Latest USA Headlines
All the headlines from our USA Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Waymo Self-Driving, Fare-Generating Taxis Hit the Road in Arizona
Dec 5 2018 // Alphabet’s Waymo on Wednesday launched a significant development in its costly, decade-long quest for autonomous transportation: self-driving taxis that actually generate fares. With little fanfare, the company has...
Medtronic Ends U.S. Medical Device Probes with $51 Million Payment
Dec 5 2018 // Medtronic Plc said on Tuesday it would pay $50.9 million to resolve U.S. Justice Department probes into how companies it later acquired marketed medical devices, including one meant to treat a vascular defect in the...
Chicago Doctor Convicted on Charges of Billing Insurers for Nonexistent Treatment
Dec 4 2018 // A federal jury has convicted a Chicago doctor on fraud charges for billing insurance companies for purported chiropractic manipulations that were never performed, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District...
U.S. Comptroller Joins Federal Reserve in Warning on Rise in Risky Loans
Dec 4 2018 // A key regulator of Wall Street banks has joined the Federal Reserve in warning about risky corporate borrowing that has reached record levels as lender protections are eroded. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency...
Self-Driving Vehicle Regulation Bill Gets Late Push in Senate
Dec 4 2018 // Key U.S. senators are making a last-ditch effort to win approval of a bill to speed the use of self-driving cars without human controls, but face an uphill battle on Capitol Hill. Staff for Republican Senator John Thune...
Supreme Court Weighs Liability for Sharing Fraudulent Securities Information
Dec 4 2018 // U.S. Supreme Court justices on Monday appeared reluctant to further limit the scope of who can be held liable for violating laws that protect investors from securities fraud as they weighed an appeal by a New York...
9 Month Results Show U.S. P/C Insurance Pivot to Big Profit: A.M. Best
Dec 3 2018 // The U.S. property/casualty insurance industry’s net underwriting income has so far swung from a massive loss in 2017 to substantial profit, according to an A.M. Best report. Carriers booked $3.5 billion in net...
G20 Skirts Taboos in Reaching Agreement on WTO Reforms
Dec 3 2018 // Many delegates from the world’s 20 largest economies arrived at a summit in Argentina this week determined to clinch an agreement to reform the global trade system, pushed to a breaking point by tensions between the...
VW Investors’ $48M Diesel Settlement Receives Preliminary OK
Dec 3 2018 // A U.S. judge in California has granted preliminary approval to a $48 million settlement for investors who said Volkswagen AG made false and misleading statements over its excess diesel emissions. Lawyers for the investors,...
Business Moves
Dec 3 2018 // Hilb Group, Burns & Eustice Insurance Agency Hilb Group LLC has acquired Michigan-based Burns & Eustice Insurance Agency. B&E has been offering property/casualty insurance products and services to businesses...
Imagery and Artificial Intelligence in Wildfire Risk
Dec 3 2018 // Fires across North America in 2018 have continued the pattern of extreme destruction established by significant insured loss events in both Northern and Southern California last year and the 2016 disasters in Alberta and...
Lion Air Crash Demonstrates Unintended Consequences of Cockpit Automation
Nov 30 2018 // As Boeing Co. was developing its latest version of the 737 airliner, it discovered the design was slightly more prone to a loss of control. So the company added a computer-driven safety feature — one that is now a...
Chicago’s MillerCoors, Pabst Settle Suit Over Brewing Contract
Nov 30 2018 // MillerCoors and Pabst Brewing Co. settled a lawsuit on Nov. 28 in which the hipster’s brand of choice claimed the bigger brewer lied about its ability to continue brewing Pabst’s beers to put that company out...
Beazley Adds QBE’s Lever to Marine Underwriting Team in Houston
Nov 30 2018 // Beazley has appointed Reese Lever as a U.S. marine underwriter for the Southwest region. Reese joins Beazley’s office in Houston, Texas, from QBE where he was a vice president, marine, based in the same city. A...
Judges Weigh Consolidating Firefighting Foam, Other Water Chemical Lawsuits
Nov 30 2018 // Creating a massive lawsuit over cancer-linked chemicals found in around a third of Americans’ drinking water got a skeptical reception in federal court Thursday. A panel of seven judges in Manhattan repeatedly asked...
Survey from Regulator of Largest U.S. Insurance Market Shows More Coal Divestment by Insurers
Nov 29 2018 // California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones on Thursday revealed he’s had some success with his 2018 Climate Risk Carbon Initiative Coal Divestment Follow-Up Survey. Jones said the results of the survey reflect an...
Senators Encouraged by Talks on Farm Bill
Nov 29 2018 // U.S. lawmakers are very close to reaching a consensus in days on the Farm Bill, two senior senators said on Wednesday, after months of bitter partisan debate over the legislation to fund $867 billion in food and...
FDA Vows Overhaul of Medical Device Approval System
Nov 29 2018 // U.S. health officials said this week they plan to overhaul the nation’s decades-old system for approving most medical devices, which has long been criticized by experts for failing to catch problems with risky...
AXA to Buy Remaining 50% Stake in AXA Tianping for China Growth
Nov 28 2018 // AXA announced it has entered into an agreement with the current domestic shareholders of AXA Tianping Property & Casualty Insurance Co. Ltd. to acquire the remaining 50 percent stake of the company. Total consideration...
Update: AXA Expects Profits to Be Boosted by Its $15 Billion XL Deal
Nov 28 2018 // AXA, Europe’s second-biggest insurer, expects its profitability to improve in the next two years thanks to U.S. business brought in by its new XL arm, and said it would now focus on expanding in Asia. The French...
