Latest USA Headlines
All the headlines from our USA Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Obama Expected to Issue Cyber Defense Order
Feb 12 2013 // President Barack Obama plans to release a long-awaited executive order aimed at improving the nation’s defenses against cyber attacks as early as Wednesday, according to sources familiar with the matter. The order,...
HMS Bounty’s Sinking During Sandy Under Investigation
Feb 11 2013 // More than a week before Hurricane Sandy became a superstorm that would zero in on the U.S. Northeast, while it was just a tropical depression bouncing around the Caribbean, a captain headed out to sea. The HMS Bounty...
Arbitrators Press Ecuador to Halt Chevron Judgment Enforcement
Feb 11 2013 // An international tribunal weighing in on Chevron Corp’s long-running legal dispute over pollution in Ecuador has found the country in violation of past orders to try to prevent enforcement of a contested $19 billion...
Half of 2012’s Global Economic Losses Due to U.S. Natural Disasters: Aon
Feb 11 2013 // While global economic losses were close to average in 2012, insured losses were 36 percent higher than the 10-year average ($72 billion versus $53 billion) because the two most costly events of the year occurred in the...
U.S. Commercial Insurance Prices to Firm in 2013: Marsh
Feb 11 2013 // Rates for commercial lines insurance will continue to rise in 2013, thanks to above average losses, low investment returns and receding reserve releases. However, according to a report by Marsh, traditional signs of a...
A Future Filled With Driverless Cars
Feb 11 2013 // Visions of robotic self-driving cars may appear like something from a George Lucas film but in June 2011, this vision took a giant leap toward becoming reality when Nevada became the first state to enact legislation that...
Arch to Acquire Interests in California Firm From Bankrupt PMI
Feb 8 2013 // Arch Capital Group Ltd., through its U.S.-based subsidiaries (Arch U.S. MI), will acquire all outstanding equity interests in San Francisco, Calif.-based CMG Mortgage Insurance Co. from bankrupt Arizona-based PMI Mortgage...
Ratings Recap: Auto Club (Michigan), Atlas Financial, Merced Mutual, ING US (Notes), PEMCO
Feb 8 2013 // A.M. Best Co. has downgraded the financial strength rating (FSR) to ‘A-‘ (Excellent) from ‘A’ (Excellent) and the issuer credit ratings (ICR) to “a-” from “a” of Auto Club...
U.S., States Weigh Suing Moody’s Over Mortgage Ratings
Feb 8 2013 // The U.S. Justice Department and multiple states are discussing also suing Moody’s Corp. for defrauding investors, according to people familiar with the matter, but any such move will likely wait until a similar...
Catholic Bishops Reject Obama Compromise on Contraception Coverage
Feb 8 2013 // U.S. Roman Catholic bishops on Thursday rejected the Obama Administration’s latest bid for compromise over a hotly disputed health policy that requires employees at religiously affiliated institutions to have access...
Court Says Trial Must Decide Travelers, Reinsurers Asbestos Case
Feb 8 2013 // New York state’s highest court on Thursday said a trial must determine whether Travelers Cos. deliberately structured a nearly $1 billion asbestos settlement to force its reinsurers to pay more than their fair...
Catlin Group’s $339 Million 2012 Profit Less than Forecast as Sandy Loss Widens
Feb 8 2013 // Bermuda-based insurer Catlin said its profit fell short of analysts’ forecasts because of a bigger than expected claims bill from Superstorm Sandy and the Costa Concordia shipwreck. Catlin, operator of the biggest...
Australia, Indonesia Floods Highlight Aon Benfield’s January Cat Report
Feb 8 2013 // In its latest monthly Global Catastrophe Recap report Impact Forecasting, the catastrophe model development center of excellence at Aon Benfield, focuses on the torrential monsoonal rains, which caused severe flooding...
West Virginia Court Rules Negligent Mine Inspectors Can Be Sued
Feb 7 2013 // Private and federal mine safety inspectors can be held liable and sued when a negligent inspection results in the wrongful death of a coal miner, the state Supreme Court ruled in handing a victory to the widows of two men...
RBS Fined $612 Million for Libor Rate Rigging
Feb 7 2013 // Royal Bank of Scotland will pay $612 million to U.S. and British authorities to settle allegations it manipulated benchmark interest rates, and regulators warned there is more to come in the global investigation. RBS...
Government’s Case Against S&P: Ratings Stopped Making Sense
Feb 6 2013 // Barely two weeks after the big subprime lender New Century Financial Corp. went bankrupt, a top Standard & Poor’s executive assured Congress that her employer could be counted on to sound the alarm for the next...
BP Balks at Oil Spill Price Tag Sought by States
Feb 6 2013 // BP Plc has tallied up claims made by states and local governments on the U.S. Gulf Coast for economic and property damages from the Macondo oil spill, and come up with a figure of $34 billion, which it deems...
Lockton Re Hires New Execs to Strengthen Global Reinsurance Capabilities
Feb 6 2013 // Privately-owned Lockton and its specialist reinsurance division, Lockton Re, announced the strengthening of its global brokerage and client relationship capabilities, with a number of senior level hires both in London and...
U.S. Hits S&P with $5 Billion Fraud Lawsuit Over Mortgage Securities Ratings
Feb 5 2013 // The U.S. government is seeking $5 billion in its civil lawsuit against Standard & Poor’s, accusing the ratings service of defrauding investors, in one of the most ambitious cases yet from the Justice Department...
BP, States May Still Be Far Apart Over Oil Spill Deal
Feb 4 2013 // It is a question that has lawyers and many others on the U.S. Gulf coast buzzing: Will BP strike a massive deal to settle the remaining claims over the Gulf of Mexico well blowout? BP could be nearing a settlement of...
