Another fire ignited on Thursday at Novelis’ aluminum plant in Oswego, New York, that supplies Ford’s lucrative F-150 truck line, about two months after a blaze halted much of the facility’s production. Ford in October cut its profit forecast, citing a gross hit of up to $2 billion from the incident. The Dearborn, Michigan, automaker … Read more
State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. submitted a rate filing to reduce personal auto insurance rates by 6.2%. The filing has a targeted effective date of Feb. 23, 2026, and is pending approval from the California Department of Insurance. State Farm said recent trends involving less costly physical damage claims are what enabled the carrier … Read more
A federal grand jury in Miami has indicted U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and others, charging that they used federal disaster relief funds for her 2021 Congressional campaign. Federal prosecutors said Cherfilus-McCormick, 46, and her brother, Edwin Cherfilus, 51, of Miramar, in 2021 had obtained a COVID-19 vaccination contract with the Federal Emergency Management Agency for … Read more
An oil tanker that was seized by Iranian forces last week has been freed but without its cargo, the vessel’s manager said. The crew of the Talara, which was captured on Friday, are safe and in good spirits, Columbia Shipmanagement said in a statement. The ship, which had been carrying high-sulfur gasoil when it was … Read more
The European Union’s top diplomat said that Moscow’s aggression against the bloc, including an explosion that occurred in Poland over the weekend, should be considered terrorism. “These sabotage acts they are organizing on our territories in different countries are extremely, extremely serious,” Kaja Kallas, the high representative for foreign affairs at the European Commission, said … Read more
Rising electricity demand from data centers is raising the risk of blackouts across a wide swath of the US during extreme conditions this winter, according to the regulatory body overseeing grid stability. Power consumption has grown 20 gigawatts from the previous winter, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. said Tuesday in its winter assessment. A … Read more
Marsh, the insurance brokerage business of Marsh McLennan, announced the appointment of James Addington-Smith as CEO of Marsh UK. Subject to regulatory approval, Addington-Smith will take up his new role early in 2026 and report to Flavio Piccolomini, CEO, Marsh McLennan, International. He will be based in London. Addington-Smith will succeed Chris Lay, who also … Read more
A plastic label on a single loose wire that blocked the wire from being fully connected caused an electrical blackout that led to the fatal collision of the 984-foot-long containership Dali into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge in 2024. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) yesterday reported that the loose wire in the … Read more
King Risk Partners, which said it is now the 51st largest insurance brokerage in the United States, has acquired Stuart Surles Insurance agency in Angier, North Carolina, near Raleigh. The Surles agency, founded some 30 years ago, specializes in farm insurance as well as home, auto, health and life insurance, the companies said in a … Read more
According to The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers (CIAB) quarterly survey, commercial property/casualty premiums across all account sizes in the third quarter 2025 rose by 1.6%, as premium increases in all lines of business were either flat or lower than the last quarter when premiums for all accounts increased 3.7%. “Q3 2025 showed clear … Read more