Declarations

“Despite the challenges that the commonwealth, and the world, has endured during the ongoing pandemic, Pennsylvania’s insurance market continues to introduce pioneering new insurance products and solutions.”

— Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Jessica Altman said in a press release regarding the Pennsylvania Insurance Department’s launch of a new program that aims to encourage the insurance industry to deliver innovative insurance solutions and products. Keystone Smart Launch seeks to help reduce barriers and speed up the regulatory process so Pennsylvania can offer new services to its consumers and industry professionals.

“The court overreached to make a new rule in New Mexico. It sets a new precedent and it’s a troubling one.”

— Doug Kantor, general counsel for the National Association of Convenience Stores, expressed concern over a recent New Mexico Supreme Court decision that stores can be held civilly liable for selling gas to intoxicated drivers.

“I don’t know of anywhere else in the country that can show this tsunami of pills.”

— Cabell County, West Virginia, attorney Paul Farrell said, delivering closing arguments in a landmark federal lawsuit against three U.S. drug distributors. Cabell County and the city of Huntington believe distributors AmerisourceBergen Drug Co., Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp. should be held responsible for distributing 81 million prescription pain pills to the region. Plaintiffs are seeking more than $2.5 billion that would be spent on abatement efforts.

“Most of these folks went to Texas where activity was still significantly higher than it was here, where they didn’t have winter and where there were jobs in their industry. … It’s going to take higher pay and housing incentives and that sort of thing to get them here.

— North Dakota State Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms speaks to the slowdown in the state’s oil production due to a workforce shortage. Helms told the Bismarck Tribune in late July that eight crews were working in North Dakota, down from at least 20 that would typically be working in the state at the current oil prices.

“Metropolitan areas in the Rio Grande Valley and along the Texas coast have the highest percentages of uninsured households. … In McAllen, almost two out of five households are uninsured. Brownville is close behind with 34.9%. Despite being vulnerable to hurricane damages, one out of five homeowner households in Beaumont and Corpus Christi is uninsured.”

— Joshua Roberson, senior data analyst for the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University, comments in a statement on the findings of a study released by the research group that revealed a widespread lack of homeowners insurance in Texas. The study shows households that are low-income, in nonmetropolitan areas, or without a mortgage are less likely to have homeowner’s insurance.

“This decision will not dissuade us from seeking justice for the thousands of women who have become victims of this disease through the corporate negligence and greed of Johnson & Johnson.”

— Leigh O’Dell, who represented the family of the late Elizabeth Driscoll that had sought up to $50 million in damages in a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson, comments after an Illinois jury refused to hold J&J liable for Driscoll’s death from ovarian cancer. The family blamed the cancer on Driscoll’s decades of use of the company’s talc-based products. O’Dell said the evidence linking genital talc to ovarian cancers remains overwhelming.