Latest Washington Headlines

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

Washington Couple Charged with Auto Insurance Fraud

May 23 2019 // Brittany Jones and Steven Jones, of Marysville, Wash., each were charged with one count of filing a false insurance claim in Snohomish County Superior Court on May 14.The charges stem from an auto insurance claim and...

London Marine Insurers Expand Middle East Threat Zone After Saudi Ship Attacks

May 17 2019 // London’s marine insurance market has extended the list of waters deemed high risk to include Oman, the United Arab Emirates and the Gulf after ship attacks off Fujairah, officials said on Friday, in a move that could...

New Washington Law Requires Plan for Statewide Disaster Resilience

May 14 2019 // Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler’s proposal to prepare for and mitigate the effects of climate disasters was signed into law this week by Gov. Jay Inslee.Senate Bill 5106 passed through state...

Washington’s New Short-Term Rental Law Requires Liability Insurance

May 13 2019 // Legislation signed into law by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee requires short-term rentals to remit all taxes, maintain liability insurance and includes critical consumer safety provisions, according to the Washington...

9 Guilty So Far in Massive Washington Fraud Case

May 3 2019 // Nine people have pleaded guilty in a massive case of fraud in Washington in which the participants smashed cars into each other and committed other staged accidents in four western states to collect more than $6 million...

Washington D.C. Plans to Confront Climate Change by Retrofitting Flood-Prone Buildings

Apr 29 2019 // Washington is announcing a goal of retrofitting or removing all of its flood-prone buildings by 2050, the first major U.S. city to set such a policy.The proposal is part of a broader plan to protect Washington, which is...

Crane Collapse Casts Pall Over Seattle’s Rapid Growth

Apr 29 2019 // The crane collapse in the heart of Seattle’s tech hub Saturday ended four lives, cast a pall on the city’s rapid expansion and may lead to tens in millions of dollars of costs for a building that Alphabet...

Former Washington Insurance Agent Pleads Guilty to Theft

Apr 26 2019 // Former Washington insurance agent Abu Ameena Ward has pleaded guilty in Pierce County Superior Court to one count of third-degree theft and was ordered to pay $18,666 in restitution to Farmers Insurance and $700 in court...

Board Faults Utility’s Equipment in Fatal 2016 Explosion in Maryland

Apr 25 2019 // A gas company’s faulty equipment is the most likely cause of an explosion at a suburban Maryland apartment complex that killed seven people in 2016, according to federal report issued Tuesday.The explosion and fire...

Brown & Brown Acquires Assets of ALMEA Insurance in Washington

Apr 22 2019 // Brown & Brown of Oregon LLC has acquired substantially all of the assets of ALMEA Insurance’s Vancouver, Wash. location. Following the deal, the ALMEA Insurance team will continue doing business from its existing...

Washington Commissioner Fines Pet Insurer $25K

Apr 16 2019 // Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler issued fines in March totaling $158,000 against insurance companies, agents and brokers for violating state insurance regulations, including one fine of $25,000 levied...

Washington Official Wants to Raise Insurance Tax to Help Fight Wildfires

Apr 15 2019 // With an increasing number of forest fires scorching portions of Washington each year, the Legislature is considering a proposal to create a fund dedicated to preventing and battling wildfires.In March, Commissioner of...

Brake Complaints Cause Lyft to Replace 3,000 Electric Bikes in 3 Cities

Apr 15 2019 // Lyft Inc. is removing several thousand electric bikes from service in its bike-share program in New York, Washington and San Francisco because of a braking problem, the ride-hailing company said on Sunday.“We...

Insurers Oppose Premium Tax to Fund Washington’s Wildfire Prevention

Apr 9 2019 // Lobbyists for the property/casualty insurance industry are trying to prevent a $125 million jump in the state of Washington’s insurance premium tax that would fund wildfire prevention and suppression.The tax would...

MIT Researcher Exposing Bias in Facial Recognition Tech Triggers Amazon’s Wrath

Apr 8 2019 // Facial recognition technology was already seeping into everyday life — from photos on Facebook to police scans of mugshots — when Joy Buolamwini noticed a serious glitch: Some of the software couldn’t detect...

Washington Commissioner’s ‘Insurance Fraud Most Wanted’ Suspect Extradited

Apr 8 2019 // Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler’s criminal investigations unit has extradited Kreidler’s “insurance fraud most wanted suspect” Jessica Epler from Pennsylvania to face felony charges...

Motel 6 Pays $12 Million to Settle Suit Over Providing Guest Lists to U.S. Immigration

Apr 5 2019 // Motel 6 agreed to pay $12 million to settle a lawsuit in which Washington state’s attorney general said the chain routinely provided guest lists to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.Attorney...

Washington Woman Charged with Insurance Fraud

Apr 5 2019 // Elizabeth Delgado, of Pasco, Wash., was charged in Franklin County District Court with one count each of filing a false insurance claim and second-degree attempted theft after an investigation by Insurance Commissioner...

Microsoft Insurer Loses Bid To Recoup $175M from Xbox Chipmaker Hit by Fire

Apr 4 2019 // Microsoft Corp.’s captive insurer has lost its bid to recover $175 million in costs the software maker said it incurred in 2013 to replace memory chips that a manufacturer failed to deliver because of a fire at the...

Some Data Indicates Increasing Accident Rates in Marijuana States

Apr 1 2019 // Preliminary research indicates that the legalization of recreational marijuana in 10 states has increased accident rates, the Insurance Information Institute said.The group cited an October 2018 study by the Highway Loss...