Wal-Mart, the nation's largest private employer, has told President Obama it would support health care reform legislation requiring businesses to provide employees some level of health insurance coverage.

Insurance products would be mostly exempt from oversight by the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency under legislation submitted to Congress this morning by the Treasury Department.

The U.S. House of Representatives plans to speed up consideration of a measure to reform regulation of surplus lines insurance and reinsurance, industry lobbyists say.

Legislation clarifying the exempt status of Florida's nonadmitted insurance industry from compliance with rate and forms laws was signed earlier this month by Gov. Charles Crist.

While they may be known as property and casualty insurance agents, commercial intermediaries have no intention of sitting on the sidelines while one of their most lucrative sources of income is threatened by health insurance reform efforts.

Legislation that would clear the way for the use of auto parts from after-market suppliers for collision repairs was introduced Thursday in the House and Senate.

Expressly, race-based employment decisions are illegal, the Supreme Court ruled today in a closely watched discrimination case brought by white and Hispanic firefighters.

Creating a new federal consumer protection agency for insurance would result in "a duplicative, inefficient system that would add even more costs" for buyers, a top property and casualty industry official warned Congress last week.