The Brief

State Farm requested massive increases to its California residential insurance rates, which calls its financial stability into doubt amid an ongoing crisis in the state’s insurance market.

The company’s California subsidiary, State Farm General, the state’s largest writer of homeowners insurance, according to the Insurance Information Institute, submitted a request on Thursday to the California Department of Insurance for the following rate hikes:

• 30% increase in homeowners insurance
• 36% increase in condominium owners insurance
• 52% increase in renters insurance

With California’s property insurance market already facing an availability and affordability crisis, driven largely by rising wildfire risk, the timing could hardly be worse.

Millions potentially affected

“This has the potential to affect millions of California consumers and the integrity of our residential property insurance market,” California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said in a statement provided to KQED.

The department will closely examine State Farm’s financial stability, Lara said.

“Using my authority under Prop. 103, I will investigate State Farm’s financial situation, including a rate hearing on these applications if necessary. My Department’s experts and I have serious questions.”

For the last year, State Farm has not written new policies in California, and it has not renewed tens of thousands of existing policies.

Documents from AM Best, a company that rates insurance companies’ financial solvency, show a troubled situation for State Farm. Its financial strength was downgraded this spring, and its long-term outlook is considered negative.

“Financially speaking, State Farm is very, very much apparently in trouble. And I think that their request for rate increases will be met with a lot of frustration by consumers because the last thing anybody wants is to be paying more money right now,” said Karl Susman, an insurance broker. “And since there’s still not the ability for people to shop around for other options, what are they going to do but pay that higher rate? But I think that it’s probably going to show pretty quickly that it’s necessary to keep State Farm from literally going insolvent.”

What's next for policyholders

Lara sought to reassure State Farm policyholders that nothing would change immediately as a result of these filings. Under California’s regulatory process, rate filings should take two months to be reviewed, although they have dragged on for years in some cases — a process set for a major overhaul by regulators this year.

Lara also said the Department of Insurance had already made tough decisions in approving significant State Farm rate increases recently, including a March hike averaging 20% across the state.

He continued by inviting the public to get involved via the intervenor process, which allows the public to weigh in on changes to their insurance.

Susman predicts the Department of Insurance will have no choice but to approve the requested rate increases.

“Because the alternative is literally — what’s the point of having a carrier with lower rates that can’t pay claims?” he said. “And they are basically at that place right now where if they’re not able to get this rate and they’re already in such a bad place financially, I don’t see how we can expect them to possibly weather the storm.”

Danielle Brooks and Lewis Pullman presented the nominees for the 98th Academy Awards this morning. The awards ceremony will be held on March 15. You can watch the announcement above, or check back soon for a full list of nominees.

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After a warm spell, winter weather has returned to Southern California.

Thursday's rainfall will be on the drizzly, scattered end of things. The National Weather Service forecasts around a quarter inch of rainfall through Friday. Any snowfall will stick to the 8,000-foot elevation range Thursday, and drop down to around 6,000 feet by Friday.

As for temperatures, it's going to be another relatively cool day.

We're looking at highs in the mid 60s from the coasts to the valleys, and up to 68 degrees in the Inland Empire. In the Antelope Valley, temperatures will range from 54 to 63 degrees. And in Coachella Valley, expect daytime highs from 69 to 74 degrees and dry conditions.

The Sundance Film Festival begins for the last time in Park City, Utah, before heading to Boulder, Colo., next year. It's a bittersweet finale for the country's premier independent film festival, founded by Robert Redford in 1978.

With a gala, the festival plans to pay tribute to the late actor and director, who died of natural causes in September.

"Before he passed earlier this year, [Redford] shared with us this quote: 'Everybody has a story,'" says the festival's director, Eugene Hernandez. "This notion is such a great framing for a festival that has always been about finding and sharing with audiences the stories that come from all over the world."

This year, the festival will screen films that got their starts at Sundance, including Little Miss Sunshine, which went on to be nominated for best picture at the 2007 Oscars.

The festival will also screen a remastered print of the 1969 movie Downhill Racer, in which Redford plays a champion skier. Redford was also a producer on this indie film.

"He would tell this story year after year about getting Downhill Racer made," recalls Sundance senior programmer John Nein. "It became a way that he understood the notion of protecting independence and protecting the artistic voice of a film. He often used that when he talked to emerging filmmakers, to relate to the struggles that they had in getting their films made the way that they wanted to."

Nein says one way to recognize that legacy is by programming 40 percent of the slate from first-time filmmakers. More than 16,200 films were submitted from 164 countries. Throughout the year, the Sundance Institute hosts labs and programs and provides grants and fellowships for independent filmmakers.

Over the years, Sundance has been a launching pad for filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino, Ava DuVernay, The Coen brothers, Ryan Coogler, Chloe Zhao and Paul Thomas Anderson.

Another filmmaker whose career Sundance supported is Rachel Lambert, who says she was inspired by a film Redford directed: Ordinary People.

"It's a profound legacy a single human being can leave an entire nation's culture," she says of Redford. "It's remarkable."

Lambert will premiere her newest film, Carousel, a love story starring Chris Pine and Jenny Slate.

Also showing at Sundance: documentaries about Chicano theater pioneer Luis Valdez, singer Courtney Love, tennis star Billie Jean King, and South African leader Nelson Mandela.

Among the features in competition is The Gallerist with Natalie Portman and Jenna Ortega.

Another is The Invite, with Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton. The Invite's producer, David Permut, has been faithfully attending Sundance since the late 1980s, when he was in the audience for Steven Soderbergh's breakout Sex, Lies, and Videotape. 

"I never miss Sundance. I've been going every year since," says Permut. "I stay for 10 days, I'm not in and out like a lot of people from Hollywood when they're there with their film. I love the second week because it's basically cinephiles from all over the world."

Permut showed his first film at Sundance — Three of Hearts — in 1993. Last year, his film Twinless won the festival's audience award.

"I have 57 movies I want to see this coming Sundance," he says. "For me, it's about discovery."

Actress Hana Mana in <em>The Friend's House Is Here</em>. The film was smuggled out of Iran to premiere at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

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Alma Linda Films

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Some filmmakers have gone to great lengths to get their work screened this year — including the Iranian film The Friend's House is Here.

The drama—set in Tehran's underground art scene — was shot under the radar of Iranian authorities. Amid the country's recent political turmoil, members of the film's crew had to drive 11 hours to smuggle the film over the Turkish border to get it to the festival. According to the film's publicist, the film's two main actresses were not heard from for weeks during Iran's recent unrest. The publicist says the women are now safe but have been denied visas by the United States to attend Sundance.
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Why it matters: Pasadena’s claim to the cheeseburger is a significant part of Southern California's food history, with direct ties to car culture and roadside dining.

Who's participating: Nearly 50 restaurants are taking part, including Dog Haus Biergarten, Pie 'n Burger, the Taproom at the Langham Huntington Hotel and Magnolia House. There are also week-only specials, including Tardino Bros. Italian Kitchen's chili cheeseburger pizza and Burrito Express' smashburger taco.

Why now: It’s a perfect opportunity to explore some of those Pasadena spots that you've been meaning to try (and a good way to fire up your palate before LAist’s citywide Tournament of Cheeseburgers later this year!).