The smart home market is a mess, according to a new report from Aite, an independent research and advisory firm. The Smart Home: Opportunities for Insurers, written by Gwenn Bézard, co-founder and research director, said insurers should care about the … Source: Claims Journal

An interesting case was just decided by the District Court in Texas (Southern District) in Evanston Ins. Co. v. Gene By Gene, Ltd., 2016 WL 102294 (filed Jan. 6, 2016). In Gene by Gene, the insured, Gene by Gene, Ltd., … Source: Claims Journal

Eighteen-year-old Kristian Roggio was riding in a friend’s car when another driver careened across a Brooklyn street, colliding head-on and killing her. That driver had inhaled aerosol dust cleaner moments before to get high, and prosecutors say he was impaired … Source: Claims Journal

A new group trying to reduce metal theft from agriculture operations in Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas. Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann said his office is creating a Mississippi Delta Agricultural Theft Task Force to connect law enforcement agencies, scrap … Source: Claims Journal

Japan is preparing an extra budget of more than $4.5 billion for reconstruction of areas hit by this month’s deadly earthquakes, sources said, but the central bank is unlikely to grant any relief to banks in the stricken region. The … Source: Claims Journal

An underwater search has successfully recovered a voice and data recorder that may provide clues about why a cargo ship sank last year off the U.S. East Coast in a hurricane. The National Transportation Safety Board, which last year located … Source: Claims Journal

For 10 days in February one hospital’s records hung in limbo. At Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in California, a ransomware attack kept health care records in control of anonymous hackers, until hospital officials paid $17,000 to take back their system. … Source: Claims Journal

Signs of earthquakes are everywhere in the chaotically beautiful geology of southwest Utah and the region where the mile-high Colorado Plateau falls off into the corrugated Basin-and-Range landscape that dominates neighboring Nevada. The treeless desert lays bare the lines of … Source: Claims Journal

After a contentious and bumpy process that saw Florida’s top Republican officials deadlock several times, the state has a new insurance commissioner just weeks before the start of hurricane season. During an emergency meeting on Friday, Gov. Rick Scott and … Source: Claims Journal

The upcoming wildfire season across the U.S. isn’t expected to be as bad as last year’s infernos, when a record 15,800 square miles burned, the nation’s top wildland firefighting official said Wednesday. But parts of the nation should expect a … Source: Claims Journal