The Securities and Exchange Commission is mulling changes to decades-old rules that prohibit companies from certain communications during the going-public process, as the Wall Street regulator looks to boost initial public offerings. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins said he would welcome …

Insurance carriers are not off the hook in two high-profile lawsuits involving alleged sexual abuse and millions of dollars in defense costs and indemnity—one in North Carolina and one in Georgia. In the North Carolina case, Ohio Casualty Insurance Co., …

An accident at a Washington state packaging facility has left at least one person dead, nine missing and nine others injured, with crews working to contain a ruptured tank of caustic chemicals. The incident occurred Tuesday morning at Nippon Dynawave …

Southern California officials lifted the final evacuation orders Tuesday night for residents who live near a damaged chemical tank, allowing 16,000 people to return home. The crisis that began Thursday had forced 50,000 people to evacuate in and around the …

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on Tuesday the rapid development and adoption of AI would not lead to a global “jobs apocalypse” and the technology had not claimed as many white-collar jobs as he had feared. Speaking virtually at a …

Blue Origin, the aerospace company founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, will invest $600 million to expand its Rocket Park campus in Cape Canaveral, Florida, according to a statement from Governor Ron DeSantis. The planned 830,000-square-foot manufacturing facility will increase the …

A huge fire and explosion at a lumber mill in Maine on May 15 that took the life of a 27-year-old firefighter and injured a dozen others is believed to have been accidental, according to an initial investigation by state …

North Carolina investment firm founder Greg Lindberg was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years in prison for siphoning more than $2 billion in reserves backing insurance policies and using the proceeds to pay for jets, mansions and a 214-foot yacht. Lindberg, …

Climate change is linked to a 10% global increase in antibiotic-resistance genes in Salmonella, according to new research that suggests warming temperatures and shifting rainfall patterns could accelerate the spread of hard-to-treat infections. The study — conducted by researchers from …

Commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz gained modest momentum over the past 24 hours as at least two non-Iranian supertankers exited the Persian Gulf, the latest mini-flurry in energy flows transiting the vital waterway. The Singapore-linked Eagle Veracruz and …

United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said on Tuesday that a tanker had reported an external explosion on the vessel’s port side, close to the waterline, 60 nautical miles off Oman’s capital Muscat. UKMTO said the vessel, identified as the Olympic …

Severity, not frequency, is driving the rise in claims costs today. While the number of claims has generally declined, the average cost per claim has soared. From 1994 to 2008, claim frequency declined and lawsuits tracked that trend, falling from …

The US Supreme Court refused to let Florida file an unusual lawsuit that accused California and Washington of making it too easy for undocumented immigrants to get commercial driver’s licenses. Giving no explanation, the justices on Tuesday rejected Florida’s bid …

New York-based insurance broker USI Insurance Services has gone to court to halt a former employee it alleges has poached a few customers for his own newly-formed agency. USI claims that Billy J. MacNair is violating employment and severance agreements …

Crest Insurance Group named Tony Hart vice president, employee benefits in the firm’s Henderson, Nevada office. Hart has nearly 20 years of employee benefits brokerage and consulting experience and specializes in cost containment, pharmacy management, population health and alternative funding …

Ride-share drivers for app-based companies such as Uber and Lyft have unionized in Massachusetts, forming what state officials and labor leaders said was the first officially recognized organization in the U.S. to represent such gig workers. The newly formed App …

The JPMorgan Chase & Co. banker named in a graphic sexual harassment suit that went viral last month hit back at her accuser with a defamation counterclaim, calling his allegations “entirely false” and “malicious.” Lorna Hajdini last Tuesday night countersued …

Inszone Insurance Services announced the acquisition of Michigan-based Legacy Partners Insurance Services. Founded in 2013 by Joe Graham, Legacy Partners has spent the last decade growing exponentially throughout Southeast Michigan. Operating out of its Harrison Township headquarters, the agency built …

Orville Williams has had a healthy wheat crop on his 2,600-acre farm in Montezuma, Kansas, every year since he was a teenager. It hasn’t always been easy. For instance, there were challenging economic times through the 1980s and various degrees …

Inszone Insurance Services announced the acquisition of Kevin Taylor Insurance Agency, LLC. Operating as Taylor Insurance Agency, the firm brings a personal lines portfolio to the Inszone umbrella, further expanding its footprint in San Antonio, Texas. Originally founded in 2011 …