Kristine Howe and her mother were stopped at the intersection of Ustick and Meridian roads on Monday when a driver slammed into the back of their minivan. The minivan’s brakes were no match for the icy road.

For buildings in parts of the snow-covered U.S. West, it has become a winter where the weak do not survive. The accumulated weight of snow has crushed an old lumber mill in Oregon, the main grocery store in a small Idaho town, a sports complex in Alaska and a conference center in Colorado, among others.

Every 45 seconds, a car is stolen in the U.S., for a total value of $4.9 billion in stolen vehicles during 2015. And as vehicles have become more sophisticated, they’ve often inadvertently been left exposed to car theft in new ways.

New government estimates project that for the second straight year, the United States will see the largest leap in motor vehicle fatalities in 50 years. In the first nine months of 2016, the Department of Transportation estimates that 27,875 people died in motor vehicle crashes.

As frigid temperatures and wintry blasts have hit a large section of the nation, drivers are increasingly “puffing”—warming up their parked vehicles before heading out on the road. The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) warns that leaving an unlocked car running with the keys or fob inside can lead to two unwanted scenarios.

They have one-word names, their advertising campaigns throw around lofty concepts like optimism and their signature is digital reliance. The new face of insurance in North America wears a big smile and talks to customers using artificially intelligent chat bots.

Just when it seemed like carmakers had run out of vehicles to recall related to the deadly Takata airbag defect, more are added to the list: 772,000 Honda and Acura vehicles.

Thousands of rock salt lamps sold at Michaels are under recall due to shock and fire hazards. The recall involves about 80,000 rock salt lamps sold under the Lumiere brand.

Volkswagen Group of America is recalling nearly 136,000 Audi and Volkswagen autos to fix potential problems with their antilock brake systems.

Last March, Toshiba recalled the lithium-ion battery packs used in approximately 91,000 laptops that were found to overheat, posing burn and fire hazards to consumers. Now, the company is expanding the safety initiative, recalling an additional 83,000 units.

There’s a lot of talk right now about how big data is going to change insurance. Artificial intelligence and prescriptive analytics are definitely coming, and they will definitely change the insurance industry.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) has launched a “preliminary evaluation” of approximately 1 million Dodge Ram pickups and Dodge Durango SUVs following 43 complaints alleging roll-aways when the vehicles are in the parked position.

The Food and Drug Administration announced a series of related recalls of products, including waffle mix, kettle chips and macaroni and cheese, because of possible salmonella contamination.

The U.S. Transportation Department on Tuesday proposed requiring all new cars and trucks to be able to "talk" to one another using short-range wireless technology to potentially avoid tens of thousands of crashes annually.

The U.S. Supreme Court let stand the National Football League’s $765 million concussion settlement, turning away contentions by former players that the accord won’t adequately compensate them for the brain damage they may have suffered.