Declarations
“This ruling says loud and clear that a company selling ammunition to minors can’t hide behind the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.”
— Alla Lefkowitz, with Everytown Law, the litigation arm of the gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, comments after Judge Jack Ewing in Galveston, Texas, ruled that Lucky Gunner, a Tennessee-based online retailer accused of illegally selling ammunition to a student who fatally shot 10 people at a Texas high school in May 2018, won’t be dismissed from a lawsuit filed by families of those killed and injured. Lucky Gunner is accused of not verifying the age of Dimitrios Pagourtzis when he bought more than 100 rounds of ammunition before the shooting at Santa Fe High School, located about 35 miles southeast of Houston.
“These closed landfills are throughout the state. … They are in suburbs, greater Minnesota regional centers and small rural communities. They are next to our homes, our businesses and our farms.”
— Laura Bishop, a commissioner with Minnesota Control Agency, comments on a finding that the contamination from toxic man-made “forever chemicals,” or PFAS, has been detected in groundwater at nearly 60 closed landfills in Minnesota, with amounts exceeding levels for safe drinking water.
“This early detection technology will provide emergency managers and first responders with round-the-clock monitoring, a sophisticated addition we are excited to add to our alert and warning toolkit.”
— Lynda Hopkins, chair of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, discussing the California county’s utilization of artificial intelligence technology to help fight wildfires with a 24-7 monitor to track fire outbreaks.
“The security of our data and that of our insureds and other stakeholders is of the utmost importance to us. Should we determine that this incident impacted our insureds’ or policyholders’ data, we’ll notify those parties directly.”
— Commercial lines insurer CNA said after reporting it had sustained a “sophisticated cybersecurity attack” that caused a network disruption and impacted certain CNA systems, including corporate email. Upon learning of the incident on March 21, the insurer immediately engaged forensic experts to investigate and determine the full scope of the incident.
“Throughout the historic pandemic, Amazon has repeatedly and persistently failed to comply with its obligation to institute reasonable and adequate measures to protect its workers.”
— That’s according to a lawsuit filed in February against Amazon.com Inc. by New York Attorney General Letitia James over its handling of worker safety issues around the COVID-19 pandemic at two warehouses, Reuters reported. James alleged that Amazon’s drive for faster growth and higher profits led to its “flagrant disregard” of steps needed to protect workers from the coronavirus at a Staten Island fulfillment center and a Queens distribution center, both in New York City.
“The reality is the marketplace in Florida is shutting down.”
— Florida Citizens Property Insurance Corp. President and CEO Barry Gilway told the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation at a rate hearing on March 15. He said the company is writing about 5,000 new policies per week as the private market pulls back in the state. Citizens has requested an average rate increase of 7.2% for personal lines and 9.5% for commercial lines. Citizens is required to cap individual increases at 10% but it is seeking lawmakers’ approval to charge new policyholders actuarily sound rates instead of the rates current policyholders pay.