Latest Washington Headlines
All the headlines from our Washington Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Online Insurance Transactions Pondered by Washington Legislature
Jan 27 2014 // Washington state legislators will consider modernizing how insurance transactions are conducted. House Bill 2662, authored by State Rep. Derek Stanford, D-Bothell, will enable policyholders to access their insurance policy...
Washington Panel Issues Dueling Climate Reports
Jan 24 2014 // A bipartisan Washington climate panel has released dueling reports how to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. The panel posted separate reports online Wednesday, splitting along party lines. It had missed a...
Felony DUI Bill Working in Washington Legislature
Jan 22 2014 // A Seattle man who lost his parents and whose wife and infant son were seriously injured last March by a drunken driver asked a Senate panel on Monday to pass a measure that would make it a felony charge to drive under the...
Commuter Train Crashes Prompt Call for Safety Improvements
Jan 17 2014 // Commuter rail accidents including a New York derailment last month that killed four prompted a U.S. investigative agency to name improving transit safety as its top priority for 2014. The National Transportation Safety...
Senate Re-Election Politics Boosts Flood Insurance Delay Proposals
Jan 16 2014 // Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will do just about anything to help Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu. He arranged the chamber’s floor agenda this week so Landrieu could lead debate on a flood insurance rate reprieve...
Benefits Team Joins Leavitt Group in Washington
Jan 14 2014 // The Leavitt Group’s Tacoma, Wash. office has expanded services by bringing on three employee benefits professionals. Jon Montgomery, senior executive vice president of benefits, will lead the new employee benefits...
Calls for Tougher Chemical Regulation Follow West Virginia Spill
Jan 14 2014 // A chemical spill that left 300,000 people in West Virginia unable to drink their water is reviving calls for more stringent regulation of thousands of chemical storage sites in the U.S., especially those near water...
Obamacare to Ramp Up Pitch to Younger Insureds
Jan 14 2014 // The U.S. government said it would ramp up Obamacare outreach in 25 cities to lure younger people to the program after a report showed about 70 percent of the initial customers are 35 years of age or older. The effort by...
Policing the ‘Dark Side’ of Internet of Things
Jan 13 2014 // The futuristic world of self-driving cars, eyeglasses that e-mail and trash cans that call for pickup is running into the old-fashioned pace of doing business in Washington. Companies from Google Inc. to Bayerische Motoren...
Deputy Assault Lawsuit Settled By Washington County
Jan 3 2014 // Yakima County, Wash. has settled a lawsuit stemming from an assault by an on-duty sheriff’s deputy against his estranged wife. The Yakima Herald reported the woman has reached a $250,000 settlement with the...
Cellphone Records Call Up Fraud Against Washington Woman
Dec 23 2013 // An investigation by Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler’s office has resulted in charges of theft and fraud against a Tacoma woman who attempted to collect insurance money for a car she claimed was stolen...
Judge Rejects Catholic Church Challenge to Obamacare Birth Control Coverage
Dec 23 2013 // The Catholic Church isn’t harmed by the U.S. Affordable Care Act’s requirement for providing employees with insurance coverage for contraceptives, a judge ruled, throwing out most of a lawsuit challenging the...
Washington Lawyer Faces Four Felonies in Alleged Insurance Scam
Dec 16 2013 // Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler is looking for residents who might be victims of a Seattle attorney who has been charged with four felonies related to a $500,000 insurance settlement. Seattle private law...
How Insurance Industry Associations Help Those in Need
Dec 16 2013 // Big “I” member agents, along with former Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann, at a Make-A-Wish event on April 21, 2013, at Pfitzner Stadium in Woodbridge, Va., to benefit local children. Big...
1,700 Pot Business Applications Received In Washington
Dec 12 2013 // Marijuana business license applications keep rolling in in Washington. The state Liquor Control Board says it has received 1,696 applications from people seeking permission to grow, process or sell cannabis under the new...
Washington Jury Awards $50M After Test Misses Birth Defect
Dec 12 2013 // Lawyers say a King County, Wash. jury has awarded $50 million to a Burien couple whose son was born with profound mental and physical disabilities after a hospital and lab failed to detect his genetic abnormalities. Brock...
Personal Genetic Tests Now Subject to Sharper Scrutiny After 23andMe Episode
Dec 12 2013 // The genetic test firm 23andMe Inc.’s clash with U.S. regulators over the direct sale of its gene analysis service to consumers signals stiffer oversight of thousands of tests in an industry predicted to increase...
Washington Victim Of Botched Laser Surgery To Get $30M
Dec 9 2013 // A jury has recently awarded an additional $18 million to a woman whose botched surgery at a Wenatchee, Wash. hospital left her unable to speak. The Wenatchee World reported that Becky S. Anderson was having polyps removed...
Glass-Steagall Firewall Could Return If Volcker Rule Disappoints
Dec 9 2013 // Five U.S. agencies will finish the Volcker rule tomorrow after more than three years of Wall Street resistance to its limits on trading and investing. Lawmakers and their allies who want to rein in big banks are ready to...
Washington Navy Yard Shooting Victim’s Family Files Suit in Florida
Dec 6 2013 // The family of a woman slain during the mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard is the first to file a lawsuit against the U.S. government and defense contractors over the slaughter that left 12 dead, alleging that...
