Katrina round-up

47 down, 1,949 to go. State Farm has settled with 103 policyholders represented by the Merlin Law Group, 47 of whom had actually filed suit. State Farm still faces nearly 2,000 lawsuits in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. Up to 50,000 Louisiana recipients of Road Home grants for Katrina recovery find that they may have to pay up to 35 percent of the amount received for income tax. I read this story from the Dallas Morning News about State Farm and Allstate battling Texas insurance regulations and, to tell the truth, I can't quite figure what is going on. It's a little light on comments from the insurer side, and I would suspect there are some market reasons for the so-called "runaway" premiums, but these reasons are not disclosed. Here's the story's