Latest Texas Headlines
All the headlines from our Texas Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Texas to Help Pay Final Costs for Those Killed in Prison Bus Wreck
Jan 21 2015 // Texas will pay up to $6,000 in final expenses for two guards and eight inmates killed when a prison bus went off an icy highway and hit a freight train. The Odessa American reports the funds for funerals and burial are...
Texas Windstorm Expert Panel to Discuss Work at Public Meeting
Jan 20 2015 // The Texas Windstorm Insurance expert panel will hold a public meeting on Jan. 28 to inform the public about the progress of the panel’s work, to allow the public to observe the panel discussing its work, and to give...
Earthquake Risk in North Texas Likely to Be Upgraded
Jan 20 2015 // The U.S. Geological Survey is considering raising its risk projections for earthquakes in North Texas. The Dallas area has experienced more than 120 quakes since 2008. The Dallas Morning News reports that USGS will likely...
Supreme Court to Hear Disparate Impact Liability This Week
Jan 20 2015 // The U.S. Supreme Court is positioned to wipe out a major category of housing discrimination suits, and civil rights groups are running out of ways to stop it. In arguments Wednesday in Washington, the court will consider...
Texas Regulators Recover $32.4M in Premium Refunds, Claim Payments
Jan 16 2015 // Consumer protection staff for the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) were able to recover $32.4 million for Texas consumers during the past year as a result of complaint resolution, the agency announced recently. The...
Texas Bills Target ‘Named Driver’ Automobile Policies; Disclosure Rules Adopted
Jan 15 2015 // A pair of bills filed in the Texas Legislature would prohibit automobile insurers from issuing “named driver” policies in the state, but one would allow named driver exclusion under certain circumstances, HB...
Prison Bus Strikes Train in West Texas, Leaving at Least 10 Dead
Jan 15 2015 // A county sheriff says at least 10 people are dead after a bus carrying state prisoners skidded off an icy highway overpass in West Texas, slid down an embankment and collided with a train. Ector County Sheriff Mark...
Former Deputy AG Mattax Named Texas Insurance Commissioner
Jan 14 2015 // A former top deputy of Republican Gov.-elect Greg Abbott is taking over the Texas Department of Insurance. David Mattax was named commissioner on Jan. 12. He is currently a deputy attorney general who took the lead...
Texas Plant with Fatal Gas Leak Had Been Cited for Infractions
Jan 14 2015 // A DuPont and Co pesticide plant where four people died in a gas leak in November had been cited for emissions violations by a state agency on several occasions before the accident, the Houston Chronicle reported. The...
Atlas General Insurance Services, LLC, Announces Expansion of its Republic Group Program to Texas
Jan 14 2015 // San Diego, CA, January 14, 2015: Atlas General Insurance Services, LLC (Atlas General), a national multi-line program manager, is pleased to announce the opening of its workers’ compensation office in Texas to...
Texas Bill Would Protect P/C Agent Ownership of Expiration Rights
Jan 13 2015 // A bill filed in the Texas Legislature for the 2015 session would clarify that insurance agents in the state have exclusive ownership of the expiration rights to property/casualty insurance policies they sell and place. HB...
Texas Auto Injury, Fatality Crashes Rise Again in 2014
Jan 13 2015 // Contrary to a nationwide trend, Texas automobile crashes resulting in injuries and fatalities have risen for the past three years, the Insurance Council of Texas reports. Nationally, roadway crashes involving injuries and...
Texas Sees Record $5B in Surplus Lines Premium in 2014
Jan 12 2015 // For the first time, premium on policies reported to the Surplus Lines Stamping Office of Texas (SLSOT) totaled more than $5 billion last year. This record volume in 2014 was $336.5 million over 2013, representing an...
Seismologists Expand Texas Earthquake Study
Jan 12 2015 // Southern Methodist University seismologists are installing more measuring equipment in a Dallas suburb as earthquakes continue to rattle North Texas. More localized seismometers in Irving are “the first step in...
Austin, San Antonio Enact Behind-the-Wheel Phone Bans
Jan 12 2015 // Police in Austin and San Antonio won’t start issuing fines until February but both cities’ bans on the use of handheld devices while driving are now in effect. Talking on a handheld phone while driving is...
People – South Central
Jan 12 2015 // Arkansas Gov.-Elect Asa Hutchinson named state Rep. Allen Kerr to replace current Insurance Commissioner Jay Bradford. Kerr has been an insurance agent for more than 30 years and along with his wife owns the Allen Kerr...
2015 Insurance Industry Meetings & Conventions Directory
Jan 12 2015 // Welcome to Insurance Journal‘s 2015 Insurance Industry Meetings and Conventions Directory. The information in this directory is taken from a larger database containing additional information on these and other...
Texas Officials Want Drug Database Moved from DPS
Jan 9 2015 // Some Texas lawmakers say prescription drugs can be bettered monitored by moving the state’s database out of the Department of Public Safety. House and Senate committees that studied the issue recommend that the State...
Texas Lowers Workers’ Comp Maintenance Tax Rate
Jan 9 2015 // The maintenance tax rate is being reduced to 1.533 percent of gross premiums collected by Texas workers’ compensation insurance carriers from Jan. 1, 2014, through Dec. 31, 2014, Texas Workers’ Compensation...
Ballinger on Growth, Professionalism in Texas Surplus Lines Market
Jan 8 2015 // Phil Ballinger retired at the end of December 2014 as executive director of the Surplus Lines Stamping Office of Texas (SLSOT), a post he’s held for more than two decades. During his tenure at SLSOT, the organization...
