Latest California Headlines

All the headlines from our California Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Former California Agent Charged With Scamming Elderly Church Members

Apr 13 2015 // Constance Gail Fortune, 61, was arraigned in Los Angeles Superior Court in California and charged with three felony counts of grand theft and one felony count of financial elder abuse for allegedly scamming seniors, many...

Chung and Perez-Reyes Named SVPs at Hub in California

Apr 13 2015 // Hub International Insurance Services Inc. has promoted Gay Catherine Chung to senior vice president and client director and Arturo Perez-Reyes to senior vice president and cyber-group leader of the executive liability...

California Regulators Order PG&E to Pay $1.6B for Deadly Gas Blast

Apr 13 2015 // California regulators imposed the largest penalty in the agency’s history, ordering PG&E Corp. to pay $1.6 billion for failures that led to a deadly 2010 natural gas pipeline explosion in a San Francisco suburb.A...

California Regulator: Utility Too Big to be Safe

Apr 10 2015 // Repeated natural-gas accidents – including a 2010 pipeline explosion that killed eight people – suggest that California’s largest power utility could be too big to operate safely, the state’s top utility...

Bill Giving California Agents Access to Vehicle Records Heads to Committee

Apr 10 2015 // A bill that would direct the California Department of Motor Vehicles to give insurance agents and brokers better access to motor vehicle records will be heard before the before the Assembly Transportation Committee on...

California Independent Agents Group Names New Associate Members

Apr 9 2015 // The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of California announced its new 2015 associate members. The new associate members join a list companies that make up the IIABCal membership ranks. They are: Heartland Payment...

Jury Finds California Woman Guilty On Multiple Counts of Insurance Fraud

Apr 8 2015 // Jill Audette, 28, of San Diego, Calif., was convicted on five felony counts of insurance fraud and leaving the scene of a collision after falsely claiming her car was stolen and involved in a hit and run collision....

California Agent Nabbed on Bogus Bond, $100K Premium Theft Charges

Apr 8 2015 // Licensed insurance agent Lars Hedegaard, 63, of Danville, Calif. was arrested on two felony counts of grand theft.Hedegaard was doing business as Westport &Associates Insurance Services Inc. when he allegedly issued 14...

Nearly 500K License Applications in California Under AB60

Apr 7 2015 // California received nearly a half-million applications for driver’s licenses from immigrants in the country illegally in the three months since a new law took effect. Department of Motor Vehicles Director Jean...

Former California Agent Convicted of Stealing School Employee Identities

Apr 7 2015 // Magaly Morales, 51, a former life insurance agent, has been sentenced to three years and four months in state prison for stealing information from school district employees in 13 California counties.Morales last week plead...

WCIRB Submits Lower Mid-year Filing to California Department of Insurance

Apr 6 2015 // The California Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau on Monday submitted a July 1 pure premium rate filing to the California Department of Insurance proposing advisory rates that average $2.46 per $100 of...

LP Insurance in California Names Cheta Workers Comp Consultant

Apr 6 2015 // LP Insurance Services Inc. has named Shalila Cheta as a workers’ compensation consultant in it risk management services division in California. Cheta has more than 20 years of experience in California workers’...

Frolich Joins Barney & Barney in California

Apr 6 2015 // Barney & Barney Insurance Services LLC has named Carla Frolich a client executive.Frolich will work in the firm’s San Francisco and Walnut Creek, Calif. offices. Barney & Barney’s Bay Area locations...

People – West

Apr 6 2015 // Encino, Calif.-based Republic Indemnity Company of America has named Allen Goodwin president. He succeeds Dwayne Marioni, who retired earlier in early March.Goodwin joined the company in 2011 as senior vice president of...

California Bill Fixes DMV Addendum Affecting Broker-Agents

Apr 6 2015 // After decades of broker-agents sharing driver motor vehicle records with insurers to underwrite and rate personal and commercial automobile policies, the California Department of Motor Vehicles late last year began...

Facebook Sued by California Woman for Discrimination, Harassment

Apr 6 2015 // A former Facebook employee is suing the company on allegations that she was discriminated against, harassed and belittled during her brief employment there.Chia Hong filed the lawsuit in mid-March in a San Francisco Bay...

NOAA: No Spring Drought Relief for California, Nevada, Oregon

Apr 6 2015 // Californians facing a fourth year of drought conditions — and some other parts of the West – shouldn’t count on any relief in the coming months.In California this doesn’t bode well for chances of a mild...

IICF Club100 in Hollywood Recognized Insurance Pros for Charity

Apr 6 2015 // The Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation’s Club100 event at the Avalon Hollywood in Hollywood, Calif., on March 30 drew more than 200 industry professionals to help raise funds for charity.The annual IICF event...

The West Not Yet Fully Won for Ridesharing

Apr 3 2015 // On the heels of last week’s cross-industry compromise on insurance requirements for ride-sharing drivers, and with some legislative sessions drawing to a close, it’s a good time to take a look at where...

Mandatory Water Restrictions Ordered by California Governor

Apr 2 2015 // California Gov. Jerry Brown ordered officials Wednesday to impose statewide mandatory water restrictions for the first time in history as surveyors found the lowest snow level in the Sierra Nevada snowpack in 65 years of...