Insurance Journal South Central’s Top Stories for 2018: Medical Marijuana, Weather Woes

December 31, 2018 by

At first glance it might seem that 2018 was a “slow news” year in the South Central states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas. After all, the region escaped the devastation of a major hurricane, and while tornadoes and hailstorms are inescapable, damage from those types of severe weather events was relatively restrained, and the always contentious and newsworthy Texas legislature was not in session (wait ’till next year).

Still, there was plenty of interesting insurance-related news from the region to digest last year. Following is a summary of the most popular SC topics and stories that caught our readers’ eyes in 2018.

Interestingly, some of the most read articles in IJ’s South Central region last year were reports on the status of legalized medical marijuana programs.

Hail is always an important topic for the insurance industry in South Central states, especially in Texas and Oklahoma, even if there are no mega-major hail events (and there was at least one billion-dollar occurrence in Texas last year).

Hurricanes, too, are inescapable along the Gulf Coast and while, fortunately, no Harvey-like storm hit the coasts of Louisiana or Texas in 2018, repercussions from that monstrous 2017 hurricane continue to make waves and create interest for Insurance Journal readers.

Stories about mergers, acquisitions, expansions and even liquidations of Texas-based insurance firms captured the attention of IJ readers, as well.

Who doesn’t love a story about lawsuits? Obviously not IJ readers in the South Central region, as some of the most clicked-on stories concerned jury awards, convictions, sentencing and settlements.

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