Latest USA Headlines

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

Judge Orders Cisco to Pay $1.9 Billion in Cybersecurity Patent Lawsuit

Oct 6 2020 // A U.S. judge on Monday ordered Cisco Systems Inc. to pay $1.9 billion to a Virginia company that accused it of copying its cybersecurity patents. U.S. District Judge Henry Morgan in Norfolk, Virginia, concluded after a...

Energy Firm Evacuations Underway as Another Major Storm, Delta, Threatens Gulf Coast

Oct 5 2020 // Energy companies on Monday began evacuating offshore oil platforms as the 25th named storm of the year formed in the Caribbean and was forecast to become a major hurricane before it entered the Gulf of Mexico and threatens...

Ridesharing Companies Spend Big in California to Oppose Even Costlier Gig Law

Oct 5 2020 // Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. together are spending nearly $100 million on a November California ballot initiative to overturn a state law that would compel them to classify drivers as employees. That sum looks less...

Insurers Gain Early Wins in COVID-19 Business Interruption Lawsuits

Oct 5 2020 // Insurers have succeeded in dismissing COVID-19 business-interruption lawsuits in 17 out of 23 cases heard so far, with a growing number of judges finding that some tangible alteration of a property is required to trigger...

Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Jurisdiction Question in Climate Damages Lawsuit

Oct 5 2020 // The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear an appeal by energy companies including BP PLC, Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC contesting a lawsuit by the city of Baltimore seeking damages for...

Appeals Court Reinstates Glaxo $235.5 Million Verdict Against Teva

Oct 5 2020 // A federal appeals court on Friday reinstated a 2017 jury verdict ordering Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. to pay GlaxoSmithKline Plc $235.5 million for selling a generic version of Glaxo’s heart drug Coreg. In a...

Hotel Sector Sees Tough Times, High Rates in Insurance Market

Oct 5 2020 // The hotel industry was one of the first industries affected when COVID-19 forced the travel industry into standstill, and many predict it will also be one of the last industries to recover. Even as travel has ticked up...

COVID-19: No One Avoids the Impact

Oct 5 2020 // Workers’ Compensation Premiums Down 8% in First Half of 2020 Prior to discussing the results of our review of aggregate workers’ compensation insurance written in the U.S. during the first half of 2020 versus...

Value of Employee Benefits

Oct 5 2020 // The pandemic has brought to light the importance of having the right protections in place, especially those that protect life and health. According to The Hartford’s Future of Benefits Study, some 40% of U.S. workers...

Plaintiffs Win One, Lose One in COVID-19 BI Legal Fight

Oct 5 2020 // A federal judge in Florida late last month denied an insurer’s petition to dismiss a COVID-19 business-interruption lawsuit, while a federal magistrate judge in California threw out a similar claim. Both lawsuits...

P/C Mutual Insurers Improved Underwriting in 2019: AM Best

Oct 5 2020 // Top 10 Hold 72% of Market: AM Best Despite a highly competitive property/casualty insurance industry and pressures on operating performance, U.S. mutual insurance companies reported continued improvement in underwriting...

New Jersey Man Sentenced to One Year in Prison for Role in Insurance Fraud Scheme

Oct 2 2020 // A New Jersey man has been sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison for his role in an automobile accident scheme supporting fraudulent insurance claims. Luis G. Aguirre, of Hudson County, N.J., was sentenced for his...

Judge Blocks Trump ‘Secretive’ Commission Report on Police and Civil Justice

Oct 2 2020 // Before a U.S. federal judge on Thursday halted the work of a Trump administration law enforcement commission – saying it had violated public meetings laws – the panel had been warned about shutting out public...

Amazon Reveals 19,000 Frontline Workers Contracted Coronavirus

Oct 2 2020 // Amazon.com Inc. on Thursday said more than 19,000 of its U.S. frontline workers contracted the coronavirus this year, or 1.44% of the total, a disclosure sought by labor advocates who have criticized the COVID-19 response...

Russia-Backed Hackers Behind Most Nation-State Cyber Attacks: Microsoft

Oct 2 2020 // Russia-based hackers are responsible for the majority of nation-state attacks on Microsoft customers, according to new data from company. Microsoft Corp. has issued 13,000 alerts about nation-state hacking attempts to its...

Argument in London Pub Between U.S., British Agents Is Focus of UK Employment Suit

Oct 2 2020 // An insult-laden spat at a London pub that strained relations between U.S. and British law-enforcement agencies is at the center of a employment tribunal lawsuit against the UK Serious Fraud Office. Tom Martin, an...

U.S. Treasury Warns Cyber Insurers Against Paying Ransomware Demands

Oct 1 2020 // The U.S. Treasury Department is warning that individuals or businesses that help facilitate ransomware payments may be violating anti-money laundering and sanctions regulations. The warnings came in a pair of advisories,...

Ascot Names S&P’s Guijarro as U.S. Chief Risk Officer

Oct 1 2020 // Specialty insurer Ascot announced the appointment of Steve Guijarro as U.S. chief risk officer and group head of Exposure Management. Guijarro will have primary responsibilty for Ascot’s enterprise risk management...

FAA Chief Completes Boeing 737 Test Flight: Likes What He Saw But Process Not Done

Oct 1 2020 // Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Chief Steve Dickson conducted a nearly two-hour evaluation flight at the controls of a Boeing 737 MAX on Wednesday, a milestone for the jet to win approval to resume flying after two...

Health Insurer Anthem Settles States’ Cyber Breach Probe for $40 Million

Sep 30 2020 // Anthem Inc. said on Wednesday it would pay $39.5 million as part of a settlement with U.S. states attorneys general following an investigation into a massive cyber-attack at the company in 2015. The second largest U.S....