Latest California Headlines
All the headlines from our California Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Jury Says Google Owes Sonos $32.5M in Smart-Speaker Patent Case
May 30 2023 // Alphabet Inc’s Google must pay $32.5 million in damages for infringing one of smart-speaker maker Sonos Inc’s patents in its wireless audio devices, a San Francisco federal jury decided on Friday. The case is...
State Farm Stops Taking New Applications for Business, Personal Lines P/C in California
May 27 2023 // An insurer group was quick to respond over the weekend after State Farm announced it will cease accepting new applications for business and personal lines property/casualty in California to deal with increased risks and...
Inszone Acquires Specialty Contractors Insurance Services California
May 26 2023 // Inszone Insurance Services acquired Specialty Contractors Insurance Services. Specialty Contractors Insurance Services has predominantly served business owners and contractors. It is headquartered in Sacramento,...
California Commissioner Issues Decision on Workers’ Comp Regulatory Filing
May 26 2023 // California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara issued a decision this week regarding the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California’s Sept. 1, 2023 regulatory filing. The Commissioner approved...
California Department of Insurance Bans Sender of Misleading Wildfire Mailers
May 26 2023 // A California Department of Insurance investigation into misleading mailers on insurance claims following wildfires led to a ban of public adjuster and California Recovery Group owner Argen Youssefi of Glendale. The...
People Moves: Aihara & Associates in California Names Kinoshita EVP
May 26 2023 // Aihara & Associates Insurance Services named Mike Kinoshita executive vice president. Kinoshita is a third-generation insurance agent and current senior client advisor at The J. Morey Company, an Ori-gen Family...
Walmart Paying California $500K in Settlement Over Sale of Brass Knuckles
May 25 2023 // Walmart will pay half a million dollars to settle allegations from California’s Department of Justice that it was selling brass knuckles on its website, state Attorney General Rob Bonta said. Brass knuckles are...
California Couple Sentenced Thanks to YouTube Videos of Intentional Collisions
May 25 2023 // Christopher Phelps, 40, of Yucaipa, and his wife, Kimberly Phelps, 40, were sentenced this week after pleading no contest to felony counts of insurance fraud, child abuse and assault with a deadly weapon. The sentencing...
Special Report: How U.S. Doctors Buy Their Way Out of Trouble
May 24 2023 // When federal enforcers alleged in 2015 that New York surgeon Feng Qin had performed scores of medically unnecessary cardiac procedures on elderly patients, they decided not to pursue a time-consuming criminal...
2 Killed When Plane Headed for Hawaii Crashes in Northern California
May 22 2023 // Two people were killed when a small plane headed for Hawaii crashed in the Pacific Ocean shortly after takeoff from Northern California, federal officials said Sunday. The Viking Air DHC-6-400 Twin Otter crashed around...
People Moves: Venbrook in California Names Aguilar CFO
May 22 2023 // Venbrook Group, LLC named Juan Aguilar chief financial officer. Aguilar has 20 years of industry experience, most recently serving 15 years at Aon PLC, where he held leadership roles across finance, operations and business...
Major New Mexico Transmission Line OK’d for Renewable Energy in West
May 19 2023 // The U.S. government is greenlighting a proposed multibillion-dollar transmission line that would send primarily wind-generated electricity from the rural plains of New Mexico to big cities in the West. The Interior...
People Moves: Velilla Joins Gordon & Rees in California in Insurance and Commercial Litigation Practice Groups
May 19 2023 // Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani hired Rachel T. Velilla as a partner in the firm’s Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego, California offices. She joins the firm’s insurance, trucking and transportation and...
Former California Insurance Agent Sentenced for Stealing $220K from Clients Including Late Art Dealer
May 19 2023 // John Philip Ryan, 64, of Yucca Valley, California, was sentenced and ordered to pay more than $220,000 in restitution to victims after pleading guilty to two felony counts of financial elder abuse and grand theft of...
Officials: 30 California Workers Getting $437K in from Food Company
May 17 2023 // California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and California Labor Commissioner Lilia Garcia-Brower on Monday announced the resolution of criminal charges filed against Golden Food Inc in a plea agreement in which the...
California Workers’ Comp Written Premium was 14% Above 2021
May 16 2023 // The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California issued its Quarterly Experience Report, an update on California statewide insurer experience valued as of Dec. 31, 2022. Highlights of the report...
Report Examines California Workers’ Comp Medical Dispute Resolution
May 15 2023 // A new report shows the number of independent medical reviews in California used to resolve medical disputes hit a record low in 2022 as prescription drug disputes continued to decline. The report from the California...
California Paying $24M for Man’s Death in Police Custody
May 12 2023 // California will pay a $24 million civil rights settlement to the family of a man who died in police custody after screaming “I can’t breathe” as multiple officers restrained him while trying to take a...
$3.4M Fine Proposed for 2021 California Oil Pipeline Leak
May 11 2023 // An energy company should be fined nearly $3.4 million for safety violations involving a 2021 oil pipeline spill that fouled Southern California beaches, a federal regulator said. Amplify Energy Corp. ignored 83 alarms...
Ex-Tesla Worker Seeks Third Trial in California Race Case After $3.2M Award
May 11 2023 // A Black former Tesla Inc TSLA.O factory worker has accused the electric automaker’s lawyers of “egregious misconduct” after a jury awarded him $3.2 million in a race bias case, and asked for a third trial...
