Drivers see higher premiums after not-at-fault crashes
Drivers see higher premiums after not-at-fault crashes
WASHINGTON (AP) — Most drivers don’t expect to be hit with a rate hike on their auto insurance after a car accident that wasn’t their fault. But a consumer group says it happens, and it’s a problem.
The Washington-based Consumer Federation of America says it found rate hikes on annual premiums as high as $400, in some cases.
In the report released Monday, the group analyzed premium quotes in 10 cities, including New York and Chicago, from five of the nation’s largest auto insurers. The researchers found that Progressive aggressively used a not-at-fault penalty, surcharging drivers in eight of the 10 selected cities. Rates in Oklahoma City and Los Angeles did not change. Oklahoma and California prohibit not-at-fault penalties.
The group said GEICO and Farmers raised rates in some states by 10 percent or more. Allstate had occasional penalties. State Farm was the exception, with no increases on premiums for not-at-fault accidents.
“Most people know that if they cause an accident or get a ticket they could face a premium increase, but they don’t expect to be punished if a reckless driver careens into them,” said Bob Hunter, CFA’s director of insurance and the former insurance commissioner of Texas.
Canada’s Trudeau talks trade with Trump at White House
WASHINGTON (AP) — A political odd couple, President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resolutely played up their similarities at their first meeting Monday, even as obvious differences lurked behind their public smiles.
After their White House meeting, the North American neighbors emerged to hail their close ties, with Trump promising to “build upon our very historic friendship” and Trudeau noting the “special” bond between the countries.
But it was hard to escape their contrasting worldviews.
Speaking to reporters, Trump defended his restrictive refugee and immigration orders, saying that “we cannot let the wrong people in.” Trudeau, on the other hand, said Canada continues to “pursue our policies of openness.”
Trudeau later acknowledged that there are times when the two countries differ. But he said, “The last thing Canadians expect is for me to come down and lecture another country on how they chose to govern themselves.”
Trump ‘evaluating the situation’ involving Flynn, Russia
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is “evaluating the situation” regarding his embattled national security adviser Michael Flynn’s conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., the White House said Monday, deepening the uncertainty surrounding Flynn’s future in the new administration.
Flynn apologized privately for the controversy to Vice President Mike Pence, according to a White House official. Pence, relying on information from Flynn, publicly vouched that the retired Army lieutenant general did not discuss U.S. sanctions against Russia in calls with the Russia late last year. Flynn has since told the White House that sanctions may have come up.
Trump, who comments on a steady stream of issues on his Twitter feed, has been conspicuously silent about the matter since The Washington Post reported last week that Flynn had discussed sanctions with the Russian envoy. A U.S. official told The Associated Press that Flynn was in frequent contact with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak on the day the Obama administration slapped sanctions on Russia for election-related hacking, as well as at other times during the transition.
Earlier Monday, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said Trump had “full confidence” in Flynn, though her assertions were not backed up by other senior Trump aides.
Flynn sat in the front row of Trump’s news conference with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier Monday. But the president did not receive a question about Flynn’s future from a pair of reporters, and he ignored journalists’ shouted follow-up inquiries as he left the room.
Travel ban risks alienating key partners in fight against IS
WASHINGTON (AP) — American forces were perched high on the top of the Bashiq Mountain, calling in airstrikes that pounded Islamic State militants. Down below, Kurdish forces rolled past to recapture the ancient city of Sinjar.
The December 2015 victory — it also regained control of a strategic roadway linking Iraq and Syria — was a testament to the critical partnership between the U.S. and Kurdish fighters in both Iraq and Syria. It’s an alliance Obama administration officials and even some critics credit with helping diminish the militant group’s aggressive land grab.
But that alliance has been rattled by President Donald Trump’s immigration restrictions and refugee ban. By blocking citizens from several nations in the region from entering the U.S., Trump’s order bars entry for most Kurds, a policy that threatens to estrange some of the United States’ closest allies in the war against Islamic extremism.
Kurds are an ethnic group predominantly concentrated along the borders of four countries — Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. The latter three are among the seven Muslim-majority nations named in Trump’s executive order.
The vast majority of Kurds are Sunni Muslims, a religious minority in Iraq and Iran that has long complained of persecution and alienation by their Shiite-majority governments. While Trump’s order does suggest an exemption “provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion” in the home country, it does not appear to distinguish between Muslim sects. The order does not specific any exemption for the Kurds or any ethnic group.