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MA Lawmakers to Weigh Four-Day Work Week The Massachusetts House Labor and Workforce Development Committee scheduled a hearing last week on legislation ( HB 3849 ) that would provide tax credits to businesses...
Bills to Overhaul Long-Term Care and Control Prescription Drug Costs on Move in MA The Massachusetts House unanimously passed a bill ( HB 4178 ) that would overhaul the long-term care industry, while...
OpenAI Ousts CEO Sam Altman The board of directors of OpenAI, developer of ChatGPT, announced on the company’s blog last week that its CEO Sam Altman would be stepping down. The blog post said...
For more than half a year, labor strife has swept the country. First, Hollywood writers went on strike in May. Then actors joined them in walking off the set a couple months later, in July. Detroit...
IL Lawmakers Approve Bill Lifting Moratorium on Nuclear Power Plants: The Illinois General Assembly passed legislation ( HB 2437 ) that, as amended, will lift a nearly four-decades-old moratorium on new...
A report from global specialist insurance provider Hiscox indicates that U.S. small businesses are largely underinsured and lacking in insurance literacy, leaving them open to losses from property damage and lawsuits. Of the 1,000 U.S. small businesses with 1 to 50 employees surveyed by Hiscox in July, only 65% had general liability coverage, 45% had property insurance, 35% had workers compensation insurance and 32% had professional liability insurance. Eighty three percent of the respondents also failed to accurately describe what a general liability policy covers. (INSURANCE JOURNAL, HISCOX)
Despite Florida’s enactment of reforms in 2022 and 2023 aimed at helping stabilize its insurance market, premiums, which have doubled in recent years for some residents, are unlikely to go down, according to a report from catastrophe modeling firm Karen Clark & Co. The report concluded that the state’s exposure to “hurricane and severe weather risk” and “the ever-increasing costs of construction” would “continue to influence future homeowners premiums.” But the report also noted that the state’s recently enacted legislation should reduce the impact of excess litigation on insurance rates, keeping them from being even higher. (SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL, INSURANCE JOURNAL)
The use of financial products allowing hedge funds, commodity traders and energy companies to profit from or protect themselves against extreme climate events is on the rise. Average open interest in weather futures and options on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in the period between January and September of this year was four times higher than a year ago and 12 times higher than in 2019. Trading volume on such derivatives has quadrupled in a year as well. (REUTERS)
—Compiled by SNCJ Managing Editor KOREY CLARK