Latest Texas Headlines

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

Texas Fire Marshal Preaches Safety, Training After West

Dec 30 2013 // When a fertilizer plant exploded in a small Texas town, killing 15 people and decimating homes and schools, it became Chris Connealy’s responsibility to stop anything like it from happening again.The state fire...

Lubbock Settles Woman’s Texas Tech Injury Claim For $80K

Dec 27 2013 // The city of Lubbock has agreed to pay $80,000 in a settlement with a woman injured when she stepped into a hole on her way out of a Texas Tech football game.The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported that the Lubbock City...

Texas Family Settles Lawsuit From 100-Vehicle Crash

Dec 27 2013 // The family of the suburban Houston couple killed on Thanksgiving Day last year in a 100-vehicle pileup on a foggy stretch of Interstate 10 in Southeast Texas has settled a lawsuit it had filed.The Beaumont Enterprise...

2 Companies Cited After Texas A&M Structure Collapse

Dec 24 2013 // Federal officials have fined two construction companies for safety violations related to this summer’s collapse of a barn frame at Texas A&M University’s $80 million equestrian complex.The Occupational...

Federal Aid Coming After Fall Storms In Texas

Dec 24 2013 // President Barack Obama has ordered federal aid to help state and local recovery efforts in areas of Central Texas hit with severe storms and flooding in late October. Obama last week declared a major disaster exists in the...

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Acquires Barmore in Texas

Dec 24 2013 // Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has acquired Barmore Insurance Agency Inc. in Houston, Texas.Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Barmore is an insurance broker providing retail and wholesale commercial property/casualty,...

Texas Lawmaker Wants Probe into Windstorm Insurance Association Emails

Dec 23 2013 // A Texas lawmaker has called for an investigation into racist emails uncovered within the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, which acknowledged in court that bigotry could have influenced a claim filed by a...

President Declares Disaster for Texas Flooding

Dec 23 2013 // Federal aid will head to Texas now that President Obama has declared a disaster area as a result of severe storms and flooding that hit the state during the period of Oct. 30-31, 2013.The U.S. Department of Homeland...

Texas Tries Again to Put Drunk-Driving Teen Behind Bars

Dec 19 2013 // Texas prosecutors are trying a second time to imprison a teen who was sentenced to 10 years’ probation for drunkenly driving his truck into four pedestrians, killing them all.Tarrant County District Attorney Joe...

Gentry to Retire from Insurance Council of Texas

Dec 18 2013 // Rick Gentry, executive director of the Insurance Council of Texas (ICT) since 1997, has announced that he will retire from the association at the end of March 2014.“It is hard to imagine a better professional...

Questionable Insurance Claims on the Rise in Texas: Report

Dec 18 2013 // Questionable insurance claims rose by 38 percent in Texas from 2010 through 2012, the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) reports.Questionable claims (QC) are those claims that NICB member insurance companies refer to...

Higginbotham Hires Ponder as AVP, Loss Control, for South Texas

Dec 18 2013 // Alan W. Ponder has joined the Houston office of insurance brokerage and financial services firm, Higginbotham, as assistant vice president of loss control.Ponder will apply his three-decade career in loss prevention to...

Texas No Longer No. 1 in High Home Insurance Rates

Dec 18 2013 // An industry group says Texas homeowners no longer are paying the highest insurance rates in the country, a distinction that now goes to Florida residents.The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has released its...

Texas Windstorm Insurance Association Disavows Racism Allegations

Dec 16 2013 // Texas’ insurer of last resort in coastal areas has denied allegations that a culture of racism has existed within the organization.Responding to claims by a Houston-based trial lawyer that employees of the Texas...

People

Dec 16 2013 // Glenn RenwickThe Progressive Corp., based in Mayfield Village, Ohio, named Chief Executive Officer Glenn Renwick as chairman of its board of directors following the death of the company’s previous chairman, Peter B....

How Agents and Brokers Help Communities Nationwide

Dec 16 2013 // In addition to giving back with volunteerism, one of the key financial goals of employee-owned IMA is to contribute a portion of the company’s profits annually to the IMA Foundation.The IMA Foundation historically...

Cost of North Texas Ice Storm Insured Damage Estimated at $30M

Dec 15 2013 // Damage from this month’s North Texas ice storm has reached at least $30 million in residential insured losses, according to an industry group.Officials with the Insurance Council of Texas said the losses include...

Probation Sentence in Texas Teen’s Fatal DWI Wreck Stirs Ire

Dec 13 2013 // A North Texas teen from an affluent family was sentenced to probation this week after he killed four pedestrians when he lost control of his speeding pickup truck while driving drunk, a punishment that outraged the...

Insurance Program Provider Energi Opens New Office in Irving, Texas

Dec 10 2013 // Energi, a provider of risk management and insurance programs for the energy industry, has opened a new satellite office in Irving, Texas. The new office is located in The Towers at Williams Square.Energi also plans to open...

South Texas Jury Awards $281 Million in Lawsuit

Dec 9 2013 // The family of a man killed by a part breaking off a truck doing Eagle Ford Shale oilfield work has won a $281 million lawsuit judgment from a South Texas jury.The Dimmit County lawsuit stemmed from the May, 29, 2012, death...