Author: completebodyneeds

New York law recognizes a claim against insurance companies for breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, specifically where the insurance company’s handling of a claim frustrates the policy’s purpose and results in damages beyond the mere failure to pay policy proceeds. In such circumstances, an aggrieved policyholder may recover consequential damages arising from the bad faith breach so long as it alleges: (1) the consequential damages flowed naturally and proximately from the breach; (2) the damages were, or reasonably should have been, foreseeable; and (3) the damages were within the reasonable contemplation of the parties…

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara is proposing changing regulations to prohibit insurance companies from using a driver’s marital status as an optional factor when setting private passenger automobile insurance rates. Related: California Governor Signs Act to Create Smoke Damage Presumption “The price of your auto insurance should be based on how you drive, not whether you’re married,” a statement from Lara reads. “For 30 years, insurers have been allowed to use marital status when setting rates. Today, we are taking action to end that outdated practice and reinforce a simple principle: insurance rates should be grounded in actual driving risk,…

US government agencies are tracking cyber threats against nearly 20 shipping vessels around the world, according to US officials familiar with the situation. The Coast Guard has asked for advance notice if any of those ships plan to come into a US port, said the three people, who asked not to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly about the matter. The vessels’ specific destinations and manifests weren’t immediately known. Several commercial vessels were targeted in potential cyberattacks in late August, one official at the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said, noting that hackers didn’t appear to…

A contractor and a south Florida condominium property manager have been charged in a kickback scheme. Richard Thomas Murray, 62, head of AP Construction Solutions, of Pompano Beach, was charged last week with providing $186,000 to Carlos Jose Mejia, property manager at Venetian Gardens at Country Club of Miami condos, according to the state attorney’s office and local news reports. Mejia, 51, is charged with accepting the alleged kickbacks, which were designed to guarantee that Murray’s firm won the repair contracts, Miami-Dade County court records indicate. The payments, made in 10 installments, were disguised as a “loan agreement” but investigators…

U.S. solar panel maker First Solar Inc said on Sept. 16 it would withdraw a patent infringement complaint before the U.S. International Trade Commission and instead focus on pursuing lawsuits in federal court against rivals over a leading solar technology. The Phoenix-based company said it plans to withdraw its Section 337 complaint and seek termination of the ITC investigation without prejudice, leaving open the possibility of refiling later. First Solar said it will continue pursuing patent lawsuits in federal court against affiliates of Canadian Solar, Jinko Solar, T1 Energy and Trina Solar, cases that had been paused pending the ITC…

The U.S. House Financial Service Committee on Sept. 16 advanced a bill to limit the authority of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which the insurance industry said has crept over the years into insurance regulation. Within the Consumer Financial Protection Accountability and Reform Act of 2026 (HR 10184) are provisions to exempt the CFPB’s authority from state insurance regulation. The measure makes it clear that CFPB must defer to state regulators on insurance matters. “State regulators have been serving insurance consumers for more than 150 years with a deeper understanding of the risks facing their state, and the needs of…

Rogue AI agents from OpenAI hijacked Hugging Face user accounts and probed the site itself for vulnerabilities as early as May, nearly two months before the July breach of the open-source repository drew global attention, according to researchers who reviewed the activity. The newly uncovered malicious activity showed that the rogue agents’ efforts to find a way into Hugging Face began earlier than was publicly known. OpenAI had previously disclosed one aspect of the malicious activity — the theft of a Hugging Face user’s digital credential to access a biology-related file — in its public incident report last month, but…

The European Union proposed creating a security structure with like-minded allies to confront growing threats amid doubts about President Donald Trump’s commitment toward the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen floated a so-called European Security Council during her state of the union address in Strasbourg, France, Wednesday. “Europe needs its own counter-hybrid playbook. We urgently need a consensus on how to respond to certain incidents,” Von der Leyen said. “The urgency is clear. And the principle is simple: Europe’s security is indivisible.” The plan would create an emergency security protocol that, when triggered by member…

Iron ore trader Radiant World Corp and related companies have filed a lawsuit against commodities giant Glencore in Singapore’s High Court, seeking more than $2 billion in damages over allegations of fraud, breach of contract and conspiracy. A copy of the lawsuit filed on Tuesday and seen by Reuters says Glencore deliberately concealed trading arrangements with Radiant World and related companies from its audited records while under U.S. Justice Department compliance monitoring. It says Glencore “directed those channels so that the true commercial arrangements would not be reflected in its audited records,” following its 2022 guilty pleas in the U.S.…

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Tuesday that competition and liability give AI companies enough reason to act individually on safety, appearing to break from calls by leaders of top AI firms for a coordinated slowdown in AI development. The comments underscore a split among industry executives and U.S. authorities over how to respond to warnings that the technology is advancing faster than companies can control it, with some industry insiders warning it poses an existential threat to humanity. Zuckerberg, in an X post on Tuesday, said that every lab has the responsibility and incentive to move at the…