A Florida hospital has dropped its lawsuit seeking to evict a patient who refused to vacate a room for months after she was discharged because, the hospital said, she finally left. Tallahassee Memorial Hospital filed the lawsuit this month requesting an injunction to force the woman to leave room 373 and authorizing the county sheriff’s office to assist if necessary. She was officially discharged from the hospital in early October. A hearing had been scheduled for Monday, but was canceled after the hospital filed a notice of voluntary dismissal with prejudice. The case is no longer active because the patient…
Author: Awais
A venture-backed technology firm says it has built what it describes as the first U.S. insurance carrier designed to operate without human decision-making in its core functions, replacing traditional underwriting, agent interaction and claims adjudication with a unified artificial intelligence platform. Dei Primus Holdings announced this week the formation of LUCY Insurance, a property/casualty carrier executives say is not an automation layer supporting human employees, but a fully autonomous operating system that performs the insurer’s primary business decisions. Human involvement is limited to governance oversight, contracted field verification and litigation support. “We didn’t want to build tools for humans,” said…
Boating accidents in crowded Biscayne Bay near Miami have claimed the lives of two Floridians, including a Miami insurance agency customer representative and the CEO of a medical conference services firm. Multiple news sources reported that Davide Veglia, 55, of North Miami, was killed in a hit-and-run incident when a speed boat collided with a dinghy that Veglia and his son were on last week. Veglia’s 14-year-old son was injured. Video footage captured shots of the boat, and authorities are looking for the owner and driver of a 40-foot cabin cruiser, the Miami Herald reported. Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission…
The companies that typically make up the backbone of the US initial public offering market are eyeing the Iran war for signs volatility could boil over and wreck their plans. For banks, there’s a ray of hope — that SpaceX’s potential blockbuster listing could still go ahead, and make their whole year. After a first quarter marked by stop-and-start activity for IPOs, talk has turned to the implications of the raging conflict and the lingering effect of artificial intelligence scares. No wonder many listing candidates are sitting on their hands as a possible IPO for billionaire Elon Musk’s rocket company,…
The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has issued a nationwide data call to insurers in order to get a better understand of the U.S. homeowners insurance markets. The data, intended to be collected at the ZIP code level, will help regulators assess how coverage options and deductibles affect costs and access, evaluate mitigation efforts, monitor insurers’ financial strength, and better understand consumer awareness of insurance options, the organization said. The deadline to submit the data is June 15. information from policy years 2018–2025 will be collected from insurers writing at least $50,000 in relevant premium. Requested data includes policy type…
Private insurance-linked securities strategies that invest in reinsurance and retrocession outperformed in February 2026 according to ILS Advisers, as its Index of strategies across the market returned 0.47% for the month.The average return across ILS funds tracked by the ILS Advisers Fund Index stood at 0.47% for February. This followed a strong start to the year that saw the average ILS fund return reaching 0.82% for January, which was above average. The 0.47% return for February is based on reporting from 89% of fund managers included in the ILS Advisers Index, so it could move higher once all performance figures…
Plenum Investments, the Zurich based specialist catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment manager, has published a position paper clearly communicating its thoughts on the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) recommendation regarding cat bond eligibility under the UCITS investment framework.Recall that, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) made a recommendation in June 2025 to the European Commission not to allow catastrophe bonds as eligible assets in UCITS funds, a move that garnered wide attention across the industry. One reason for the attention is of course the important role UCITS fund structures play in catastrophe bonds, with over $19.12…
For nearly a decade, residents of Sweetwater have been confronted by a jarring sight as they leave and enter this small West Texas town: thousands of used wind-turbine blades. The blades take up nearly 1 million square feet in a field off Interstate 20. Hundreds more occupy a second site nearby. Originally up to 200 feet long — nearly the wingspan of a Boeing 747 — the blades have been cut into thirds, exposing gaping openings. Locals complain they’re a haven for rattlesnakes, collect water that attracts mosquitoes and pose a threat to children living nearby. The town has repeatedly…
There were allegedly five heat-related deaths over the last two summers in Texas prisons, the plaintiff’s attorneys presented on the first day of the federal trial over insufficient air conditioning in these facilities. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has not publicly acknowledged heat as a significant factor in these deaths, and the state’s attorneys also pushed back against these claims during the Monday proceeding. The hearing in Austin followed a March 2025 ruling from U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman that said housing Texas prison inmates in sweltering facilities that lack air conditioning is “plainly unconstitutional.” The Obama appointee declined…
Chicago-area residents are facing some of the country’s highest property taxes, with bills surging at double the inflation rate over the past 30 years, according to a study released Monday. Property owners paid $19.2 billion in taxes in 2024, a jump of nearly 182% since 1995, Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas said in a statement published with the analysis. Inflation in the county, which is home to Chicago and 134 other suburban municipalities, rose by less than 91% in the period. The increases are a sore point for the constituents of Pappas, a Democrat who plans to run for mayor…
Small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB) are especially at risk being struck by a new trend—a rise in cyber privacy litigation. “Privacy risk is no longer just about data breaches,” said Andy Thomas, CEO of KYND. A new report from the Austin-based cyber risk intelligence company said everyday website tracking and digital wiretapping have spawned an sharp increase in privacy lawsuits. Cases used to total in the hundreds per year. Now the tally has eclipsed 2,000. Andy Thomas “What may seem like a minor compliance issue is becoming a repeatable and scalable source of litigation, particularly across the SMB market,” Thomas…
Cannabis company Ascend Wellness Holdings, Inc. violated federal law when it subjected female employees at the company’s Collinsville, Illinois facility to unlawful sexual harassment, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit. According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, at least as early as February 2021, the Collinsville facility manager and other male employees continually harassed female employees, including touching, sexual comments, sexual advances, requests for sexual relations, and comments about the appearances and bodies of female employees and customers. Numerous female employees complained to Ascend’s human resources personnel about the sexual harassment, but the company failed to stop…
Vital Arctic sea ice shrank to tie its lowest measured level for the winter, the season when ice grows, as a warming Earth shattered records across the continents. Arctic sea ice levels, especially in the summer, are crucial to Earth’s climate because without the ice reflecting sunlight, more heat energy goes into the oceans. Ice of all kinds around the poles acts as Earth’s refrigerator. Wildlife, such as polar bears and seals, also depend on sea ice. Lack of sea ice in the Arctic creates new shipping routes and in doing so causes geopolitical disruptions, making once-ignored places such as…
The April 1st reinsurance renewals saw a continuation of the softening trend, with risk-adjusted property catastrophe rates-on-line returning to levels last seen in the early 2020’s, according to broker Howden Re.The Japanese reinsurance renewals are a key bellwether for this time of the year and Howden Re reports that catastrophe excess-of-loss programmes in that country saw risk-adjusted price reductions of up to 20% (point estimate: 16%). The renewals were completed even as geopolitical turmoil in the Middle East “drove acute stress across multiple specialty lines globally” the reinsurance broker explained. “Japan rates are now broadly back to early twenties levels,”…