Latest Oregon Headlines
All the headlines from our Oregon Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Oregon Announces Insurance Aid for Laid Off Workers
Dec 24 2009 // Oregonians who have been laid off from their jobs can continue to receive help paying for health insurance into 2010. The Insurance Division of the Department of Consumer and Business Services is adopting emergency rules...
Oregon Woman Killed in Nursing Home Fire
Dec 23 2009 // Authorities say a woman who suffered burns in a fire at an assisted living center in Tigard has died. According to Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue, firefighters responded to a blaze at Park Place Assisted Living Center at...
Oregon Fines Farmers Over Re-Rating
Dec 9 2009 // Oregon’s Department of Consumer and Business Services recently fined Farmers Insurance Company of Oregon $10,000 for improperly using consumers insurance scores in calculating renewal rates on thousands of auto and...
Oregon Bridges Unsafe From Earthquakes
Dec 6 2009 // The outlook is not good for Oregon bridges in a major earthquake. A study released recently concludes that U.S. Highway 101 on the coast would be impassable, all connections from the coast to the Willamette Valley would be...
Oregon Proposes Rules for Producers, Crop Insurance Claims Adjusters
Dec 3 2009 // The Oregon Insurance Division has proposed new insurance licensing rules to, among other things, charge agencies a fee for the cost of criminal records checks, as wells as to establishe new requirements for crop insurance...
Study: Workers’ Comp Claim Duration Increases as Benefits Go Up
Dec 2 2009 // A new study of the workers’ compensation benefits in Oregon and New Mexico has found that as the benefits have increased, so have claims durations. The National Council on Compensation Insurance used a...
Oregon Bridges Unsafe from Earthquakes
Nov 18 2009 // The outlook is not good for Oregon bridges in a major earthquake. A study released Monday concludes that U.S. Highway 101 on the coast would be impassable, all connections from the coast to the Willamette Valley would be...
Oregon Fines Providence Health
Nov 11 2009 // The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services (DCBS) recently fined Providence Health Plans $30,000 for mishandling nearly 7,000 claims, according to an Insurance Division press release. “In this tough...
Agents Program Extends to Oregon
Nov 3 2009 // The Smart Choice Agents Program, which currently serves 3,000 independent agencies in more than 30 states, announces the expansion of the program into Oregon. Kurt Van Sickle has been named the state’s...
Oregon Bans Cell Phones in the Car
Nov 2 2009 // As of Jan. 1, you can get slapped with a $90 fine if you use a hand-held cell phone while driving in Oregon. Will that be enough to encourage motorists to keep their full attention on the road? And how well can the law be...
Oregon Charges Agent Who Dumped Insurance Customer Records in Trash
Nov 1 2009 // The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services has issued a cease-and-desist order against insurance agent Robert Warren Spruill for violating the Oregon Consumer Identity Theft Protection Act and the Oregon...
Oregon’s Gales Names New Partner
Oct 30 2009 // Gales Creek Insurance Services is pleased to announce that their Commercial Lines Manager, Kim Hutchinson, has become a partner in the agency. Kim has been with Gales Creek since 1999, handling national program business...
Scientists Find Cause of Oregon Earthquakes
Oct 28 2009 // Scientists say a group of previously unknown faults was behind an odd swarm of earthquakes last year off the Oregon Coast. But just what set them off remains unknown. Oregon State University marine geologist Robert Dziak...
Oregon Charges Agent Who Dumped Records
Oct 26 2009 // The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services has issued a cease-and-desist order against insurance agent Robert Warren Spruill for violating the Oregon Consumer Identity Theft Protection Act and the Oregon...
Fire Season Done in Southwest Oregon
Oct 15 2009 // Rains have brought some moisture, and relief, and the fire season is over in Oregon’s Jackson and Josephine counties. Brian Ballou, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Forestry’s Southwest Oregon District,...
Oregon’s Liberty Northwest Hires Vice President
Oct 7 2009 // Liberty Northwest, a Liberty Mutual Agency Markets regional company, today announced the appointment of Ms. Margie Cooper to vice president, Claims. She succeeds Mr. Gary Kentner, who is retiring, according to a company...
Suing Now Costs More in Oregon
Oct 5 2009 // The cost of filing a lawsuit in Oregon went up this week. The state Legislature passed the new fees last session to help avoid deeper cuts to the justice system. The increases that took effect Thursday vary. Lawsuits that...
Oregon Supreme Court to Decide If State Must Approve Punitive Damages
Oct 5 2009 // A federal appeals court has asked the Oregon Supreme Court to rule on whether the state must approve any settlement of punitive damages awarded by a jury. Under current law, Oregon gets 60 percent of those punitive damages...
Oregon Mulls Plan for Tsunami Buildings
Sep 28 2009 // Should an earthquake generate a tsunami on the Oregon coast, there might be only 20 minutes to get to high ground. But regional leaders, engineers and scientists plan to gather next week in Cannon Beach and Portland to...
Oregon Investigates Phony Agent
Sep 24 2009 // The Oregon Insurance Division is asking dentists and oral surgeons to contact the division if they purchased business owners’ insurance through Brenda L. MacLaren-Beattie, a Washington-based agent who allegedly sold...
