Latest USA Headlines

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

P/C Insurers’ Profit Dipped in Q1

Jul 6 2014 // Private U.S. property/casualty insurers’ net income after taxes fell to $13.8 billion in first-quarter 2014 from $14.3 billion in first-quarter 2013.Insurers’ pretax operating income – the sum of net...

Climate-Driven Firefighting in West Takes Cash From Prevention Budgets

Jul 3 2014 // Wildfires blamed in part on climate change are consuming timber in the U.S. West at such a furious pace that half the Forest Service’s budget is now spent fighting them — up from 21 percent in 2000.Add in the...

Catholic Broadcaster Wins Birth Control Benefit Reprieve After Hobby Lobby Ruling

Jul 3 2014 // Citing a U.S. Supreme Court opinion issued Monday, a federal appeals court temporarily barred the federal government from forcing an Alabama-based Catholic broadcasting network to comply with a law requiring them to cover...

Progressive Boosts Ad Spending But GEICO Still #1: SNL

Jul 3 2014 // Progressive Corp. boosted its advertising spending by nearly $70 million year over year to $595.4 million in 2013, the largest aggregate dollar increase among all U.S. property/casualty insurers, according to an analysis...

How Insurers Would Wind Down If Needed to Avoid Future Bailout

Jul 3 2014 // American International Group Inc. and Prudential Financial Inc. told regulators they could divest units and halt policy sales to avoid taking a bailout in a future crisis.AIG, the insurer that repaid a U.S. rescue in 2012,...

Small Firms Fear Gap in Trade Finance If Export Import Bank Closed

Jul 3 2014 // Private sector trade finance has not fully recovered from its financial-crisis collapse, and it is not clear it could fill the gap if the U.S. state-run export lender closes.Conservative U.S. lawmakers are clamoring to...

Painkiller Prescribing Varies By State, Highest in South; Florida Reverses Trend: CDC

Jul 2 2014 // Health care providers in some states prescribe far more painkillers than those in other states, according to a new government report.Health care providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for opioid painkillers in 2012 –...

Markel Now Underwriting Trade Credit Insurance in U.S.

Jul 2 2014 // Markel Corp. is now underwriting trade credit insurance in its New York office. Policies will be underwritten on an admitted basis, utilizing two Markel insurance companies, Markel American Insurance Co. and Markel...

Klisura to Lead New Marsh Global Placement Team; Lang to Head U.S. Placement

Jul 2 2014 // Insurance broker Marsh has named Dean Klisura as head of the firm’s newly created Global Placement organization. Klisura will oversee all of Marsh’s insurance placement activities, including wholesale, retail,...

Supreme Court to Decide UPS Workplace Pregnancy Accommodation Dispute

Jul 2 2014 // The U.S. Supreme Court will use a case involving United Parcel Service Inc. to decide whether pregnant employees can be denied accommodations such as light duty when other workers with disabilities receive them.The court...

Export-Import Bank Could Be Reformed Rather Than Closed

Jul 2 2014 // The U.S. Export-Import Bank, derided by conservative critics as an expensive boondoggle, may win a reprieve from what looked like almost certain death in Congress if enough Republicans can be persuaded to let it live on,...

Brokers Say Reinsurance Prices under Pressure at Mid-year Renewals

Jul 2 2014 // Reinsurance prices fell by as much as 25 percent in key markets mid-year as pension funds poured in money and demand for cover from insurance companies remained subdued, brokers said on Tuesday.Reinsurers have been...

Cybersecurity Analysts Stress Need for Data Sharing by Companies

Jul 2 2014 // In an 11-story office building in the Washington suburbs, hundreds of U.S. cybersecurity analysts work around the clock to foil hackers. Possible breaches of government networks show up as red flashes on screens that line...

Court Tosses Liability Claims Against Painkiller Drugmakers

Jul 1 2014 // A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the dismissal of nearly all claims in 68 cases seeking to hold drug makers liable for injuries from the use of the prescription painkillers Darvon and Darvocet, which were pulled...

U.S. Risk Names Dean Mills a Vice President for the Houston Office of U.S. Risk Brokers, Inc.

Jul 1 2014 // Dallas, TX – July 1, 2014 – U.S. Risk Insurance Group, Inc. (www.usrisk.com), the eighth largest managing general agency and surplus lines wholesaler in the nation, announced that it has named Dean Mills a Vice...

Overselling the Costs, Benefits of Greenhouse Gas Regulations

Jul 1 2014 // The Environmental Protection Agency calls its carbon rules an economic winner that will deliver more than $10 in benefits for each dollar spent on compliance.The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says the economic costs of...

Upper Mississippi River Closed Due to Rising Waters After Heavy Rains

Jun 30 2014 // Rising flood waters were expected to make 11 locks and dams impassable on the mid- and upper-Mississippi River and force the closure of the river later on Monday from Bellevue, Iowa, to Saverton, Missouri, the U.S. Army...

AIG Ex-CEO Greenberg Loses Supreme Court Appeal in Suit Against Bailout

Jun 30 2014 // The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal by former American International Group Inc. Chief Executive Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, who accused the Federal Reserve Bank of New York of unlawfully bailing...

New York’s Top Court Says Towns Can Ban Fracking

Jun 30 2014 // New York’s cities and towns can block hydraulic fracturing within their borders, the state’s highest court ruled, dealing a blow to an industry awaiting Governor Andrew Cuomo’s decision on whether to...

June Closes with Severe Storms; Tropical Storm Could Skirt East Coast July 4th

Jun 30 2014 // Forecasters are watching a potential tropical system that may skirt the U.S. East Coast this week, brushing past major Northeastern cities in time for the Fourth of July holiday.The collection of thunderstorms now about...