A Spanaway, Washington, woman who admitted stealing injured-worker benefits while operating a BBQ eatery must pay back Washington state more than $56,000. Susan Kathleen Ruiz, former owner of Roadside BBQ, pleaded guilty recently to felony first-degree theft, stemming from a … Source: Claims Journal

Judges and juries around the country are being asked to decide whether Uber and Lyft drivers and other participants in the “gig economy” are really independent contractors or just employees in disguise. But what if they’re something else altogether? Vince … Source: Claims Journal

Risk professionals in the United States reported an average 3.7 percent base salary increase this year, while their Canadian counterparts reported an average 2.7 percent increase, according to RIMS 2015 Compensation Survey. The bi-annual survey revealed the median annual salary … Source: Claims Journal

The U.S. Transportation Department will today propose a remake of its influential crash-test ratings system to incorporate new technology designed to avoid collisions. Regulators will add a crash-avoidance element to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s star ratings system as … Source: Claims Journal

In Citizen’s Property Ins. Corp. v. Perdido Sun Condominium Ass’n, Inc., 164 So.3d 663 (Fla. 2015), the Florida Supreme Court held that Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, a state-created entity that provided property insurance, was immune from liability for statutory first-party … Source: Claims Journal

A 116-year-old snow record has fallen in Buffalo, New York. This time, it’s for lack of snow. The city had yet to see its first measurable snowfall by Friday, breaking the record for latest first snow set on Dec. 3, … Source: Claims Journal

It’s the option climate negotiators here are loath to talk about. What if they fail to curb global warming and the environment gets so dangerous that someone decides to do something drastic and play mad scientist? Should nations purposely pollute … Source: Claims Journal

Alarmed that black lung disease routinely goes unreported decades after it was discovered among miners, federal mine safety officials are touting new regulations that will step up monitoring for the coal dust that causes the deadly disease. Beginning Feb. 1, … Source: Claims Journal

Karen Clark & Company (KCC) released a new U.S. earthquake Reference Model as part of the RiskInsight open loss modeling platform. The earthquake model is based on the latest 2014 US Geological Survey (USGS) report incorporating updated seismicity assumptions and … Source: Claims Journal

The sea is rising. The land is sinking. Entire mid-Atlantic communities are anchored in between, bookended by certain disaster unless a way is found to turn back the tide and save the shore. No one knows how to fix the … Source: Claims Journal