Latest USA Headlines
All the headlines from our USA Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Supreme Court Rejects Allstate Challenge to Texas Repair Shop Law
Feb 21 2008 // The U.S. Supreme Court this week rejected Allstate Corp.’s challenge to a Texas law that restricts insurance company ownership of auto collision repair shops. Allstate sought review of its case at the high court,...
U.S. Treasury Optimistic on Bond Insurance Solution
Feb 21 2008 // The U.S. Treasury Department is optimistic that problems in bond insurance will be worked out and progress is being made, a senior Treasury official said Thursday. Treasury Undersecretary for Domestic Finance Robert Steel...
Kingsway Reports Q4, FY Loss
Feb 20 2008 // In its earnings report (in U.S. dollars) released last week Toronto-based Kingsway Financial Services Inc. reported a fourth quarter loss of $103.5 million, and an $18.5 million loss for the full year. The Company said the...
IRS Tax Code Change Called Threat to Captive Insurance States
Feb 20 2008 // U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., is asking the U.S. Treasury to block a pending tax code change seen by some as a threat to Vermont’s captive insurance industry. Welch and three Democratic colleagues from states that...
U.S. Supreme Court Declines New Orleans Levee Flood Damages Case
Feb 20 2008 // The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a case brought by New Orleans property owners who argued their Hurricane Katrina flood damage should be covered despite insurance policy exclusions because the flooding was...
U.S. High Court Bars Some State Suits over Medical Devices
Feb 20 2008 // The Supreme Court handed a victory to Medtronic Inc., ruling that patients cannot sue medical-device manufacturers in state court over harm from a device that has approval from federal regulators. By an 8-1 vote, the court...
U.S. Supreme Court to Hear 5 Age Bias Cases This Term
Feb 19 2008 // There is only one anti-bias law — the one against discrimination based on age — that would cover all nine U.S. Supreme Court justices, if such laws applied to them. The justices, ranging in age from 53 to 87, are the...
N.C. Poultry Industry Workplace Safety Prompts Federal Hearings Plans
Feb 19 2008 // U.S. Senate and House committees are planning hearings on worker safety in the poultry industry following a report by The Charlotte Observer on House of Raeford, congressional leaders and aides said. “All Americans...
Progressive Receives U.S. Patent for Concierge Claims Service
Feb 15 2008 // Progressive Insurance reports it has received a U.S. patent for one of its methods of processing vehicle damage claims, which it calls its concierge level of claims service. With this service, Progressive takes...
U.S. Proposes System to Promote Voluntary Reporting of Medical Errors
Feb 15 2008 // The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released a proposed regulation that promises to foster Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs), private entities that would collect information on medical erors, or...
S&P Takes Rating Actions -‘Mostly Negative’- on U.S. Mortgage Insurers
Feb 15 2008 // Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has issued a blanket bulletin outlining the rating actions, which it notes are “mostly unfavorable,” on several U.S. mortgage insurers and their core and dependent...
U.S. Risk Names Haselden VP – Commercial Underwriting
Feb 14 2008 // Managing general agency and surplus lines wholesaler U.S. Risk Insurance Group Inc. announced it has named Terri Haselden vice president and manager of the Dallas Commercial Underwriting Department. Haselden, an...
Avid Biker, U.S. Transportation Chief Sends Helmet Legislation to Congress
Feb 14 2008 // U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters today sent legislation to Congress that she said seeks greater flexibility for states to target one of the leading causes of motorcycle deaths across the nation – riding...
AIG Downplays $5B Write-Down; Rating Agencies, Wall Street Concerned
Feb 12 2008 // While American International Group Inc. sought to downplay its miscalculation of losses on a derivatives portfolio as not “material to the company,” Wall Street was abuzz with speculation over whether the...
Up in Smoke No More
Feb 10 2008 // States aim to prevent residential fires by requiring ‘fire safe’ cigarettes Movies — think Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart in “The Big Sleep” — often make cigarette smoking look glamorous. Of...
People
Feb 10 2008 // Former Ace Ltd. CEO and Chairman Brian Duperreault has stepped down from the Bermuda-based insurer to assume to role of president and CEO of Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc. Duperreault replaces Michael Cherkasky, who...
More Atlantic Hurricane Activity Doesn’t Mean More Landfall Risk
Feb 10 2008 // New research on the link between the formation of hurricanes in the Atlantic basin and U.S. landfall activity suggests that using Atlantic basin hurricane activity as a proxy for landfall activity can lead to erroneous...
Texas Joins Rest of the U.S. in Profitability Upswing of Last Few Years
Feb 10 2008 // I.I.I.’s Hartwig says the state is still one of the riskiest in which to operate The last few years have been good ones for the property casualty insurance industry in terms of profitability. But it’s been a...
Time to Invest Infrastructure
Feb 10 2008 // U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval recently dismissed a lawsuit against the U.S. Corps of Engineers over levee failures in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Duval ruled the Corps had immunity from the...
Declarations
Feb 10 2008 // Just as Dangerous “We already have this law in effect for people who drive motor vehicles while under the influence, why should it be any different for watercraft? They are just as dangerous as vehicles, if not more...
