A Georgia prosecutor has decided to drop charges against a teenager who police say was driving the truck that struck and killed a beloved high school teacher when a prank turned deadly, the teen’s lawyer said. The victim’s family had urged authorities not to compound the tragedy by prosecuting the teen driver and his friends. The 40-year-old teacher, Jason Hughes, died after slipping and falling into the street as the teens started to drive away after participating in a community tradition of pranking teachers by throwing toilet paper onto his front lawn. The students had stopped and rendered aid to…
Author: Awais
US home insurance premiums are set to rise for a fifth straight year in 2026 as insurers grapple with losses from extreme weather and high rebuilding costs. The average annual premium is projected to increase 4% to about $3,057 this year, after jumping 12% in 2025, according to Insurify, an online insurance comparison site. The expected gain follows several years of steep growth in rates. Since 2021, premiums have climbed 46%, roughly three times as much as inflation, Insurify said. The forecasts are in line with other recent estimates. A report released Tuesday by Lending Tree, an online mortgage comparison…
At Insurtech Insights Europe, global (re)insurers push education and prevention to tackle systemic exposures
Corpus Christi leaders on Tuesday unveiled new projections suggesting that the city could be just two months away from triggering emergency water measures. At a marathon city council meeting that stretched for 10 hours, Nick Winkelmann, interim chief operating officer of Corpus Christi Water, outlined five potential scenarios — two of which would push the city into a level one water emergency by May. At that point, the city’s water supply would be projected to fall short of demand within 180 days. When pressed by council member Kaylynn Paxson on which scenario the city is preparing to follow, staffers at…
ALM Freight, LLC, an Amazon delivery service company, agreed to pay $47,000 and LMDmax Corp., ALM’s employment agency, agreed to pay $60,000 to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today. According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, a deaf applicant was offered a driver position with ALM in November 2022. She accepted the position and worked with LMDmax to complete the onboarding process. When she requested an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter for her first day of orientation, LMDmax responded with a text message stating that ALM does not provide…
The medtech company believes the cyberattack has been contained and is now bringing systems back online.
Global law firm Clyde & Co has announced the opening of a new office in Highland, Indiana, expanding its US footprint and further strengthening its North American trial and defense practice. The new office will be led by Renee Mortimer, who joins Clyde & Co as a partner, accompanied by one associate. She will work alongside an established Indiana-based team that includes senior counsel Brittney Rykovich and three associates. Renee joins Clyde & Co from Lewis Brisbois where Renee was Managing Partner of the firm’s Highland and Indianapolis offices. She brings more than three decades of experience in defending insurers…
A proposal has been published today calling for the establishment of a United States government backed reinsurance entity named US Re, which would be designed to assume natural catastrophe risks at the most extreme tail of the loss distribution, holding catastrophe risk at the lowest cost possible.The proposal made by the Hamilton Project at Brookings Institution, calls for a US federal property reinsurer to be formed, to help in supporting both insurance and reinsurance market delivery of more consistent and affordable homeowners insurance coverage in the country. With climate and natural disaster costs rising the US insurance industry has been…
AM Best has downgraded the Financial Strength Rating to B- (Fair) from B++ (Good) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating to “bb-” (Fair) from “bbb+” (Good) of Texas-domiciled Cadence Indemnity Inc, a single parent captive of The Sullivan Brothers Family of Companies. AddAM Best has placed these Credit Ratings (ratings) under review with negative implications. Concurrently, AM Best has withdrawn these public ratings of Cadence per the company’s request. The ratings reflect Cadence’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as weak, as well as its adequate operating performance, limited business profile and marginal enterprise risk management (ERM). The rating…
A building where explosives were manufactured in Tennessee was not outfitted with a sprinkler system or fire protection system before a massive explosion killed 16 workers in October, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board said this week. It’s not clear if fire suppression equipment would have made much difference, however, as one explosion at the Accurate Energetic Systems facility in McEwen triggered multiple other explosions throughout the building, the board said in an update to its ongoing investigation. “This is one of the deadliest industrial incidents in our country in years,” board Chairman Steve Owens said in a statement. “The CSB’s…
On specific routes, shipping charges have quadrupled. Moving a standard 20-foot equivalent unit (TEU) container from the UK to Jebel Ali, which previously cost roughly £1,500, has surged to nearly £6,000. When factoring in impromptu storage, land transport, and port fees, shippers are facing unplanned costs extending into the five-figure range per container.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In the early 2000s, Michelle Warfield worked at a factory, hauling heavy seats for Ford trucks on and off an assembly line. To suppress daily aches in her back and hips, her doctor prescribed opioid painkillers. They worked for a bit. But by 2011, Warfield struggled to walk. And “by that time, I was addicted,” said Warfield, now living in Shelbyville, Kentucky. After she lost her health insurance, Warfield started buying pills on the street. She tried to quit several times, but the debilitating withdrawal — so bad she couldn’t get out of bed, she said —…
The Iran war is likely to raise uncertainty in the global terrorism and political violence insurance markets, particularly in the United States and Europe, according to credit ratings agency Morningstar DBRS, in a commentary on the war, While the insurance and reinsurance sector remains well capitalized and broadly able to absorb moderate losses, prolonged instability is likely to raise underwriting volatility and increase concerns around exposure accumulation across multiple specialty insurance lines, said the report, titled “Iran War May Increase Concerns About Terrorism and Political Violence Insurance Underwriting Beyond the Middle East.” DBRS explained that the main credit risk for…
US President Donald Trump said he wanted to have no wind turbines built during his presidency, reiterating his distaste for the renewable energy source after his administration has made multiple moves to thwart its development. “I’m proudly telling you that we’re going to try and have no windmills built in the United States during my” administration, Trump said in remarks from the Oval office on Tuesday. “They’re very bad environmentally.” The remarks came after the New York Times reported that the Trump administration is weighing a $1 billion deal with TotalEnergies SE, the French energy company spearheading two US offshore…