A bill touted as the nation’s first public health and insurance standards to protect families from toxic smoke contamination is making its way through California legislature. California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and Assemblymember Mike Gipson on Wednesday introduced Assembly Bill 1795, the Smoke Damage Recovery Act. Related: ‘Structural Shift’ Occurring in California Surplus Lines The bill is a response to smoke contamination from the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires. AB 1795 would establish enforceable public health and insurance claims standards for smoke‑damaged homes. Lara last year took legal action against the California FAIR Plan Association for reportedly denying and limiting smoke…
Author: Awais
The Federal Aviation Administration reopened airspace over El Paso and part of southern New Mexico on Wednesday morning after shutting it down for a few hours overnight amid an announcement there would be no flights for 10 days. The White House now says the unusual closure was triggered by Mexican cartel drones breaching U.S. airspace — contradicting an industry source who said it was because of an impasse with the Department of Defense over the use of unmanned military aircraft. “The temporary closure of airspace over El Paso has been lifted. There is no threat to commercial aviation. All flights…
The Los Angeles wildfires that kicked off 2025 not only sped up a statewide homeowners insurance market pullback, but they also played a part in an ongoing reshaping of California’s surplus lines market, according to a new report. The state’s surplus lines insurance market has entered a new phase that can be best defined as a “structural shift,” a market analysis from The Surplus Line Association of California shows. The SLACAL report is part of the group’s annual report. It examines how legal risk, catastrophe exposure, capital constraints and regulatory friction reshaped where risk is placed and how coverage is…
Equal Parts, an Austin, Texas-based insurance agency startup, announced it has raised $23M in Series A funding led by Inspired Capital. The investment will accelerate the company’s acquisition strategy and further develop AI tools that extend the reach and impact of independent agencies. The company plans to acquire 25 agencies this year and reach $1B in premiums within 24 months. The Series A round, with participation from Equal Ventures, Max Ventures, Genius Ventures and lending partners, brings Equal Parts’ total acquisition capital to $50M. Recent acquisitions include Strategic Insurance in New Mexico and Austin-based Assurely and Lumen Insurance. Topics Mergers…
New survey reveals widespread employee disengagement as workers report talents going untapped
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s budget office is warning that the state is facing higher costs and more uncertainty as President Donald Trump’s administration threatens to pull back federal funding. “Over the past year, federal policy changes have altered the federal-state partnership by shifting costs to states and reducing support for longstanding programs that serve working families,” according to a press release from the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget on Friday. “Unlike the federal government, states across the country — including Illinois — are required to balance their budgets, and as repeatedly stated, Illinois cannot backfill billions of dollars as…
Florida insurance company officers, employees, board members and even stockholders would have to undergo background checks and fingerprinting under a wide-ranging bill approved by a state House panel Wednesday morning. House Bill 1263, sponsored by state Rep. Linda Chaney, R-St. Petersburg, would authorize the Office of Insurance Regulation to require insurers and proposed insurers to submit full sets of fingerprints to a state law enforcement agency. The background checks could be used by OIR to deny or revoke carriers’ certificates of authority, the bill notes. “The Legislature finds that criminal activity of insurers poses a particular danger to the residents…
Underwriters, for example, can receive faster alerts about where a risk sits relative to appetite, and where further scrutiny is required. In practice, this means linking core systems such as OneShield, Upland’s policy administration platform, with advanced data extraction tools like Further AI to eliminate data silos and streamline analysis.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Horizon Biofuels Inc., a manufacturer of fuel pellets, for willful and serious safety violations after a deadly explosion at the company’s Fremont, Nebraska facility in July 2025. An investigation was initiated on July 29, 2025, following the explosion that caused fatal injuries to a worker. OSHA cited Horizon Biofuels for violations including combustible dust buildup, failure to ensure equipment within the facility was protected from creating an ignition source and lack of fall protection for employees working at heights greater than four feet. The citations carry $147,542 in…
The US House on Tuesday passed a bill that would seek to exclude China from global financial institutions if it were to threaten Taiwan and pose a danger to American interests. The legislation would establish US policy to block Chinese representatives from six organizations, including the Group of 20, the Bank for International Settlements, Financial Stability Board and the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. The vote was overwhelming — 395 in favor to 2 against. But it’s not yet clear if the Senate will consider the bill and send it to President Donald Trump for his signature — the next…
The average workers’ compensation rates for the Tennessee voluntary market should drop about 2% this year, marking the 13th straight year for lower rates in the state. It’s also the smallest decrease in years. “Safer workplaces where Tennessee workers are receiving fewer injuries on the job are helping contribute to the latest loss-cost reduction,” Tennessee Insurance Commissioner Lawrence said in a bulletin. “These reductions indicate a healthier workplace for Tennesseans as they result from decreases in lost-time claim frequency and more stable claims costs.” The commissioner approved a 2% loss-cost decrease recommended in September by the National Council on Compensation…
Rain and snow are expected to return to the Rockies and the Western U.S. over the next few weeks, but it’s likely to only make a small dent in the snow drought and dry conditions across parts of the West. Roughly 20% of the U.S. is currently dealing with severe, extreme, or exceptional drought conditions, compared to 17.6% at this time last year. Warmer and drier conditions in the region late this winter could increase wildfire risk sooner than many people expect, a new report from AccuWeather shows. Related: Rising Fire Risk Prompts Utilities to Deliberately Cut Power Long-range forecasters…
This content is copyright to www.artemis.bm and should not appear anywhere else, or an infringement has occurred. At the January 2026 reinsurance renewals, insurance giant AIG added further efficiency to its aggregate protection for the year, in a renewal that saw weighted average rate decreases of more than 15% for the company, CEO Peter Zaffino explained today. Speaking just now during the AIG earnings call, Zaffino explained that his company saw the reinsurance renewal environment as favourable at 1/1. Importantly he noted that, while pricing was favourable and sometimes also terms, reinsurance capital providers generally held firm on attachment points…
Leonard Bighorn said his mother tried for two years to get help for severe stomach pain through the limited health services available near her home on the Fort Peck Reservation in northeastern Montana. After his mom finally saw a specialist in Glasgow, about an hour away, she was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer, Bighorn said. Now, 16 years after his mother’s death, Bighorn has access to regular screenings for cancer and other specialty care that she didn’t have, through a health insurance program the Fort Peck Tribes created in 2016. The program, which covers most of the costs for…