Latest Washington Headlines
All the headlines from our Washington Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Washington Business Owner And Mom Charged with Insurance Fraud
Feb 15 2019 // Two Yakima County, Wash. residents were charged in Superior Court this week in connection with separate auto insurance fraud claims. The charges followed investigations by Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler’s...
Lockton Adds Lau in Employee Benefits in Washington
Feb 13 2019 // Lockton has named JoAnn Lau an employee benefits consultant in Bellevue, Wash. She has more than 30 years in the insurance industry. She is part of the Mountain West series, which includes offices in Denver, Phoenix and...
Jury Awards $123M to Victims in Washington Duck Boat Crash
Feb 11 2019 // A Washington jury has awarded about $123 million to the victims and families of a 2015 duck boat crash that killed five college students and injured more than 60 others in Seattle. After a four-month civil trial, King...
Sanctions Against Sudan Are Lifted but Insurers Still Can’t Buy Overseas Reinsurance
Feb 11 2019 // Sixteen months after the United States lifted most sanctions on Sudan, businesses are unable to operate dollar transactions, insurance companies are cut off from the reinsurance market and the local airline is virtually...
Microsoft’s Home State’s Facial Recognition Privacy Bill Could Be Model for Others
Feb 8 2019 // Two months after calling for laws to regulate facial-recognition software, Microsoft Corp. is lobbying on behalf of a first-of-its-kind bill in its home state of Washington. The question is whether cross-town rival...
Court Ruling Against ‘Law of Nature’ Patent Riles Biotech
Feb 7 2019 // A way to diagnose a severe neurological disorder can’t be patented as it covers a law of nature, a U.S. appeals court ruled Wednesday in a closely watched case that sought to clarify the patenting for medical...
Former Agents in Washington Charged with Theft for Writing Fake Policies
Feb 5 2019 // Three Pierce County, Wash. residents were charged with crimes related to insurance fraud in Pierce County Superior Court The charges follow investigations by Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler’s Criminal...
Washington D.C.’s Ensurise Merges with Maryland’s Reese, Yeatman & Associates
Jan 24 2019 // Independent insurance agency Ensurise LLC has merged with the property and casualty insurance brokerage operations of Reese, Yeatman & Associates Inc. Founded more than 40 years ago by Michael G. Reese Sr., Reese...
U.S. Privacy Regulation Tested by Facebook Scandals
Jan 24 2019 // Facebook Inc.’s repeated privacy scandals have infuriated users, lawmakers and data-security advocates who are clamoring for a forceful government response. That job mainly falls to Joe Simons, who is under pressure...
Insurers Advised Political Volatility, Economic Slowdown, Floods Among Top Risks
Jan 24 2019 // As insurers track both old and new risks heading into 2019, here’s one that carriers don’t typically consider: The White House. David Wessel, director of The Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy, cited...
M&T Insurance Agency Hires Batt in Washington D.C.
Jan 22 2019 // M&T Insurance Agency (MTIA) has hired Jeffrey Batt to its Washington, D.C., office as the cyber insurance practice leader. In this role, he will manage client relationships by providing cyber insurance and risk...
First States to Legalize Marijuana See Rise in Car Insurance Claims, Research Shows
Jan 7 2019 // Crashes are up by as much as six percent in Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, compared with neighboring states that haven’t legalized marijuana for recreational use, according to research from the Insurance...
20 Indicted in Washington for Staging Crashes to Defraud Auto Insurers
Jan 7 2019 // Twenty people have been indicted by a grand jury in Spokane, Wash., for allegedly staging vehicle crashes to defraud insurance companies. Defendants are accused of staging a series of automobile, boating,...
Workers’ Lawsuit Against Washington Farm Given Class-Action Status
Jan 7 2019 // A U.S. District Court judge in Seattle, Wash., has certified a class-action lawsuit on behalf of some 600 Mexican workers who have alleged labor abuses at a Whatcom County blueberry farm. The suit alleges the company...
2019 Insurance Industry Meetings & Conventions Directory
Jan 7 2019 // 2019 CIWA Industry Days Jan 6-8 Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines La Jolla, CA CIWA www.ciwa.net 2019 Big ‘I’ Winter Meeting Jan 9-12 Hyatt Regency St. Louis at the Arch St. Louis, MO Independent Insurance Agents...
Maryland Warehouse Fire Causes Estimated $1.5M in Damage
Jan 2 2019 // A warehouse fire in a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C., has caused damage to a business that supplies temporary bleachers and scaffolding. Prince George’s County fire department spokesman Mark E. Brady told the...
Data Show Car Accidents Up in States That First Legalized Marijuana
Dec 28 2018 // Crashes are up by as much as six percent in Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, compared with neighboring states that have not yet legalized marijuana for recreational use, according to research from the Insurance...
Workers’ Lawsuit Against Washington Farm Given Class-Action Status
Dec 27 2018 // A U.S. District Court judge in Seattle, Wash. has certified a class-action lawsuit on behalf of some 600 Mexican workers who have alleged labor abuses at a Whatcom County blueberry farm. The Seattle Times reported the...
Ineffective Anti-Drone Systems Leave U.S. Airports Facing Risks Like London’s
Dec 27 2018 // U.S. airports may be just as vulnerable as London’s Gatwick airport to the kind of illegal drone incursions that shut down the U.K.’s second-busiest hub this week. Counter- drone technology performed so poorly...
20 Indicted in Washington for Staging Crashes to Defraud Auto Insurers
Dec 21 2018 // Twenty people have been indicted by a grand jury in Spokane, Wash., for allegedly staging vehicle crashes to defraud insurance companies. Defendants are accused of deliberately staging a series of automobile, boating,...
