Author: completebodyneeds

A federal appeals court ruled Friday that New Jersey’s bans on assault firearms and magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds are unconstitutional. This is the first time a federal appeals court has struck down a state ban on such weapons, and it comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is set to consider whether bans on semiautomatic rifles violate the Second Amendment. Just last week, a different federal appeals court upheld Illinois’ ban on semiautomatic weapons. Friday’s appeals court ruling in the New Jersey case goes further than a July 2024 ruling from a federal judge, who said that…

Iran launched more attacks on Washington’s Gulf allies on Saturday after a seventh straight night of U.S. strikes targeting Iranian military sites including logistics facilities, escalating the war one week after a ceasefire fell apart. Kuwait came under sustained attack, with a desalination plant hit and operations at Kuwait International Airport suspended due to repeated missile and drone threats. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said they struck a U.S. military support center at Camp Arifjan and destroyed a radar facility at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait. The IRGC also targeted a site in Bahrain where U.S. combat aircraft…

If the U.S. and Iran do not increase oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz soon, the world should worry about energy security, International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol said on Thursday. “Oil security is still a critical issue,” Birol told a Council on Foreign Relations event. “We should be worried, and I am worried, if the situation does not improve in the next few weeks.” The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that normally carries about one-fifth of the world’s energy shipments, has been mostly blocked since the conflict began on February 28 with…

A central Florida man who has been cited for numerous traffic violations and who was once sued by State Farm in an auto accident subrogation case, has been charged with submitting more than $159,000 in fraudulent health insurance claims. Two of the claims stemmed from auto accidents, the Florida Department of Financial Services said. A DFS fraud investigator wrote in an arrest affidavit in June that investigators had determined that Torey Jermaine Keith, 49, of Mascotte, Florida, had submitted some 15 claims for medical treatments that never happened. Aetna, the health insurance company, paid all of those. At some point,…

Soyla Reyna stood outside Calvary Temple Church, taking a momentary respite from hours of manning the flood displacement shelter at her home church in Kerrville on Thursday. “A lot of it was unbelievable,” she said as the rain outside the church patio began to let up. “People are devastated by the reoccurrence.” Over the course of the morning, Reyna had seen nearly 50 people come to Calvary Temple. They sought supplies and shelter after rapidly rising water swept away their homes and RVs, scenes reminiscent of the devastating flood that tore through the region a little over a year ago.…

Kansas Insurance Commissioner Vicki Schmidt announced a Sedgwick county man has been sentenced to 12 months of probation for insurance fraud. Lance Given, age 64, pleaded no contest and was sentenced on July 8, 2026, in Sedgwick County District Court to two misdemeanor counts of fraudulent insurance acts. Given gave false information about the location and circumstances of an accident in order to gain coverage for damages to his vehicle that otherwise would not have been covered by his policy. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 months probation with 30 days of underlying prison time if probation is…

Canopius Group, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, hired Melanie M. Brown, who will join the business on August 3 as head of U.S. claims. She will report to the incoming Canopius Group Chief Claims Officer Steve Parry. Brown has extensive experience in claims management across specialty, P&C, and reinsurance businesses. She most recently served as head of complex and specialty claims at Munich Re Specialty North America, where she oversaw strategy on managing high-exposure claims. Prior to this, she held senior claims leadership roles at Markel. Betsey Milord joined World Insurance Associates LLC (World), headquartered in Iselin, New Jersey, as chief…

The long-awaited future moved a little closer to the present this week when officials in Kissimmee, Florida, unveiled new infrastructure to support an air taxi/flying car service in coming years. “We will go from the Orlando area to Tampa within 30 minutes,” Kissimmee Aviation Director Shaun Germolus said at a news conference and statement, as reported by news outlets. The infrastructure at the Kissimmee Gateway Airport includes air-traffic management technology and a fast-charging station for an electric air taxi system and that’s expected to launch in the near future. State Sen. Kristin Arrington, D-Kissimmee, said history has shown that communities…

Second quarter 2026 net income at Travelers increased 46% to about $2.2 billion on lower catastrophe losses and favorable prior year reserve development. Catastrophe losses for the quarter, mostly from severe storms, were $518 million compared with $927 million for Q2 2025. The second-quarter catastrophe losses were more than paid for by favorable reserve development of $578 million. The Q2 combined ratio was 83.6, an improvement of 6.7 points over the result for Q2 2025. At the halfway point of 2026, net income has doubled to about $3.9 billion and the combined ratio improved 10.2 points to 86.1. Related: Travelers…

Mandatory evacuations across the Texas Hill Country are underway as life-threatening flash floods wreck bridges and roads with more heavy rain expected overnight. A wide swath of Texas is forecast to receive as much as eight inches (20 centimeters) of additional precipitation through Friday morning to cap off a week of downpours that revived memories of the catastrophic deluge that killed more than 130 people a year ago. Scattered thunderstorms redeveloped across parts of south and central Texas overnight into Friday, and brief tornadoes are possible in the stronger storms, according to the National Weather Service’s Austin and San Antonio…