Deadline looms: Time is running out for business owners, homeowners and renters affected by the August flood to apply for federal disaster loans, The Associated Press reports. The Louisiana Department of Economic Development says the deadline to seek the low-interest loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration is Thursday. The loans offer money to repair property damaged by the flood that isn’t covered by insurance or federal grant programs. Businesses and nonprofit organizations can apply for loans of up to $2 million to repair or replace damaged property, machinery, equipment and inventory. Homeowners can receive loans of up to $200,000 to repair or replace damaged homes, while homeowners and renters are eligible for loans of up to $40,000 to replace damaged or destroyed personal property.
Covering new ground: Baton Rouge-based LCTA Workers’ Comp is expanding its reach to Mississippi and Arkansas. According to a news release, LCTA began writing lines of workers’ comp insurance coverage for small-to-mid-sized businesses in Mississippi on Oct. 1. The company also has secured a license to write insurance in Arkansas. The expansion is a part of LCTA’s long-term strategy, LCTA CEO Melissa Campesi says. Earlier this year, the 26-year-old company converted from a self-insurers’ fund to a casualty insurance company, providing LCTA with the capability to expand geographically.
Setback: A federal appeals court on Tuesday declared the structure of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau unconstitutional, USA Today reports. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled the agency’s leadership—a single director loosely accountable to the president and only removable for good cause—violates constitutional and historical precedents applied to federal regulators. The court also overturned a $109 million CFPB enforcement action against PHH, a mortgage lender that filed the legal challenge. The decision is viewed as a major setback for one of the signature safeguards created after the U.S. financial crisis. The CFPB disagreed with the ruling, and has left open the possibility of seeking a review by the U.S. Supreme Court. Read the full story.
