Monthly Archives: <span>February 2016</span>

Energy Firms Cut Back Projects, Insurers Feeling Downturn

The insurance industry is becoming the latest casualty of the oil price slump, with postponements and cancellations of energy projects forcing down premium rates and income in a market that was already crowded. Insurers forecast income could dive by 20 …

Nearly 1 in 5 U.S. Vehicles on Roads Today Have Open Safety Recalls

Nearly one in five vehicles on U.S. roads is in need of repair of a safety issue serious enough to be involved in a federal government recall, according to used-car history provider Carfax. There are more than 47 million cars …

Insurance Fraud Around the Nation

Man pleads guilty to $190K insurance fraud scheme, extortion A bookmaker has pleaded guilty to charges he shot a gambler with a stun gun and tried to burn down a restaurant in a $190,000 insurance fraud scheme in Hartford. The …

How Regulatory Requirements Drive Workers’ Compensation Costs

On Tuesday, February 9, Safety National hosted a webinar on how the bureaucracy of workers’ compensation drives costs. The hosts of the Out Front Ideas webinar, Mark Walls, vice president of communications and strategic analysis at St. Louis-based Safety National, …

New York Art Gallery, Sotheby’s Chairman Settle Fake Rothko Painting Case

Knoedler & Co, which before closing in 2011 was New York City’s oldest art gallery, has agreed to settle a lawsuit over an $8.3 million sale of a fake Rothko painting, just as its ex-president was preparing to testify at …

Connecticut Governor, Health Officials Sued Over Ebola Quarantines

Several people quarantined in Connecticut after returning from West Africa during the Ebola epidemic in 2014 were essentially imprisoned illegally under a state policy based on politics, not science, according to a lawsuit they filed on Monday. The lawsuit was …

Louisiana Using New Tactics to Collect Fines for Insurance Lapses

Louisiana has implemented new ways of collecting fines from people the state believes are driving without insurance. The Advocate reports the recently formed Office of Debt Recovery has the authority to extract money from bank accounts, intercept tax refunds and …

Cleanup Plan Approved for Contaminated Montana Town

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency granted final approval Monday to a costly cleanup program for a Montana community where health officials say hundreds of people have been killed by asbestos poisoning. The agency’s action comes more than 15 years after …

Warning Issued on Exploding Bulk-Battery Shipments on Planes

U.S. aviation safety officials are raising new warnings about the dangers of carrying bulk shipments of lithium-based batteries on commercial flights. The Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates the aviation industry, on Tuesday sent a notice to airlines urging them to …

President Plans New Top Level Cyber Official

The Obama administration is creating a new high-level federal official to coordinate cybersecurity across civilian agencies and to work with military and intelligence counterparts, as part of its 2017 budget proposal announced Tuesday. The $19-billion increase in cybersecurity funding across …