Declarations

December 20, 2021

“The number one complaint is delays: slow-pay and no-pay.”

— Doug Quinn, executive director of the nonprofit watchdog group the American Policyholder Association, told Louisiana lawmakers that homeowners are still waiting to get insurance payments for Hurricane Ida damage. State lawmakers held a Dec. 1 meeting to discuss the response from insurers, some of whom haven’t made payment offers more than three months after Ida struck southeastern parishes. Two of the state’s largest insurers, State Farm Insurance and Allstate Insurance Company, said they have closed about 82% of damage claims filed from Ida.

“We’re trying to avoid a ‘Florida.'”

— Waukesha Police Lt. Kevin Rice on the evacuation of a six-story condominium building that was the subject of resident complaints dating back to June 2020 after engineers found the building was in imminent danger of collapsing. A total of 65 people were evacuated from the 48-unit Horizon West condominium in the Milwaukee suburb. The city said that it had closed down all balconies in the summer of 2020 after a complaint over structural issues. After attempts to rectify the situation were unsuccessful, the condominium association began removing the balconies last month.

“Monsanto’s toxic legacy lives on. Until today, Marylanders have borne the cost of cleaning up these poisons. It is time for Monsanto to take full responsibility.”

— Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh said in a statement regarding a lawsuit he filed against chemical company Monsanto and two spinoffs. The lawsuit alleges chemicals Monsanto manufactured harmed the state’s waters, fish and wildlife and seeking to recover damages and clean-up costs.

“If you achieve your economic development goals, which I have no doubt you will, you will have a nearly $1 trillion insured loss exposure.”

“Can the supply of insurance keep up with the growth? The answer is ‘no,’ currently, in the private market.”

— The first quote was from John Seo, managing director of Fermat Capital Management, about how Florida’s projected growth will bring in four million more people in the next decade, and they will be concentrated in metropolitan areas, which increases risk if a hurricane strikes. The last part was from Chris Dittman, senior managing director at Aon, the multinational insurance provider. Both spoke at the Florida Chamber of Commerce’s Insurance Summit in Tampa in early December.

“Together, the Cruise Videos document 14 total stops for pick up or drop off of passengers; they provide evidence that not a single one of these stops complied with the requirements of the Vehicle Code and Transportation Code.”

— The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency said in a 24-page letter that the recent videos from Cruise show the self-driving technology company’s robotaxi rides result in unlawful behavior that also endangers people nearby and slows down buses.