Author: completebodyneeds

Meyerowitz Memphis-based Sunstar Insurance Group, an independent brokerage operating in nine states, announced Adam Meyerowitz as the new chief executive officer. He succeeds Casey Bowlin, who founded the firm in 2013 and will now move into the role of chairman. Meyerowitz co-founded Prime Risk Partners brokerage in 2014, and served as chief operating officer after the firm was acquired by EPIC Insurance Brokers & Consultants in 2019, the company said in a news release. Sunstar, which offers commercial and personal property and casualty coverage plans, as well as employee benefits in the Southeast and Midwest, said it has 58 agencies…

As many as 200 first-time home buyers could receive down payment assistance up to $13,500 each thanks to Progressive Insurance. Progressive’s UpPayment program is available to first-time homebuyers purchasing a non-commercial, non-mobile residential property with intention of making it their permanent residence. To qualify, applicants must be legal U.S. residents, be at least 18 years old, and have household annual income below 500% of the federal poverty guidelines, which for a family of three is $136,600. Applicants must secure a mortgage pre-approval and participate in a Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-approved housing counseling program. These counselors help homebuyers navigate the…

Not all earthquake faults behave the same. Some stick and snap, causing earthquakes. Others move slowly over time. For years, the leading explanation for slow-moving faults has been that high-pressure fluids along the fault lubricate it, allowing the slabs to slide steadily rather than building up stress until that stress is eventually released in a large, destructive earthquake. Related: Simulations Predict Ground Motion for Earthquakes on Bay Area’s Hayward Fault But in a new study of the Shumagin Gap, a quiet section of the Alaska-Aleutian subduction zone – the area where one tectonic plate dives below another – my colleagues…

Less than a month after former NASCAR driver Greg Biffle and his family died in a plane crash last year, investigators say two of their “friends” conspired to break into the empty home and took cash, guns and financial information in an attempt to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars. More than 40 search warrants have been issued, authorities in North Carolina say, focusing on a married couple who allegedly knew Biffle and his wife Cristina. The suspects did “a lot of planning in an attempt to make a financial gain” off their deaths, Iredell County Sheriff Darren Campbell said.…

New Zealand infant formula maker a2 Milk Co. is recalling batches of product sold in the US after detecting a toxin linked to vomiting and diarrhea, marking its first brush with a contamination scare that has rattled the global industry. Three batches of a2 Platinum USA-label formula have been recalled after manufacturer Synlait Milk Ltd. identified cereulide, a2 said. The recall, which began on May 1, impacts just the US and not the company’s most lucrative market in China. No confirmed incidents of infant illness or harm have been reported, it said. The global baby formula market has been buffeted…

Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Microsoft Corp. and xAI have agreed to give the US government early access to their artificial intelligence models to assess the systems’ capabilities and help improve their security before the technology is released to the public. With the agreements, the AI developers join OpenAI and Anthropic PBC in allowing pre-release reviews of their models by the US Commerce Department’s Center for AI Standards and Innovation, according to a statement from the agency on Tuesday. OpenAI and Anthropic have renegotiated their existing partnerships with the center to better align with priorities in President Donald Trump’s AI Action Plan,…

Microplastics in the atmosphere are heating the planet, magnifying climate change impacts, according to new research. Scientists in China and the US found that tiny, colored plastic particles absorb sunlight as winds blow them around the world, trapping heat and contributing to temperature rise, according to the peer-reviewed paper published Monday Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change. “The plastic problem is not just in our blue oceans, it is also in the invisible skies above us,” Hongbo Fu, a co-author of the study and an atmospheric scientist at Fudan University in Shanghai, said at a press conference. “Climate models…

Australian Ethical Investment Ltd., a pension fund with about A$14 billion ($10 billion) under management, is pressuring QBE Insurance Group Ltd. over the potential threat extreme weather poses to future profitability. The fund, which holds about A$65 million of QBE shares, has requested additional information from the Sydney-based insurer over its exposure to climate-related risks, and called for further annual assessments on the issue. Investors need QBE to make clear how much of the “current insurance book is not viable from a climate perspective,” the pension fund’s ethical stewardship lead Amanda Richman said in an interview. Australian Ethical and share…

A legal claim from one of the world’s largest oil traders is throwing a spotlight on an arcane but critical corner of global finance — the multibillion-dollar freight market and the 282-year-old City of London institution that sits at the heart of it. Mercuria Energy Group Ltd. is suing the Baltic Exchange, Bloomberg reported on Thursday [April 30], alleging that it has suffered losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars as a result of distortions in a key benchmark for the cost of shipping oil from the Middle East to China. The case is the latest example of how…

Hundreds of vessels were seen clustering near Dubai on Tuesday, as more ships moved away from a still-empty Strait of Hormuz in response to Iran’s efforts to widen its area of control. A weeks-long ceasefire between the US and Iran has begun to look increasingly fragile, with the two sides exchanging fire as Washington said it had opened a passage through the waterway and CBS reported two American destroyers had crossed into the Persian Gulf. Since Monday, nearly 60 vessels across different types sailed into an area off Dubai monitored by Bloomberg News — an unusually large number even for…