Latest Oregon Headlines

Oregon employers to pay less for workers’ compensation in 2007

Oct 9 2006 // Oregon will reduce the workers’ compensation pure premium rate by 2.1 percent for 2007, maintaining Oregon’s streak of not raising the rate in 16 years, Gov. Ted Kulongoski recently announced. “No other...

Oct 9 2006 // People Ernie Csiszar resigned from the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America. PCI has launched a national search for a new CEO. June Holmes, PCI’s current chief operating officer, will serve as the...

Oregon employers to pay less for workers’ compensation in 2007

Oct 9 2006 // Oregon will reduce the workers’ compensation pure premium rate by 2.1 percent for 2007, maintaining Oregon’s streak of not raising the rate in 16 years, Gov. Ted Kulongoski recently announced. “No other...

Oregon Employers To Pay Less for Workers’ Comp in 2007

Sep 28 2006 // Oregon will reduce the workers’ compensation “pure” premium rate by 2.1 percent for 2007, Governor Ted Kulongoski announced, maintaining Oregon’s streak of not raising the rate in 16...

Investigators Trace Specific Batch of Tainted Spinach

Sep 27 2006 // Test results linking two bags of Dole brand baby spinach to a deadly E. coli strain have helped health officials hone in on a specific batch from a San Juan Bautista, Calif., processing plant that may be the source of a...

Oregon voters to decide on credit scoring for insurance

Sep 25 2006 // Insurance companies can use a person’s gender and age to determine what they pay for insurance. Oregon voters will decide in November if insurers should be able to use a person’s financial history too. In 2003,...

People and Places

Sep 25 2006 // Miami insurance agent Alex Soto has been inaugurated as the new president of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (the Big “I”), with Robert E. Fulwider assuming the office of...

Sep 25 2006 // People Miami insurance agent Alex Soto has been inaugurated as the new president of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (the Big “I”), with Robert E. Fulwider assuming the office of...

Oregon Credit Scoring Measure Picks Up National Endorsement

Sep 20 2006 // An Oregon ballot measure that would ban using credit scoring to set insurance rates has picked up support from the nation’s largest consumer-protection advocacy group. Norma Garcia, senior attorney for the Consumers...

L&I Director Resigns to Head Washington Health Care Association

Sep 15 2006 // Gary Weeks, director of the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries (L&I), announced he is resigning to become executive director of the Washington Health Care Association. Weeks’ last day at...

Oregon Seeks to Revoke Agent’s License for Fraud

Sep 13 2006 // The Oregon Department of Consumer & Business Services (DCBS) is proposing to revoke the insurance agent’s license of a Lane County funeral home owner for allegedly filing false insurance claims. Carolyn R....

Oregon Mutual Names Patterson VP-General Counsel

Sep 11 2006 // Oregon Mutual Insurance Co. has named Steven L. Patterson as vice president-general counsel. In that position, Patterson will be sharing his legal expertise and implementing “best practices” in the legal area...

Oregon Voters to Decide on Credit Scoring for Insurance

Sep 11 2006 // Insurance companies can use a person’s gender and age to determine what they pay for insurance. Oregon voters will decide in November if insurers should be able to use a person’s financial history too. In 2003,...

Kulongoski Floats Insurance Fee to Fund Oregon State Police

Sep 11 2006 // Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski has floated the idea of a state fee on car insurance policies to help put more Oregon State Police troopers on the state’s roads and highways. The Democratic governor also said he is...

Oregon Regulator: Credit Scoring, Other Issues Better Handled by States

Sep 5 2006 // When it comes to solving insurance issues, state insurance departments are better consumer protectors than the federal government, according to Oregon’s Insurance Administrator Joel Ario. While the federal government...

The Commissioners

Sep 4 2006 // Oregon’s Experience: Addressing credit scores, health care and disclosure Insurance Journal’s Andrew Simpson at a recent meeting of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Here are additional...

Joel Ario, Oregon, Insurance Administrator

Sep 4 2006 // When looking at credit scoring, the affordability and availability of health care, or even the construction liability market, states often are better-equipped than the federal government to address the issues, according to...

Industry on the Green

Aug 21 2006 // 1. The grand champion team PIA of Tennessee and the Tennessee 1752 Club. Left to right: Mike Huff, Robins Insurance Agency in Nashville; Mark Gatliff, Chubb Group, Nashville; Steve James and Joe Waldron, also of Robins...

Oregon Offers Insurance Wildfire Summit Workshops

Aug 1 2006 // The Oregon Department of Forestry and Oregon Office of State Fire Marshall, in partnership with Allstate and State Farm, is hosting Insurance Wildfire Summit workshops. Sessions will be held from 8:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. on...

Oregon Adopts Rules to Implement Mental Health Parity Bill

Jul 25 2006 // Oregon’s Department of Consumer and Business Services has adopted administrative rules to implement the mental health parity bill passed by the 2005 Oregon Legislature. The rules were filed with the Secretary of...