Latest USA Headlines

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

Arkansas Homeowners Settle Suit Charging Fracking Wastewater Caused Quakes

Aug 29 2013 // Five Arkansas residents who sued two oil companies claiming wastewater disposal wells from fracking caused earthquakes that damaged their homes settled with the companies for an undisclosed sum on Aug. 28, according to...

Blackstone Settles IPO Disclosure Lawsuit for $85 Million

Aug 29 2013 // Blackstone Group LP reached an $85 million settlement with investors over claims it made misrepresentations about its initial public offering. A U.S. appeals court in 2011 reversed the dismissal of a proposed class-action...

TD Bank Profit Falls 10% on Weather Insurance Costs

Aug 29 2013 // Toronto-Dominion Bank’s quarterly profit fell 10 percent as Canada’s No. 2 lender took C$418 million in insurance-related charges, but the result topped estimates and the bank hiked its dividend by 5...

Cyber Alert: Syria, Aided by Iran, Could Retaliate Against More U.S. Companies

Aug 28 2013 // If the United States attacks Syria, it will be the first time it strikes a country that is capable of waging retaliatory cyberspace attacks on American targets. The risk is heightened by Syria’s alliance with Iran,...

Merrill Lynch Reaches $160 Million Settlement in Black Advisers’ Bias Suit

Aug 28 2013 // Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch unit agreed to pay $160 million to settle a discrimination lawsuit filed by black financial advisers, a lawyer for the plaintiffs said. The case, filed in 2005, was brought on...

Wal-Mart Will Offer Health Insurance to U.S. Employees’ Domestic Partners

Aug 28 2013 // Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said on Tuesday it will offer health insurance benefits to domestic partners of its U.S. employees starting next year, following the lead of other major companies. The world’s largest retailer,...

Homeland Security Chief Says U.S. Should Expect ‘Major’ Cyber-Attack in Future

Aug 27 2013 // The U.S. will face a cyber-attack in the future that will cause major disruption in the economy, the outgoing Homeland Security Department chief said. “Our country will, at some point, face a major cyber-event that...

Arkansas Lawsuits Test Fracking Wastewater Link to Quakes

Aug 27 2013 // Tony Davis, a 54-year-old construction worker in central Arkansas, said he welcomed the boom in natural gas drilling that brought jobs and new businesses to his hometown starting about a decade ago. But that was before the...

Cities, States with Best Drivers: Allstate

Aug 27 2013 // Drivers in Washington, D.C. are the most accident-prone of any U.S. city, again placing at the bottom of an annual ranking by Allstate Corp. Motorists in the nation’s capital get in a collision every 4.8 years, more...

AIG to Get $905 Million From Brookfield to End Rate-Swap Dispute

Aug 26 2013 // American International Group Inc., the insurer that repaid a U.S. rescue last year, agreed to accept $905 million from Brookfield Asset Management Inc. to resolve a dispute tied to interest-rate swaps. Brookfield,...

G20 Leaders Expected to Back Easy Rules on Shadow Banking

Aug 26 2013 // World leaders are expected to take a softly-softly approach to regulating the so-called shadow banking sector when they meet in Russia next month to avoid damaging the flow of finance to the global economy. While...

Questionable Software Patents Main Reason for Rise in Lawsuits: GAO

Aug 23 2013 // Software patents are the biggest reason behind a rise in litigation over inventions, especially against companies that use the technology, the U.S. Government Accountability Office found. Its study, required under a law...

Canada Weighs Mandating Minimum Insurance for Railways

Aug 23 2013 // Canada should force railways to take out enough insurance to ensure they can cover damage caused by major incidents, the Canadian Senate said on Thursday in a report issued after last month’s train disaster in...

ACE Expands Coverage for Educators, Students Traveling Abroad

Aug 22 2013 // The ACE Group has expanded its International Advantage insurance product to offer enhanced coverages for higher education clients whose employees, students and volunteers travel internationally. According to The National...

Drivers Over Age 55 Far More Likely to Die in Job Accidents Than Younger

Aug 22 2013 // Employees age 55 or older who drive as part of their jobs are more likely to be killed in accidents than younger colleagues because of declining cognition and greater susceptibility to injury, according to a U.S....

Wildfires Across The West Push Spending Past $1B

Aug 22 2013 // More than 40 uncontained, active and large wildfires dot the western U.S. from Arizona to Washington state and Alaska, taxing national firefighting resources and helping to push spending past $1 billion for the year. The...

CVS Shuts Access to Opioid Painkillers for Suspect Doctors

Aug 22 2013 // CVS Caremark Corp said on Wednesday that it has taken the unusual step of cutting off access to powerful painkillers for more than 36 doctors and other healthcare providers found to prescribe the drugs at an alarmingly...

Employer Health Premiums Slow for Second Year: Kaiser

Aug 22 2013 // Health-insurance premiums to cover working Americans rose 4 percent this year, less than the previous two years in another sign that the cost of employee benefits for U.S. companies may be slowing. Annual premiums for a...

College Athletes’ Claims Over Video Game Images Delayed

Aug 22 2013 // Electronic Arts Inc. won a court ruling that puts on hold claims accusing the company of profiting from using likenesses of college athletes in its video games. The ruling by a federal appeals court in San Francisco will...

Retired Players Sue NFL Over Use of Images in Films

Aug 22 2013 // The National Football League was sued by 10 retired players, including Curley Culp and John Riggins, who claim the NFL unfairly violates their rights of publicity by using their images to sell NFL Films products. Five Hall...