Latest Texas Headlines
All the headlines from our Texas Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Texas Brine Draws up New Plans for Louisiana Sinkhole
Jan 2 2014 // Records show that Texas Brine Co. has developed a backup plan to replace the cracked southern section of a protective levee surrounding the sinkhole in Louisiana’s northern Assumption Parish and may look to reroute...
State Auto, Western Region, Makes Executive Changes
Jan 2 2014 // State Auto’s Western Region unit, based in Austin, Texas, has made new assignments and promotions effective Jan. 1, 2014, the company announced. Lyndell Haigood, previously regional vice president – personal...
North Dakota Train Fire Restarts Oil Transport Safety Debate
Jan 2 2014 // The derailment and fire that led to the evacuation of a North Dakota town has renewed the debate over whether it’s safer to ship oil by rail or pipeline as the U.S. completes a review of the Keystone XL...
Select Insurance Markets Adds Kendrick as Marketing Representative in Texas
Dec 31 2013 // Select Insurance Markets LP of Houston, Texas, has added Heather Kendrick as a marketing representative. Kendrick’s responsibility will include adding new agents, as well as field support for the existing group of...
Crude Oil Train in North Dakota Catches Fire After Derailing
Dec 31 2013 // A BNSF Railway Co. train carrying oil caught fire after a collision with railcars in North Dakota, causing a series of explosions that prompted police to urge local residents to evacuate the area. There were no injuries to...
U.S. Opens Skies to Test Use of Aerial Drones
Dec 31 2013 // The U.S. government took a step on Monday toward opening the skies to aerial drones, authorizing six sites where unmanned aircraft can be tested for a variety of uses. The Federal Aviation Administration already had...
Texas Fire Marshal Preaches Safety, Training After West
Dec 30 2013 // When a fertilizer plant exploded in a small Texas town, killing 15 people and decimating homes and schools, it became Chris Connealy’s responsibility to stop anything like it from happening again. The state fire...
Lubbock Settles Woman’s Texas Tech Injury Claim For $80K
Dec 27 2013 // The city of Lubbock has agreed to pay $80,000 in a settlement with a woman injured when she stepped into a hole on her way out of a Texas Tech football game. The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported that the Lubbock City...
Texas Family Settles Lawsuit From 100-Vehicle Crash
Dec 27 2013 // The family of the suburban Houston couple killed on Thanksgiving Day last year in a 100-vehicle pileup on a foggy stretch of Interstate 10 in Southeast Texas has settled a lawsuit it had filed. The Beaumont Enterprise...
2 Companies Cited After Texas A&M Structure Collapse
Dec 24 2013 // Federal officials have fined two construction companies for safety violations related to this summer’s collapse of a barn frame at Texas A&M University’s $80 million equestrian complex. The Occupational...
Federal Aid Coming After Fall Storms In Texas
Dec 24 2013 // President Barack Obama has ordered federal aid to help state and local recovery efforts in areas of Central Texas hit with severe storms and flooding in late October. Obama last week declared a major disaster exists in the...
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Acquires Barmore in Texas
Dec 24 2013 // Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has acquired Barmore Insurance Agency Inc. in Houston, Texas. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Barmore is an insurance broker providing retail and wholesale commercial property/casualty,...
Texas Lawmaker Wants Probe into Windstorm Insurance Association Emails
Dec 23 2013 // A Texas lawmaker has called for an investigation into racist emails uncovered within the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, which acknowledged in court that bigotry could have influenced a claim filed by a...
President Declares Disaster for Texas Flooding
Dec 23 2013 // Federal aid will head to Texas now that President Obama has declared a disaster area as a result of severe storms and flooding that hit the state during the period of Oct. 30-31, 2013. The U.S. Department of Homeland...
Texas Tries Again to Put Drunk-Driving Teen Behind Bars
Dec 19 2013 // Texas prosecutors are trying a second time to imprison a teen who was sentenced to 10 years’ probation for drunkenly driving his truck into four pedestrians, killing them all. Tarrant County District Attorney Joe...
Gentry to Retire from Insurance Council of Texas
Dec 18 2013 // Rick Gentry, executive director of the Insurance Council of Texas (ICT) since 1997, has announced that he will retire from the association at the end of March 2014. “It is hard to imagine a better professional...
Questionable Insurance Claims on the Rise in Texas: Report
Dec 18 2013 // Questionable insurance claims rose by 38 percent in Texas from 2010 through 2012, the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) reports. Questionable claims (QC) are those claims that NICB member insurance companies refer to...
Higginbotham Hires Ponder as AVP, Loss Control, for South Texas
Dec 18 2013 // Alan W. Ponder has joined the Houston office of insurance brokerage and financial services firm, Higginbotham, as assistant vice president of loss control. Ponder will apply his three-decade career in loss prevention to...
Texas No Longer No. 1 in High Home Insurance Rates
Dec 18 2013 // An industry group says Texas homeowners no longer are paying the highest insurance rates in the country, a distinction that now goes to Florida residents. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has released...
Texas Windstorm Insurance Association Disavows Racism Allegations
Dec 16 2013 // Texas’ insurer of last resort in coastal areas has denied allegations that a culture of racism has existed within the organization. Responding to claims by a Houston-based trial lawyer that employees of the Texas...
