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Few New Restrictions as Georgia’s Shelter-at-Home Order Ends

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp will allow his statewide shelter-in-place order to expire at midnight Thursday but is extending his emergency powers to June 12 and telling the elderly and medically fragile to stay at home until then. The first-term Republican …

Tennessee Halts Temporary Producer Licensing as Testing Centers Reopen

New applications for temporary insurance producer licenses in Tennessee have been discontinued by the Tennessee Department of Commerce & Insurance (TDCI) as physical testing locations begin to reopen throughout the state. As of May 1, Pearson Vue had reopened its …

New Orleans to Allow Demolition of Collapsed Hard Rock Hotel

Plans to demolish the Hard Rock Hotel in New Orleans, which partially collapsed in October, have been given the go-ahead after months of disagreements between the developer and the city. The hotel developer, 1031 Canal Street Development, received a permit …

Clergy Abuse Costs Drive New Orleans Archdiocese to File for Bankruptcy

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans announced on May 1 that it is seeking federal Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection amid growing legal costs related to sexual abuse by priests. The filing for reorganization could free the archdiocese from the …

Texas Creamery Blue Bell to Plead Guilty, Pay $19M over Listeria Outbreak

Texas-based ice cream manufacturer Blue Bell Creameries has agreed to pay $19.35 million and plead guilty to charges that it shipped contaminated products linked to a 2015 listeriosis outbreak, the U.S. Justice Department said on April 1. Prosecutors also filed …

Pennsylvania High Court Says Insurer Has Duty to Defend in Shooting Case

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania held that an insurer has a duty to defend its insured’s estate in a personal injury lawsuit brought by a man who was shot by the policyholder. This comes after Richard A. Carly came to …

AM Best Places Watford Re’s Ratings Under Review on COVID-19-Related Investment Hit

AM Best has placed under review with negative implications the Financial Strength Rating of “A-” (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings (Long-Term ICR) of “a-” of Bermuda-based Watford Re Ltd. Included in the review are Watford subsidiaries Gibraltar-based Watford …

Berkshire Discloses Q1 Insurance Results; Buffett Talks Coronavirus Impact

Berkshire Hathaway’s property/casualty insurance and reinsurance businesses reported a first quarter underwriting profit of $747 million before taxes, nearly double the pretax underwriting profit of $377 million recorded for first-quarter 2019. Property/casualty and life insurance and reinsurance businesses combined recorded …

Populous Areas Near Utah’s Wasatch Front Fault Lines Prone to Large Quakes

Fault lines along the Wasatch Front in north-central Utah are much bigger than initially thought, a study said. The Utah Department of Natural Resources released new maps accompanied with a four-year study showing there is a significant risk in densely …

PG&E Purging Most of Board in Fallout From Bankruptcy, California Wildfires

PG&E Corp. will sweep out three quarters of its board of directors to start with a mostly clean slate when it emerges from a bankruptcy case triggered by deadly wildfires ignited in Northern California by the utility’s neglected electrical grid. …

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