Latest USA Headlines

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

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...

Terrorism Insurance Extended to Four Airlines

Dec 29 2013 // U.S. government insurance that guarantees airlines are covered against terrorism and war was extended for four carriers, including Virgin America Inc., that otherwise would have lost coverage at the end of the...

Safety Improvements On Tap In Minnesota Highway Plan

Dec 27 2013 // One of the priorities of Minnesota’s highway plan for the next two decades calls for investing in safety-related road improvements. The Department of Transportation recently wrapped up a 20-year state highway...

Allstate Settles Lawsuit Against Deutsche Bank Over Mortgage Securities

Dec 27 2013 // Deutsche Bank AG and Allstate Corp. settled a suit the insurer brought that accused the bank of misrepresentations and omissions in connection with loans backing $185 million in mortgage securities. Allstate sued the...

German Firms Not Liable Under U.S. Alien Tort Statute for Aiding Apartheid

Dec 27 2013 // A U.S. judge on Thursday said Daimler AG and Rheinmetall AG cannot be held liable for allegedly aiding and abetting South Africa’s former apartheid government in race-based attacks and injustices. The plaintiffs in...

Judge Rejects BP Complaint Over Proof of Economic Losses from Gulf Oil Spill

Dec 27 2013 // BP Plc lost a bid to require businesses to provide proof their economic losses were caused by the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill under a $9.2 billion settlement over the disaster. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New...