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U.S. Motorists Drove Record 3.2 Trillion Miles in 2016

Motorists drove a record 3.22 trillion miles (5.2 trillion km) on U.S. roads last year, a 2.8 percent rise from 2015 and the fifth consecutive year of year-over-year increases, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Motorists logged 263.6 billion …

17 Million Homes Located in Environmental High Danger Zones

Millions of homes and condominiums across the country are in high danger zones for environmental hazards. According to the Environmental Hazards Housing Risk Index, produced by ATTOM Data Solutions, 17.3 million single family homes and condos with a combined estimated …

Lloyd’s Names Carnegie-Brown to Succeed Nelson as Chairman

Bruce Carnegie-Brown will become the chairman of Lloyd’s following a meeting of the Council of Lloyd’s where his appointment as successor to John Nelson was approved unanimously. His appointment also was unanimously supported by the Lloyd’s Franchise Board. The council, …

Researchers Creating Software to Clean up Big Data

Like a teenager’s bedroom, big data is often messy. Malfunctioning computers, data entry errors and other hard-to-spot problems can skew datasets and mislead people — everyone from data scientists to data hobbyists — trying to draw conclusions from raw data. …

Ford, Google Worry About Humans Being Too Complacent in Self-Driving Cars

As Ford Motor Co. has been developing self-driving cars, the U.S. automaker has started noticing a problem during test drives: Engineers monitoring the robot rides are dozing off. Company researchers have tried to roust the engineers with bells, buzzers, warning …

FTC Conducting Probe of Auto Lenders’ Kill Switches

A U.S. regulator is looking at whether auto finance companies that use sophisticated technology like ignition kill switches are illegally harassing subprime borrowers that have fallen behind on their payments. The Federal Trade Commission, a consumer protection agency, has asked …

Mild Northeast Winter Leads to 10 Snowmobiler Deaths

Ten snowmobilers have died in thinly frozen lakes across the Northeast so far in a relatively mild winter. Most of the accidents happened in New York state, where officials warned that, despite recent snowfalls, many lakes have not had enough …

Arizona High Court to Rule on Liability in Asbestos Take Home Exposure Case

The Arizona Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether employers can be held liable to somebody who contracted cancer from asbestos brought home on a parent’s work clothes. The case stems from the 2014 death of Dr. Ernest Quiroz, whose …

California Dam Putting More Than 50,000 Homes at Risk

Days after thousands of people were allowed to return to their homes near Lake Oroville, Calif., more than 50,000 homes remain at risk of flood damage, according to analysis released last week by CoreLogic. If all of the homes located …

States Consider Letting Dental Therapists Fill Cavities, Pull Teeth

Need a tooth pulled or a cavity filled? Forget the dentist. A number of states are allowing or considering letting “dental therapists,” professionals with a lower level of training, do the job. In dozens of countries and a handful of …

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