Latest Texas Headlines
All the headlines from our Texas Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Case Against Texas Business Tax Before State Supreme Court
Oct 25 2011 // Attorneys for the state are set to defend Texas’ business tax. Claims that it violates the Texas Constitution are part of a case that began Oct. 24 in the Texas Supreme Court. A Boerne insurance adjustment firm,...
More Dust Storms Expected as Texas Drought Lingers
Oct 24 2011 // The towering wall of billowing red dust roaring across the blue West Texas sky on Oct. 17 took Monroe Debusk back more than eight decades to the Dust Bowl years when he was growing up on his family’s cotton farm. The...
Baker Joins Texas Agent Group as Director of Health Insurance Information
Oct 20 2011 // Misty Baker has joined the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas as director of health insurance information. In this newly created role, Baker will serve as a member resource for agency personnel working in life and...
New System Allows for Faster Transfer of Vehicle Crash Records in Texas
Oct 19 2011 // Crash records are now easier to transfer with the recent launch of a new, secure web-based application that allows law enforcement agencies to send reports to the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) electronically,...
Texas-based HealthSmart to Acquire Wells Fargo TPA
Oct 19 2011 // HealthSmart Holdings Inc., based in Dallas, Texas, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Wells Fargo Third Party Administrators Inc., the medical third party administration (TPA) business of Wells Fargo...
Texas Workers’ Comp September Enforcements Include $118K in Fines
Oct 18 2011 // Final disciplinary actions taken by the Texas Department of Insurance, Division of Workers’ Compensation (TDI-DWC) for September include $118,000 in fines, the department announced. Final disciplinary orders for...
Hornyak, Hansen Honored by Texas Insurance Professionals
Oct 17 2011 // Brenda Jo Hornyak office manager, at Hendry Insurance in Plano, Texas, has been named Insurance Professional of the Year and Ashley Hansen of Buchanan Clarke Schlader LLP was named Claims Professional of the Year at the...
Two Plead Guilty in Houston in New York Tour Boat Insurance Case
Oct 17 2011 // Two men have entered guilty pleas in a case involving the sale of bogus insurance to a New York tour operator whose boat capsized in 2005 killing 20 elderly tourists. Edmund Hugh Benton, 63, of Scottsdale, Ariz., pleaded...
Business Moves
Oct 17 2011 // Atlantic Specialty Lines, Financial Guarantee Underwriters, American Tri-State Underwriters Atlantic Specialty Lines Inc. (ASL) announced it has acquired Financial Guarantee Underwriters Inc. and American Tri-State...
People
Oct 17 2011 // Higginbotham & Associates has promoted commercial insurance broker Mike Bateman to its managing director group for 2012. Bateman, who joined Higginbotham’s Dallas office in 2004, was promoted from account...
Texas Texting Study Finds Slower Driver Response Times
Oct 17 2011 // New findings from a Texas study show texting while driving is more dangerous than previously thought. Reading or writing a text message behind the wheel can more than double a driver’s reaction time, according to a...
Homes Abandoned After Ike Remain in Texas City
Oct 14 2011 // The modest home on South Clover Street is, quite simply, a wreck. Waist-high ragweed chokes front and back yards. Rusting appliances and toys clutter the carport of the dilapidated structure, topped by a sagging patchwork...
New Billing, Commission System at Texas Windstorm Pool Starts Jan. 1
Oct 13 2011 // The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) will be implementing a new billing and commission system beginning Jan. 1, 2012. In a bulletin to insurance agents, TWIA said under the new system it will assume the...
Texas-based The Gibraltar Group Adds Rampy to Leadership Team
Oct 12 2011 // The Gibraltar Group, a risk and insurance advisory firm headquartered in Lubbock, Texas, has added Abie Rampy as director of communications and marketing. With more than 10 years of organizational management and marketing...
Foremost Launches Upgraded Auto Program in Texas
Oct 11 2011 // Foremost Insurance Group’s enhanced auto program is now available in Texas. The Foremost program features more competitive rates, new discounts, increased coverage options and improved online processing features. The...
Three Work Comp Safety Groups Earn Combined $848K in Texas Mutual Dividends
Oct 11 2011 // Texas Mutual Insurance Co. announced that three workers’ compensation safety groups have earned a combined $847,714 in dividends. The dividends were based largely on each group’s overall loss ratio. The largest...
Nine Texas Cities to Receive Smoke Alarms
Oct 11 2011 // Firefighters in nine Texas cities will be installing smoke alarms into the homes of low income and elderly residents thanks to this year’s We’re Out to Alarm Texas smoke alarm campaign. The program now in its...
Farmers’ Filing Would Raise Homeowners Rates in Texas by Nearly 10%
Oct 11 2011 // Farmers Insurance plans to hike homeowner premiums in Texas by nearly 10 percent next year. The increase will apply to about half of the Farmers Insurance customers across Texas, according to a report in The Dallas Morning...
2nd Man Pleads Guilty in Houston in New York Tour Boat Insurance Case
Oct 11 2011 // A second man has pleaded guilty in Houston in a case involving the sale of insurance to a New York tour operator whose boat capsized in 2005 killing 20 elderly tourists, federal officials reported. Edmund Hugh Benton, 63,...
Texas Insurer in New York Boat Accident Pleads Guilty to Fraud
Oct 7 2011 // A Houston man has pleaded guilty to a charge related to selling fraudulent insurance policies, including one to a company that owned a tour boat which capsized in a New York lake in 2005, killing 20 tourists. Federal...
