Declarations

Budget Imbalance

“The budget of the department is $10 million. The CEO of State Farm makes more than that.”

—Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney discussing what it’s like to oppose giant State Farm and its bid for a 45% homeowners insurance rate hike in his state.

Regret Is Forever

“My business is finished. I have no capital to restart it. This was a three-minute lapse of time that destroyed my life.”

—North Carolina diamond broker Peter Kaplan whose $1.5 million inventory was stolen in New Mexico after he left a suitcase containing more than 70 rings and 150 loose jewels in the back of the car unattended for a few minutes. Kaplan didn’t have insurance because he said he thought it was too expensive.

Stanford D&O DOA?

“While there is an urgent need for this court to address the issue of whether the policies’ proceeds are assets of the receivership estate, the court cannot and should not allocate proceeds or rule on who is entitled to coverage under the policies because underwriters do not concede that claims submitted by Holt or the receiver are covered.”

—Lawyers for Lloyd’s of London in a court filing arguing that a federal judge should not allocate the proceeds of a directors and officers insurance policy for accused swindler Allen Stanford and other executives because they have no guarantee of coverage A number of Stanford executives have filed claims against the policy issued by Lloyd’s. But they have had their assets frozen and the receiver in the case has threatened to hold Lloyd’s in contempt of court if the insurer makes payments to the Stanford executives.

Driving Kentucky Message

“It’s a pretty big issue here.”

—Kentucky state Rep. Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, upon agreeing to be one of the sponsors of a bill to ban texting while driving in his state, after seeing so many motorists typing messages, sometimes obliviously drifting from lane to lane. Eighteen states have already passed bans.

Obama Signal

“I hope this signals a commitment to meaningful malpractice reform.”

—Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., responding to President Obama’s healthcare reform speech in which he said that while he doesn’t see malpractice changes as a “silver bullet,” he’s directing the Health and Human Services Department to provide funding for pilot programs to test some alternatives to litigation.