Latest Minnesota Headlines

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

People

Jan 24 2010 // Steve Crawford has been named president and chief executive officer at Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance Co., located in Grinnell, Iowa. For the past two years, Crawford has served as the company’s chief operating...

Ex-Minnesota State Worker Focus of Probe of Fraud Aimed at Businesses

Jan 20 2010 // State investigators are trying to determine the scope of a check fraud scheme that they say could count hundreds of Minnesota businesses among its victims.The woman at the center of the investigation is a former employee...

Minnesota Commissioner Appoints Morris, Priester to JUA

Jan 14 2010 // Minnesota Commerce Commissioner Glenn Wilson has appointed Kenneth Morris of Woodbury, and Edward Priester of Burnsville, to the Minnesota Joint Underwriting Association. The two new appointees will begin their term on...

Minnesota Man Held on 18th Drunk Driving Arrest

Dec 29 2009 // A 55-year-old St. Paul man remains jailed after his 18th arrest on drunken driving charges.The Minnesota State Patrol said he crashed his car on Highway 61 and Interstate 494 in Newport around 6:30 p.m. last Thursday....

Willis Appoints Housh to Head Minnesota Operations

Dec 8 2009 // Global insurance broker Willis Group Holdings has named Scot A. Housh president and CEO of Willis’ Minnesota operations, effective immediately. Housh is based in Minneapolis and will report to Tom Ealy, national...

Minnesota Woman Sues Cargill for $100M Over E. coli Infection

Dec 7 2009 // A Minnesota woman who became severely ill from an E. coli infection after eating a tainted hamburger has sued a division of agribusiness giant Cargill Inc. for $100 million.Stephanie Smith, 22, of Cold Spring, became ill...

Minnesota Fines Agent $250K

Dec 4 2009 // The Minnesota Department of Commerce has issued a $250,000 fine against Michael Antonello, an insurance agent the department previously accused of insurance fraud. It is the largest fine levied against an individual by the...

Tour Bus Crashes in Minnesota; Company Says Driver Had Aneurysm

Nov 20 2009 // A tour bus driver suffered a ruptured aneurysm before a crash on a southern Minnesota interstate that killed two people and injured 21 others. That’s according to a spokesman for Strain Bus Line, the company that...

Downstream Towns in Midwest Worried About Red River Diversion

Nov 17 2009 // Residents living downstream from Fargo, N.D., and neighboring Moorhead, Minn., along the Red River fear their towns would be sacrificed in a diversion plan to save the two larger cities from chronic flooding. Backers of...

Minnesota Judge Rules Federal Law Blocks Medtronic Heart Device Suits

Oct 28 2009 // A Minnesota state court judge has dismissed a batch of lawsuits against Medtronic Inc. stemming from the October 2007 recall of the medical device maker’s Sprint Fidelis defibrillator leads.Minnesota District Court...

Minnesota Flood Control Options Complex

Oct 20 2009 // The Army Corps of Engineers has identified 14 flood control options in the Fargo-Moorhead, Minn., area, ranging from levees and flood walls to ditches. The catch is that to win federal approval, the benefit to taxpayers...

People

Oct 19 2009 // Michael “Mike” R. Donohoe of Mankato, Minn., was installed as vice chairman of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America at the association’s recent Leadership Conference in New Orleans,...

Gallagher & Co. Acquires Minnesota’s Fox Lawson & Associates

Oct 2 2009 // Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. announced it has acquired Fox Lawson & Associates LLC in St. Paul, Minn. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.Founded in 1995, Fox Lawson & Associates is a compensation and...

Minnesota AG Sues 2 Insurers for Alleged Fraudulent Activity

Oct 1 2009 // Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson is suing two out-of-state companies for selling allegedly fraudulent health insurance coverage to the uninsured.In an announcement on the AG’s Web site, Swanson said the two...

Minnesota Agent Installed as Vice Chairman of Big ‘I’

Sep 25 2009 // Michael “Mike” R. Donohoe of Mankato, Minn., was installed as vice chairman of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (the Big “I”) at the association’s recent Leadership...

People

Sep 21 2009 // Wells Fargo Insurance Services of Minnesota Inc. named Gina Samland managing director for its Nebraska, Iowa, and Kansas City, Kan., operations. She is based in the Omaha, Neb., office.In her new role, Samland is...

Rates, Claim Frequency Still Declining in Workers’ Comp; Medical Costs Rise

Sep 7 2009 // Prices for workers’ compensation insurance in the United States declined in 2008 and, in general, that trend is likely to continue in throughout 2009, according to the National Council on Compensation Insurance...

Iowa, Minnesota Get ‘A’, 9 States ‘F’ in Best, Worst States for Workers’ Comp

Aug 13 2009 // Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Utah and Virginia do the best job handling workers’ compensation injuries, while Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas and Wyoming perform the worst.That’s...

Survey: Midwest Economy Improving

Aug 4 2009 // The Institute for Supply Management, formerly the Purchasing Management Association, began formally surveying its membership in 1931 to gauge business conditions.The Creighton Economic Forecasting Group uses the same...

Holburn Moves Minnesota Office, Names New Leader in Kansas City

Jul 27 2009 // Holborn Corporation, an independent provider of reinsurance brokerage services, has moved its Minnesota operations to new facilities and added two new staff members in the Midwest.Under the continued leadership of senior...