Latest USA Headlines

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

House Passes Terrorism Reinsurance Renewal; Senate to Take Up Measure

Nov 19 2019 // The House of Representatives on Monday passed a bill reauthorizing the federal terrorism reinsurance program by a vote of 385-22. The vote came on the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2019 (H.R....

Dollar General to Pay $6M to Settle Federal Class Race Discrimination Suit

Nov 19 2019 // Major retail chain Dollar General will pay $6 million and furnish other relief to settle a federal class race discrimination lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in...

California Sues E-Cigarette Seller Juul for Targeting Teens with Nicotine Products

Nov 19 2019 // The state of California on Monday sued e-cigarette maker Juul Labs Inc., alleging the San Francisco company engaged in a “systematic” and “wildly successful” campaign to attract teenagers to its...

Civilian Plane Crash Deaths Rose 15% in 2018

Nov 18 2019 // Federal safety officials say that 393 people died in U.S. civilian plane crashes last year, a 15% increase over the year before. All but a dozen of the deaths occurred in general aviation, which usually involves small...

N.J. Man Sentenced to 150 Months in Prison for Insurance Fraud, Drug Distribution

Nov 18 2019 // An Atlantic City, N.J., man was sentenced to 150 months in prison for selling more than 200 grams of crystal methamphetamine and for staging a fake robbery of a Union County, N.J., pawnshop for the purpose of perpetrating...

Microsoft Puts Israeli Facial Recognition Startup Under Ethics Microscope

Nov 18 2019 // Microsoft Corp. has hired former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate whether the use of facial recognition technology developed by an Israeli startup it funded complies with its ethics principles, the company...

Data Firm Palantir’s Partnership with Japan’s Sompo Insurance Targets Health, Cyber

Nov 18 2019 // Silicon Valley data analytics company Palantir Technologies Inc. has established a joint venture with Japanese insurance holding company Sompo Holdings Inc. that will initially focus on health and cybersecurity clients,...

Demand for M&A Insurance Sees Significant Growth: Aon

Nov 18 2019 // An increase in M&A activity in today’s challenging economic environment is driving significant growth in demand for M&A insurance products, according to a report published by Aon. Aon’s report finds...

Smokers Who Switch from Tobacco to Vaping Rapidly Boost Heart Health: Study

Nov 18 2019 // Chronic smokers who switched from tobacco cigarettes to e-cigarette vapes in a large randomized control trial saw a significant improvement in markers of heart health after just a month, researchers said on Friday. In...

Supreme Court Will Hear Google’s Latest Effort to End Oracle’s Copyright Claim

Nov 18 2019 // The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear Google’s bid to escape Oracle Corp.’s multi-billion dollar lawsuit accusing Google of infringing software copyrights to build the Android operating system that...

Boosting Resilience to U.S. Wildfires Should Be Insurance Industry Priority: I.I.I.

Nov 18 2019 // Nearly a year after the deadliest and costliest wildfire in U.S. history, insurers and the customers they cover are revisiting how to reduce their collective exposure to this risk, according to the Insurance Information...

People & Places

Nov 18 2019 // National W. R. Berkley Corp. has appointed Marlo M. Edwards as president of Verus Underwriting Managers. Edwards succeeds Dale H. Pilkington, who is retiring. Edwards joins Verus with 20 years of experience in the property...

U.S. Attorney: Oklahoma Man Sentenced for Stealing Almost $370K from Employer

Nov 15 2019 // A Tulsa, Oklahoma, man was sentenced to 15 months in prison and ordered to repay nearly $370,000 after being found guilty of stealing from his employer. Ernest Everette Howard, 49, of Tulsa, must $368,329.61 in...

Insurance Premiums to Grow 3% Despite Economic Slowdown: Swiss Re

Nov 14 2019 // Global insurance premiums will grow 3 percent on average over the next two years even with an emerging global economic slowdown, Swiss Re said in its latest sigma report. Rising lost costs will fuel the moderate but steady...

Employee Lawsuit Claims McDonald’s Fails to Address Sexual Harassment

Nov 13 2019 // Mc Donald’s Corp. was sued on Tuesday by workers in Michigan who accused the fast-food chain of allowing pervasive sexual harassment to flourish at its restaurants nationwide. The proposed class action lawsuit filed...

Insurance Council of Australia Declares Catastrophe for New South Wales Bushfires

Nov 12 2019 // The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) on Nov. 9 declared a catastrophe for the bushfires blazing in northern New South Wales. The catastrophe declaration is for communities on the mid-north coast affected by bushfires...

Program Manager Victor O. Schinnerer Rebrands as Victor US

Nov 12 2019 // Insurance program manager Victor O. Schinnerer and Co. has rebranded as Victor US. The announcement completes the larger global unification and rebranding of The Schinnerer Group to Victor Insurance Holdings that was begun...

Typhoon Hagibis to Cost Japan’s Economy $10B, with Insured Losses in Billions: Aon

Nov 8 2019 // Typhoon Hagibis is likely to become one of 2019’s costliest events, with economic costs of more than US$10 billion and insured losses minimally in the billions, according to Aon’s monthly catastrophe...

Reuters Report: How Plaintiff Lawyers Help Corporate America Keep Its Secrets

Nov 8 2019 // Paula Lawlor was sifting through piles of internal General Motors Co. documents in a hotel room outside of Los Angeles when she hit pay dirt: Company records showing that GM knew for years that stronger roofs on its...

UPS Liable for Shipping Contraband Cigarettes in New York, Damages Reduced

Nov 8 2019 // A federal appeals court found United Parcel Service Inc liable to New York state and New York City for shipping hundreds of thousands of cartons of untaxed cigarettes, but reduced its payout for damages and unpaid taxes to...