Yeah, I try to report that every once in a while.

Web items up on Near North and Illinois’ new get-tough uninsured motorists laws.

My latest story, which ran on the cover of the most recent issue of Insurance Journal.

The lead:

It is nearly impossible to deny the impact the burgeoning Hispanic population has and will have on American culture and its markets. The marketplace for insurance is no exception.

Hispanics are now the country’s largest minority group, having officially overtaken African Americans in recent population estimates issued by the U.S. Census Bureau, which showed that in 2002 there were 38.8 million Hispanics in the United States, compared with 38.3 million African Americans. Hispanics accounted for nearly half of the country’s population increase of 7 million, to 288.4 million, since 2000.

Unless there is a steep economic decline in the United States lowering the demand for cheaper, less-skilled labor or precipitous growth in Mexico and the rest of Latin America reducing the supply of that labor, the U.S. Hispanic marketplace will only continue to grow.

It should be an interesting read, even if you’re not into insurance.

Here’s the lead:

Insurance is about numbers, and right now the numbers are depressing when it comes to minority and women agents in the business. In spite of the tremendous growth of minority populations in the United States and the success of women in many other business fields, both lag behind in the insurance business.

Go ahead, read the rest. I dare you.

At my latest story, on minority- and women-owned insurance agencies.

No — working hard! Aren’t you glad I don’t work in your office?

Read about: a convicted liar, tornado losses, the ratings game, or an insurance agents’ association president.

It’s all good. Heck, it’s all grrrreat!

Here’s part of a Q&A I did with Louisiana’s former insurance commissioner, who spent six months in federal prison for lying to an FBI agent.

He read more than 100 books, wrote a book about his ordeal and lost 26 pounds. Whichever prison Stewart winds up in will, I’m sure, be the most wonderfully decorated prison around.

An online story about some moves at the Hartford.

Yes, paid to write and write and write. Two and a half thousand words about financial strength ratings of insurance companies.

Whoa, there. Easy, boys and girls. It will be digital in due time. Until then, make due with this May 5 story on tort reform.

But to some extent this should explain my lack of posting lately, along with the fact I’ve little to say.

But fading fast is Kemper Insurance Cos. It’s amazing how one of the biggest insurance companies in the country has pretty much fallen apart in a little more than a year.

I guess it goes to show how competitive the marketplace really is. See my story on the latest layoffs.

Here’s an abbreviated version of my April 21 print edition Insurance Journal story on the insurance industry’s reaction to the nightclub tragedies in Chicago and Rhode Island.

Remember that 2,000-word story on the California homeowners market I was bitching about?

Here it is!