An annual report for the Identity Theft Resource Center has found that there were a record 3,322 compromises of data in in the United States 2025, but there has been a significant decline in consumer notifications. According to ITRC’s Annual Data Breach Report, “transparency is on life support” despite a 79% increase in data compromises over the last five years. It wasn’t long that nearly every company gave details of a data breach. However, in 2025, only 30% of companies provided details. This development “creates an environment where consumers and small businesses, in particular, are essentially ‘operating blind,’” said ITRC.…
Author: Awais
New report reveals a ‘leapfrog’ effect on an essential generation at work
Comprehensive, capitated managed care is the dominant Medicaid delivery system, accounting for about 78% of beneficiaries (over 66 million individuals as of July 2024) and 50% of total Medicaid spending (over $458 billion in FY 2024). States were contracting with over 280 individual Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs) (as of July 2022), which represent a mix of private for-profit, private non-profit, and government plans. Medicaid Managed care contracts are among the largest and most complex state contracts, frequently exceeding billions of dollars a year. While the majority of states contract with managed care plans, states decide which populations and services to include in…
Inszone Insurance Services announced its expansion in Texas through the acquisition of Scarbrough, Medlin & Associates, Inc., a Dallas-based agency with more than four decades of experience serving commercial property clients. Scarbrough, Medlin & Associates was founded in 1981 by Don Medlin and Paul Scarbrough. Rod Medlin later joined the firm, helping guide its growth and evolution. Scarbrough, Medlin & Associates specializes in commercial property insurance, with deep experience supporting property management firms, association management companies, and multifamily and mixed-use developments. The firm also brings a long history of servicing other complex commercial classes, including large school districts, electric cooperatives,…
Two asphalt companies have agreed to pay $30 million total to resolve False Claims Act allegations that they submitted fraudulent test results to the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) for federally funded asphalt projects in Ohio. Specifically, Kokosing Materials, Inc. will pay $17.5 million to resolve allegations that it submitted false or fraudulent asphalt test results from 2012 through 2024. Barrett Paving Materials, Inc. will pay $12.5 million to resolve allegations that it submitted false or fraudulent asphalt test results from 2013 through 2025. Ohio’s Construction and Materials Specifications require that companies performing asphalt projects must conduct certain mix design…
Searchers have discovered the wreck of a luxury steamer that sank in a Lake Michigan gale in the late 19th century, completing a quest that began almost 60 years ago. Shipwreck World, a group that works to locate shipwrecks around the globe, announced Friday that a team led by Illinois shipwreck hunter Paul Ehorn found the Lac La Belle about 20 miles (32 kilometers) offshore between Racine and Kenosha, Wisconsin, in October 2022. Ehorn told The Associated Press in a phone interview on Sunday that the announcement was delayed because his team wanted to include a three-dimensional video model of…
The Catholic Diocese of Camden, New Jersey and several holdout insurers have agreed to add $180 million to a trust fund to pay claims of survivors of sexual abuse by the church’s clergy. The $180 million is in addition to a settlement of $87.5 million between the diocese and the Official Committee of Tort Claimant Creditors that was approved by the Bankruptcy Court in 2024. Several insurers appealed the 2024 court decision approving the $87.5 million plan and the case has been on appeal since then. Insurers had agreed to contribute $30 million but carriers expressed concerns about loopholes they…
The California FAIR Plan Association is looking to upsize its second catastrophe bond sponsorship by 75%, with now $350 million of capital markets backed wildfire reinsurance protection sought from the Golden Bear Re Ltd. (Series 2026-2) cat bond issuance, Artemis has learned.The California FAIR Plan Association returned to the catastrophe bond market for its second sponsorship earlier this month, with an initial target to secure $200 million of multi-year wildfire reinsurance protection from the capital markets. That move came on the heels of FAIR Plan’s debut catastrophe bond that was issued in December 2025, when it secured the largest pure…
Wyoming officials say they have a plan to make five years of upcoming grants from a new $50 billion federal rural health program last “forever.” The state could tackle rural health issues long into the future by investing its awards from the Rural Health Transformation Program, the director of Wyoming’s health department, Stefan Johansson, told state lawmakers. But it’s unclear whether the maneuver will pass muster with the federal government. If approved, Wyoming’s Rural Health Transformation Perpetuity fund could provide $28.5 million for the state to spend every year, according to materials presented to lawmakers. Wyoming would spend the money…
Florida regulators announced a crackdown on people selling vehicle insurance products without a license. Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky this week ordered American Dream Auto Protect Inc., an auto warranty company, to cease operations because it did not have a license or approval from the state Office of Insurance Regulation. The company, which incorporated last year, must run off its hundreds of existing warranties by honoring the warranties or allowing purchasers to cancel and to obtain a refund. American Dream, based in New Jersey, must also send the consent order to consumers and post it on the firm’s website, Yaworsky said…
Yet this year’s honorees demonstrate that technology has amplified, not diminished, the value of specialist wholesale brokers. As more routine risks are commoditized by algorithms and portals, the market increasingly depends on human specialists to handle the unusual, bespoke, and hard-to-place.
A Connecticut judge last Friday dismissed criminal charges against three current and former New Haven police officers who were accused of mistreating prisoner Richard “Randy” Cox after he was paralyzed in the back of a police van in 2022. Judge David Zagaja dropped the cases against Oscar Diaz, Jocelyn Lavandier and Luis Rivera after granting them a probation program that allows charges to be erased from defendants’ records, saying their conduct was not malicious. Two other officers, Betsy Segui and Ronald Pressley, pleaded guilty last year to misdemeanor reckless endangerment and received no jail time. Cox, 40, was left paralyzed…
Jump to winners | Jump to methodology The sense makers Artificial intelligence has gone from buzzword to baseline in America’s insurance industry, and it has raised the question: If algorithms can read submissions, score risks, and match them to capacity, do we still need specialist wholesale brokers? The answer from the market and the data is a resounding yes, because a key part of their role is not to look back but to anticipate exposures clients haven’t seen. The standout operators are honored in Insurance Business America’s Top Specialist Wholesale Brokers 2026. For the seventh straight year, direct written premiums saw…
The seven Western states that depend on the Colorado River missed a deadline for the second time Saturday to agree on a plan addressing record drought and water shortages. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo released a joint statement calling on Upper Basin states to offer more concessions. Those states include Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. “The Colorado River is essential to our communities and economies, and our states have conserved large volumes of water in recent years to stabilize the basin’s water supplies for years to come,” the governors said. “Our…