Carnival Cruise Line should pay $300,000 to a former passenger after a federal jury in South Florida found that the company was negligent in serving the woman more than a dozen shots of tequila before she fell down some stairs and suffered a possible traumatic brain injury. The Miami federal jury decided last Friday in favor of Diana Sanders, a 45-year-old nurse from Vacaville, California. “Taking on a corporate giant like Carnival is a massive undertaking, and I have enormous respect for my client’s resilience throughout this 18-month litigation,” Sanders’ attorney Spencer Aronfeld said in an email. “This case highlights…
Author: Awais
Floodwaters from record rainfall in Wisconsin inundated streets Wednesday, trapping drivers and forcing officials to close sections of a highway, as other Midwestern states worked to rebuild after storms. Cars were stranded in high floodwater on a highway in Milwaukee and video shared by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel showed a woman and child being rescued from a vehicle. The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office posted online to urge people not to drive in southeast Wisconsin. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers declared a state of emergency after storms, which had started moving through the state Monday, brought strong winds, hail and heavy rain.…
Editorial Note: Originally published in April 2017, this resource is updated as needed to reflect the latest developments. Key Points On May 8, 2025, the Trump administration invoked the “Kemp-Kasten amendment” in order to withhold FY 2025 funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA, the lead U.N. agency focused on global population and reproductive health); the same determination was made during President Trump’s first term. FY 2025 funding for UNFPA was expected to total $32.5 million in core support and potentially millions more for other project activities. While under current law any U.S. funding withheld from UNFPA is to…
As a historic drought in South Texas deepens, parched cities along the coastal bend are following Corpus Christi’s playbook and racing to drill their way out of a crisis. But as more and more cities turn to groundwater instead of surface water, experts warn that they risk exhausting the area’s aquifers and should only use wells as a temporary solution. Alice is working on getting a second well online by May. Mathis is currently drilling two. And Beeville, which already has four, finished drilling a new well this week and is expected to begin pulling water from it by the…
Twelve Securis, the specialist catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment manager, has extended its long-standing collaboration with Bank J. Safra Sarasin to now include distribution across Italy and Spain.Twelve Securis has been collaborating with Bank J. Safra Sarasin, a private bank and asset management specialist group, since 2011, with a focus on insurance-related investment funds and opportunities. That collaboration resulted in the launch of specific ILS fund strategies with co-branding, including the JSS Twelve Sustainable Insurance Bond Fund that was launched in 2014, as well as the more recent launch of the JSS Twelve Securis Private ILS Fund in…
After Canadian wildfires brought extremely poor air quality to Detroit in the summers of 2023 and 2025, Michigan is updating how it communicates air quality risks to residents this year. The state is streamlining a system that has evolved with the emergence of severe smoke impacts. The state will issue an air quality alert anytime fine particulate matter or ozone levels climb into the federal Air Quality Index’s “unhealthy for sensitive groups,” or orange range, said Jim Haywood, senior meteorologist with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, Energy (EGLE). The agency previously issued alerts when the air quality index,…
The Host President Donald Trump this week nominated a former deputy surgeon general who has expressed support for vaccines to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Considered a more traditional fit for the job, Erica Schwartz would be the agency’s fourth leader in roughly a year, should she be confirmed by the Senate. And Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared on Capitol Hill this week in the first of several hearings discussing Trump’s budget request for the department. But the topics up for discussion deviated quite a bit from the subject of federal funding,…
For brokers, one ongoing problem is clients’ fear of being left exposed when cover clocks down. Srinivas Prasanna, senior vice president and marine hull leader in Asia for Marsh, said the market’s first reaction when the conflict started last month was alarmingly short-term. “The panic button was really on and every single day these conversations keep happening because, when the conflict started, markets just gave seven days cover,” he said.
Certain tasks can be handled efficiently by machines, such as document intake, chronology building, identifying inconsistencies and flagging anomalies. Platforms like Wisedocs are built around this layer, using AI trained on large volumes of claims data to extract and organize key information while maintaining human oversight.
The agency said it developed concerns about the limited evaluation process for the devices after gaining experience with the alternative pathway.
The Professional Insurance Agents of Arkansas (PIA Arkansas) announced that Executive Director Staci Shearon will retire effective May 29, 2026, concluding nearly 20 years of leadership and service to the association and the independent insurance community. Shearon informed the PIA Arkansas Board of Directors of her decision earlier this month. During her tenure, she played a central role in strengthening the association’s presence across advocacy, education, and member engagement, helping position PIA Arkansas as a leading voice for independent agents in the state. The Board emphasized that it is actively managing the leadership transition to ensure continuity and stability. A…
New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani is seeking to lower the cost of property and liability insurance for affordable and rent-stabilized housing through a new city-run insurance program. Mamdani plans to hire independent actuarial experts to design and launch the insurance program with the goal of offering coverage in 2027. By 2027, the city hopes to lower the cost of insurance policies for 20,000 homes and, by 2030, for as many as 100,000 homes. The city plans to this week issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) for an actuary or risk consultant that will provide expertise to design the…
The two volunteer fire departments serving the western Pennsylvania borough of Vandergrift have resumed responding to 911 calls. Mayor Lenny Collini said the firefighters returned to their stations on Thursday after a six day interruption due to a lapse in the required workers’ compensation insurance policy. Fire Departments Halt Service Due to Lapse in Workers’ Compensation Collini said the insurance policy was restored yesterday and fire services resumed. The borough became aware that the workers’ compensation policy had lapsed on Friday April 10, which the mayor told citizens in a letter meant the policy could not be reinstated until this…
Marsh aims to be an “AI winner” through growth, productivity and efficiency gains, according to John Doyle, president and CEO of the broker and risk adviser. “[W]e see AI as a powerful accelerator and enabler in delivering value to our clients, colleagues and shareholders,” Doyle said during an earnings call with equities analysts to discuss first quarter results. (See below for Marsh’s Q1 results wrapup). He emphasized it’s important to remember that Marsh is not selling commoditized products or simply procuring insurance at the lowest possible price. “[Artificial intelligence] will help us serve our clients who have bespoke and complex…