Latest Washington Headlines
All the headlines from our Washington Topic Page, ordered by recency.
3 Things Insurance Professionals Should Know in Honor of Wine Day
May 25 2018 // National Wine Day is a thing. And it’s today. Oenophiles probably know that May 25 is Wine Day, but the annual celebration of fermented grapes might be news to those who only like, but don’t necessarily love,...
Washington Orders Microsoft to Stop Using Captive Insurer
May 21 2018 // Washington’s insurance commissioner issued a cease and desist order against Microsoft Corp. to stop using its Arizona-domiciled captive, Cypress Insurance Co. Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler’s cease and...
Password Stolen; Create a New One. What If Your Retina Scan or Fingerprint Is Stolen?
May 11 2018 // A retail store’s ability to authenticate customers by scanning their unique ear or retinal patterns may seem like something out of a sci-fi movie, but this type of identification technology isn’t...
Leavitt Group Acquires HBT Insurance in Washington
May 8 2018 // Auburn, Wash.-based HBT Insurance has been acquired by Leavitt Group. HBT will affiliate with the group and merge with Leavitt Group Northwest. Terms of the deal weren’t announced. HBT’s Bill Cowart and Bob...
Flood, Tax Relief, Cyber Security: Risk Managers’ View on the Political Turmoil in Washington
May 7 2018 // Congress is headed for a “major showdown” over the flood insurance program, according to an insurance broker lobbyist who notes that the program expires July 31, right in the middle of hurricane season. That...
Former Insurance Producer in Washington Pleads Guilty to Felony Theft
May 4 2018 // Former insurance producer Matthew Gingerich, 37, of Centralia, Wash., recently pleaded guilty to first-degree theft in Lewis County Superior Court. Gingerich was accused of misappropriating more than $30,000 in...
Arthur J. Gallagher Acquires ClearPoint in Washington
May 3 2018 // Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has acquired Bellevue, Wash.-based ClearPoint Financial Inc. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Paul Grutzner, Michael Brown and their associates will continue to operate from their current...
Hub Acquires Assets of Washington-Based BK-JET Group
Apr 24 2018 // Hub International Ltd. has acquired the assets of Spokane, Wash.-based BK-JET Group LLC. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Joining Hub Northwest are BK-JET’s founding partners Josh Tyndell, Erin Repp, Tom Blue,...
Maintenance Boss in Washington Sues for Wrongful Firing
Apr 23 2018 // A former state supervisor of maintenance workers on McNeil Island is suing Washington state, contending he was wrongfully terminated for trying to correct problems with work performance. Jon Hardy filed a lawsuit against...
How Insurance Brokers, Risk Managers View the Political Dysfunction in Washington
Apr 20 2018 // Congress is headed for a “major showdown” over the flood insurance program, according to an insurance broker lobbyist who notes that the program expires July 31, right in the middle of hurricane season. That...
Southwest Fatality First for a U.S. Airline in 9 Years
Apr 17 2018 // One passenger was killed when an engine blew out on a Southwest Airlines Co. jetliner carrying 149 people, marking the first fatality on a U.S.-registered airline in more than nine years. The plane, bound for Dallas from...
Family of Man Shot by Police Files Suit Against Washington City
Apr 17 2018 // The family of a Native American man fatally shot by police who mistook a cellphone for a gun has filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Lakewood, Wash. and police involved in the 2015 shooting. The Seattle Times...
Closing Quote: Legalized Marijuana Looks Like Bad News for Highway Safety
Apr 16 2018 // This past January, adults in California could line up for the first time to legally buy marijuana for personal, nonmedical use. That is when the nation’s largest state joined seven other states and Washington, D.C.,...
Washington Workers’ Radiation Exposure Halts Nuke Plant Demolition
Apr 12 2018 // Seven decades after making key portions of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, workers at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation are being exposed to radiation as they tear down buildings that helped create the...
Washington Commissioner Fines GEICO $30K for Raising Premiums on People Who Froze Credit Scores
Apr 4 2018 // Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler issued fines in February totaling $49,200 against insurance companies, agents and brokers who violated state insurance regulations. The biggest fine was $30,000 against GEICO...
Asbestos Concerns Halt Restoration of Century-Old Washington Hotel
Mar 26 2018 // Restoration work on a century-old former hotel in eastern Washington has been halted after air quality inspectors say they found signs of asbestos. The Spokesman-Review reported that the state Department of Labor and...
Students Lead March for Stronger Gun Safety Laws
Mar 26 2018 // Thousands of high school students and supporters gathered in Washington and across the U.S. Saturday to demand tougher gun laws from an older generation that’s delivered little change after years of mass...
Legislation to Combat Online Sex Trafficking Clears Congress; Moves to President
Mar 22 2018 // Congress passed a bill to combat online sex trafficking that has split the tech industry, bringing one of the first measures to weaken legal protection for websites closer to becoming law as Big Tech faces a mounting...
Lemonade Enters Pennsylvania, Washington D.C. in National Expansion
Mar 22 2018 // Lemonade, the insurance company powered by artificial intelligence and behavioral economics, has launched in both Pennsylvania and Washington D.C. It announced the expansion on social media. These mark the sixth and...
Microsoft Internal Findings Say Gender Bias at Washington Tech Giant Rarely Founded
Mar 16 2018 // Microsoft Corp.’s investigators concluded that fewer than 1 percent of gender-discrimination complaints made internally were “founded,” according to data unsealed in an ongoing class-action lawsuit. The...
