Latest Texas Headlines
All the headlines from our Texas Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Backers of Easing Texas Medical Marijuana Laws Target Rural Areas
Jun 8 2018 // With the sound off, images from a new advocacy video touting the merits of medical marijuana could blend seamlessly into a commercial for the latest model of pickup — a burly Texan, clad in a cowboy hat, strides past...
Texas Workers’ Comp Study: 40% of Claimants Have Previous Work Injuries
Jun 8 2018 // There are about 200,000 new claims in each year in the Texas workers’ compensation system, representing about 2 percent of covered Texas employees. About 40 percent of those new claims involve claimants who have had...
Texas Agency Wants to Know: How Much Damage Remains from Harvey
Jun 7 2018 // More than nine months after Hurricane Harvey devastated homes in nearly 50 Texas counties, the state agency charged with overseeing the largest housing recovery in American history is trying to gauge how much devastation...
Arthur J. Gallagher Closes Acquisition of Texas MGA, Pronto Insurance
Jun 6 2018 // Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has completed the acquisition of Brownsville, Texas-based managing general agency (MGA), broker and claims administrator Pronto Insurance. Pronto’s primary business is the placement of...
Family Files Suit Over Woman’s Death in Texas Hotel During Harvey
Jun 6 2018 // A woman whose body was found 11 days after she made a frantic cellphone call from a Houston hotel elevator as floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey rushed in exited the elevator in the basement only to struggle against a...
Texas Meatpacker Recalls Another 9 Tons of Smoked Sausage
Jun 4 2018 // A Texas meatpacker is recalling several tons of smoked sausage over possible contamination by soft plastic, marking the company’s second recall in a month. The U.S. Department of Agriculture on May 31 announced the...
Houston Still Rebuilding From Last Year’s Floods as 2018 Hurricane Season Arrives
Jun 4 2018 // In an empty lot where Vincent Shields’ Houston home once stood, he points out properties whose owners were driven out after Hurricane Harvey inundated the region last summer. “On this street there’s...
People
Jun 4 2018 // Doug Slape has been promoted to second-in-command at the Texas Department of Insurance. Slape has been at the agency since 1988 and has served as deputy commissioner for the Financial Regulation Division the past three...
Some Texas Insurance Wholesalers Find Strength in Independence
Jun 4 2018 // There’s no denying the robust mergers and acquisition trend among wholesale brokers in the property/casualty insurance industry nationwide, and Texas is no exception. But some Texas wholesale brokers and managing...
TWIA Seeking Preliminary $175M Insurer Assessment for Harvey Losses
Jun 4 2018 // The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association is seeking regulatory approval for a $175 million assessment to TWIA’s insurance company members for Hurricane Harvey losses. Harvey made landfall on the Texas coast on Aug....
Texas Grocer H-E-B Recalls Some Ice Cream Treats
Jun 1 2018 // The H-E-B grocery chain has issued a voluntary recall for some ice cream distributed to stores in Texas and Mexico amid concerns about metal possibly in the products. San Antonio-based H-E-B on Wednesday announced the...
Workers Sue Valero Over April Texas Refinery Explosion
Jun 1 2018 // More than 20 workers filed a lawsuit in Houston on Thursday against Valero Energy Corp. seeking damages for injuries sustained in an April 19 explosion at the company’s Texas City, Texas, refinery, the Houston...
Cities Still Owed Funds from Last Hurricane Season as New Season Gets Underway
Jun 1 2018 // Allen Owen, the mayor of Missouri City, Texas, wants to do more to protect his town from the next disaster. But the city hasn’t gotten any of the roughly $1 million in federal disaster funds he said it’s owed...
CoreLogic: Texas, Louisiana Highly Vulnerable to Hurricane Storm Surge Losses
May 31 2018 // Texas and Louisiana are among the top three states for potential storm surge losses at the start of the 2018 hurricane season, which begins on June 1. That’s according to Irvine, California-based CoreLogic, a...
Texas Governor Unveils School Safety Plan, Proposed Gun Law Changes
May 30 2018 // Note: This story originally appeared in The Texas Tribune. Less than two weeks after 10 people were killed in a southeast Texas school shooting, Gov. Greg Abbott laid out a 40-page, 40-strategy plan for preventing future...
Texas Insurance Commissioner Launches ‘Keep it Simple’ Campaign
May 30 2018 // Texas Insurance Commissioner Kent Sullivan is aiming to ensure that plain language prevails at the Texas Department of Insurance website with a “keep it simple” campaign. Sullivan is a plain language champion,...
People, Organizations Working Together to Hurricane-Proof Houston-Area Community
May 30 2018 // The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, working in collaboration with area residents, the Clear Lake City Water Authority, or CLCWA, and Exploration Green Conservancy, have been collaborating to transform an...
Texas Mutual Names Ward as COO, Haugaard as Sr. VP-Policyholder Services
May 29 2018 // Austin-based workers’ compensation carrier, Texas Mutual Insurance Company, has appointed Jeanette Ward as the company’s new chief operating officer (COO) and Kim Haugaard as its new senior vice president of...
A.M. Best Upgrades Ratings of Texas’ Spartan Insurance
May 29 2018 // A.M. Best has upgraded the Financial Strength Rating to A- (Excellent) from B++ (Good) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating to “a-” from “bbb+” of Spartan Insurance Company (Spartan) in Pearland,...
Texas School Shooter’s Father Believes Son Was Bullied
May 23 2018 // A 17-year-old student accused of fatally shooting 10 people at a Texas high school should be seen as a “victim” because he may have recently been bullied, causing him to lash out, his father said. In a phone...
