Author: completebodyneeds

A south Florida woman who was once a licensed insurance producer has been sentenced to spend more than three years in prison and forfeit assets after she pleaded guilty to a leading role in a $6 million property insurance and tax fraud scheme. Lisette Patricio, 64, of Davie, Florida, pleaded guilty in federal court in Miami last month, three years after she was indicted for diverting millions of dollars in premium payments on force-placed policies on homes around the state, court documents show. She and co-conspirators Darely Carballeira, Arturo Morales and Yarelis Felipe told a company that three insurers had…

he National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on July 31 it has opened a preliminary investigation into about 1.2 million Tesla vehicles over reports of suspension failures that could cause a loss of vehicle steering control. The regulator said its Office of Defects Investigation has received 156 complaints, alleging the front lower lateral link detached in certain 2018-2020 Model 3 and 2021-2023 Model Y vehicles. NHTSA said the suspension failure could leave the vehicle undriveable and require it to be towed. Tesla did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. NHTSA said most complaints indicated there was no…

The 7.1-magnitude quake that struck southern Japan this week has brought many car and semiconductor factories in the area to a halt, but hopes are high that disruptions will be less severe than a similar-sized temblor that rocked the region a decade ago. Given Japan’s proneness to natural disasters, manufacturers have for decades sought to strengthen the resilience of parts supply and this latest quake, which has claimed the lives of 34 people, will be a test of how robust their efforts have been. Aisin, an auto supplier that makes doors, engines and other parts at a factory near the…

At least two West Virginians are dead, dozens of homes are damaged and communities across north central West Virginia are left picking up the pieces in the wake of another major flood. Just a decade ago, a massive flood prompted state officials to dive into state coffers for relief money and set up an office dedicated to softening the blow of future floods. But so far, little has been done. The flood of 2016 affected a wider area of the state and took nearly two dozen lives. Brendan Muckian-Bates, a policy advocate for the Appalachian Flood Resilience Coalition, pointed to…

Someone must have challenged the Dunellen Borough (New Jersey) Police Department to get creative with traffic enforcement. As the department reported on Facebook, an officer conducted a distracted driving enforcement detail on a highly-trafficked, pedestrian-heavy downtown area on Wednesday of this week. The mission was to enforce the state’s handheld cell phone law. The officer dressed as a leafy green shrub and stood near a tree on North Washington Ave. to catch drivers who were using their cell phones as they drove past the officer planted near the curb. “Did you spot our ‘shrub today?” the department asked in its…

A Baltimore County judge has sentenced Michael C. Okolo of Pikesville, Maryland, to six months incarceration for 10 counts of insurance fraud for acting as an insurance agent without a license. According to Attorney General Anthony G. Brown, the jury found that Okolo acted as an insurance agent without a license by selling 11 annuity policies on 10 occasions from 2021 to 2024, receiving more than $88,000 in commissions. This is the second case against Okolo for insurance fraud. In 2025 a jury convicted him of two counts of insurance fraud and one count of obstruction of justice. The Maryland…

Climate change made the weather that fueled Europe’s recent wildfires at least twice as likely in France and at least 20 times as likely in Spain, scientists at the World Weather Attribution group said on Friday. The global climate is around 1.4C warmer than in the pre-industrial era, amplifying the chances of the very dry, hot, windy conditions that caused the fires to spread out of control, the authors said. In today’s climate, the weather underlying such intense wildfires can be expected to occur every 20 years in southwestern France and every six years in central Spain, the study found,…

AXA SA reported first half profit higher than the same period a year ago, as the Paris-based insurer assesses the impact of wildfires currently affecting France and Spain. The French insurance group’s underlying earnings came in up 2% to €4.5 billion, the firm said in a statement Friday, meeting estimates. Net income stood at €4.2 billion, up 6% on the year but lower than forecast. Revenue for the Life & Health business in the six months through June was 7% higher, slightly below estimates. Revenue for Property and Casualty beat estimates. Axa management committee member Guillaume Borie said the firm…

Just a week after revealing a $1.5 billion deal to acquire U.S.-based Safety Insurance Group, Spain’s Mapfre has announced a deal closer to its European roots—taking a 38.9% stake in the Spanish insurtech Tuio. The Tuio stake strengthens Mapfre’s commitment to innovation and digital business development, according to a statement from the Spanish-owned global insurance company. Tuio became a recognizable name to insurance industry professionals worldwide earlier this year, when the insurtech received approval from OpenAI for the first insurance provider–built AI application on ChatGPT devoted to home insurance. (Editor’s Note: At about the same time, Insurify launched a ChatGPT…

Elon Musk’s company xAI has sued Minnesota over the state’s first-in-the-nation law that bans “nudification” technology on websites and apps, potentially providing a test for how far states can go in constitutionally regulating the use of artificial intelligence. Musk’s company sued Monday in federal court, days before the law is set to take effect Saturday and make Minnesota the first state to try to outlaw the increasingly proliferating technology that lets people use AI to to create fake nude images of real people. The law was signed in May. In the 38-page lawsuit, xAI — whose AI model chatbot and…