Latest USA Headlines
All the headlines from our USA Topic Page, ordered by recency.
New York Sues OxyContin Maker Purdue Pharma Over Opioids
Aug 15 2018 // New York state on Tuesday sued Purdue Pharma LP, accusing the OxyContin maker of widespread fraud and deception in the marketing of opioids, and contributing to a nationwide epidemic that has killed thousands. The state...
Monsanto’s ‘Junk Science’ Appeal of Roundup Verdict Faces Long Odds
Aug 15 2018 // Bayer AG unit Monsanto faces long odds on an appeal blaming an “inflamed” jury and “junk science” for a verdict of $289 million in damages to a man who said the company’s Roundup weed killer...
To Date, Wildfires Are Burning 3 Times More of California Than in 2017
Aug 14 2018 // California’s wildfires are now burning through land at a pace more than three times faster than last year’s blazes. About 4,200 fires have charred 726,000 acres (294,000 hectares) in the state so far this year,...
Mag 6.4 Earthquake Hits Alaska’s North Slope Region
Aug 14 2018 // Alaska’s North Slope was hit Sunday by the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in the region, the state’s seismologist said. At 6:58 a.m. Sunday, the magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck an area 42 miles (67...
Feds: Missouri Farmworkers Kept in Inhumane Conditions
Aug 13 2018 // A Florida company kept more than 100 temporary farmworkers in “inhumane” and “unsanitary” working conditions while not paying them what they were due as they harvested watermelons in southeast...
U.S. on Lookout for Possible Iranian Cyber Attacks After Reinstatement of Sanctions
Aug 13 2018 // The U.S. is bracing for cyberattacks Iran could launch in retaliation for the re-imposition of sanctions this week by President Donald Trump, cybersecurity and intelligence experts say. Concern over that cyber threat has...
Liberty Mutual’s Q2 Profit Jumps on Life Unit Sale, Lower Catastrophe Costs
Aug 12 2018 // The sale of a life insurance unit and an easing of catastrophe costs boosted Liberty Mutual Holding Co.’s net income for the second quarter to $981 million, well above the $126 million it saw in the same quarter last...
Court Orders Pruitt’s EPA to Reverse Course and Ban Crop Pesticide
Aug 10 2018 // A divided federal appeals court on Thursday ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to ban a widely-used pesticide that critics say can endanger children and farmers. The 2-1 decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court...
July’s Droughts, Wildfires, Floods Caused Billions in Global Economic Losses: Aon
Aug 10 2018 // Many countries across the globe saw worsening in drought-related and wildfire conditions during July, which have led to hundreds of deaths and created a significant financial impact – particularly in the agriculture,...
Global Commercial Insurance Prices Rise for 3rd Consecutive Quarter: Marsh
Aug 10 2018 // Global commercial insurance prices rose in the second quarter of 2018, marking the third consecutive quarter of increases, according to Marsh’s “Global Insurance Market Index.” These average increases...
Workers’ Compensation Results Likely to Weaken Next Year: Fitch
Aug 9 2018 // After three banner years, the U.S. workers compensation market will face increasing pricing pressure and an erosion in results heading into next year. That means 2019 will be closer to a break-even combined ratio rather...
Barbados Ex-Minister Charged in U.S. with Laundering Bribes from Insurer
Aug 9 2018 // A former minister in the government of Barbados has been criminally charged in the United States with laundering bribes he received from a Barbadian insurance company, federal prosecutors said on Monday. Donville Inniss,...
Gig Firms Want California to Override Court Ruling
Aug 8 2018 // Leading gig economy companies including Uber and Lyft are quietly lobbying California’s top Democrats to override or undermine a court ruling that could make many of their contract workers into employees. In April,...
Major Post-Brexit Risk: UK’s $33.5B of Financial Services Exports to EU
Aug 8 2018 // Britain must avoid tying Brussels up in red tape or antagonizing its soon to be former European Union partners and the United States if it is to maintain access to the bloc’s financial services market after...
First Jury Weighs Cancer Claims Against Monsanto’s Roundup
Aug 8 2018 // A trial in which a school groundskeeper alleged that his use of Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer caused his terminal cancer will go to a California jury after lawyers for both sides delivered their closing arguments on...
One Drugmaker Sues Another to Pay Damages from Opioid Marketing Lawsuits
Aug 8 2018 // Allergan Plc on Thursday sued Pfizer Inc. to require its rival to cover any damages it is forced to pay as a result of hundreds of lawsuits claiming Allergan deceptively marketed an opioid it acquired from a company Pfizer...
Judge Sends Oklahoma’s Lawsuit Against Opioid Makers Back to State Court
Aug 7 2018 // U.S. judge has determined that a lawsuit the state of Oklahoma filed against the makers of opioids does not “necessarily rise” to a federal issue. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange in...
Aspen’s Restructuring Continues – To Improve Results, Preserve Shareholder Value
Aug 7 2018 // The chief executive of Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited described business changes to Aspen’s Lloyd’s insurance book last week, while neither unequivocally confirming or denying rumors that a deal to sell the...
U.S. Passengers File Lawsuits Against Aeromexico over Plane Crash
Aug 7 2018 // Eleven U.S. passengers who survived an Aeromexico crash in the northern Mexican state of Durango on July 31 filed lawsuits against the airline in Chicago on Monday, according to a statement by Chicago-based attorneys...
Catastrophe Bonds – A to Z
Aug 7 2018 // A reader of this publication, the president of an insurance agency, recently wrote to say he kept hearing about catastrophe bonds but had little knowledge of what they were. He was curious if these instruments would...
