Latest USA Headlines
All the headlines from our USA Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Providence, R.I., Sues Santander Bank, Alleging Mortgage Bias
May 30 2014 // Banco Santander SA’s U.S. unit was sued by the city of Providence, Rhode Island, over claims it stopped issuing mortgages in minority neighborhoods after the housing bubble burst, the latest in a series of...
Understanding Wildfire Risk: A Closer Look at the Wildland-Urban Interface
May 30 2014 // This post is part of a series sponsored by CoreLogic. More than 21,500 fires have burned nearly 700,000 acres so far in 2014 (as of May 29, 2014), and these fires have been caused by both lightning strikes and more...
CN Rail Sees U.S. Banning Older Rail Tank Cars for Oil in 3-5 Years
May 30 2014 // Canadian National Railway Chief Executive Claude Mongeau said on Thursday he expects U.S. regulators to phase out use of DOT-111 tank cars in three to five years, following a deadly explosion in Quebec last year. Mongeau...
U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Fen-Phen Lawyers’ Appeal of $42M Kentucky Verdict
May 29 2014 // A $42 million judgment against a group of former attorneys will stand after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up an appeal in the case. The justices on Tuesday rejected a request from now-disbarred lawyers William...
Crash-Avoiding Automatic Brakes Becoming Standard Equipment: IIHS
May 29 2014 // Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) and Daimler AG are among automakers that are improving and speeding up their use of automatic brakes as part of efforts to reduce front-end crashes, a U.S. safety group said. The BMW...
Shipping Firms Shy Away from Iran Despite Deal to Ease Sanctions
May 29 2014 // Global shipping lines are increasingly shying away from handling cargoes to Iran as restrictions on banking and insurance continue unabated, despite an interim agreement between Tehran and the West that called for limited...
FTC Calls for Consumer Disclosure by Data Brokers
May 28 2014 // Companies known as data brokers collect and sell information about “nearly all” U.S. consumers, drawing potentially harmful conclusions about them largely without their knowledge, U.S. regulators said on...
Ratings Recap: Frankenmuth, Sooner, Tokio Marine America, Kingstone, Canopius U.S., HDI-Gerling America
May 28 2014 // A.M. Best has revised the outlook to stable from negative and affirmed the issuer credit ratings (ICR) of “a+” of Frankenmuth Mutual Insurance Company and its affiliates, Ansur America Insurance Company,...
BP Can’t Hold Spill Payments Until Supreme Court Hears Settlement Appeal
May 27 2014 // BP Plc can’t delay writing checks for hundreds of millions of dollars in damage claims while it asks the U.S. Supreme Court to review disputed payments in its $9.2 billion accord over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil...
Viewpoint: U.S. Can Learn from Florida Climate Change Response
May 27 2014 // Adapting to climate change is such a daunting task that it can be hard to know where, or how, to begin. Here’s one answer: in southeastern Florida, with yellow foam earplugs. The plugs are needed to keep out the din...
Ratings Recap: Dominion, Ardellis, NAGICO, JRG Re
May 27 2014 // A.M. Best has assigned a financial strength rating (FSR) of ‘A’ (Excellent) and issuer credit rating (ICR) of “a” to The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company, based in Toronto, Ontario,...
GM Now Links 47 Crashes to Ignition Failure
May 27 2014 // General Motors Co. has now linked 47 crashes to small cars with defective ignition switches while saying it hasn’t increased the number of deaths tied to the accidents. “We have done a thorough analysis of all...
Australia’s Suncorp Plans $462 Million Write-down, Cuts Growth Target
May 27 2014 // Suncorp Group Ltd., Australia’s largest general insurer by market value, plans a A$500 million (US$462 million) write-down at its life insurance unit and cut its growth target for the year to June 2015. The...
ACE Expands Travel Coverage for Religious, Educational Institutions
May 23 2014 // ACE Group has expanded its web-based portal to provide coverage for U.S.-based religious organizations and educational institutions, whose employees, students and volunteers travel internationally. The portal,...
North Carolina Senate Votes to Make Disclosure of Fracking Chemicals Illegal
May 23 2014 // The North Carolina Senate on Thursday voted to make it a crime to disclose the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, even as big U.S. oil companies elsewhere consider releasing more information about the...
‘Old GM’ Customer Loses Appeal Over Bankruptcy
May 23 2014 // A bankruptcy judge’s decision that a General Motors Co. customer failed to state a valid claim against the estate of so-called Old GM was upheld by a federal judge in Manhattan. Such rulings don’t get...
Report Faults U.S. Oversight of Chemical Plants
May 23 2014 // The government has no way of fully knowing which U.S. chemical facilities stock ammonium nitrate, the substance that exploded last year at a Texas fertilizer plant and killed 14 people, congressional investigators say....
Lloyd’s U.S. Chief on Board with Climate Change
May 22 2014 // Despite risking offense to non-believers, Hank Watkins didn’t hesitate when he was asked if climate change was upon us. Watkins, president of Lloyd’s America, talked about an extensive report Lloyd’s of...
Dodd-Frank, Flood Insurance Foe Hensarling Faces Test on TRIA Renewal
May 22 2014 // When Jeb Hensarling took over the congressional panel that spawned the Dodd-Frank Act, he vowed to roll back the landmark Wall Street law and eliminate government programs that backstop private markets. More than a year...
Protecting Brand Names from Cyber Threats – a Growth Sector
May 22 2014 // Cyber security and cyber threats are growing, both in numbers and in costs. They will certainly continue to increase as they follow the increases in Internet use and the rapid changes in how electronic information is...
