Latest Washington Headlines

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

Supreme Court Justices Tackle Rules for Class Actions

Mar 6 2014 // U.S. Supreme Court justices sought a middle ground to preserve class-action shareholder lawsuits as they heard a case testing the legal rules that have fostered thousands of cases over the past quarter century.Hearing...

Fulcrum Names Wyer Vice President in Washington

Mar 4 2014 // Bellevue, Wash.-based Fulcrum Insurance Programs named Nikki Wyer vice president of underwriting and product development. Wyer’s responsibilities include management of Fulcrum’s underwriting division as well as...

Largest Insurers Would Face Asset Tax Under GOP Plan

Feb 26 2014 // The biggest U.S. banks and insurance companies would have to pay a quarterly 3.5 basis-point tax on assets exceeding $500 billion under a plan to be unveiled this week by Congress’s top Republican tax writer.The...

Washington Schools To Pay $6.9M Settlement For Fall

Feb 25 2014 // The Toppenish School District has agreed to pay $6.9 million to the family of an infant who fell through bleachers at a soccer game and suffered lifelong debilitating injuries.The Yakima Herald-Republic reported that the...

Hole-in-one Insurance Fraudster in Washington Sentenced

Feb 24 2014 // Kevin KolendaKevin Kolenda, 56, a Connecticut businessman who has been reportedly defrauding golf tournaments and golfers for two decades, was sentenced in February in King County Superior Court in Washington.Judge Jean...

Mother Sues Over Son’s Allergy Death In Washington Jail

Feb 21 2014 // The mother of a 22-year-old man with severe food allergies who died at the Snohomish County Jail in Washington in 2012 has sued Snohomish County.The lawsuit Rose Saffioti filed Wednesday lists as defendants the county, a...

Lineweaver Joins The Leavitt Group in Washington

Feb 20 2014 // The Leavitt Group has hired Jim Lineweaver, a client advisor, in its Tacoma, Wash. office. Lineweaver has 25 years of insurance experience. He specializes in large manufacturing risks, forest products, transportation,...

Storm Dumps More Snow on Northeast After Icing Southeast for 2 Days

Feb 13 2014 // The winter storm that cut electricity to more than half a million customers across the South and grounded 10,000 flights this week turned its power on the U.S. Northeast, bringing heavy snow from Virginia to Maine.In...

Competing Bills to Address Safety of Oil Transport In Washington

Feb 12 2014 // Washington state lawmakers are considering competing measures that try to address potential risks as more crude oil is shipped by rail into the state.The Senate Ways and Means Committee heard testimony on a mostly...

Washington Panel Issues Dueling Climate Reports

Feb 10 2014 // A bipartisan Washington climate panel has released dueling reports how to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. The panel posted separate reports online in late January, splitting along party lines. It had...

Hole-in-one Insurance Fraudster in Washington Sentenced

Feb 7 2014 // Kevin Kolenda, 56, a Connecticut businessman who has been reportedly defrauding golf tournaments and golfers for two decades, was sentenced Friday in King County Superior Court in Washington.Judge Jean Rietschel sentenced...

Jury in Washington Awards $9M to Wrongfully Convicted Officer

Feb 5 2014 // A federal court jury in Tacoma, Wash. has awarded $9 million to a former Vancouver police officer who was wrongfully convicted of sexually abusing his children in the 1980s and spent nearly 20 years in prison.Ray Spencer...

PCI Bolsters Washington Operations with 3 Hires: Glassic, Austin, Gray

Feb 5 2014 // The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI)said it has added three new hires. Tom Glassic will join the association as vice president, policy and government relations; Nicole Austin will join the...

Washington Lawsuit Settled In 2010 Tesoro Refinery Blast

Jan 31 2014 // The attorney representing families of six workers killed in a 2010 explosion at Tesoro’s Anacortes oil refinery have settled a lawsuit against Tesoro and Shell Oil Co.Attorney David Beninger told KING-TV the wrongful...

Online Insurance Transactions Pondered by Washington Legislature

Jan 27 2014 // Washington state legislators will consider modernizing how insurance transactions are conducted.House Bill 2662, authored by State Rep. Derek Stanford, D-Bothell, will enable policyholders to access their insurance policy...

Washington Panel Issues Dueling Climate Reports

Jan 24 2014 // A bipartisan Washington climate panel has released dueling reports how to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. The panel posted separate reports online Wednesday, splitting along party lines. It had missed a...

Felony DUI Bill Working in Washington Legislature

Jan 22 2014 // A Seattle man who lost his parents and whose wife and infant son were seriously injured last March by a drunken driver asked a Senate panel on Monday to pass a measure that would make it a felony charge to drive under the...

Commuter Train Crashes Prompt Call for Safety Improvements

Jan 17 2014 // Commuter rail accidents including a New York derailment last month that killed four prompted a U.S. investigative agency to name improving transit safety as its top priority for 2014.The National Transportation Safety...

Senate Re-Election Politics Boosts Flood Insurance Delay Proposals

Jan 16 2014 // Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will do just about anything to help Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu.He arranged the chamber’s floor agenda this week so Landrieu could lead debate on a flood insurance rate reprieve...

Benefits Team Joins Leavitt Group in Washington

Jan 14 2014 // The Leavitt Group’s Tacoma, Wash. office has expanded services by bringing on three employee benefits professionals. Jon Montgomery, senior executive vice president of benefits, will lead the new employee benefits...