Latest USA Headlines

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

BP Settlement Relieves Feinberg of Duties; New Claims Process to Start

Mar 8 2012 // The man who has paid out billions of dollars to victims of the massive 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill has been formally relieved of his duties, and a federal judge has set up a new process to let more people and businesses...

La Nina to Fade But South Should Expect Dry Conditions

Mar 8 2012 // The La Nina weather pattern blamed for a devastating drought in Texas and a bad dry spell in South America should be gone by the end of April, but its impact will persist in large swathes of the southern United States...

U.S. to Sell $6 Billion in AIG Stock; AIG to Pay More to Taxpayers

Mar 7 2012 // The U.S. Treasury Department said on Wednesday it will sell $6 billion worth of American International Group stock and struck another deal for the insurer to pay down $8.5 billion more in obligations, taking a major step...

Whistleblower Says BofA Defrauded Home Loan Remodification Program

Mar 7 2012 // Bank of America NA prevented homeowners from receiving mortgage-loan modifications under a federal program in order to avoid millions of dollars in losses while benefiting from financial incentives for participating in the...

SEC Weighs Exempting Insurance Companies from Volcker Rule

Mar 7 2012 // The top U.S. securities regulator said on Tuesday her agency is exploring whether insurance companies can qualify for a coveted exemption in the proposed Volcker rule that would protect them from having to scale back their...

HSBC Sells General Insurance Business to AXA, QBE for $914 Million

Mar 7 2012 // HSBC has agreed to sell its general insurance businesses to French insurer AXA Group and Australia’s QBE Insurance Group for $914 million in cash, as Europe’s biggest bank moves ahead with its plan to divest...

Supreme Court Weighs If Firms Can Be Sued Over Human Rights Abuses Abroad

Mar 6 2012 // The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday it would hear arguments next term on whether an 18th century U.S. law can be used to sue multinational corporations or others in American courts for alleged human rights abuses...

Appeals Court Upholds Corps’ Liability in Katrina Flood Ruling

Mar 5 2012 // A federal appeals court has upheld a judge’s landmark ruling that the Army Corps of Engineers is liable for property owners’ claims, agreeing the shoddy work on a shipping channel caused billions of dollars in...

Shell Files Pre-Emptive Offshore Drilling Lawsuit

Mar 5 2012 // Shell Oil Co. is taking the offensive against environmental groups that have put legal roadblocks in the company’s path to offshore drilling in the Arctic Ocean.The Houston-based company on Wednesday sued 11 Alaska...

Court Blocks Drug Enforcement Against Florida’s Cardinal Health, CVS

Mar 5 2012 // A U.S. appeals court has agreed to temporarily allow Cardinal Health Inc. to continue distributing strictly-controlled prescription drugs from a Florida facility, blocking a Drug Enforcement Administration order to suspend...

Three Mull Lawsuits in U.S. Against Murdoch’s News Corp.

Mar 5 2012 // Three people who believe they were targeted by a private investigator working for Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World while they were in the United States are considering suing his company in U.S. courts, a source...

BP’s Potential Pricetag for Gulf Oil Spill

Mar 5 2012 // BP Plc struck a deal on Friday to pay an estimated $7.8 billion to settle claims from individuals and businesses stemming from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. But BP and its partners in the ill-fated Macondo well still...

BP’s $7.8 Billion Deal May Speed Gulf Spill Payments

Mar 5 2012 // The estimated $7.8 billion deal struck by BP Plc with businesses and individuals suing over the massive 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill could speed up payments to thousands of claimants and offers lawyers a potential...

AIG to Sell $6 Billion Worth of AIA shares to Repay U.S. Bail-out

Mar 5 2012 // American International Group is selling part of its stake in AIA Group to raise about $6 billion to help the U.S. insurer repay a huge federal government bail-out.AIG is looking to place some 1.7 billion AIA shares in a...

U.S. Should Expect Another Above-Normal Tornado Season

Mar 5 2012 // The U.S. should expect an active severe weather season with above-normal tornadoes in 2012. That’s after a near-record number of tornadoes in 2011, according to forecasters at AccuWeather.com in State College,...

Business Moves

Mar 5 2012 // OneBeacon, InterboroOneBeacon Insurance Group completed the sale of its AutoOne business to Interboro Holdings of New York. The transaction, which was announced on Aug. 31, 2011, included AutoOne Insurance Co. and AutoOne...

For Hire: Alaska Insurance Director

Mar 5 2012 // Wanted: State Insurance Director. Must supply your own parka.Linda Hall, director of Alaska’s Division of Insurance, is retiring after nine years on the job, and the state has launched a nationwide search for her...

Tornado Season Begins. Now What?

Mar 5 2012 // Tornado season usually starts in March and then ramps up for the next couple of months, but it got off to an early and deadly start in late January when two people were killed by separate twisters in Alabama. Preliminary...

China to Open Auto Insurance Market

Mar 5 2012 // China has agreed to an important financial sector reform by opening up its massive auto insurance market to foreign competition. During a meeting with U.S. business chiefs and Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, U.S. Vice...

Captives Bring Premium Dollars and Jobs to Missouri

Mar 5 2012 // When it comes to the captive insurance industry, slow and steady growth is just fine with the state of Missouri. But it’s not like the state is reluctant to encourage captives to form or relocate there. Far from...