Author: completebodyneeds

Citing a need for the financial services industry to be prepared for increased cybersecurity threats, New York’s regulator has issued new guidance. The guidance from the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) identifies risk management and compliance efforts that banking, insurance and other financial services organizations and individuals should consider taking when they become aware of a “heightened cybersecurity threat environment.” DFS defines a “heightened threat environment” as a period when cybersecurity risks are “significantly elevated and therefore have a high likelihood” of impacting information systems, nonpublic information or operations. As an example of a heightened threat environment…

When two workers died last month in a violent chemical reaction at Ames Goldsmith Catalyst Refiners near Charleston, federal records showed the facility had previously been cited for safety violations in 2018. But that doesn’t mean inspectors had regularly checked on the operation in the years between. In fact, the facility had not been inspected again before the fatal incident, highlighting a problem with workplace safety in West Virginia and across the country: federal inspectors do not regularly inspect the most dangerous workplaces. Here’s how workplace safety inspections work in West Virginia, and why labor advocates are calling for more…

A federal judge on Wednesday refused to postpone a trial that is scheduled to start next month for civil claims stemming from the 2024 collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, rejecting a request for a delay by companies involved in the deadly disaster. U.S. District Judge James Bredar said the civil trial will start as scheduled on June 1 despite the recent filing of criminal charges against companies that managed the container ship Dali, which lost power and crashed into the Key Bridge in the early-morning hours of March 26, 2024. Six construction workers who had been filling potholes…

Activist investors are pushing technology companies to explain how they’re reconciling surging electricity demand for AI with their climate commitments. Shareholders at Amazon.com Inc. voted on a proposal asking the firm to disclose more information. Voting is open for shareholders at Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc. and will conclude later this month and in early June at each company’s annual meeting. Support for such initiatives has declined in recent years amid underwhelming outcomes and a broader political backlash in the US against environmental, social and governance investing. Heavyweight investment firms, including BlackRock Inc., Vanguard Group Inc. and State Street…

Vermont voters will have the chance to weigh in on another amendment to the state’s constitution this fall. The proposal, which got a final sign-off from the House last Wednesday, is aimed at ensuring all people are treated equally under the law regardless of their race, ethnicity, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or nationality. A statewide vote is the last step in the yearslong process that PR.4, or any other proposed change to Vermont’s founding document, must follow. The Senate, where the measure was first proposed nearly a decade ago, gave its final sign-off to the…

The U.S. property/casualty insurance industry posted another record in the first quarter of 2026, with a combined ratio of 89.5—before policyholder dividends—standing as the best first-quarter underwriting result in at least 25 years. The insight comes from S&P Global Market Intelligence, which also said the first-quarter 2026 ratio including policyholder dividends was 91.9, better than any comparable result recorded since 2006. Translated into dollars, the underwriting gain is roughly $22.1 billion, a figure that was driven primarily by exceptional results in the homeowners multiperil and private auto lines, according to S&P GMI. The result comes amid heightened competition in key…

The Ebola outbreak probably started months ago in central Africa and spread undetected until a super-spreader event in early May, possibly a funeral, World Health Organization officials said. The rare Bundibugyo strain circulated for “a couple months” before being identified in blood samples on May 15, Anaïs Legand, WHO’s technical lead for viral hemorrhagic fevers, said at a briefing Wednesday. The first confirmed death took place April 20, and experts used social media posts to reconstruct the recent progress of the virus after the super-spreader event on May 5. Two factors complicated efforts to identify the virus earlier. Authorities used…

Shell Plc is facing off with climate activists at the top Dutch court over demands for legally enforceable emissions cuts on Europe’s biggest oil and gas company. The Netherlands branch of Friends of the Earth, Milieudefensie, is try to convince judges that the London-based company has a duty to reduce its CO2 emissions to 45% below 2019 levels by 2030 to keep its net zero 2050 target on track. Shell disagrees, arguing that lawmakers, and not courts, should have the power to set limits on a company. Friday’s hearing at the Supreme Court follows a long legal battle testing whether…

Ecologists are concerned that the war in the Middle East risks creating an environmental disaster, as satellite images show that the number of oil slicks in the Persian Gulf has increased significantly since the beginning of the conflict in the region in late February. “If it disperses towards a coastal system, that’s going to have detrimental impacts to any bird species, fishing resources and communities that are dependent on them,” said Liz Atwood, a senior scientist at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, a UK-based research center. Experts said the slicks could be the result of attacks on ships or on oil…

A 36-year-old Ohio man has been sentenced for computer fraud after causing more than $860,000 in losses, Acting U.S. Attorney John G.E. Marck announced. Maxwell Schultz, Columbus, Ohio, pleaded guilty Nov. 18, 2025. Senior U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal has now ordered him to serve 24 months in federal prison to be immediately followed by three years of supervised release. At the hearing, the court heard about the damage and sophistication of the attack and how Schultz used another employee’s account to mask his intrusion which led to the investigation of that account initially. In handing down the sentence,…