Latest USA Headlines

All the headlines from our USA Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Business Moves

Feb 24 2014 // Kemper Corp. Kemper Corp. is realigning its property/casualty business. This realignment will result in one property/casualty segment for financial reporting purposes, beginning with the first quarter 2014. The new Kemper...

10 Things to Know About Agribusiness

Feb 24 2014 // According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s 2007 Census of Agriculture, there were 2,204,792 farms in the United States, an increase of 4 percent from 2002. The average farm in the United States has...

Oklahoma, Texas Had Costliest Natural Disasters in 2013: Hartwig

Feb 24 2014 // The Oklahoma tornadoes of May 2013 not only caused significant loss of life but also contributed to its designation last year as the costliest state for natural disaster related insurance payouts, according to the...

Medical Device Maker In Western U.S. Settles Lawsuit

Feb 21 2014 // A medical-device manufacturer with offices in California and Washington has agreed to pay the federal government up to $5.25 million to resolve allegations that it encouraged doctors to over-charge federal health-care...

U.S. Patent Office Moves to Curb Patent Litigation

Feb 21 2014 // The White House announced steps on Thursday designed to reduce frivolous patent lawsuits by trying to make it easier to identify who owns patents and by updating review processes to ensure that fewer weak patents are...

Allstate Beefs Up Agency Force

Feb 21 2014 // Allstate Corp., the largest publicly traded U.S. home and auto insurer, increased its agency count for the first time since 2007 as the company targeted growth beyond the U.S. East Coast to diversify risk. The insurer had...

El Nino Threatens to Return; May Hit Global Food Production

Feb 21 2014 // The El Nino weather pattern, which can trigger drought in some parts of the world while causing flooding in others, is increasingly likely to return this year, hitting production of key foods such as rice, wheat and...

AXA Profit Rises 10% in 2013 on Life, Property and Casualty

Feb 21 2014 // AXA SA, Europe’s second-largest insurer, posted a 10 percent increase in 2013 profit on higher earnings at its life and savings and property and casualty divisions. Net income rose to €4.48 billion ($6.15 billion)...

Predicting Crime with Big Data Without Breaking the Bank

Feb 20 2014 // Researchers at Rutgers’ School of Criminal Justice have developed commercial technology that public safety practitioners and researchers worldwide are using to fight crime. Leslie Kennedy and Joel Caplan of Rutgers...

Gov’t Attorneys Appeal Penn. Health Care Law Contraceptive Rulings

Feb 19 2014 // Government attorneys have appealed two injunctions issued by federal judges on challenges by religious organizations over contraceptive coverage requirements in the new health care law. Department of Justice attorneys...

AIG Launches Cross-Border Casualty Risk Product for Multinational Companies

Feb 19 2014 // American International Group, Inc. (AIG) has launched its Global Casualty Single Solution (GCSS), a new product to cover cross-border casualty risks for U.S.-based multinational companies. The product is designed for...

More Employers to Move to Private Health Insurance Exchanges

Feb 19 2014 // One-third of U.S. employers plan to move their workers’ healthcare coverage to a private exchange in the next few years, a survey found, following the lead of companies like Walgreen Co. seeking to reduce...

Arrowhead General Insurance Agency, Inc. Appoints Bill Farran as President of its Professional Liability Division

Feb 19 2014 // San Diego, Calif. (02/19/2014) – ARROWHEAD General Insurance Agency, Inc., one of the largest program administrators in the country, has appointed Bill Farran as president of the Professional Liability Division. Farran...

Gay Marriage Battle Headed to Federal Courts

Feb 18 2014 // The overturning of Virginia’s gay marriage ban places the legal fight over same-sex unions increasingly in the hands of federal appeals courts shaped by President Barack Obama’s two election...

FSOC’s Insurance Expert Woodall Approved As International Regulatory Observer

Feb 18 2014 // Roy Woodall, the insurance sector voting member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, will finally be getting involved in the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) but as an observer, not a...

Bill in California Would Insure People In U.S. Illegally

Feb 18 2014 // Immigrants living in the country illegally would be able to buy health insurance through the state of California under a bill introduced by a state senator. Only U.S. citizens can buy policies under the Affordable Care Act...

Canadian Pacific Follows CN; Will Impose Surcharge on Older Oil Tank Cars

Feb 18 2014 // Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd is slapping a surcharge on customers who transport crude in older tank cars, following its larger rival in seeking to deter shippers from using the model involved in a series of fiery...

AIA Testifies on Challenges to U.S. Insurers in India

Feb 18 2014 // Stephen Simchak, director of international affairs for the American Insurance Association (AIA), testified about trade and investment barriers that U.S. property-casualty insurers face in India at a public hearing before...

England Floods, U.S. Freezes so Blame Indonesia: Bloomberg’s Marc Champion

Feb 17 2014 // The U.S. is freezing and the U.K. is flooded. Clearly, Indonesia is at fault. That, in any case, is my layman’s interpretation of a report this week from the U.K.’s meteorological agency, the Met Office. It...

In Penn., ACA Exchange Sign-Ups Top 100K Mark as Website Troubles Subside

Feb 14 2014 // More than 123,000 Pennsylvanians have selected an insurance plan under the new federal health care law as troubles with the gateway website have subsided, the U.S. government said Wednesday, although tens of thousands more...