Latest USA Headlines
All the headlines from our USA Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Insurance M&A Trends That May Lead to ‘Perfect Storm’ in 2014
Jan 9 2014 // Encouraged by a vigorous period of insurance M&A activity in the second half of 2012, many in the industry had high expectations of robustness in 2013. It’s clear now that 2013 M&A activity did not reach the...
Senate Bill Seeks More Disclosure of Government Settlements with Firms
Jan 8 2014 // Two U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday unveiled a new bill that would force enforcement agencies to provide more details about deals to resolve corporate misconduct by U.S. companies. Senators Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts...
U.S. Crops Escaping Cold Snap with Little Damage
Jan 8 2014 // U.S. crops are escaping record- setting cold weather with little damage, while the arctic blast drove cattle prices to a record as animals struggle to gain weight. The coldest spots in Florida citrus groves were near...
Europe Hit by $2.25 B Economic Loss: Impact Forecasting December Cat Report
Jan 8 2014 // Impact Forecasting, the catastrophe model development center of excellence at Aon Benfield, has issued its monthly Global Catastrophe Recap report for December 2013. It highlights the impact on Europe of a series of...
India Refiners Delay Iran Oil Imports on Failure to Get Reinsurance
Jan 8 2014 // Indian Oil Corp. and two other state- run refiners said they will defer resuming purchases of Iranian crude by at least three months, having failed to get reinsurance for shipments after Europe said it would relax a...
Insurance Broker and Former Toms River, N.J., Mayor Get Prison Sentence
Jan 7 2014 // A New Jersey insurance broker and the former mayor of Toms River, N.J., were each sentenced Monday for separate schemes involving officials of Toms River and the former insurance broker for the Toms River regional school...
U.S. Sen. Schumer Seeks to Turn Up Heat on Railcar Safety
Jan 7 2014 // U.S. Senator Charles Schumer on Monday called for an overhaul of old rail tank cars used to carry crude oil after a spate of explosive derailments over the past year. The New York Democrat joined a growing number of...
Prudential Fraud Claims Against Goldman Sachs Over Securities Dismissed
Jan 7 2014 // Prudential Financial Inc. agreed to dismiss its claims that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. engaged in fraud and racketeering in selling $375 million of residential mortgage-backed securities, a court order shows. U.S. District...
Florida Oranges Dodge Bullet, Escape Damage From Freezing Temperatures
Jan 7 2014 // Orange groves in Florida, the world’s biggest grower after Brazil, escaped cold weather damage overnight as frigid air set records across the Midwest. The coldest spots in Florida citrus groves were near freezing,...
Norwegian Air CEO to Meet Boeing over Dreamliner Problems
Jan 7 2014 // The Chief Executive of budget airline Norwegian Air Shuttle, Bjoern Kjos, plans to meet Boeing management in the United States next week to discuss problems with its Dreamliner planes, Norwegian media reported on...
Munich Re’s Review of 2013 Cat Losses Focuses on Weather-Related Events
Jan 7 2014 // In its annual review of loss events in the past year, Munich Re emphasized the “exceptionally high losses from weather-related catastrophes in Europe and Supertyphoon Haiyan,” which, the report said,...
Appeals Court to Fast-Track BP’s Bid to Halt Gulf Oil Spill Payments
Jan 3 2014 // BP Plc’s bid to block economic-loss payments tied to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill unless the claims can be directly linked to the disaster won fast-track consideration by an appeals court. The London-based...
Doctors, Hospitals Expect Confusion as Obamacare Plans Begin
Jan 2 2014 // Hospitals and medical practices across the United States braced for confusion and administrative hassles as new insurance plans under President Barack Obama’s healthcare law took effect on Wednesday. More than 2...
North Dakota Train Fire Restarts Oil Transport Safety Debate
Jan 2 2014 // The derailment and fire that led to the evacuation of a North Dakota town has renewed the debate over whether it’s safer to ship oil by rail or pipeline as the U.S. completes a review of the Keystone XL...
Assurant Solutions Streamlines Domestic Operations, Expects to Take $4M Charge
Dec 31 2013 // Assurant Solutions conducted workforce reductions in the U.S. during the fourth quarter as part of its continued efforts to streamline operations, primarily in its domestic credit insurance and extended protection...
Circle These Dates: Health Law’s Key Tests in 2014
Dec 31 2013 // The new year brings the big test of President Barack Obama’s beleaguered health care law: Will it work? The heart of the law springs to life Wednesday, after nearly four years of political turmoil and three months of...
U.S. Opens Skies to Test Use of Aerial Drones
Dec 31 2013 // The U.S. government took a step on Monday toward opening the skies to aerial drones, authorizing six sites where unmanned aircraft can be tested for a variety of uses. The Federal Aviation Administration already had...
Second Suicide Bomber in Russia’s Volgograd Kills 14 on Bus
Dec 31 2013 // A bomb ripped a bus apart in Volgograd on Monday, killing 14 people in the second deadly attack blamed on suicide bombers in the southern Russian city in 24 hours and raising fears of Islamist attacks on the Winter...
Southern California Bus Company Ordered to Cease Operations
Dec 30 2013 // The U.S. Department of Transportation ordered a Los Angeles-based bus company to cease operations after federal safety investigators said they discovered its vehicles were allowed on the road with serious safety defects...
The Top 25 U.S. Insurance Stories of 2013
Dec 30 2013 // In 2013, InsuranceJournal.com readers flocked to news about insurance carriers (Travelers, Berkshire, Liberty Mutual, Tower and others) making moves, changes in Obamacare, the fate of federal flood insurance reforms and...
