Cannabis is here to stay in Texas, lawmakers and industry leaders said last week, as efforts to ban consumable hemp are losing steam. However, figuring out how to regulate the market remains a glaring problem that lawmakers will likely address in 2027. State Sen. Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas, and Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo, told cannabis industry leaders at the Texas Cannabis Policy Conference that the attempted ban on consumable hemp opened their eyes to how passionate Texans are about these products. Now it’s time to find a safe and responsible way to regulate businesses that sell THC instead of prohibition,…
Author: Awais
Listen to the article 3 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Dive Brief: The federal government entered a partial shutdown on Saturday, allowing telehealth flexibilities in Medicare and waivers for acute hospital-at-home care to lapse. Legislation that would fund the HHS through September and enact other healthcare policies, including pharmacy benefit manager reforms, was stalled for several days over funding for the Department of Homeland Security in the wake of fatal shootings by federal immigration officials in Minneapolis. Still, lawmakers appear to be making progress toward reopening the government. On Friday, the Senate…
Erie denied the tender – now Travelers wants answers and its defense costs back
Novacore, the specialty insurance managing general agent (MGA) formerly the U.S. commercial division of NSM Insurance Group, announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire CP Insurance Associates, a Texas-based insurance services agency specializing in lender-placed insurance, investor property and buy here pay here programs, as well as insurance for financial institutions. The acquisition of CPIA expands Novacore’s capabilities within the financial institution and lending ecosystem, adding a long-established platform with deep expertise in collateral protection, compliance services and technology-enabled insurance administration. CPIA will become part of Novacore’s growing portfolio of specialty solutions, supporting continued expansion across lender-focused…
Philip Mortimer is chief financial officer of Heffernan Insurance Brokers and part of the 2026 IBA Hot 100. In this interview, he explains his rise from humble beginnings to the c-suite, how he accelerated his path to the top and what his priorities are for the next few years.
As the latest KFF Health Tracking Poll shows, affordability is the public’s biggest concern, with the cost of health care ranking as their top economic worry. However, KFF polls have demonstrated that beyond costs, insured people report a whole host of issues navigating the health care system. This report looks at which aspects of accessing care and health insurance are the biggest problem for insured adults and finds that prior authorizations – or the process of having to get insurance approval before accessing certain tests, treatments, or medications – are having an outsized impact on insured adults. One in three…
A cluster of earthquakes in the San Francisco Bay Area early Monday including a magnitude 4.2 temblor was felt by thousands. The United States Geological Survey reported more than two dozen different quakes. The largest was a M4.2 east of San Ramon at a depth of 5.8 miles on the Calaveras Fault, a right-lateral, strike-slip fault There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. Operators of the area’s rail line, BART, issued an alert advising passengers that trains were running at reduced speeds as crews undertook track safety inspections as a result of the quake, the San Francisco Chronicle…
Rokstone Agriculture, part of the International Speciality (Re)Insurance MGA Rokstone, has announced the launch of its new U.S. non-admitted Commercial Agriculture and Farm & Ranch Property Program. Available in all U.S. states, except Alaska and Hawaii, and excluding wind is some coastal geographies, the new program is backed by $25 million in non-admitted A rated capacity. Headquartered in Kentucky and Ohio, Rokstone Agriculture continues to expand its suite of specialty agriculture products which now includes Livestock Mortality (admitted and non-admitted), Farm and Ranch (admitted), Equine Mortality (admitted and non-admitted) and the newly launched Agriculture Property (non-admitted) programs. The launch has…
(iStock/Getty Images) Health policy changes in Washington will ripple through the country, resulting in millions of Americans losing their Medicaid or Affordable Care Act coverage. But there are still ways to find care. Over the next decade, the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act is expected to slash nearly $1 trillion in spending from Medicaid, the state-federal program for people with low incomes and disabilities. The implementation of new work rules will cause some beneficiaries to lose their Medicaid coverage. Millions of Americans are facing enormous increases in their out-of-pocket costs for ACA coverage. So far, 1.2 million fewer people…
Record-breaking cold gripped the Southeast this weekend, bringing heavy snow to parts of Tennessee and North Carolina, canceling flights across the region and threatening citrus crops in Florida. News outlets reported that at least 44 daily temperature records may be broken or tied across the South on Monday, most of them in Florida, according to the US Weather Prediction Center, Bloomberg News reported. Orlando is forecast to drop to 29F (16C); Lakeland, 27F; and Gainesville, 21F — all of which would break records for Feb. 2, the agency said. “For Florida, this is a rare long-duration hard freeze,” said Richard…
A buzzy new social network where artificial intelligence-powered bots appear to swap code and gossip about their human owners had a major flaw that exposed private data on thousands of real people, according to research published on Monday by cybersecurity firm Wiz. Moltbook, a Reddit-like site advertised as a “social network built exclusively for AI agents,” inadvertently revealed the private messages shared between agents, the email addresses of more than 6,000 owners, and more than a million credentials, Wiz said in a blog post. Moltbook’s creator, Matt Schlicht, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Schlicht has previously…
A town south of Atlanta advised its residents on Friday not to drink their tap water after a fuel spill at Atlanta’s airport may have contaminated the Flint River. The city of Griffin, whose water system serves more than 20,000 customers, said water might not be safe to drink even if it was boiled and asked people to use bottled water instead for drinking, cooking or brushing teeth. Alnissa Ruiz-Craig, a spokesperson for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, said the fuel spill happened Friday morning and that cleanup was underway. She couldn’t say how much fuel escaped or why. Griffin officials…
As the catastrophe bond market continues to expand, these particular financial instruments continue to offer a sustainable opportunity for investors, while interest in private insurance-linked securities (ILS) is increasing as investors seek to further diversify within the asset class, according to Chris McAvoy, Head of alternatives research at JANA Investment Advisers Pty Limited.Writing in a recent article in Australian publication Investment Magazine, McAvoy explains that for two years, and well into a third, catastrophe bonds “have shone in an accessible, liquid and regularly priced market.” “Now the question for institutional investors isn’t whether to maintain cat bond exposure, it’s how to…
In a world where rising costs, flat or declining reimbursement and staffing shortages threaten the viability of small and independent medical practices, those seeking to stay profitable and relevant can learn valuable lessons from the retail industry. Today’s patients have been conditioned by companies like Apple and Amazon to expect personalization, convenience and price transparency. They now want their healthcare experiences to mirror what they’ve become accustomed to as consumers. Even through periods of slow economic growth and temporary sales dips, global retail sales have trended upwards for decades. One of the primary reasons for this ongoing increase is that…