Yearly Archives: <span>2019</span>

Busy Hurricane Season Does Less Damage, but Leaves Ominous Signs

The Atlantic Ocean has spawned lots of storms this season while doing much less damage than prior years. But warming waters promise trouble ahead. The 2019 Atlantic hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30, has been the eighth most-active in named …

California’s Housing Crunch is Pushing Developers Deeper into Dangerous Fire Zones

The Santa Ana winds were blowing as Greg Medeiros ducked behind his Chevy Tahoe on a remote hillside 25 miles from the edge of Los Angeles’s sprawl. He gestured to the valley below, describing his vision of Centennial, the city …

Viewpoint: Highlighting Actionable Insights in the Claims Process

Analytics has been a hot topic for a few years now, and for good reason. More than half of analytics leaders reported a correlation between their organization’s analytics initiatives and seeing a “significant improvement” in their competitive standing. In the …

Jailhouse Romance, Flammable Artwork and Stolen Gun Lead to Fraud Charges

A former San Francisco deputy sheriff who hooked up with one of the inmates at her jail and plotted with him to file a $67,000 insurance claim was sentenced last week to 14 months in prison. Thursday’s sentencing of April …

Road-Safety Regulator Rapped Over Regulating Autonomous Cars

The nation’s road-safety regulator is under fire again for what critics call lax oversight of tests involving autonomous vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration doesn’t give enough direction to companies developing automatous cars, the chairman of the National Transportation …

Fire Contained at Texas Oilfield Site, One Critically Injured

One person was seriously injured in a Midland, Texas, explosion and fire on Thursday involving several storage tanks and a truck used in oilfield operations, city and hospital officials said. The fire was contained at the property owned by petroleum …

California Faces Decade of ‘Unique’ Wildfire Blackouts

California utility PG&E Corp has imposed 10 intentional blackouts this year to reduce risks its power infrastructure could spark wildfires and said they will continue for a decade. PG&E initially said outages would happen only a couple of times a …

Uber’s Introduction of Dashboard Cameras Raises Privacy Worries

Uber Technologies Inc. is adding video and audio recording for more trips — a move designed to make the service safer and help settle disputes, but which has triggered privacy concerns about the personal information the ride-hailing giant collects. Uber …

Disaster-Born Safety Rules Topple With Others in Trump Rollback

The Trump administration’s move to relax an Obama-era chemical safety regulation put in place after an explosion at a fertilizer plant is the latest example of the White House easing rules established in the wake of disasters. Trump’s professed goal …

Boeing Settles More Than Half of Lion Air Crash Lawsuits – Lawyer

CHICAGO — Boeing Co has settled more than half of some 118 claims related to the fatal crash of a Lion Air flight on a 737 MAX aircraft in October 2018, attorney Dan Webb said at a court hearing on …