Firefighters had barely achieved full containment of the blazes that leveled whole neighborhoods in Los Angeles before State Farm General asked the California Department of Insurance on Feb. 3 to grant it massive rate hikes for policyholders, including a 22% increase on homeowners on an “emergency” basis beginning May 1. The insurance department’s staff, in turn, took almost no time in drafting an agreement to the request and recommending that Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara sign it.
What will Lara do?
