislation Headlines
All the headlines from our Legislation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Hurricane Harvey Could Spur Congress to Act on Flood Insurance
Aug 28 2017 // The destruction that heavy rain and floods from Hurricane Harvey could inflict on Texas would add to the pile of debt owed by a federal flood insurance program that is due to expire in September, advocacy groups said. The...
St. Louis Workers Likely to See Wage Drop with New Law
Aug 27 2017 // Thousands of workers in St. Louis will likely see smaller paychecks starting Monday, when a new Missouri law takes effect barring local government from enacting minimum wages different than the state minimum. The law is...
Cybersecurity Requirements in New York: Determining Compliance
Aug 25 2017 // The New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) has issued cybersecurity requirements for financial services companies. Codified at 23 NYCRR §500, the law became effective on March 1, 2017, and requires insurance and...
Senator Flanagan First Appointee to Massachusetts Marijuana Regulatory Post
Aug 25 2017 // A state senator was named Wednesday by Governor Charlie Baker to the regulatory board that will oversee the cannabis industry in Massachusetts. Sen. Jennifer Flanagan, of Leominster, is the first appointee to the...
Nestle’s ‘Natural’ Claims on Poland Springs Don’t Hold Water, Lawsuit Alleges
Aug 25 2017 // Nestle SA’s Poland Spring Water unit has duped American consumers into paying premium prices for ordinary ground water that’s pumped from some of Maine’s most populated areas, rather than from natural...
Judge Approves $1M Loan so Alaska Newspaper Can Pay Workers’ Comp, Employees
Aug 24 2017 // A federal bankruptcy judge has approved a $1 million loan for the Alaska Dispatch News to keep it operating as negotiations continue with potential buyers. The newspaper will use the loan from potential buyers approved...
Regulators Under Pressure to Develop Rules of Road Minus Drivers
Aug 24 2017 // When the U.S. government finally got around to regulating auto safety in 1967, it insisted that every car have seat belts and that the steering column be engineered to absorb impact so it wouldn’t spear the...
UK Financial Services Sector Seeking ‘Ambitious’ Brexit Trade Agreement
Aug 24 2017 // The UK’s financial sector is seeking an “ambitious” trade pact between Britain and the European Union to try to prevent a costly shift of jobs and business to the continent once the country leaves the...
Judge Dismisses Stockholders’ Suit Against Martha Stewart
Aug 24 2017 // A Delaware judge has dismissed a class-action lawsuit filed by former stockholders of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia over the company’s 2015 acquisition by Sequential Brands. The lawsuit said that Stewart leveraged...
Illinois Governor Vetoes 1 of 2 Workers’ Comp Bills Opposed by Insurers
Aug 23 2017 // Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has vetoed a workers’ compensation reform bill that has been strongly opposed by the insurance industry. Rauner on Aug. 18 vetoed HB 2622, which would have created the Illinois Employers...
Appeals Court Rules L.A. Lakers Not Entitled to Coverage in TCPA Suit
Aug 23 2017 // The U.S. Ninth Circuit court of Appeals affirmed Wednesday that the Los Angeles Lakers are not entitled to insurance coverage for class action allegations that the team violated the Telephone Consumer Protection...
New Lawsuit Filed Over Alleged Baylor Rape Policy Failures
Aug 23 2017 // A woman who reported that she’d been sexually assaulted filed a lawsuit on Aug. 21 against Baylor University, alleging questions she faced from the university shifted blame away from her attacker toward her. The...
Delaware Updates Law to Address Advances in Cyber Threats
Aug 23 2017 // Delaware Governor John Carney last week signed into law House Substitute 1 for House Bill 180, legislation that provides the first updates in Delaware law to address advances in cyber threats in more than a decade. The...
Greenberg Traurig Adds Michelman & Robinson’s Sebastinelli in California
Aug 21 2017 // Greenberg Traurig LLP has added insurance regulatory attorney John A. Sebastinelli as shareholder to its policy and insurance regulatory and transactions practices in the firm’s San Francisco, Calif....
Judge Divides $100K Insurance Payout to Victims of 2015 Oklahoma Parade Crash
Aug 21 2017 // A Payne County judge has distributed $100,000 in insurance money to victims of a 2015 homecoming parade crash at Oklahoma State University that killed four people and injured dozens more. Associate District Judge Stephen...
Michigan WWII Bomber Site Gears Up for Driverless Demos in December
Aug 21 2017 // Self-driving cars will begin taking test laps this December on the site of a famous World War II airplane factory in Michigan where Rosie the Riveter helped produce a shiny B-24 Liberator bomber every hour more than seven...
New Jersey’s Menendez, Pallone Tout Flood Insurance Reform Legislation
Aug 21 2017 // Five years after Superstorm Sandy devastated towns along the New Jersey shore, Sen. Bob Menendez and Rep. Frank Pallone want changes made to federal flood insurance they said will fix a system that often failed beleaguered...
Delaware Governor Carney Signs Insurance Consumer Fairness Bill
Aug 21 2017 // On Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2017, Delaware Governor John Carney signed into law House Substitute 1 for House Bill 80 (HS 1 for HB 80), a consumer fairness bill that targets unfair discriminatory practices by automobile and...
Mississippi Insurance Head, Lawmaker Urge Development of Private Flood Market
Aug 21 2017 // Mississippi’s top insurance regulator and its only Democratic congressman are both ready to cede some of the federal flood insurance market to private insurers. Both Republican Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney and...
Federal Appeals Court Voids Exxon Pipeline Safety Order
Aug 18 2017 // An appeals court has voided an order that would have required Exxon Mobil to revise its pipeline safety procedures after a 2013 oil spill in Arkansas. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration issued the...
