Latest Texas Headlines

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

Texas School Bus Crash Sends 32 to Hospital

Jan 19 2012 // A tractor-trailer clipped a school bus full of students on Jan. 17, flipping the bus onto its side and sending 32 people — 29 of them children — to a central Texas hospital. Police said a 9-year-old boy was ejected...

Damaging Citrus Plant Disease Confirmed in Texas

Jan 19 2012 // State agriculture officials say a destructive citrus plant disease that has wiped out crops in Florida has been confirmed in Texas.The Texas Department of Agriculture on Jan. 18 announced that a section of Hidalgo County...

Texas-Based Tile Manufacturer Fined $318K for Safety Violations

Jan 19 2012 // Federal officials have cited a Sunnyvale, Texas-based tile manufacturer for safety violations and proposed $318,000 in penalties.The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited...

Houston Man Pleads Guilty to Hiding Payroll from Texas Mutual

Jan 19 2012 // Texas Mutual Insurance Co. reported Marvin Solano of Houston has pleaded guilty to workers’ compensation fraud-related charges. A Travis County district court ordered Solano to pay $140,038 to Texas Mutual, pay a...

Texas Windstorm Insurer Names New Controller and VP of Claims

Jan 18 2012 // The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) recently named Pete Gise as controller and David Williams as vice president of claims.As controller, Gise manages financial reporting, accounts receivable processing and...

Helin Named President of Southwestern Insurance Information Service

Jan 16 2012 // The board of Southwestern Insurance Information Service has elected Sandra Helin as president of the organization effective March 1. Helin will succeed Jerry Johns who will be retiring March 1, 2012. A 13-year veteran of...

R-T Specialty Acquires Texas Insurance Wholesaler Maclean, Oddy & Associates

Jan 12 2012 // R-T Specialty LLC, the wholesale broker of Ryan Specialty Group LLC, has acquired Texas-based insurance wholesale firm Maclean, Oddy & Associates Inc. (MOA). MOA is a specialist broker for unusual property and casualty...

State Funding Cuts Hurt Texas Volunteer Fire Departments

Jan 11 2012 // A combination of record drought, epic wildfires, hard economic times and slashed state funding has put added stress on volunteer fire departments in Texas.Chris Barron, executive director of the State Firemen’s and...

RiskMeter.com Adds Texas Wildfire Report to Service

Jan 11 2012 // RiskMeter.com, a provider of real-time natural hazard risk reports, has added a Texas wildfire report to its service. This report will return a property’s proximity to wildfire risk by simply entering an address or...

2012 Brings Operational Changes for Texas Windstorm Insurer

Jan 10 2012 // The New Year ushered in changes to the operation of Texas’s insurance company of last resort for wind and hail along the Texas coast.Many of the operational changes will affect insurance agents who handle Texas...

Texas Governor Renews Drought Disaster Declaration

Jan 9 2012 // Gov. Rick Perry has renewed a proclamation declaring Texas a disaster due to the drought.Perry renewed the proclamation on Dec. 27, a year after he initially declared the drought a disaster. The proclamation allows...

Texas Insurer Acquires Florida’s Physicians Insurance

Jan 9 2012 // The Texas Medical Liability Trust has acquired the Florida-based Physicians Insurance Co. The Deerfield Beach, Florida-based Physicians Insurance has been operating in the state since 2003. According to a 2011 Office of...

Declarations

Jan 9 2012 // No Single Answer“Distracted driving is a serious problem and in our increasingly mobile world, it is becoming the norm. As we have seen with other motor safety issues such as seatbelt use and drunk driving, there is...

2012 Brings Operational Changes for TWIA

Jan 9 2012 // The New Year is ushering in changes to the operation of the insurer of last resort for wind and hail along the Texas coast.Many of the operational changes will affect insurance agents who handle Texas Windstorm Insurance...

Business Moves

Jan 9 2012 // Frost Insurance, Stone PartnersTexas-based Frost Insurance acquired Stone Partners Inc., a human resource consulting firm that specializes in compensation, benefits and outsourcing services, effective Jan. 1. Stone...

Higher Homeowners Insurance Rates on the Horizon in Texas

Jan 9 2012 // Two insurers that together hold the lion’s share of the homeowners insurance market in Texas are either in the process of raising rates or have filed for increases.Insurance Commissioner Eleanor Kitzman on Dec. 1,...

People

Jan 9 2012 // Southwestern Insurance Information Service elected Lyndell Haigood, regional vice president of State Auto Insurance, as chairman of the board; David Lacefield, executive vice president, National Lloyds Insurance, as vice...

TDECU Insurance Agency Acquires Associated Insurance Advisors

Jan 6 2012 // TDECU Insurance Agency LLC announced the acquisition of Associated Insurance Agency Inc. (AIA) based in Houston, Texas. The purchase was finalized Jan. 3, 2012.Associated Insurance Agency is an independent insurance agency...

La Nina to Linger to Spring

Jan 5 2012 // La Nina, the weather phenomenon widely blamed for withering drought in the southwestern United States and South America, may last longer than expected, into the Northern Hemisphere spring, the U.S. Climate Prediction...

SEC Sues Texas Life Settlements Firm, Alleges Deception

Jan 5 2012 // Federal securities regulators filed suit against a Texas-based provider of so-called “life settlements,” accusing it and three top executives of defrauding shareholders by overvaluing the life insurance...