Latest USA Headlines
All the headlines from our USA Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Business Should Prepare for Potential East, Gulf Coast Port Strike: Marsh
Dec 6 2012 // A potential labor strike by longshoremen in ports from Maine to Texas at the end of the year could have devastating economic consequences as inventory depletion, rerouting, hoarding, and price speculation ripple through...
Viewpoint: Trade Sanctions and Risk Management
Dec 5 2012 // The U.S. government has increasingly used laws and regulations that impose economic sanctions on others as an instrument to advance foreign policy and national security goals, with some of the most recent efforts aimed at...
Thai Group Buys Ping An Stake from HSBC for $9.38 Billion
Dec 5 2012 // A conglomerate controlled by Thailand’s richest man, Dhanin Chearavanont, has bought a minority stake in China’s Ping An Insurance for $9.38 billion from global bank HSBC, a bold move that ranks as Asia’s...
Extreme Weather is New Normal, U.N.’s Ban Tells Climate Change Talks
Dec 5 2012 // Extreme weather is the new normal and poses a threat to the human race, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday as he sought to revive deadlocked global climate change talks. Ban’s intervention came as...
Supreme Court Denies Appeal of Kentucky Fen-Phen Lawyer
Dec 4 2012 // The U.S. Supreme Court refused on Monday to hear an appeal by a Kentucky lawyer accused of cheating clients out of millions of dollars paid in a settlement over the diet drug combination fen-phen. The high court, without...
Supreme Court Allows GM Workers’ Pension Claim Against State Street Bank
Dec 4 2012 // The U.S. Supreme Court is allowing General Motors Co. employees whose pension plans lost money to pursue their case against a State Street Corp. unit over its management of their retirement savings plans before the...
Court Finds Rating Agencies Not Liable on Toxic Mortgages
Dec 4 2012 // Major credit rating agencies won a fresh legal victory on Monday when a federal appeals court rejected a lawsuit by Ohio pension funds that sought to recoup millions of dollars of losses on risky mortgage debt they said...
Supreme Court to Rule If Human Genes Patentable
Dec 3 2012 // The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to decide whether human genes can be patented, a hotly contested issue with broad consequences for the future of gene-based medicine. The nation’s highest court agreed to...
Official Urges Collaboration On Wildfire Projects in West
Dec 3 2012 // As the western U.S. comes off a tough wildfire season, more collaboration is needed to guard against catastrophic fires and to restore charred forests and rangeland, a senior federal official said at a Western...
Deadly 2012 Hurricane Season Ends
Dec 3 2012 // The 2012 Atlantic hurricane season that spawned the destruction of Sandy and Isaac has come to an end as one for the record books. There were 19 named storms in what meteorologists consider an above-average year that tied...
Weathered Income
Dec 3 2012 // Do poor- and middle-income residents in the United States suffer more, economically, from extreme weather than affluent people? According to a new report on the impact of extreme weather events that have occurred over the...
U.S. Judge Allows Civil Suits in Meningitis Outbreak to Proceed
Nov 30 2012 // A federal judge in Boston on Wednesday allowed civil suits against the pharmacy at the heart of the deadly U.S. meningitis outbreak to proceed and noted that any criminal case would have priority in gathering evidence.An...
Hurricane Center Seeks to Improve Storm Surge Warnings
Nov 30 2012 // Friday marks the end of an Atlantic-Caribbean hurricane season where the greatest devastation was caused by water rather than wind, U.S. National Hurricane Center Director Rick Knabb said. Accordingly, the center is...
Ratings Recap: Zurich America, Prism, FAIRCO, American Standard
Nov 30 2012 // A.M. Best Co. has affirmed the financial strength rating of ‘A+’ (Superior) and issuer credit ratings (ICR) of “aa-” of Illinois-based Zurich American Insurance Company (Zurich US) and its...
West Virginia Mine Blast Probe Widens, Top Executives Could Be Next
Nov 30 2012 // Federal prosecutors investigating the West Virginia mine explosion that killed 29 men have widened their net, filing criminal charges against a longtime Massey Energy executive who worked closely with former CEO Don...
U.S. Regulators Urge Flexibility in Basel III Rules for Banks, Insurers
Nov 30 2012 // U.S. lawmakers and state financial regulators on Thursday called on federal officials to revamp proposed rules that would force financial firms to hold much more capital, asking them to consider the impact on small banks...
Goverment Allows WellPoint Purchase of Amerigroup
Nov 29 2012 // WellPoint Inc. can move forward with its $4.5 billion purchase of health insurance rival Amerigroup Corp after Amerigroup alleviated antitrust concerns by selling operations in Virginia, the U.S. Justice Department said on...
Climate is ‘Changing before our Eyes’ Says World Meteorological Organization
Nov 29 2012 // The fact that Arctic sea ice has melted this year to its lowest recorded level shows, along with other weather extremes, that “climate change is taking place before our eyes,” the World Meteorological...
Munich Re Study Focuses on Rising ‘Cyber Crime’
Nov 29 2012 // “Cyber attacks are a reality and companies need to prepare themselves,” warns Munich Re in a recently released study – “Cost of Cyber Crime” – conducted by the Ponemon Institute....
Appeals Allow Louisiana Cardiologist Convicted of Fraud to Remain Free
Nov 28 2012 // A former Lafayette cardiologist is asking to remain free pending a request that the U.S. Supreme Court hear an appeal of his 2009 health-care fraud conviction and 10-year prison sentence. The Advocate reports Dr. Mehmood...
