Author: completebodyneeds

Abbott said on Thursday it reached a $670 million settlement with three law firms to resolve legal claims by 2,000 people who alleged harms relating to the company’s specialty formulas for preterm infants. The settlement includes one large case in which Abbott had already been ordered to pay $495 million. In 2024, a jury in St. Louis found that Abbott’s infant formula caused an Illinois girl to develop necrotizing enterocolitis, a dangerous bowel disease. Abbott had been appealing that verdict to Missouri’s Supreme Court, after a state court of appeals affirmed the judgment in May 2026. About 1,000 similar lawsuits…

Megan Vernon The MEMIC Group, headquartered in Portland, Maine, added Megan Vernon and Nikko Severson to its loss control team. Vernon rejoins MEMIC as a loss control consultant serving Maine policyholders and brings six years of experience in workplace safety and risk management. She previously served as a health and safety content specialist at Safesite, focused on digital safety management, as well as an operations specialist at Foresight Commercial Insurance. Nikko Severson Severson joins MEMIC as a loss control consultant with more than a decade of experience in environmental health and safety. Based in Connecticut, he will work with policyholders…

Brokerage Lockton said it launched a U.S. Aviation Practice to help aviation and aerospace organizations navigate increasingly complex operational, regulatory, geopolitical, and insurance market challenges. Taylor Anderson has been appointed to lead the practice. The promotion follows even years as Lockton’s senior vice president, defense & aerospace for the southeastern U.S. Lockton said the new aviation practice strengthens coordination among Lockton’s aviation specialists and industry resources—including aligning with the firm’s global network—to deliver tailored risk advisory, insurance placement, and strategic risk management solutions for clients across the global aviation and aerospace ecosystem. The practice will focus on: Enhancing client service…

Jewelers Mutual Group announced that Chief Executive Officer Scott Murphy will retire at the end of 2026, following twelve years of leadership that fundamentally reshaped the company and its place in the industry. Mike Alexander, currently serving as President, will succeed Murphy as President and CEO effective January 1, 2027. Murphy will continue to serve as a member of Jewelers Mutual’s board of directors. Murphy joined Jewelers Mutual as CEO in January 2015 to lead a company with more than a century of heritage and a clear opportunity to lead it into a new era. Murphy’s accomplishments include expanding the…

Massachusetts lawmakers are seeking to establish the nation’s most stringent state-level safeguards for artificial intelligence, a proposal that’s divided an industry the governor’s office is concurrently seeking to woo. An economic development bill passed by the state Senate last month included a requirement that leading AI labs undergo independent reviews of the catastrophic risks posed by their frontier models at least once every 120 days, a first for a US state. The findings would be made public, though the state couldn’t use them to halt AI development. The provisions go further than other recent laws in California, New York and…

A California agency on Wednesday approved long-delayed regulations designed to protect homes from wildfire, but they’re less stringent than defenses recommended by scientists and firefighters. The new rules, which apply to about 2 million homes, were mandated by a 2020 state law requiring residents in high-risk wildfire areas to establish an ember-resistant perimeter by removing vegetation and other combustible material within five feet of a dwelling. Scientists say that space, known as Zone Zero, nearly doubles a home’s chance of survival. But after years of backlash from some homeowners over Zone Zero’s aesthetic and financial impact, the California Board of…

Flashes of yellow were all around the Texas Capitol grounds on Wednesday as legislators gathered to consider two of the most controversial issues in Texas politics: data centers and transmission lines. The color — displayed on bandanas, pins, shirts and dresses — has become the symbol of a grassroots movement dedicated to blocking the buildout of 765-kilovolt transmission lines across the state. A coalition of those groups gathered on the steps of the Capitol building in the morning as testimony got underway for the House Committee on State Affairs’ interim meeting dedicated to the backlash against the transmission lines and…

Romania scrambled F-16 fighter jets to destroy a marine drone spotted a few hundred meters from the Black Sea gas project Neptun Deep, Defence Minister Radu Miruta said on Thursday. The incident underscores the growing threat to critical energy infrastructure in the Black Sea from drones and mines linked to Russia’s war in Ukraine, with Neptun Deep expected to make Romania the European Union’s largest gas producer when it comes onstream in 2027. NATO-member Romania shares a 614-km (382-mile) land border with Ukraine and has seen Russian drones breaching its airspace over the last four years and mines floating in…

Marco Capital, the property/casualty legacy consolidator and parent of insurance services group PoloWorks, has entered into an agreement to acquire Pro Global, subject to regulatory approval. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition represents a significant milestone in its strategy to build an integrated legacy insurance and market-leading insurance services group – with an expanded global client offering and truly diversified income stream, Marco Capital said in a statement. Following completion, PoloWorks and Pro Global (which is also an insurance services advisory) will combine to create one of the industry’s largest specialist insurance services businesses across Lloyd’s,…

One Florida insurance agent won the Republican nomination for his seat in the state House of Representatives but two other agents did not make the cut in Tuesday’s primary voting. Hodgers Incumbent state Rep. Brian Hodgers, R-Viera, won 58.5% of the vote in House District 32, on Florida’s east coast, defeating Mark Lightner, news sites reported. Hodgers will face Democrat Juan Hinojosa in the November general election. Hodgers, who owns Complete Choice Insurance agency in Melbourne, took office in June 2025. If re-elected, he will remain one of just two insurance agents in the Florida Legislature. In District 74, Jennifer…