Geico

GEICO Corp., one of the largest automobile insurers in Maryland, said three of its auto insurance subsidiaries will give a 25 percent refund to policyholders who are serving in the Desert Shield operation in the Middle East.The refund will amount to an estimated $1 million, said GEICO, which is based in Chevy Chase."While our Desert Shield military policyholders are facing increased personal risk in the Middle East, the risk factors for their cars back at home have gone down," said Edward H. Utley, president of GEICO.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news , world news , and news about the economy I have been complaining for more than a year about what a journalistically bankrupt decision NBC News made in hiring Chelsea Clinton as a special correspondent for Brian Williams "Rock Center. " I have reviewed each of her performances chronicling the downward arc of her learning curve. NBC's make-believe correspondent really did keep getting worse. But this is too embarrassing to even talk about.

Geico Corp. said its second-quarter earnings fell 17 percent, as Texas-sized hailstorms and bayou backwash made the three months that ended in June the most catastrophe-prone since 1992 for the Chevy Chase-based insurance company."

Author George Saunders is having the kind of year that could lead the former roofer and slaughterhouse worker to imagine that someone is spritzing the air around him with a giant bottle of perfume. "The way things have been going recently, it's as if I had a personal sprayer walking behind me and making sure that the world always smells sweet," says the New York-based writer, who will visit Baltimore on April 13 to headline the 10th annual CityLit Festival. With the publication in January of his new book, "Tenth of December," Saunders, 54, a professor at Syracuse University, has been receiving the kind of attention seldom given to short-story writers - even those who, like him, received a 2006 MacArthur "genius" grant.

WASHINGTON -- Geico Corp. said yesterday that first-quarter earnings rose 85 percent as a result of increased premiums and lower catastrophe claims.The property and casualty insurer said earnings excluding special items rose to $58.5 million, or 86 cents a share, from $31.7 million, or 44 cents, a year earlier.The per-share results exceeded Wall Street estimates of 79 cents, based on the average estimate of seven analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research.Shares of Geico, based in Chevy Chase, rose $3.875 to $54.375 on trading of 75,800 shares, more than twice the three-month daily average.

One on One is a weekly feature offering excerpts of interviews conducted by The Evening Sun with newsworthy business leaders. August P. Alegi is group vice president and legislative counsel for GEICO Corp., one of the largest insurance companies in Maryland. About 93 percent of the company's business is in automobile insurance and it has about 120,000 policyholders in Maryland.Q. GEICO has been very active recently in legislative matters leading up to the 1991 General Assembly. What are GEICO's objectives during the next General Assembly session?

Warren E. Buffett, the world's second-richest man, said yesterday that he will buy the 49 percent of Chevy Chase-based Geico Corp. he does not already control, giving his Berkshire Hathaway Corp. full ownership of one of only eight Fortune 500 companies headquartered in Maryland.Geico stock jumped $12.875 to close at $68.625 yesterday after Berkshire Hathaway offered to pay $70 for each Geico share, an offer that will cost $2.3 billion. The deal is scheduled to close in January, after approval by Geico shareholders and state insurance regulators.

A headline on a story about Geico Corp. in yesterday's Business section incorrectly characterized a transaction between Geico and Aetna Life & Casualty Co. Geico has agreed to transfer, not sell, its homeowners insurance business to Aetna Life & Casualty.The Sun regrets the errors.Geico Corp., the Bethesda insurer, has given up on its relatively small homeowners insurance business and will transfer to Aetna Life & Casualty, the companies said yesterday.Geico writes homeowners policies through a wholly owned insurance agency called Insurance Counselors Inc., which is based in Maryland.

William B. Snyder, who led Chevy Chase-based GEICO Corp. during some of the auto insurer's most profitable years, yesterday stepped down as chairman of the company a year earlier than planned.Mr. Snyder, 64, also has resigned from the board of directors and will "pursue other interests in the property-casualty insurance business," the company said in a statement.Apparently he'll spend some of his time running two Southern insurers GEICO bought two years ago.Through partnerships he controls, Mr. Snyder has agreed to buy the Southern Heritage Insurance Co. in Atlanta and the Merastar Insurance Co. in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Geico Direct said yesterday that it will lower auto insurance rates for its Maryland policy holders by as much as 7.9 percent, a move that could force other insurers to slash rates.Geico's decision to lower rates comes as it is targeting the Baltimore metropolitan area for growth, expanding on its stronghold in Washington, where the insurer is based.The company said the rate decreases stem from mild weather, safer cars and safer drivers that have caused fewer and less severe accidents.Wall Street's continued bull run has also sent rates down, because increased investment returns allow insurers to cut auto rates without affecting profits.

FRIDAY'S TELEVISION HIGHLIGHTS NASCAR Sprint Cup: Geico 400, Practice ESPN22 Truck Series: Chicago, Qualifying SPEED3:30 N'wide: Dollar General 300, Practice SPEED4:30 Sprint Cup: Geico 400, Practice SPEED6 Truck Series: Chicago SPEED8 MLB Washington@Mets (T) MASN10 a.m. Angels@Orioles MASN7 Florida@Washington MASN27 Tampa Bay@Boston MLB7 Angels@Orioles (T)

Organizers of the Baltimore Grand Prix announced new sponsors Thursday for the three-day street racing festival slated to be held around the Inner Harbor over Labor Day weekend. Sunoco will be the fuel sponsor of the Baltimore race, according to a statement from Baltimore Racing Development. Sunoco is the official fuel of the Indy Racing Series, of which the Baltimore race is a part. Other sponsors include GEICO insurance, Transamerica/AEGON, Greenspring Energy, Enoch Office Products and HVM Racing, according to the statement.

For two months, the gecko has been an unwelcome guest. A likeness of the ubiquitous mascot for GEICO Auto Insurance, with its beady eyes and impossibly green skin, has flown on a banner behind a small airplane circling over Annapolis, again and again, every Friday for two months. Just outside the city, Cynthia Crawford said the noisy plane rumbling overhead has driven her and her children from their backyard. Paul Foer's peace and quiet is disrupted as he stares into the sky from one of his lounge chairs at his Eastport home.

A Honda Element slammed into the rear end of Charlie Lusco's Dodge Caravan on Harford Road late on a December night. Finding what would end up being hundreds of dollars' worth of repairs, Lusco and his wife, Deborah, who was driving, did almost everything they were supposed to do after an accident. They called the police. They wrote down the officer's name and the number of their complaint report. They wrote down the model, color and license plate of the other driver's car. Ignoring the 18-year-old driver's request to "forget the whole thing," the Luscos insisted on exchanging insurance information.

If there was ever an ad campaign that perfectly exemplified the current state of TV advertising and the weird symbiosis of offender and offended, it's the Geico cavemen commercials. Have you seen them? The pitch is unconventional but the storyline very familiar: The car insurance company makes the claim that its Web site is so easy to use "a caveman could do it." Cut to a couple of hirsute Neanderthals who are incensed by the ad campaign. The gentlemanly cave-dwellers (part of the joke is that, aside from appearance, they are urbane types who go to fine restaurants and attend therapy regularly)

Saturday's UnderArmour Baltimore Marathon added talent over the weekend. Christopher Kipkosgei, a member of Fila's Discovery Kenya program who recently secured his visa to travel here, has a personal best of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 52 seconds. Alexsander Kapitonov, a 35-year-old Russian, has similar credentials. Michael Wardian of Arlington, Va., ran 2:21:48 in Detroit last week, to qualify for next February's U.S. Olympic trials. Kapitonov runs for the Gaithersburg-based RedSquare Sports team, which will supply two-time women's champion Elvira Kolpakova.

Reebok International Ltd. said GEICO Corp. purchased 3.3 percent of its common shares in the second quarter.GEICO, the nation's seventh-largest automobile insurer, bought 2.9 million shares of the Stoughton, Mass.-based sneaker maker between April 1 and June 30, said Michael Seely, Reebok's spokesman.Shares of Reebok traded at an average price of $34.375 in the quarter, indicating that GEICO, based in Chevy Chase, paid about $100 million for the stock.Officials at GEICO, which is 48 percent-owned by investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., were unavailable for comment.

WASHINGTON -- The Montgomery County chapter of the NAACP charged yesterday that GEICO, the Chevy Chase-based insurance giant, systematically refuses to insure many Baltimore and Washington neighborhoods because they are predominantly poor and black.W. Gregory Wims, the Montgomery chapter president, said the company has tried to avoid writing auto and homeowner's insurance policies for inner-city residents in Baltimore and Washington, a discriminatory practice known as "redlining.""Employees are trained not to write policies," said Mr. Wims.

OMAHA, Neb. - Billionaire investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. reported yesterday a third-quarter profit of $1.14 billion as its insurance units raised prices. Net income was $744 a share, compared with a loss of $679 million, or $445 a share, a year earlier, the company said in a statement. Earnings from operations were $1.1 billion compared with a loss of $895 million in last year's third quarter. Berkshire's car insurer, Geico Corp., and National Indemnity Co., its reinsurance company, have increased rates and are beginning to recover after paying large claims after the terrorist attacks of September last year.