Latest California Headlines
All the headlines from our California Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Lawsuit: Faulty Equipment Killed California Firefighters
Feb 22 2022 // The families of two California firefighters killed in a 2020 blaze are suing several makers of life-saving equipment for negligence, alleging the devices were defective and caused their loved ones’ deaths, the...
Bill Introduced to Offer All California Homeowners Insurance, Fund Home Hardening
Feb 21 2022 // Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-Marin County, introduced legislation to require mandatory issuance of homeowners’ insurance and establish a grant program to harden residential properties in areas prone to...
Business Moves
Feb 21 2022 // East Truist Insurance, Kensington Vanguard Charlotte, North Carolina-based Insurance broker Truist Insurance Holdings Inc. agreed to acquire the national title insurance agency Kensington Vanguard National Land Services....
How Autonomous Car Companies Are Outrunning U.S. Regulators And Lawmakers
Feb 21 2022 // Self-driving vehicle companies from Tesla Inc. to General Motors Co.’s Cruise are racing to start making money with their technology, outrunning efforts by regulators and Congress to write rules of the road for...
People & Places
Feb 21 2022 // National Great American Insurance Group has promoted Jason M. Cohen to senior vice president and Julie F. Kadnar to divisional group president within its Property & Casualty Group. In 2006, Cohen joined the company as...
California Wildfire at 20% Containment, Evacuation Orders Lifted
Feb 18 2022 // A wildfire near Bishop, California, is only 20% contained, however evacuation orders have been lifted. The Airport Fire, which started on Wednesday, has burned 4,136 acres. At one point it had threatened 150 structures,...
People Moves: The Liberty Insurance Brokers in California Names Ahuja COO; Cruz Regional Vice President of Kinetic Insurance
Feb 18 2022 // The Liberty Insurance Brokers named Sonia Ahuja chief operating officer. Ahuja has more than 25 years of experience in the industry, with prior stops at Venbrook Insurance Group, Farmers Financial Services, Cetera...
Could the Musk-Lara Smackdown Offer a Way Forward on Prop 103?
Feb 17 2022 // When an obscure provision of a state’s 1988 insurance law makes the news, it’s often confined to the pages of Insurance Journal. However, when the world’s richest man tweets about that law in the course...
The Liberty Company Acquires Babcock in California
Feb 17 2022 // The Liberty Insurance Brokers acquired R.W Babcock Insurance Brokerage Inc. in Pleasanton, California. Founded in 2013 and led by Rob Babcock, R.W. Babcock Insurance specializes in insurance, surety, and various services...
Heat Wave Early Warning, Ranking System Proposed in California
Feb 16 2022 // A pair of California legislators and the state’s insurance commissioner are pushing a bill to create an early warning system for heatwaves. California State Assembly Members Luz Rivas (D-San Fernando Valley) and...
Altman Leaving Pennsylvania Insurance Post to Lead California Health Plan
Feb 16 2022 // Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced that Insurance Commissioner Jessica Altman will resign her position Feb. 25. Altman has accepted a position as chief executive officer of Covered California, that state’s...
California Couple Sentenced in $1M Workers’ Comp Fraud Case
Feb 16 2022 // Carmen Hall Soruco, 70, and her husband Antonio Soruco, 75, both of Novato, California, were sentenced after pleading guilty to workers’ compensation fraud charges. Hall was sentenced on multiple felony counts to two...
California Commissioner, Emergency Agencies Issue ‘Safer From Wildfires’ Framework
Feb 14 2022 // California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and emergency management leaders in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Administration on Monday announced “Safer from Wildfires,” an insurance framework that incorporates...
California Lawmakers Pushing Bill to Require Vaccines for All Employees
Feb 14 2022 // California would mandate that all businesses require their employees and independent contractors to receive the COVID-19 vaccine under legislation announced Friday by Democratic state lawmakers that was immediately...
Judge Deals Blow to California FAIR Plan’s Efforts to Stay Insurance Commissioner’s Order
Feb 11 2022 // A judge has denied a request a preliminary injunction to halt the enforcement of an order from California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara that the California FAIR Plan Association offer an expanded homeowners insurance...
Owner of Cosmetic Clinics in California Admits $20M Insurance Fraud
Feb 11 2022 // The former owner of a group of health spas and clinics in Los Angeles has admitted to participating in a $20 million insurance fraud scheme involving Botox injections, laser hair removal and other procedures, federal...
3 Million Plaintiffs Seeking $1.2B from California Health Firm
Feb 11 2022 // A lawsuit over high health care bills filed on behalf of more than 3 million employers and people seeks as much as $1.2 billion from a large Northern California health systems in an antitrust class-action trial that got...
Unlicensed California Agent Sentenced for $1.4M Insurance Fraud
Feb 11 2022 // Unlicensed insurance agent Karyl Lynn Reed, 58, formerly of Cosa Mesa, California, was convicted last week on multiple felony counts of embezzlement and white-collar fraud enhancements after defrauding three victims of...
Suit Alleges Racial Discrimination, Harassment at One of Tesla’s California Factories
Feb 10 2022 // The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing has filed a lawsuit against Tesla Inc. alleging systematic racial discrimination and harassment. Tesla said on Wednesday the DFEH intended to file a lawsuit. The...
Inszone Acquires Risco Insurance Services in California
Feb 9 2022 // Inszone Insurance Services acquired Risco Insurance Services Inc. in South Gate, California. The firms will merge and operate under the Inszone Insurance brand going forward. The Risco Insurance team will transition over...
