Latest California Headlines
All the headlines from our California Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Verdict in Oregon Wildfires Case Highlights Risks Utilities Face Amid Climate Change
Jun 20 2023 // A jury verdict that found an Oregon power company liable for devastating wildfires – and potentially billions of dollars in damages – is highlighting the legal and financial risks utilities take if they fail to...
Data on California Private Self-Insureds’ 2022 Workers’ Comp Claim Experience
Jun 20 2023 // California workers’ compensation private self-insured claim frequency rose 6% last year as both medical-only and indemnity claim volume increased, but a new report suggests that many of the claims may have been...
Railroad Industry Sues to Block New Locomotive Pollution Rules in California
Jun 19 2023 // The railroad industry sued to block new environmental rules in California, arguing they would force the premature retirement of about 25,000 diesel-powered locomotives across the country long before their zero-emission...
Man Arrested on Suspicion of Starting California Fire That Burned 100 Homes
Jun 19 2023 // A 71-year-old man was arrested Friday on suspicion of starting a forest fire that destroyed more than 100 homes last year near Yosemite National Park, California fire authorities said. Edward Fredrick Wackerman, of...
Florida Agents Optimistic About Market – and Don’t Fear the A.I. Reaper
Jun 19 2023 // ORLANDO – Just as some California insurance agents are expressing grave concerns about the future of that state’s insurance market, a number of Florida agents feel like they’ve turned something of a...
Declarations
Jun 19 2023 // California Insurance Options “Our first priority is helping consumers to understand their options for finding insurance with another company or the California FAIR Plan.” — A California Department of...
People & Places
Jun 19 2023 // National John Kuhn John Kuhn is now senior vice president, management liability and head of large public at Ascot. Based in the New York office, Kuhn will lead the development and execution of Ascot’s large public...
People Moves: Woodruff Sawyer in California Adds Valdez to Construction Team
Jun 16 2023 // Jamin Valdez has joined Woodruff Sawyer as vice president, construction. He will be based in Southern California. His focus is on construction and environmental risks. Before joining Woodruff Sawyer, Valdez was a senior...
Insurance Agent Group Has Issues with California Commissioner’s Briefing
Jun 15 2023 // A webinar briefing hosted by California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara this week to ease concerns about deteriorating market conditions left insurance agents with more questions than answers, according to a group that...
Study Blames Climate Change for Summer Wildfire Rise in California
Jun 15 2023 // A study out this week shows that nearly all of the observed increase in summer wildfires in California over the past half-century is attributable to man-made climate change. An international team of scientists looked at...
People Moves: Mangapit Named President of Pinnacle Claims Management in California
Jun 15 2023 // Steve Mangapit, the COO of the Western Growers Family of Cos., has assumed the duties of president of Pinnacle Claims Management Inc. He replaces David Zanze, who retired after 38 years of service at Pinnacle. Mangapit...
California Restaurants Offered Priest to Extract Confessions of Workplace ‘Sins’
Jun 14 2023 // Federal wage and hour investigators say a northern California restaurant attempted to use an alleged priest to get employees to admit workplace “sins.” During litigation by the U.S. Department of Labor in...
Report: Wildfire Fears at ‘All-Time High’ and Driving Insurer Decisions in Property Market
Jun 12 2023 // Despite a relatively average 2022 wildfire season, fears of wildfires remain at an “all-time high,” and those fears appear to be one driver of decision-making on property insurance. A new report from Gallagher...
Bad Press, Claims Issues, Halt on New Business Giving Industry Another Black Eye?
Jun 12 2023 // It’s no secret that the U.S. property/casualty insurance industry does not always enjoy a sterling reputation among consumers. As one insurance professor recently put it, the industry’s rank in public opinion...
Report Looks at Long COVID Claims in California Workers’ Comp
Jun 12 2023 // Roughly 13% of COVID-19 claims with medical payments received treatments for long COVID symptoms in the workers’ compensation system, a new report shows. The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of...
Climate Change and Homeowners’ Insurance Are on a Collision Course
Jun 9 2023 // A summer that has already seen water crises and wildfire smoke is rapidly becoming an inflection point in the pitched battle between climate change and the price of homeowners’ insurance in the US. American...
Black Workers at California Tesla Factory Allege Rampant Racism, Seek Class-Action Status
Jun 8 2023 // Tesla may face a class-action lawsuit after 240 Black factory workers in California described rampant racism and discrimination at the electric automaker’s San Francisco Bay Area plant, including frequent use of...
Insurer Group Reacts to California Department of Insurance Musing on Cat Modeling
Jun 8 2023 // Insurer groups may be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with a hint of a possible change in a regulator’s attitude toward the use of catastrophe modeling in the California market for wildfire insurers. The...
Moxie Underwriters Launches Admitted Habitational Program in California
Jun 8 2023 // The additional state rounds out offering led by program manager Jill Bay June 8, 2023, Scottsdale, AZ – Moxie Underwriters (‘Moxie’), an established program administrator led by managing underwriter Jill Bay,...
Agent in California Arrested for Falsifying Evidence And Perjury
Jun 8 2023 // Bail agent Fausto Atilano, 60, of Temecula, California, was arrested this week on multiple felony counts of falsifying judicial records, perjury, and preparing false evidence, after a California Department of Insurance...
