Three of last month’s California wildfires will cost insurers about $9.05 billion, according to preliminary information from state regulators. That figure is based on initial claims that insurers have received from the Camp, Woolsey and Hill fires, California Insurance Commissioner … Source: Claims Journal

Johnson & Johnson has begun settling consumers’ claims that it sold artificial hips knowing they were defective, marking the first settlements in the seven-year-old litigation. A federal judge in Texas overseeing the cases said about 3,300 of 10,000 “have settled … Source: Claims Journal

Scientists are seeing surprising melting in Earth’s polar regions at times they don’t expect, like winter, and in places they don’t expect, like eastern Antarctica. New studies and reports issued this week at a major Earth sciences conference paint one … Source: Claims Journal

Natural gas companies in Massachusetts are compromising safety by increasingly turning to outside contractors for pipeline work while cutting back on staff that would oversee these projects, state lawmakers said Tuesday at a hearing following September’s natural gas explosions in … Source: Claims Journal

The conflict between the need for more housing in California and the danger of building in fire-prone mountains was decided in favor of homes Tuesday as Los Angeles County supervisors approved a massive rural housing development. The supervisors voted 4-1 … Source: Claims Journal

Attorneys for a wrong-way driver say an Arizona Department of Public Safety sergeant who used his vehicle as a traffic break is to blame for a crash on Interstate 40 that sent both of them to the hospital. The driver, … Source: Claims Journal

PG&E Corp. was accused of putting its “reputation above public safety” in a lawsuit that says the power company spends too much on advertising and not enough on preventing devastating Northern California wildfires like the blaze that destroyed the town … Source: Claims Journal

A bus driver with “acute sleep deficit” failed to stay in his lane and caused his vehicle to careen out of control, resulting in a wreck that killed nine people and injured nearly 40 others in 2016, federal safety investigators … Source: Claims Journal

A diplomatic standoff over a single word could set the stage for a bigger showdown during the second half of this year’s U.N. climate summit. Negotiators took time out Sunday to rest after the first week of talks ended on … Source: Claims Journal

Oregon has a new playbook for preparing and responding to a major earthquake that dictates what should be tackled over time versus a list of tasks to get done. The playbook provides a two-week blueprint for the state’s response and … Source: Claims Journal