Latest USA Headlines
All the headlines from our USA Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Colorado Banks Quietly Serving Cannabis Industry
Oct 4 2019 // Colorado’s cannabis industry has had a chief request since marijuana was legalized: Give us access to banks. But it turns out that hundreds of the state’s pot businesses are already working with financial...
Tokio Marine Eyed PURE for Years. Yankees-Red Sox Finally Brought Them Together.
Oct 4 2019 // PURE Group, the high-net-worth insurer set to be acquired by Tokio Marine Holdings Inc., had been on the Japanese company’s radar for more than a decade. After PURE was created in 2006, Tokio Marine tried to set up a...
New York Court Blocks State Ban on Flavored E-Cigarettes
Oct 4 2019 // A New York court on Thursday temporarily halted a state ban on the sale of flavored e-cigarettes, giving the embattled vaping industry a breather just a day before the state’s prohibition was due to take effect. The...
Micronesians Working at Iowa Meat Plant Allege Mistreatment
Oct 4 2019 // The island nation of Micronesia is raising concerns about how some of its citizens working at an Iowa pork processing plant are being treated. Micronesia sent a formal letter to the U.S. State Department asking U.S....
Vaping-Related Death Count Rises to 18, Illnesses Surpass 1,000: CDC
Oct 4 2019 // U.S. health officials on Thursday reported 18 deaths due to a mysterious lung illness linked to e-cigarettes and other vaping products and said the number of confirmed and probable cases of the condition now exceeds...
FTC Orders E-Cigarette Makers to Relinquish Advertising, Sales Data
Oct 4 2019 // The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has ordered a half-dozen e-cigarette companies to turn over sales and advertising data, the federal regulator said on Thursday, in the first sign of a likely probe of their marketing...
Tokio Marine to Buy High Net Worth Insurer Pure for $3.1 Billion
Oct 3 2019 // Tokio Marine Holdings Inc. has agreed to buy U.S. high net worth insurer Privilege Underwriters Inc. and its specialty insurance subsidiaries, known as Pure Group, for $3.1 billion (approximately JPY 325.5B). Tokio Marine...
New Specialty Re/Insurer Convex Authorized to Write Excess and Surplus Lines in U.S.
Oct 3 2019 // Convex Group, the Bermuda-based international specialty insurer and reinsurer, announces that its UK insurance subsidiary, Convex Insurance UK Ltd., has been added to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners...
Investors Betting Against U.S. Mortgage Market Are Banking on Mispriced Flood Risk
Oct 3 2019 // David Burt helped two of the protagonists of Michael Lewis’ book The Big Short bet against the U.S. mortgage market in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis. Now he’s betting against the market again, but...
Georgia Sheriff’s Deputy Sues Over Lack Of Transgender Insurance Coverage
Oct 3 2019 // A sheriff’s deputy in Perry, Ga., filed a lawsuit in federal court Wednesday against the county where she works over its refusal to allow her health insurance plan to cover her gender-affirmation surgery. Sgt. Anna...
Manufacturer, Staffing Agency Sued for Harassment, Retaliation at Oklahoma Site
Oct 2 2019 // U.S. officials say Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI) and ManpowerGroup US Inc. (Manpower) violated federal law when they fired a female employee who complained about sexual harassment at a JCI manufacturing facility in Norman,...
Judge Rules Harvard’s ‘Fine Admissions Policy’ Passes Constitutional Test
Oct 2 2019 // Harvard University’s undergraduate admissions program does not discriminate against Asian-American applicants, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday, rejecting a lawsuit brought by opponents of affirmative action and...
UPS Approved to Operate First U.S. Drone Airline for Non-Residential Deliveries
Oct 2 2019 // United Parcel Service Inc. on Tuesday said it won the U.S. government’s first full approval to operate a drone airline, which gave it a lead in the nascent U.S. drone delivery business over rivals Amazon.com Inc. and...
Third Point Re’s Wilson Joins Hamilton to Head U.S. Casualty, Specialty Reinsurance Unit
Oct 1 2019 // Bermuda-based specialty insurer and reinsurer Hamilton Insurance Group announced that Steve Wilson has been appointed senior vice president, head of Casualty & Specialty, for its new U.S. reinsurance platform. Wilson...
At $20K a Year, Health Insurance Costs Undermine Job-Based Health Insurance
Oct 1 2019 // The cost of family health coverage in the U.S. now tops $20,000, an annual survey of employers found, a record high that has pushed an increasing number of American workers into plans that cover less or cost more, or force...
EagleView Wins $125M Patent Infringement Award, Sales Halt Against Verisk
Sep 30 2019 // A New Jersey jury last week ordered insurance data services firm Verisk to pay $125 million to aerial imaging firm EagleView for lost profits linked to Verisk infringing on various EagleView patents. The jury verdict in...
Update on Lawsuits Targeting Vaping; Litigation Expected to Grow
Sep 30 2019 // Several deaths and potentially hundreds of illnesses tied to e-cigarettes, which allow users to inhale nicotine vapor, often flavored, without smoking, have been reported by U.S. health agency. Lawsuits on behalf of young...
Insured Losses from Typhoon Faxai Estimated at US$5 Billion to US$9 Billion: RMS
Sep 30 2019 // RMS, the Newark, Calif.-based risk modeling and analytics firm, has estimated that the insured loss from Typhoon Faxai will be between $5.0 and $9.0 billion (¥ 500 to ¥950 billion). This estimate includes property damage...
U.K. Embraces E-cigarettes, as U.S. Scrambles to Crack Down on Vaping
Sep 30 2019 // While the U.S. scrambles to crack down on vaping, Britain has embraced electronic cigarettes as a powerful tool to help smokers kick the habit. The Royal College of Physicians explicitly tells doctors to promote...
How Early Signs of Lung Effects of Vaping Were Missed and Downplayed
Sep 30 2019 // Scientists, regulators and e-cigarette proponents missed, ignored or downplayed signs that vaping could significantly damage the lungs for nearly a decade, a review of medical literature, government documents and...
