The claim costs and other metrics of 18 state workers’ compensation systems are analyzed in depth in a new series of studies, CompScope™ Benchmarks, 17th Edition, released by the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI).

Leading travel insurance trends aren’t just focused on hurricanes and illness anymore. A considerable number of traveler inquiries are now seeking to make certain that they are protected against losses from terrorism, too.

Meet a victim of the nation’s opioid addiction scourge: the American worker. A number of U.S. states are taking steps through their workers compensation systems to stem the overprescribing of the powerful painkillers to workers injured on the job, while helping those who became hooked to avoid potentially deadly consequences.

In November, the ride-sharing companies agreed to let the state run its own background checks as part of a deal that would let Lyft and Uber drivers service Logan Airport. More than 70,000 drivers applied for the checks. The results of the state’s first screening were announced on Wednesday, and more than 10% of applicants did not pass.

A 20-year-old Brookline man was killed in a crash early Sunday morning on Route 90 eastbound at exit 22 in Boston. His 2013 Audi A8 was traveling on Route 90 at approximately 2:15 a.m. when the vehicle went airborne and struck the ceiling of the tunnel, ripping down wires and cables.

A contractor in Salem was killed Tuesday afternoon when he came in contact with a live wire and was electrocuted. Around 3 p.m. the 59-year-old man was painting window sills on the side of a firehouse in a metal lift when the accident happened.

No one was hurt after part of an apartment building collapsed in South Boston overnight. People in about ten different units on O Street were evacuated around 2 a.m. when part of a load bearing wall suddenly collapsed into the basement.

On Friday, the meteorology community was riding a major high as stunningly high-definition images came in from the nation’s newest and much-anticipated earth observation satellite. The high came crashing down that evening, though, as the first hints of significant cuts to the budget of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began to emerge.

If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a million times: You don’t want your vehicle to catch on fire. For that reason, Mercedes-Benz is recalling more than 354,000 vehicles.

An annual state-by-state analysis of auto insurance reveals rates continue to increase after filing just a single claim. According to a fourth annual study by insuranceQuotes, drivers now pay an average of 44 percent more for car insurance after making a single claim of $2,000 or more.

Authorities are investigating after a small plane crashed into a multi-condo building in Methuen, Massachusetts, killing the pilot, a former mayor of Newburyport.

People sparked most US wildfires in recent decades, causing longer fire seasons and increasing the amount of scorched earth, according to a new study published Monday. Researchers found that humans caused 84 percent -- or four out of five -- of the total 1.5 million wildfires studied between 1992 and 2012.



In addition, human actions tripled the length of the fire season during those two decades and were responsible for 44 percent of the total acreage burned, researchers reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The National Weather Service has confirmed that a tornado with winds up to 110 mph touched down in western Massachusetts. Meteorologists say the EF-1 tornado touched down Saturday evening in Conway in Franklin County.

United Technologies Corp’s (UTX.N) Carrier unit expanded a recall of some air conditioners and heat pumps as their power cord plugs can overheat, posing a fire risk, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said on Thursday.

The possible listeria contamination affecting a number of cheese brands continues to grow, as Sargento and MDS Foods announced over the weekend the recall of more than a dozen additional products that may have come into contact with the listeria-tainted cheeses from supplier Deutsch Kase Haus.