Latest Virginia Headlines

All the headlines from our Virginia Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Texas Man Sentenced to 60 Years for $100M Insurance Fraud

Sep 30 2011 // After hearing tearful testimony from several people whose life savings were stolen, a federal judge in Virginia sentenced a former Texas businessman to 60 years in prison for his role in a $100 million life insurance scam...

Nursing Home Case Spotlights West Virginia’s Malpractice Damages Cap

Sep 30 2011 // Lawyers for a West Virginia nursing home are preparing to take a case to the state’s Supreme Court on the grounds that a $91.5 million jury award should be reduced under the state’s medical malpractice law. In...

Workplace Fatalities Decline in Virginia

Sep 28 2011 // The number of workplace fatalities in Virginia last year fell to the lowest level since the state began reporting such data in 1992. The number of fatalities fell to 104 from 119 in 2009. The state Department of Labor and...

Video on West Virginia Plant Leak Urges Manufacturing Safety

Sep 26 2011 // The U.S. Chemical Safety Board, releasing a video depicting a deadly chemical leak at a DuPont plant in Belle, West Virginia last year, said the final investigation report should remind every manufacturer to make safety a...

Virginia-based Hilb Group Expands in New York State

Sep 21 2011 // The Hilb Group, a Glen Allen, Va.-based holding company that focuses on acquiring mid-market agencies, is further expanding in New York State. The company opened a new office in Rochester and also expanded an existing...

West Virginia College Town Tries to Curb Football Game Fires

Sep 21 2011 // Morgantown, West Virginia fire officials are trying to prevent the spectacle of nationally televised street fires after a big football game Saturday night by ordering hundreds of people to remove furniture and other...

Va. Supreme Court: Insurer Not Liable For Claims From Global Warming

Sep 19 2011 // The Virginia Supreme Court has ruled in favor of an insurance company in a closely watched legal case involving global warming. The high court ruled that Steadfast Insurance Co., which provided commercial general liability...

Zurich Wins West Virginia Workers’ Comp Contract

Sep 19 2011 // West Virginia state agencies will have a new workers’ compensation insurer beginning next month. Zurich Insurance Co. submitted the winning bid of $19 million for the one-year contract. Zurich will replace...

Court Tosses Virginia Challenge to Healthcare Law

Sep 19 2011 // A U.S. appeals court handed President Barack Obama a victory for his signature healthcare law on Sept. 8, ruling against challenges by the state of Virginia and others seeking to invalidate the law as unconstitutional. The...

Virginia-based Hilb Group Acquires Venture Specialty Insurance

Sep 16 2011 // The Hilb Group, a Glen Allen, Va.-based holding company that focuses on acquiring mid-market agencies, has purchased Venture Specialty Insurance. The Richmond, Va.-based Venture Specialty is an all-lines agency with two...

Buffett Picks Another Successor

Sep 13 2011 // Warren Buffett advanced his succession plan Monday by naming Ted Weschler, a low-profile hedge fund manager who has produced out-sized returns in the last decade, to help manage the investments of Berkshire Hathaway...

Court Tosses Virginia Challenge to Healthcare Law

Sep 9 2011 // A U.S. appeals court handed President Barack Obama a victory for his signature healthcare law Thursday, ruling against challenges by the state of Virginia and others seeking to invalidate the law as unconstitutional. The...

Business Moves

Sep 5 2011 // Vertafore, Kaplan Compliance Insurance agency technology vendor Vertafore said that its subsidiary Sircon will acquire Indianapolis, Indiana-based Kaplan Compliance Solutions (KCS), which sells insurance and securities...

First Responder Fees Claims Becoming Routine for Insurers

Sep 5 2011 // While fee recovery by fire departments is nothing new, an increasing number of local municipalities have begun to charge for first responder, primarily fire department, services. Though the types of fees and rates vary...

3 Insurers Bid for West Virginia Account

Sep 5 2011 // Three companies are vying to provide workers’ compensation coverage for state agencies. Acting Insurance Commissioner Michael Riley said that BrickStreet Mutual Insurance Co., Chartis, and Zurich Insurance Co....

Virginia Governor Defends Mandatory Evacuations

Sep 1 2011 // Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell credited mandatory evacuations for saving lives during Hurricane Irene. As many as 200,000 Virginians were under mandatory evacuation orders during the weekend storm, and many others were urged...

West Virginia Jury Awards $7 Million in Electric Plant Explosion Death

Aug 30 2011 // A West Virginia jury has awarded $7 million in damages to the family of a worker killed in a 2007 explosion at an American Electric Power plant in Ohio. A Marshall County jury found AEP and subsidiary Ohio Power Co....

Insured Losses from Hurricane Irene in Carolinas Could Reach $400 Million

Aug 28 2011 // Hurricane Irene caused between $200 million and $400 million in insured losses in the Carolinas, catastrophe modeling company Eqecat said on Sunday. At 7:30 a.m. ET Saturday, Aug. 27, Irene made its first landfall just...

Hurricane Irene Update: 50 Million People Could Be Affected

Aug 26 2011 // Parts of the southeastern United States were already experiencing dangerous swells and rip tides Thursday as Hurricane Irene exited the Bahamas. On Friday afternoon, ahead of Hurricane Irene’s forecasted arrival in...

Is ‘Old’ East Coast Prepared For a Powerful Earthquake?

Aug 26 2011 // There was a crack in the Washington Monument, and capstones were broken at the National Cathedral. In the District of Columbia suburbs, some people stayed in shelters because of structural concerns at their apartment...