Latest USA Headlines
All the headlines from our USA Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Flood Insurance Losses from Harvey Could Match Katrina’s, I.I.I. Says
Sep 4 2017 // Flood damage in Texas from Hurricane Harvey may equal that from 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, according to an insurance research group. As heavy rain pounded Houston and...
Middle Market Growth Spells Opportunity for California’s Insurance Community
Sep 4 2017 // The insurance community has at least two reasons to be interested in a new report on middle market companies, particularly those who are doing business in California. According to a report from American Express and Dun...
Judge Won’t Allow Challenge to Seattle’s Rideshare Driver Union Law
Sep 4 2017 // A federal judge has rejected a challenge to Seattle’s first-in-the-nation law allowing drivers of ridesharing companies such as Uber and Lyft to unionize over pay and working conditions. U.S. District Judge Robert...
Business Moves
Sep 4 2017 // Widerman & Company, Smith Brothers Insurance Widerman & Company Insurance of Haddonfield, N.J., has merged its business with Smith Brothers Insurance of Glastonbury, Conn. This combination allows Widerman &...
Report: Climate Change May Pose Threat to Nation’s Electric Grid
Sep 4 2017 // Climate change may pose a serious risk to the nation’s electric grid, according to a new report. The report was prepared by Johns Hopkins University with help from Swiss Re. “Lights out: The risks of climate...
Northern Underwriting Managers’ Fendler Indicted Again; Faces 20 Fraud Counts
Sep 4 2017 // The owner of multiple property/casualty insurance operations in northern Illinois has been indicted once again, this time on charges that he defrauded more than 100 clients. Todd J. Fendler, of Rockford, Ill., previously...
Judge Throws Out Obama Rule Hiking Overtime Pay
Sep 1 2017 // A federal judge in Texas on Thursday struck down an Obama administration rule that would have extended mandatory overtime pay to more than 4 million U.S. workers, siding with business groups and 21 states that had...
House to Vote Next Week on Bill to Speed Autonomous Vehicles
Sep 1 2017 // The U.S. House of Representatives will vote Wednesday on a sweeping proposal to speed the deployment of self-driving cars without human controls and bar states from blocking autonomous vehicles, congressional aides...
As Harvey Winds Down, Hurricane Irma Waiting in Wings
Sep 1 2017 // Hurricane Harvey has left major devastation in Texas, but there is another hurricane called Irma out in the Atlantic that could take aim at the United States within the next week or so. Irma became a hurricane early on...
Arkema Plant Fires Underscore Chemical Industry Risk Management Challenge
Sep 1 2017 // In its devastatingly slow crawl up the industrial Gulf Coast, Hurricane Harvey is proving to be the biggest test yet of the safety and vulnerabilities of the U.S. chemicals industry. A Houston-area chemical plant was hit...
Thousands of Harvey Victims Rescued; At Least 38 Deaths; Damage Survey Begins
Sep 1 2017 // Soldiers and police in helicopters and high-water trucks rescued thousands of Texans stranded by floodwater from Hurricane Harvey on Thursday, which has killed dozens of people and displaced more than a million others as...
Judge Says Yahoo Must Face Data Breach Lawsuit
Sep 1 2017 // A U.S. judge said Yahoo must face nationwide litigation brought on behalf of well over 1 billion users who said their personal information was compromised in three massive data breaches. Wednesday night’s decision...
U.S. Agency Sues New York’s Estee Lauder Companies Over Parental Leave Policy
Aug 31 2017 // The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit on Wednesday accusing Estee Lauder Companies Inc. of discriminating against men by giving them less paid parental leave than women. The commission said in...
Tallying Massive Costs of Harvey to Victims, Insurers, Taxpayers and Economy
Aug 31 2017 // Hurricane Harvey’s costs to the victims in its path, to U.S. taxpayers, to insurers and to the economy were still being calculated on Wednesday, with few firm estimates available yet. Texas could need more than $125...
Wells Fargo Sued Over Charges for Mortgage Interest Rate Lock
Aug 31 2017 // A homeowner has filed a lawsuit accusing Wells Fargo & Co. of improperly charging thousands of customers nationwide to lock in interest rates when their mortgage applications were delayed. Filed on Monday in San...
Harvey Bears Down on Louisiana as Flooding Paralyzes Houston
Aug 30 2017 // Tropical Storm Harvey bore down on Louisiana on Wednesday, pouring down more water after setting rainfall records in Texas that caused catastrophic flooding and paralyzed the U.S. energy hub of Houston. The storm that...
Beazley Expands Coverage for Social Engineering, Online Fraud Scams
Aug 30 2017 // Beazley has launched a new excess policy for the U.S. market that significantly expands the protection available to firms that fall victim to impersonation scams by fraudsters convincing employees to wire funds to external...
Harvey’s Insured Losses Hurt Insurers’ Stocks, Could Boost Reinsurers’ Prices
Aug 29 2017 // Hurricane Harvey’s whipsaw of wind and rain across Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast hurt the shares of U.S. property and casualty insurers on Monday as Wall Street analysts estimated insured losses as high as $20...
AIG Revives Lucrative Top Executive Pay Packages of Pre-Bailout Glory Days
Aug 29 2017 // American International Group Inc.’s new Chief Executive Brian Duperreault has pledged to revive the insurer’s glory days of top talent, underwriting discipline and fat profit margins. One thing he has already...
Trump to Send Congress ‘Very Expensive’ Disaster Aid Request for Harvey Victims
Aug 29 2017 // U.S. lawmakers are expected to pass a large aid package for victims of Hurricane Harvey, but specifics of the plan and its price tag are unclear as Congress awaits a funding request from the Trump administration. Rain...
