Latest Massachusetts Headlines
All the headlines from our Massachusetts Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Top 10 Stories of the Year – East
Dec 24 2006 // From Maine to Virginia, agents and adjusters helped property owners dig out from damaging floods. High waters seemed to hit a new state every week. Meanwhile, these same agents had to worry about whether their income was...
Mass. auto rates cut 11.7%
Dec 24 2006 // As expected, auto insurance rates in Massachusetts will be going down again in 2007, this time by as much as 11.7 percent on average statewide. The new rate takes effect April 1, 2007, and translates to an average decrease...
News Currents
Dec 24 2006 // Mass. closes in on long-awaited transition to auto assigned risk plan Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner Julianne M. Bowler has ordered the implementation of an assigned risk plan for the state’s private passenger...
Business Moves
Dec 24 2006 // National Atlantic, Commerce Group National Atlantic Holdings Corp. confirmed that preliminary discussions with The Commerce Group Inc. of Webster, Mass., regarding a potential business combination or other strategic...
Insurers Seek Springfield, Mass. Church Documents on Sex Abuse
Dec 15 2006 // A judge is weighing whether to order the release of thousands of pages of Springfield (Mass.) Diocese documents in a dispute between the church and seven of its insurance carriers over settlements with clergy sex abuse...
Mass. Auto Rates Cut 11.7% for 2007
Dec 15 2006 // As expected, auto insurance rates in Massachusetts will be going down again in 2007, this time by as much as 11.7 percent on average. Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner Julianne M. Bowler today announced the decision in...
Commerce, AAA in Mass. Extend Sales Partnership with 20-Year Pact
Dec 14 2006 // The Commerce Insurance Co. has entered into a long-term marketing agreement with AAA Southern New England that extends the two organizations’ business partnership in selling to auto insurance in Massachusetts to a...
Mass. Commissioner Orders Long-Awaited Transition to Assigned Risk Plan
Dec 13 2006 // Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner Julianne M. Bowler today iorder the implementation of an assigned risk plan for the state’s private passenger auto insurance market. The assigned risk plan will replace the...
Her Future’s Uncertain but Mass. Commissioner Keeps Busy
Dec 13 2006 // These are busy days for Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner Julianne Bowler. Within weeks, even days, Bowler is expected to release final plans for a new auto insurance assigned risk plan, decide on auto insurance rates...
People and Places
Dec 11 2006 // The van Aartrijk Group LLC, a Washington, D.C.-area marketing and communications firm, is augmenting its branding and public affairs capabilities with the promotion of one executive and addition of another, according to...
Health Premium Hikes Tied to Costly Specialty Drugs
Dec 6 2006 // Expected health insurance premium increases of between 8 and 13 percent in Massachusetts are being driven more than ever by the costs of expensive specialty drugs, according to officials from some of the state’s...
OSHA Catches Fall River, Mass. Contractor with Unprotected Trench
Dec 5 2006 // A Fall River, Mass., contractor faces $25,950 in fines from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) after a spot inspection found two employees working in an unprotected...
Mass. Employee Sues Firm for Firing Him Because He Smoked
Dec 4 2006 // A 30-year-old Massachusetts man who has smoked for more than a decade filed a lawsuit last week against The Scotts Co., alleging the lawn and garden company violated his privacy and civil rights when it fired him because...
Lawrence, Mass. Man Pleads Guilty to Auto Insurance Fraud
Nov 30 2006 // A Lawrence, Mass. man pleaded guilty this week to an indictment charging that he participated in an auto insurance fraud scheme to bilk insurance companies out of thousands of dollars in false claims, according to state...
Public Radio Contributors in Mass. Earn Plymouth Rock Discount
Nov 29 2006 // New England auto insurer, Plymouth Rock Assurance Corp., has partnered with WBUR, Boston’s National Public Radio affiliate, to offer a discounted auto insurance rate to WBUR’s Massachusetts members. Listeners...
Mass. AG’s Big Dig Suit Targets Include 3 Surety Insurers
Nov 29 2006 // Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly planned to file his civil lawsuit yesterday against 15 companies including three insurers that provided surety bonds for the general contractor of the Big Dig Interstate 90...
Harleysville Worcester in Mass. Seeks to Switch Domicile to Pennsylvania
Nov 29 2006 // Harleysville Worcester Insurance Co. in Worcester, Mass. has requested the approval of the Massachusetts Commissioner of Insurance to transfer corporate domicile to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Harleysville Worcester...
Mass. to Sue Big Dig Companies
Nov 28 2006 // The state of Massachusetts is preparing to file a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the companies that worked on the Big Dig highway tunnel project, alleging their negligence led to the ceiling collapse that killed a...
Officials Seek Cause of Ink Plant Explosion in Mass.
Nov 26 2006 // While others may see a huge pile of charred and twisted rubble, Danvers, Mass. Fire Chief James Tutko sees a “big, big puzzle” that holds the answers to what caused a massive explosion that leveled an ink and...
News Currents
Nov 20 2006 // Newly elected Democratic governors in Massachusetts, New York and Maryland are expected to name their own insurance commissioners, although it’s to early to know who the successors might be, according to insurance...
