Latest Legislation Headlines
All the headlines from our Legislation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Sierra Club Dragging State Farm into Climate Change Battle
Aug 27 2015 // A State Farm executive is coming under fire from activists for his position on the board of what some consider to be a “climate denier” group. Sierra Club, a progressive investor group and other activist...
North Carolina Looks at Regulating Zip Lines
Aug 27 2015 // As 12-year-old Bonnie Sanders Burney soared over a 40-foot ravine at her sleep-away camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the tether attaching her to a dual zip line snapped – plunging her to her death. Her tether had been...
IBHS: After Katrina, Roofing Regulations Stronger on Gulf Coast
Aug 26 2015 // According to new research by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, stronger building codes and standards, along with more stringent requirements for inspections, building permits, and contractor...
Hurricane Katrina: The Numbers Tell Their Own Story
Aug 26 2015 // In a 25-year span leading up to 2005, homeowners insurers in Louisiana wrote a total of $13 billion in homeowners insurance premium, from which they earned $1 billion in profit, according to the chief actuary at the state...
Judge Approves Exxon’s $225M New Jersey Pollution Settlement
Aug 26 2015 // Exxon Mobil Corp’s $225 million settlement with the administration of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie of a longstanding environmental pollution case won approval on Tuesday from a state judge, over the objections...
New Jersey Firefighters Urge Lawmakers to Adopt Tougher Fire Codes
Aug 25 2015 // Firefighters in New Jersey are calling for tougher fire codes in the wake of a blaze that destroyed 240 units and left about 500 people homeless at an apartment complex in Edgewater, New Jersey. Leaders from several...
Uber Deploys Lobbyists to Reshape Driver Rules in California
Aug 24 2015 // Uber has spent more on lobbyists in California than Facebook and Apple combined to fend off regulations aimed at the heart of its worldwide business model. The San Francisco company’s lobbyists are pushing lawmakers...
Taser Not Liable in Death of Teenager, Court Rules
Aug 24 2015 // Taser International Inc. is not liable for the death of a 16-year-old Michigan boy soon after he was struck in the chest by two taser darts shot by a police officer, resulting in cardiac arrest, a federal appeals court...
Reuters Special Report: U.S. Banks Book Trades Abroad to Bypass U.S. Regulation
Aug 24 2015 // This spring, traders and analysts working deep in the global swaps markets began picking up peculiar readings: Hundreds of billions of dollars of trades by U.S. banks had seemingly vanished. “We saw strange things in...
Revised Kentucky Accident Victim Solicitation Law Under Fire, Again
Aug 24 2015 // A Kentucky law revision limiting the solicitation of accident victims within 30 days of a crash has gone into effect but is already being challenged in the state by multiple chiropractic groups that say the law is...
NCCI Proposes Decrease to Florida Workers’ Comp Rates
Aug 21 2015 // The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation said today that it has received the 2016 Florida workers’ compensation rate filing by the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI), which proposes a statewide...
Hands-Free Law Urged for Massachusetts Drivers
Aug 21 2015 // Welcome to Massachusetts signs can mean more to drivers than just crossing a state line. For some, they also signal that it’s OK to pick up their cellphones, punch in a phone number and make a call. That’s...
EU Seeking to Cut Minimum Risk Weighting on Simple Securitizations
Aug 21 2015 // The European Commission is seeking to cut the minimum risk weight on securitizations that qualify as simple and transparent to 10 percent to help jump-start the bloc’s capital markets. The 5 percentage-point...
Lawsuit Relief Needed for TWIA Depopulation Plan to Work: Lawmakers
Aug 21 2015 // A new law that becomes effective Sept. 1 in Texas will give the state’s property insurer of last resort for wind and hail along the coast more leeway in a plan to reduce its overall exposure by incenting private...
Maine Highlights New State Law to Protect Rideshare Drivers, Passengers
Aug 19 2015 // Maine Insurance Superintendent Eric Cioppa is highlighting a new Maine law, the Transportation Network Company Insurance Act, emphasizing that it will help to protect passengers, pedestrians and other motorists from losses...
Brokers Call for Implementation of National Licensing Reform Law
Aug 18 2015 // Insurance producers are calling upon the Obama Administration to begin implementation of a licensing reform measure signed into law eight months ago. When President Obama signed the renewal of the Terrorism Risk Insurance...
States Developing IRA Plans for Small Business Employees
Aug 18 2015 // For people working for a small business that doesn’t have a retirement plan, help is on the way. Roughly half of the U.S. states are working to create government-sponsored automatic individual retirement account...
Uber, Lyft Apply For Nevada Operation Permits
Aug 17 2015 // Ridesharing companies Uber and Lyft filed applications just before the weekend for permits to operate in Nevada, meaning they could be cleared to hit the roads within a month. Uber spokeswoman Eva Behrend said the company...
Congress May Move to Slow Illegal Drones
Aug 17 2015 // U.S. lawmakers are considering steps to reverse a disturbing rise in illegal drone flights, including new government enforcement tools to crack down on rogue flyers, especially near airports, according to people familiar...
Kentucky’s Revised Accident Victim Anti-Solicitation Law Under Fire, Again
Aug 17 2015 // A Kentucky law revision limiting the solicitation of accident victims within 30 days of a crash has gone into effect but is already being challenged in the state by multiple chiropractic groups that say the law is...
