Author: completebodyneeds

Rain fell over and around the Ross Fire in North Texas on Thursday, a welcome reprieve to firefighters who have battled the flames for two weeks. The heavy rain, while brief, could dampen flames and embers and speed containment of the massive fire. Showers and thunderstorms will bring gusty winds, scattered storms and slightly cooler temperatures, according to the National Weather Service office in Fort Worth. It’s been more than 55 days since the Dallas-Fort Worth region had seen measurable rain — the seventh-longest stretch on record. More isolated storms are possible Friday and into the weekend. As of Sept.…

Six people have been convicted in a bribery scheme that enabled more than 100 people to fraudulently obtain commercial driver’s licenses, the U.S Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Louisiana announced. Mahmoud Alhattab, a restaurant owner, led a scheme in which Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) applicants paid him an average of $5,000 to obtain unearned CDLs. The scheme enabled applicants to bypass all three main federally-mandated steps of the CDL qualification process: the knowledge test, entry-level driver training, and the skills test. The knowledge test, administered at the Office of Motor Vehicles (OMV), is a written examination covering vehicle safety systems,…

AM Best has revised the outlooks to stable from negative and affirmed the Financial Strength Rating of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Ratings of “a” (Excellent) of Farm Bureau Property & Casualty Insurance Company and Western Agricultural Insurance Company, both domiciled in West Des Moines, IA and collectively known as Farm Bureau Property & Casualty Group. The Credit Ratings (ratings) reflect Farm Bureau Property & Casualty Group’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strongest, as well as its adequate operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM). The revision of the rating outlooks…

Each morning this summer, Gordon and Connie Howie have awoken on their cattle ranch in central Pennington County and turned on the kitchen faucet, unsure if any water will come out. “We can’t do laundry or dishes or take showers other than with a little trickle,” said Connie Howie, 76. “Other times we have a little water because it seems to come and go.” Like many ranchers and residents in rural areas of western South Dakota, the Howie family relies on a well to provide them with water for their lives and livelihood. But this year, perhaps the worst in…

Insurance Journal’s Risky Future series is hosting the “AI Tools for FNOL & Digital Claims” Demo Day, a series of free AI tool demonstrations designed exclusively for insurance claims leaders, including chief claims officers, innovation & transformation leaders, customer experience leaders, claims managers and more. This event will spotlight solutions that aim to change the First Notice of Loss (FNOL) and digital claims intake experience. Live back-to-back demos will show how to streamline the claim submission process, automate workflows, capture photos and documents more efficiently while improving customer communication and accelerating claim routing, and processes to identify fraud earlier. In…

The months-long effort to put a Ryan Turner Specialty insurance unit in charge of a lucrative commercial policies clearinghouse in Florida may be far from over, after Ryan filed notice of intent to protest the awarding of the contract to another brokerage. Tallahassee attorney Eduardo Lombard last week sent a letter to Citizens Property Insurance Co., notifying Florida’s state-created insurer that Ryan’s Risk Market Infrastructure LLC subsidiary has taken issue with the plan to give the clearinghouse contract to Bridge Specialty Wholesale, a division of the national insurance brokerage Brown & Brown, based in Daytona Beach. Citizens announced Sept. 1…

Liberty Specialty Markets (LSM), part of Liberty Mutual Insurance Group, has introduced a new benefit for eligible political risk insurance policyholders: access to a one-off advisory consultation with Blackthorn Risk Group Ltd., a London-based independent security consultancy. Through this new arrangement, eligible clients purchasing qualifying political risk insurance from Liberty’s London team can opt in to a focused, practical discussion with a senior Blackthorn adviser, at no additional charge for the defined consultation scope. This gives eligible Liberty clients with the option to speak directly with a senior Blackthorn adviser about the security issues most relevant to their operations and…

Bayer’s Monsanto unit heads to a Missouri state court on Monday seeking approval of a $7.25 billion settlement that could resolve tens of thousands of U.S. lawsuits alleging that its popular weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. In a pivotal test of the company’s efforts to put years of litigation behind it, Judge Timothy Boyer will examine the settlement and weigh objections to the deal from some plaintiffs’ attorneys who argue their clients should not be pushed into Bayer’s proposed framework. Boyer will also hear from lawyers who say the settlement is the best way for their clients to receive compensation for…

Public school students in Springfield, Massachusetts have been told they can return to their schools on Monday, September 14 after the schools were closed on Tuesday due to a cyber incident. According to Mayor Domenic J. Sarno and school officials, an outside group gained access to the public school system’s network and blocked the district’s ability to access certain third party online programs including student medical records, transportation and food services, and certain educational tools. This cyber activity has been classified as a Level 4 incident, which is severe enough to warrant involvement of federal, state, and local law enforcement.…

When the planes crashed and the buildings fell on that sunny September morning 25 years ago, the shock waves of dismay and grief went far past downtown New York City, rural western Pennsylvania and just outside Washington, D.C. They radiated through every part of the United States in communities large and small, tearing at Americans’ sense of safety and their place in the world. Hearts were broken across the nation, not just of those who lost their loved ones but among strangers who mourned for them, the Sept. 11 attacks leaving no one unaffected in an unwanted moment of horrifying…