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South Dakota Deputy, a Former Insurance Agent, Indicted on 4 Counts of Grand Theft

A Minnehaha County, South Dakota, grand jury has indicted a Douglas County Sheriff’s deputy on four counts of grand theft. Court documents say that while licensed as an insurance producer, 41-year-old Rob Hotchkiss submitted fraudulent insurance applications in order to …

Donelon Re-elected as Louisiana Insurance Commissioner

Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon is retaining his elected post. Donelon, a Republican from Metairie, sailed to re-election on Oct. 22. He defeated little-known Democrat Donald Hodge, who criticized Donelon for receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations …

Markel’s Investment Unit Buys Manufacturing Firm

Markel Corp.’s subsidiary Markel Ventures purchased a majority interest in WI Holdings, a Pennsylvania-based manufacturing firm. The companies made the announcement last week. WI Holdings is a privately held company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, with a division in Gainesville, Texas. …

Mexican Truck Finally Enters U.S. Under NAFTA

The first Mexican long-haul truck bound for the U.S. interior crossed at the international bridge at Laredo, Texas, Friday, carrying electronic equipment destined for suburban Dallas and fulfilling a controversial provision of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. Business …

West Virginia Judge Affirms $91M Damage Award Against Nursing Home

A Kanawha County, West Virginia judge has affirmed most of a $91.5 million damage award against a Charleston nursing home in a lawsuit that claimed it failed to properly feed and care for an elderly woman who died hours after …

Penn. Court Strikes Down Workers’ Comp Exclusion in UIM Policy

Pennsylvania Supreme Court stuck down an exclusion in an employer’s underinsured motorist policy. The policy from Penn PRIME had excluded underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage for a local police officer because he was injured during his employment and received workers’ compensation …

5 More Massachusetts Counties Get Irene Disaster Aid

Gov. Deval Patrick says five more Massachusetts counties are being included in the federal disaster declaration after the remnants of Hurricane Irene hit the state in August. The counties added are on Cape Cod, the islands and in southeastern Massachusetts: …

AIR Updates Terrorism Insurance Model for U.S.

Catastrophe risk modeling firm AIR Worldwide (AIR) has updated its terrorism model for the United States to reflect less frequent and lower-severity attacks based on a reassessment of the threat by a team of terrorism experts. The model is used …

Home Insurance Rates Do Not Reflect Cost of Risk: Aon Benfield

U.S. insurers’ prospective after-tax return on equity for homeowners’ insurance is 4.8 percent on average, a decrease from the 6.9 percent of 2010, mainly due to subdued investment returns and higher estimates of non-coastal losses. That calculation comes from Aon …

Safety Crackdown Not Harming Mining Industry: Official

The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration’s continuing crackdown on the coal industry hasn’t deterred the industry’s growth, director Joe Main said Friday. From April 2010 to June 2011, the number of underground mining employees grew by about 11 percent, …

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