AIRLINE NEWS.
Although Hurricane Ivan most directly affected Florida's panhandle, a number of destinations there are reporting that they are open and operating normally. Panama City Beach officials, for example, say that their hotels, attractions, airport and beaches are open after sustaining only minimal damage from the storm. The city had...

Broking in a hard market: traditional insurance brokerage skills are not quite extinct--just hard to find. (Special Report: Agents & Brokers).
"About an hour each year." That is how one CEO responded when asked how much time he used to spend considering his company's insurance. Now, rising premiums, terrorism coverage, and directors and officers liability concerns dominate the company's boardroom discussions. Faced with a series of new challenges--and...

Rolling the dice.
The variables "in play" in the hospitality sectors--the bottle, the bed and the steak filet--mean management had better be prepared to make some careful bets. Throw in a poker game or two, and it's not hard to see how easily the odds can swing against you. The most astute...

From booze to breakthroughs: higher-education risks still include drinking problems and mental-health issues while universities also grapple with emerging risks from research and technology.
Allen Bova never expected to see his picture on the front page of Cornell University's student newspaper, let alone under the headline, "The Day the Music Died." But that's what happened when the risk management director cancelled the band for 1995's version of Slope Day, the traditional last-day-of-classes student...

A preliminary assessment of asbestos awareness and control measures in brake and clutch repair services in Knoxville and Knox County, Tennessee.
There are more than 150,000 full-time brake and clutch mechanics working with asbestos-containing brake shoes and clutch facings in the United States (1). In the Knoxville/Knox County, Tennessee area, there are approximately 363 such workers, including part-time mechanics, working in 107 business locations. Worker exposure in brake and clutch repair...

Tending to the fleet.
Vehicle fleets are frequently a source of adverse loss experience for companies, governmental entities, educational institutions, health care institutions and others. It's no surprise that insurers and those who self-insure are taking loss control in this area more seriously these days. There are many components to a...

GM Reports Third Quarter Financial Results.
DETROIT, Nov. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- -- Unprecedented economic and credit market turmoil dramatically impacts auto industry and GM results -- Market volatility results in $1.5 billion in non-cash charges for commodity and currency hedging -- Company anticipates soft U.S. market for remainder of 2008 and into 2009...

CERCLA choice-of-law: insurers' attempts to escape their own quagmires.
I. INTRODUCTION II. CURRENT CHOICE-OF-LAW THEORIES A. Vested-Rights B. Interest Analysis C. Better-Law Theory D. Restatement (Second): The Most Significant Relationship III. CHOICE-OF-LAW IN THE CONTEXT OF CERCLA A. Vested-Rights 1. Applying the Law of the Place of Contracting 2. Exceptions to the Place of Contracting. a. Public Policy...

A ripened talent: a farm boy from Minnesota with a passion for autocross finds himself in charge of risk management for an agribusiness conglomerate. His journey has taught him that managing risks in the tomato industry is no small potatoes.
Ever since he was 14 years old, Michael Benishek has been focused on managing risk. An avid soapbox derby enthusiast, he was working on his racecar on a Sunday night when he accidentally ran his finger through a table saw. Aside from requiring stitches and angering his parents he...