Latest USA Headlines
All the headlines from our USA Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Senior Care Facilities and Their Insurers Try to Keep Up with Aging America’s Falls
Jan 2 2019 // Last March, a 103-year-old resident of a Sunrise Senior Living facility in Willowbrook, Illinois, went on a field trip to the movies. Ruth Smith, who used a walker, fell down two concrete steps in the theater and died...
Deaths on Passenger Jet Aircraft Rise Across Globe in 2018
Jan 2 2019 // The fatality rate on passenger jet aircraft worldwide jumped in 2018 after airlines recorded zero accident deaths on passenger jets in the prior year, according to a Dutch consulting firm and an aviation safety...
Competition in Artificial Intelligence Is Like New Space Race: Viewpoint
Jan 2 2019 // It’s been another year of relentless artificial-intelligence hype and incremental AI achievement. Machines still beat humans only in carefully constructed environments or at narrow tasks. The good news is that, as...
Ascot Expands U.S. Marine Team With Johnson and Factor in California
Dec 31 2018 // Ascot has named Chris Johnson and Jocelyne Factor as underwriters in the U.S. marine team. Both will be based in the new San Francisco office, expanding Ascot’s geographic footprint to the West Coast. Johnson, senior...
Judge Dismisses Privacy Suit Against Google Over Facial Recognition Technology
Dec 31 2018 // A lawsuit filed against Google by users who said the world’s largest search engine violated their privacy by using facial recognition technology was dismissed by a judge on Saturday. U.S. District Judge Edmond E....
Chamber’s List of 2018’s ‘Top 10 Most Ridiculous Lawsuits’
Dec 31 2018 // A lawsuit targeting California coffee houses for not including warning labels on their products tops the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform’s (ILR) list of the Top 10 Most Ridiculous Lawsuits of 2018. This...
Trial Lawyers Cite ‘Worst Corporate Conduct’ of 2018
Dec 31 2018 // Not surprisingly, the American Association for Justice—representing the country’s trial lawyers– takes a very different view of the civil justice system than does the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Legal...
Death in the Oilfields: Boom Brings Mounting Risk of Death, Injuries
Dec 28 2018 // Parker Waldridge had worked in the Oklahoma oilfields since he was 16 and acquired the traits that make a good driller: fortitude, intellect and a healthy respect for the power of a runaway gas well. And so, when...
New South Wales Hailstorm Triggers Australia Catastrophe Declaration
Dec 28 2018 // The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) last week declared a catastrophe following storms that caused extensive hail and water damage across Sydney and the Central Coast in New South Wales (NSW). As of Dec. 21, insurers...
Congressional Report Finds Olympic Leaders Valued Reputation Over Athletes’ Safety
Dec 28 2018 // A congressional review of the U.S. Olympic system’s handling of sex-abuse cases criticizes a culture that sought to protect reputation and image over athlete safety. A House subcommittee released the report last...
Wisconsin’s Next Governor Picks Insurance Commissioner, Other Cabinet Members
Dec 27 2018 // Wisconsin Governor-Elect Tony Evers has named Mark Afable as insurance commissioner. Afable has worked for American Family Insurance in Madison since 1994 and currently serves as its chief legal officer. He will replace...
Report: DEA, Distributors Not Doing Enough to Fix West Virginia Opioid Crisis
Dec 27 2018 // A congressional report on prescription pill dumping in West Virginia blames U.S. prescription drug distributors and the Drug Enforcement Administration for not doing enough to help mitigate the nation’s opioid...
16.7 Million Recalled Takata Air Bags Still Unrepaired and on U.S. Roads
Dec 27 2018 // More than three years after the government took over management of recalls involving dangerous Takata air bag inflators, one third of the recalled inflators still have not been replaced. That’s according to an annual...
Vermont Hires New Chief Information Security Officer
Dec 27 2018 // The state of Vermont has hired a new chief information security officer. The appointment of Nicholas Andersen was announced by the state last week. Agency of Digital Services Secretary John Quinn says Andersen’s...
Former Insys CEO Babich Pleads Guilty to Opioid Prescription Bribe Scheme
Dec 27 2018 // The former chief executive of Insys Therapeutics Inc. has agreed to plead guilty to participating in a scheme to bribe doctors to prescribe a powerful opioid medication in order to boost its sales, U.S. prosecutors said on...
Ineffective Anti-Drone Systems Leave U.S. Airports Facing Risks Like London’s
Dec 27 2018 // U.S. airports may be just as vulnerable as London’s Gatwick airport to the kind of illegal drone incursions that shut down the U.K.’s second-busiest hub this week. Counter- drone technology performed so poorly...
U.S. Signs Agreement with UK Covering lnsurance Regulation Post-Brexit
Dec 21 2018 // As they previously announced they would do, the U.S. Treasury and U.S. Trade Representative have officially signed an agreement with the United Kingdom to provide insurance regulatory continuity after the country exits the...
Judge Blocks New York from Enforcing Opioid Surcharge on Companies
Dec 21 2018 // A Manhattan federal judge blocked New York state from enforcing a recently enacted law that aimed to collect $600 million from drug manufacturers and distributors to defray the costs of combating the opioid addiction...
Big Pharma Resuming U.S. Price Hikes in January After Pause: Reuters Report
Dec 21 2018 // Novartis AG and Bayer AG are among nearly 30 drugmakers that have taken steps to raise the U.S. prices of their medicines in January, ending a self-declared halt to increases made by a pharma industry under pressure from...
California Commissioner Pushing Insurer Fossil Fuel Divestment to The End
Dec 20 2018 // California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones continues to push the fossil fuel divestment hot button right to the end of the year and his tenure as the state’s head insurance regulator. Jones this week released the...
