Latest Texas Headlines
All the headlines from our Texas Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Texas Lawyer Indicted Over Allegedly False BP Spill Claims
Oct 27 2015 // Texas lawyer Mikal Watts has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Mississippi for allegedly filing false claims for thousands of Vietnamese fishermen seeking damages from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, according to...
Texas Sets Seasonal Worker Adjusted Gross Annual Payroll Requirement
Oct 26 2015 // The Texas Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) has increased for 2016 the adjusted annual payroll requirement of an employer for the coverage of seasonal workers from $54,229 to $54,359. This is an increase of .24...
Hurricane Patricia Takes It Relatively Easy on Texas
Oct 26 2015 // Drenching storms that the remnants of Hurricane Patricia dragged into Texas finally cleared on Oct. 25 without leaving behind the death or devastation of torrential rain and floods that hit the state earlier in the...
Central Texas Wildfire 100% Contained
Oct 26 2015 // Officials say a Central Texas wildfire that burned 7-square-miles is 100 percent contained and under control. Bastrop County Judge Paul Pape said that with the widespread rainfall in the area, the fire has been...
Hurricanes not the Only Storms to Hit Texas Coast
Oct 26 2015 // The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA), the state created insurer of last resort for 14 coastal counties and parts of Harris County, reports that nearly 14,000 claims were filed after violent spring thunderstorms...
68 Homes Burned in Central Texas; Wildfire 80% Contained
Oct 22 2015 // Residents forced from their homes by a 7-square-mile Central Texas wildfire have been allowed to return to the evacuation zone — some to return to their homes, some to count their losses. The Texas A&M Forest Service...
ICT: Less than 25% of Texas Homeowners Carry Flood Insurance
Oct 22 2015 // Most Texas homeowners are unprotected when it comes to flood damage, a state insurance trade group says. Less than 25 percent of Texas homeowners carry flood insurance despite the risks of massive downpours that could...
Rate Changes in Store for Texas Auto Insurance Plan
Oct 21 2015 // The Texas Automobile Insurance Plan Association (TAIPA) will raise some rates and lower some for private passenger and commercial automobile insurance, effective Feb. 1, 2016, the Texas Department of Insurance announced. A...
Deadline for Applying to Texas FAIR Plan Assoc. Governing Committee Extended
Oct 20 2015 // The Texas Department of Insurance has extended a deadline to apply to serve on the board that governs the Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (FAIR) Plan, which provides residential property insurance in underserved...
Progress Made Against Central Texas Wildfire
Oct 20 2015 // As of Oct. 19, about 70 percent of a wildfire that has burned thousands of acres in Central Texas had been contained, officials said. Some 275 firefighters were assisted by at least seven aircraft dumping water and fire...
Western-Themed Center in Northeast Texas Damaged by Fire
Oct 19 2015 // A fire heavily damaged a western-themed shopping center in North Texas, just two years after it was damaged by another blaze. The Van Zandt County Fire Marshal’s Office reported that flames early in the morning on...
Texas Tops for Heavy Equipment Thefts in 2014: Report
Oct 19 2015 // A report released by the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) shows that thefts of heavy equipment increased nationally in 2014 by 1.2 percent over the previous year, and that Texas had the highest number of such...
People – South Central
Oct 19 2015 // The Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers elected Bill Henry as the group’s 2016 chairman. Henry is CEO and chairman of Dallas-based MHBT, a Marsh & McLennan Agency company. Henry succeeds Steve Brockmeyer,...
Texas, Louisiana See Uptick in Fatal Occupational Injuries
Oct 19 2015 // Preliminary data show that there was a 3 percent increase in fatal occupational injuries in Texas in 2014 over the previous year, state workers’ compensation insurance regulators report. Louisiana also saw a slight...
DA Suspends Funding Agreement with Workers’ Comp Insurer, Texas Mutual
Oct 19 2015 // The Travis County, Texas District Attorney’s office said it is suspending an agreement with Texas Mutual Insurance Co. under which the company provides funds for prosecutors to pursue the workers’ compensation...
Texas Supreme Court Upholds Anti-Concurrent-Causation Clause in Ike Case
Oct 19 2015 // The Texas Supreme Court in JAW the Point, LLC v. Lexington Ins. Co., 460 S.W.3d 597 (Tex. 2015) held, on first impression, that losses incurred in demolishing and rebuilding property damage resulting from Hurricane Ike to...
Insurance Industry, IICF Raise $70K-Plus for Central Texas Flood Victims
Oct 16 2015 // Central Texas may currently be under drought conditions and suffering from elevated wildfire risk but merely months ago the situation was just the opposite. In May, the Austin and Central Texas areas were deluged with...
40 Structures Burned so Far in Central Texas Fires
Oct 16 2015 // A wildfire that ignited this week in Texas’ Bastrop County has grown quickly, now encompassing more than 4,500 acres, according to county officials. The Hidden Pines fire has burned thousands of acres in and around...
Texas All Risk General Agency Receives Special Recognition for Advancements in Technology from Nautilus Insurance Group
Oct 16 2015 // Dallas, TX, October 14 2015- Nautilus President Tom Kuzma presented the award at the company’s 30th Anniversary celebration in Whistler, British Columbia on September 29th. The carrier’s top MGA partners were...
Proposal for Higher Texas Windstorm Policy Liability Limits Denied
Oct 15 2015 // Texas Insurance Commissioner David Mattax has denied a request by the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) to increase limits of liability for residential and commercial properties it insures along the Texas...
