Monthly Archives: <span>January 2016</span>

More Room for Improvement in Japan Nuclear Safety

Japan has improved its nuclear safety regulation since the 2011 Fukushima disaster, but it still needs to strengthen inspections and staff competency, a team of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday. It was the first IAEA review …

Liberty Mutual: Serious Workplace Injuries Cost U.S. Businesses $62B a Year

Workplace injuries and accidents that cause employees to miss six or more days of work cost U.S. employers nearly $62 billion in 2013, the most recent year for which statistically valid injury data is available from the U.S. Bureau of …

Water Damage Claims Expected to Spike Due to Strong El Nino

Winter Storm Jonas’ message to homeowners – a challenging winter lies ahead. The storm that affected 20 states was the result of a particularly strong El Niño, according to the latest Farmers Insurance Seasonal Smarts Digest. The storm brought a …

First GM Bellwether Case Dropped for Fraud, Hundreds More to Go

General Motors Co. just watched the first big court case over an admitted deadly defect in its cars melt down as an Oklahoma postman who claimed GM ruined his life dropped his suit, accused of lying. The case was the …

Automakers Recalled 51M U.S. Vehicles in 2015

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Thursday that automakers recalled 51.3 million vehicles in the United States last year, the second-highest ever, in 868 separate campaigns. NHTSA and automakers have come under harsh criticism on auto safety issues …

Multi-Billion Dollar Loss Expected From East Coast Blizzard

Massive blizzards that paralyzed much of the U.S. East Coast in the past few days are likely to cause “multi-billion” dollar economic losses in one of the worst storms in the region in over a century, reinsurance broker Aon Benfield …

Federal Court Orders $1.6M in Claim Money Returned to BP

A federal court has ordered repayment of more than $1.6 million in claim money paid to an Alabama couple’s business after BP’s 2010 Gulf Oil Spill. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier’s order says the payment to Vision Design Management “was …

New York Working on Building a Better Weather Network

Counting every raindrop or measuring every gust of wind is impossible, but New York is getting closer with a uniquely extensive statewide system of automated weather stations that should paint a dramatically clearer picture of developing storms. Described as the …

Butte, Valley Wildfires Cause $1B in Insured Losses

Two of the most destructive fires in California’s history, the Valley and Butte Fires, ravaged nearly 150,000 acres in Northern California last fall and caused an estimated $1 billion in insurance losses. The Valley fire pillaged 1,958 structures in Lake, …

U.S. Auto Recalls in 2015 Break Record Set Year Before

Automobile recalls hit another record last year as stronger government enforcement and widening recalls of exploding airbags pushed the total above 51 million vehicles. The 2015 number barely beat the old record set in 2014, after that total was adjusted …