Declarations

“Now what we’re seeing is more IT fraud manipulation, the bank fraud manipulation, and the token theft. Instead of them engaging with the victim by asking them to click on a link, they’re actually getting them to turn over the keys to the kingdom voluntarily in a lot of instances…The thing that surprises people the most when I talk to them about claims recently versus three years ago or five years ago is the sheer volume of financial fraud and business email compromise (BEC) that we’re seeing.”

— Christine Mapes, cyber managing director and counsel at insurer Travelers, commenting on an uptick in fraud and the evolution of high-tech tactics.

“We see the numbers, and we understand why families are making the difficult decision to drop this coverage…When you are forced to choose between groceries or gas and an extra insurance premium, the immediate need almost always wins.”

— Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance Director Angela Nelson discussing recommended earthquake insurance for families living in Missouri’s primary fault-line areas, including southeastern Missouri and the St. Louis region. Residents already face higher annual premiums to protect their homes, DCI reported. Earthquake damage is not covered in standard homeowners or renters insurance policies.

“What we are showcasing here is that there is a significant increase in different pollutant emissions that needs to be addressed because otherwise this could have strong implications for the population and environment. We need to treat data centers as the industrial facilities they are…to hold them accountable to the same industrial and power generation emissions standards that produced Texas progress.”

— Carlos Gamarra, vice president for energy, air, and IT, Houston Advanced Research Center. A new report from the center found Texas’ rapidly growing data center industry could reverse much of the state’s progress on air quality by the end of the decade.

“Evasive companies that cancel all their policies and want to re-domesticate are not committed to Floridians and have no place in our state.”

— Florida Insurance Commissioner Mike Yaworsky, announcing that he had forced St. Petersburg, Florida-based American Mobile Insurance Exchange to surrender its certificate of authority. The action brought some closure to a turbulent period for both the exchange and property owners and for Florida insurance agents looking to place mobile home policies. The company was launched six years ago but exited the distressed Florida market about four years later.

“We’ve already seen some significant impacts in the state, but it’s most likely going to get significantly worse in terms of erosion and flooding and wave impacts and damage. It’s lining up to be a really significant winter for California.”

— Patrick Barnard, research director at UC Santa Cruz’s Center for Coastal Climate Resilience. The compounding shocks of wildfire and erosion are testing residents living on the edge of the Pacific along the California Coast. The powerful El Niño weather system is bringing damaging waves and worsening beach erosion to the region. Governor Gavin Newsom recently declared a statewide emergency as the state prepares for more rainfall, landslides, and coastal erosion.

“No president should have the power to pull a dormant statute off the shelf and use it to impose sweeping tariffs or import bans without the limits Congress required.”

— Sara Albrecht, CEO of the Liberty Justice Center, which has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York on behalf of U.S. food importer Gellert Global Group. The suit seeks to stop the Trump administration’s latest tariffs on imports from Canada, claiming Trump has used shifting legal rationales and invoked rarely used U.S. laws in a persistent effort to claim authority over tariff power that the U.S. Constitution assigns to Congress.