In The News
Insurance Business – Watchdog reiterates call for fossil fuel disclosure from insurers
Group urges the insurance commissioner to hold companies accountable
By Kenneth Araullo, INSURANCE BUSINESS
https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/us/news/environmental/watchdog-reiterates-call-for-fossil-fuel-disclosure-from-insurers-484613.aspx
Consumer Watchdog has called for Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara to enforce transparency from insurance companies regarding their insurance of fossil fuel projects, aligning with the broader climate...
FOX 11- Los Angeles, CA: State Farm dropping policies in these California ZIP codes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H80Vy9FObt8
Last month, State Farm Insurance announced it would be dropping thousands of California policies beginning this summer, nearly a year after announcing it would no longer accept homeowner insurance applications in the Golden State.
CalMatters – How California legislators got more than $1.4 million in travel and gifts in 2023
By Jeremia Kimelman, CALMATTERS
https://calmatters.org/digital-democracy/2024/04/california-legislature-gifts-travel/#:~:text=Free%20travel%20for%20legislators&text=Special%20interest%20groups%20and%20nonprofits,%24950%2C000%20in%20travel%20in%202022.
Los Angeles Times – Upscale Westside L.A. neighborhoods hit very hard by State Farm home insurance cancellations
By Ruben Vives, LA TIMES
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-04-10/westside-l-a-hit-hard-as-state-farm-cancels-home-insurance
Thousands of Californians who won’t see their home insurance renewed by State Farm this summer are homeowners in Los Angeles County, with some upscale Westside neighborhoods hit hard, according to the insurer’s recent filings...
Politico – Lara’s ‘forced marriage’ with insurers
By BLANCA BEGERT and CAMILLE VON KAENEL, POLITICO
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/california-climate/2024/04/09/laras-forced-marriage-with-insurers-00151420
HOME FIRES BURNING: In Sacramento, Ricardo Lara is the state’s insurance commissioner who hasn’t yet stopped an exodus of property insurers fleeing increased costs fueled by climate change.
But at the Hotel Indigo in downtown Los Angeles where...
KCBS-AM (Radio) – San Francisco, CA: 2000 State Farm Home Policy Holders Face Cancellation
By Staff Reporters, KCBS-AM – San Francisco, CA
Click below to listen to the audio of this radio broadcast segment.
Insurance Newsnet – State Farm continues withdrawal from state
By JP Crumrine, INSURANCE NEWSNET
https://insurancenewsnet.com/oarticle/state-farm-continues-withdrawal-from-state
Despite efforts by the state's Department of Insurance (DOI) to revise the rate making policies in California, on March 20, State Farm announced it would not be renewing more than 70,000 commercial, residential and...
Insurance Business – Consumer Watchdog wants mandatory coverage for wildfire-safe homes
By Mike Pangilinan, INSURANCE BUSINESS
https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/us/news/property/consumer-watchdog-wants-mandatory-coverage-for-wildfiresafe-homes-483241.aspx
A consumer advocacy group in California is pushing for reforms that would require insurance companies to provide coverage to homeowners who have taken steps to mitigate wildfire risks to their properties.
In comments made before...
CNN – U.S. Cable: 73 Million Former AT&T Customer Accounts Leaked To The Dark Web
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLsyrzTHydc
Consumer Watchdog says, what you can do if you've been caught up in this is you can freeze your credit with the big three credit bureaus for free, and that makes it a little bit harder for someone...
The Los Angeles Times – She died after liposuction by a pediatrician. Doctors warn of cosmetic surgery’s ‘Wild West’
By Emily Alpert Reyes, LOS ANGELES TIMES
https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2024-03-31/california-cosmetic-surgery
Inside a clinic wedged next to a smoke shop in a South Los Angeles strip mall, Dr. Mohamad Yaghi operated on a 28-year-old woman who had traveled from Las Vegas to have...
NPR – Millions of customers’ data found on dark web in latest AT&T data breach
By Chloe Veltman, NPR
https://www.npr.org/2024/03/30/1241863710/att-data-breach-dark-web
AT&T announced on Saturday it is investigating a data breach involving the personal information of more than 70 million current and former customers leaked on the dark web.
According to information about the breach on the...
The Sacramento Bee – Former insurance commissioner warns state agency about California’s ‘uninsurable future’
By Stephen Hobbs, SACRAMENTO BEE
https://www.sacbee.com/article287155520.html
Former insurance commissioner Dave Jones has a sobering view on the future of homeowner coverage in California: He believes the state is “marching steadily towards an uninsurable future.”
That’s because world leaders aren’t acting...
Los Angeles Times – California offers catastrophe plan to draw insurers back to the state. But at what cost?
By Anthony De Leon, LOS ANGELES TIMES
https://www.latimes.com/california/newsletter/2024-03-29/california-offers-catastrophe-plan-to-draw-insurers-back-to-the-state-but-at-what-cost-essential-california
California intends to attract insurers back with flexible policies
The homeowners insurance crisis in California worsened last week when State Farm General Insurance announced that it wouldn’t renew 72,000 property owner policiesstatewide. Those policies...
The Los Angeles Times – California’s home insurance crisis: What went wrong, how it can be fixed and what owners can do
By Laurence Darmiento, LOS ANGELES TIMES
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-03-29/californias-insurance-crisis-what-went-wrong-whats-being-done-to-fix-it-and-how-homeowners-can-help-themselves
Climate change and extreme weather have contributed to catastrophic fires that destroyed thousands of California homes in recent years - and an insurance crisis that could result in the biggest set of regulatory...
Politico: Spotlight
By Blanca Begert, POLITICO
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/california-climate/2024/03/28/california-and-the-feds-are-already-diverging-on-evs-00149685
GETTING PERSONAL: Put Consumer Watchdog and the Personal Insurance Federation of California in the same room, and you’re bound to get fireworks.
Representatives for the two organizations drew vastly different pictures of the spiraling property insurance...
KTXL-SAC (FOX) – Sacramento, CA: Addressing CA’s Insurance Crisis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bPtJt4YMWI
Carmen Balber wants the legislature to require insurance companies provide coverage for homeowners who have taken steps to reduce fire risks and protect their properties.
KPIX-SF (CBS) – San Francisco, CA: Susan Lieu – A Medical Negligance Story
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58t6AHiK1Oo
Nearly 30 years ago, her mother died as a result of a plastic surgery malpractice case. She dealt with the trauma through performance and art but as Ryan Yamamoto reports, the healing began which are used the tragedy...
KPIX-SF (CBS) – San Francisco, CA: Homeowner Insurance Crisis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JYwGtz215w
Harvey Rosenfield, founder of consumer watchdog, says the insurance companies are intentionally forcing homeowners into the fair plan as a way of getting every homeowner in the state to pay the fair plan's losses.
Cal Matters – Wall Street is betting big on AI. California consumers must be protected
By Justin Kloczko, CAL MATTERS
https://calmatters.org/commentary/2024/03/wall-street-ai-california-protections
Artificial intelligence may soon replace financial advisors, and that’s just the start. While one algorithm predicts stock price, another decides what to disclose to regulators. Chat GPT-style language models could soon hallucinate your mortgage application or...
KTVU-SF (FOX) – San Francisco, CA: Home Insurance in California
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPjpJpnGA8I
Carmen Balber says what we need is a mandate that home insurers who want the privilege of selling home and auto insurance in California, sell to every California who does the right thing and meets state mandated guidelines...
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