Monthly Archives: <span>November 2018</span>

California Woman Got Email From Utility About Issue a Day Before Fire

A day before a deadly blaze destroyed a California town, the giant utility Pacific Gas & Electric Co. got in touch with Betsy Ann Cowley, saying the company needed access to her property because its power lines were causing sparks. …

Business News: ISCM/CAS, QBE, ISO

ISCM, CAS Institute Launch New Education and Credentialing Program for Catastrophe Risk Professionals The International Society of Catastrophe Managers (ISCM), a professional association promoting catastrophe management professionalism within the insurance industry, and The CAS Institute (iCAS), a subsidiary of the …

Cold Snap Gives Texas Earliest Snowfall Ever Recorded

Houston reported its earliest snowfall ever, beating places like New York City and Boston as a cold snap descended over Texas. George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston set a new record for the first observed snowfall, breaking one set on …

Insurers Dispatch Wildfire Crews to Save California Homes

California’s raging wildfires are so bad that American International Group Inc., Chubb Ltd., and PURE are deploying teams of specialists and former firefighters to spray retardants on homes. The season may soon rank among the industry’s most costly. The latest …

Nevada Course Preps Students to Investigate Wildfires

After a wildfire burns swaths of land, someone has to investigate the clues left behind to determine the fire’s cause and, possibly, prevent another one. A hands-on class offered near a northern Nevada airport teaches participants how to do it. …

Scientists Say Wind, Drought Worsen Fires, Not Bad Management

Both nature and humans share blame for California’s devastating wildfires, but forest management did not play a major role, despite President Donald Trump’s claims, fire scientists say. Nature provides the dangerous winds that have whipped the fires, and human-caused climate …

Commentary: Rules of the Road Continue to Evade Driverless Cars

People have been imagining driverless cars since at least 1958, when Walt Disney Co. aired “Magic Highway U.S.A.” It’s been almost five decades, and we’re still talking about them. Initially, evolution in transport had been a product of necessity: As …

NHL Reaches Tentative Settlement in Concussion Lawsuit

The NHL and attorneys for retired players announced a tentative settlement Monday in the biggest lawsuit brought against the league over concussions and other head injuries. The lawsuit, consolidated in federal court in Minnesota and by far the largest facing …

Utilities Targeted as Fires Press Lawyers Into Action

Edison International and PG&E Corp. may face lawsuits as soon as this week blaming them for the fires raging through communities in southern and northern California. Each utility has reported disturbances to its equipment close to the starting points of …

Feds Say Vehicle Theft Ring Exposes Oversight Weakness

A ring of savvy car thieves in New York exploited a bureaucratic weakness by registering many of their ripped-off Lamborghinis and Range Rovers in South Dakota, a state that lets people register out-of-state vehicles by mail and wasn’t thoroughly checking …