Latest USA Headlines
All the headlines from our USA Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Army Corps Report Claims Actions Reduced Tennessee Flooding
Jul 23 2010 // The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has concluded its actions during the May floods reduced the Cumberland River’s flood crest in Nashville by 5 feet, but the agency suffered numerous communications problems during the...
Tropical Storm Threatens Gulf Oil Disaster Containment
Jul 23 2010 // BP Plc oil spill workers in the Gulf of Mexico prepared for a possible evacuation Thursday as a tropical storm threatened more delays in attempts to end the environmental disaster. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said...
S&P’s Ratings on AIG Unchanged by New Board Chairman
Jul 23 2010 // Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said today that its ratings on American International Group (AIG; A-/Negative/A-1) and AIG’s insurance subsidiaries (most of which are rated A+/Negative/–) are not...
Florida Braces for Tropical Storm Bonnie
Jul 23 2010 // Tropical Storm Bonnie barreled toward south Florida Friday on a track that was expected to take it over the site of BP Plc’s massive oil spill in the energy-rich Gulf of Mexico by Saturday afternoon. The fast-moving...
S&P Comments on Dodd-Frank Act’s Implications for Insurers
Jul 23 2010 // A comment from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services notes that the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act “seeks to expand regulation to address many aspects of the financial services...
Business Groups Press Emerging Economies over Doha
Jul 22 2010 // Brazil, China and India must use their growing economic might to help revive deadlocked global trade talks, a coalition of business lobby groups said in a letter to U.S. and European Union trade negotiators. The letter,...
Midwest Threatened with More Flooding
Jul 22 2010 // The Mississippi River is back above flood stage from the southern tip of Iowa through Missouri, leaving some communities on edge as more storms threaten to bring more water. Parts of southern Iowa, northern Missouri and...
Private Firm WSI Cuts U.S. Hurricane Forecast to 19 Named Storms
Jul 21 2010 // Private weather forecaster WSI Corp cut its forecast for named storms in the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season on Tuesday, but still sees an active season with water temperatures and wind conditions conducive to violent...
Another Agency Probing Pittsburgh-Area Coke Blast
Jul 21 2010 // Another federal agency has joined the investigation of an explosion at a Pittsburgh-area coke plant that injured 20 workers last week. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board has sent a three-person team to U.S. Steel’s...
WrightUSA Launches Liability Plan for Government Employees
Jul 20 2010 // WrightUSA has launched a professional liability product tailored to United States government employees with international exposures. The product – branded as the World Wide Plan – will respond to any allegation...
Investors Face Uphill Battle with Liability Lawsuits Against BP
Jul 20 2010 // Shareholders angry about BP Plc’s battered stock price are heading to the courthouse in hopes of reclaiming some of their losses, but they face an uphill battle. Since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in April,...
Goldman Sachs Deep Pockets May Still Make It Lawsuit Target
Jul 20 2010 // Goldman Sachs put one headache behind it by settling with U.S. securities regulators, but it looks like a tempting deep pocket for banks and hedge funds that bought subprime-backed mortgage securities. A day after the U.S....
Canada Trade Minister Urges Action on Big Doha Issues
Jul 19 2010 // WTO member states must find answers to bilateral squabbles if they want to achieve any global breakthrough in free trade talks, Canada’s trade minister said Friday. In an interview with Reuters, Peter Van Loan said...
Risk Managers Not Satisfied With U.S. Insurance Providers’ Service
Jul 19 2010 // Corporate risk managers report a serious and growing disconnect between themselves and their insurance brokers and carriers: At a time when U.S. companies are enhancing internal risk management capabilities and elevating...
As the Wholesale World Turns
Jul 19 2010 // E&S Brokerage Mergers, Expansions and Start Ups, Oh My! As goes the circle of life, so goes the wholesale insurance broker world. Not even the sixth year of a soft market cycle has deterred industry veterans from...
Supreme Court Decision Limits Non-U.S. Companies’ Exposure to U.S. Securities Litigation
Jul 19 2010 // Securities lawsuits against BP and Toyota may be substantially narrowed, thanks to a recent Supreme Court decision. On June 24, 2010, in a long-awaited decision that will affect the circumstances under which non-U.S....
Minor Earthquake Shakes Up U.S. Capital
Jul 19 2010 // Earthquakes are so rare in the Washington area that even a geology student wasn’t quite sure what was going on when a minor one hit early Friday. Was it a truck passing by? A low-flying plane? Gerasimos...
AIG to Pay $725M to Settle Securities Fraud Lawsuit
Jul 19 2010 // American International Group Inc. agreed to pay $725 million to settle a long-running securities fraud lawsuit led by three Ohio public pension funds, in one of the largest class action settlements in U.S. history. AIG,...
Business Moves
Jul 19 2010 // First Mercury, Valiant First Mercury Financial Corp., based in Southfield, Mich., reported that its principal insurance subsidiary, First Mercury Insurance Co., is acquiring Valiant Insurance Group Inc., a subsidiary of...
Ratings Roundup: Consumer Services, B&B
Jul 19 2010 // A.M. Best Co. has downgraded the financial strength rating to ‘B++’ (Good) from ‘A-‘ (Excellent) and the issuer credit rating to “bbb” from “a-” of New Zealand’s...
