Declarations

Insurer Suits

“We are expected to be one of several insurance companies that are taking this action.”

—Allstate spokeswoman Christina Loznicka after Allstate Insurance Co. announced it had sued Toyota Motor Corp., seeking to recover more than $3 million the insurer and affiliates paid in claims for accidents linked to unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles. The Allstate action asserts, as have other lawsuits, that acceleration flaws were rooted in a defect in an electronic throttle system Toyota introduced in the 1990s, and that Toyota “essentially hid the problem” instead of recalling the cars or changing the design.

Healthcare Mandate

“The minimum coverage provision, which addresses economic decisions regarding health care services that everyone eventually, and inevitably, will need, is a reasonable means of effectuating Congress’s goal.”

—U.S. District Judge George Steeh in a ruling upholding a key part of President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law that requires Americans to obtain coverage and rejecting a challenge by a conservative interest group. The Thomas More Law Center had argued that the provision requiring Americans buy coverage by 2014 under threat of penalty was beyond Congress’ authority and an unconstitutional tax. But the judge ruled that Congress had the authority to enact the law under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution and therefore could also impose a penalty for those who failed to obtain insurance.

Escaping Landfall

“If you just use (U.S.) landfall as a criteria and did not pay attention to the numbers, you’d think this was a really quiet year. A couple of relatively minor impacts and some flooding and that’s what we’d have to show for it.”

—U.S. National Hurricane Center director Bill Read telling Reuters that the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season has been very active in the number of storms but is likely to go down as a non-event for most people in the United States, which has so far been very lucky and dodged a major landfall.

Wildfire Threat

“This weather cycle calls for a warmer and drier winter here in Florida, and when you combine that with the lack of any real rainfall associated with tropical systems so far this season, we have to expect a tough wildfire season ahead.”

—Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson warning that dry conditions in some parts of the state coupled with a forecast calling for a significant drying cycle threaten a potentially severe wildfire season.

Topics USA Wildfire