AI and the U.S. Strikes on Iran; Homeowners vs. State Farm

Summary

HERE’S THE SCOOP
Episode: AI and the U.S. Strikes on Iran; Homeowners vs. State Farm
Date: March 12, 2026
Host: Yasmin Vossoughian, NBC News

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into two major stories: the expanding role of artificial intelligence in the U.S. military's ongoing conflict with Iran and the challenges homeowners face with insurance giant State Farm following devastating storms. Additional headlines touch on the economic and global ripple effects of the Iran war, escalating healthcare costs, and a quirky trademark lawsuit featuring two Katy Perrys.

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1. AI and U.S. Military Operations in Iran

Segment Begins: [00:03]

Key Discussion Points

• Current Situation: On day 13 of the conflict, U.S. strikes in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz are escalating. Lawmakers are focusing on how AI technologies are influencing these military decisions.

• AI's Role: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has prioritized integrating AI into combat operations, but concerns persist about decision-making transparency and ensuring humans remain the ultimate authority on lethal actions.

AI in Targeting and Analysis

• Data Processing: AI rapidly analyzes massive, varied data streams from satellites, audio feeds, and surveillance footage to support targeting and operational decisions.

  • "These systems help us sift through vast amounts of data in seconds so our leaders can cut through the noise and make smarter decisions faster than the enemy can react." – Admiral Brad Cooper ([01:17])
  • "Humans will always make final decisions on what to shoot and what not to shoot and when to shoot." – Admiral Brad Cooper ([01:17])

• Nature of AI Use:

  • Not autonomous weaponry; AI processes/recommends, humans decide.
  • Example: AI helps analysts find trends (e.g., identifying missile launchers, tracking military travel patterns).
  • "You can kind of think about it like a military application of maybe how people use ChatGPT... But you can think about, instead of one spreadsheet, think about like, 20 million different data sources." – Jared Perlow ([02:08]-[02:42])

• Limitations and Dangers:

  • Relying on outdated data can lead to tragic mistakes, as seen in the strike on a school in Manob, leading to 170 civilian deaths. Uncertainty remains about the extent of AI’s involvement.
    • "It's not unreasonable to think that the AI model would flag this building as being part of a compound that's part of the Navy base...but the ultimate decision...might have been taken by a human operator without AI as well." – Jared Perlow ([05:35])

Transparency, Oversight & Congressional Response

• Calls for Oversight: Over 100 Congressional Democrats demand clarity on AI’s role in targeting decisions and urge for "guardrails" to ensure human oversight ("human in the loop"), particularly for lethal strikes. ([07:05])

  • "They really want to make sure that a human is always making the ultimate decision, especially for lethal strikes." – Jared Perlow ([07:20])
  • "If you don't understand how a model gets from an input to an output...How can you fully trust it...and not be hallucinating?" – Jared Perlow ([08:50])

• Pentagon Training & Uncertainty: Rapid AI adoption is prompting the Pentagon to invest in training analysts and remolding its approach, though much remains experimental.

  • "Pete Hegseth...said that he's going to try to remold the Pentagon into an AI first war fighting force...I think again, we're kind of making it up as we go." – Jared Perlow ([09:39])

Notable Quotes and Moments

• "Frankly, I’m confused, and I think a lot of people I talk to are confused. If you don’t understand how a model gets from an input to an output, … how can you fully trust it?" – Jared Perlow ([08:50])
• "Building the plane as we fly it." – Jared Perlow ([08:50])
• Closing remarks on the Pentagon’s rapid transformation: "What does that mean for the hundreds of thousands of service members who before haven’t been using AI? I don’t really know." – Jared Perlow ([09:39])

Related Development

• Iran-linked hacker group claims responsibility for a cyberattack on Stryker, a medical technology company; details emerging as war impacts extend to U.S. soil. ([10:24])

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2. Homeowners vs. State Farm: Insurance Battles After Storms

Segment Begins: [12:06]

Key Discussion Points

• Context & Individual Story:

  • Hundreds of Oklahoma families sue State Farm, alleging unfair denial of hail/wind damage claims.

  • Focus on Billy Hirsch, Tulsa police officer, forced to fix his storm-damaged roof out-of-pocket after repeated claim denials.

    • "Makes you feel like a sucker, you know, like, I was foolish to have thought that the insurance company would hold up their end of the bargain." – Billy Hirsch ([15:02])

  • Forced to borrow against home equity:

    • "It forced us to reevaluate our financial planning by decades." – Billy Hirsch ([15:53])

• Broader Pattern

  • Lawsuit alleges a "hail focus initiative," narrowing definitions of hail damage to cut costs.
  • State Farm has settled secretly with at least 125 families, making real payouts and patterns hard to track.

• State Involvement

  • Oklahoma’s Attorney General Gantner Drummond is probing potential systemic fraud.

    • "There may be a scheme inside of State Farm's leadership to intentionally defraud Oklahomans. And if that can be proven, that RICO will cross into the criminal world." – AG Gantner Drummond ([18:19])

  • State Farm contests AG’s involvement, maintaining denials of wrongdoing in legal filings and to NBC News.

• National Scope

  • Post-broadcast, NBC received hundreds of emails from families in TX, FL, OH, describing similar problems—suggesting a widespread practice.
    • "My inbox right now is flooded with people in Texas, in Florida, in Ohio telling me this is the same situation. I have had. This exact same story is my story." – Laura Jarrett ([16:22])

• Industry Incentives and Potential Solutions

  • With growing frequency/nature of disasters, and insurance companies’ incentive to limit payouts, experts say only legislative action and stronger regulations can protect consumers.
    • "Things that these insurance companies cannot do…because the incentives are too high on behalf of the insurers to try to figure out ways to deny or limit claims." – Laura Jarrett ([20:41]-[20:48])

Notable Quotes and Moments

• "They don't have $22,000 laying around in cash." – Laura Jarrett ([15:37])
• "If we decide preemptively before we even get a claim submitted to almost like do a pre denial, then we'll have to pay out less." – Laura Jarrett ([20:45])
• "Unless legislatures, I think, figure out ways to be more active and affirmative in like addressing this, there's no reason for the insurance companies not to do this." – Laura Jarrett ([21:02])

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3. Headlines & Quick News

Segment Begins: [23:19]

Major Points

• Iran War Global Impact:

  • Mueller ramming and shooting outside Temple Israel in Michigan ([23:19])
  • Oil prices remain volatile despite the U.S.'s release of strategic reserves ([24:16]; Christine Romans)
  • First six days of Iran war cost American taxpayers $11.3 billion; true cost likely higher ([24:55])

• U.S. Domestic Concerns:

  • Healthcare costs now top voter concerns per new polls; Americans are postponing major life decisions ([25:25])
  • One in three adults have rationed medications or borrowed money for health care.

• Quirky Lawsuit News:

  • Australian designer Katy Perry (with an "ie") wins trademark suit against singer Katy Perry, now free to sell clothes under her name after a 15-year battle ([26:48])

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4. Notable Quotes

Military AI:

• "Building the plane as we fly it." – Jared Perlow ([08:50])
• "If you don't understand how a model gets from an input to an output…how can you fully trust it?" – Jared Perlow ([08:50])

Insurance Crisis:

• "There may be a scheme inside of State Farm's leadership to intentionally defraud Oklahomans. And if that can be proven, that RICO will cross into the criminal world." – AG Gantner Drummond ([18:19])
• "Makes you feel like a sucker, you know…like, I was foolish to have thought the insurance company would hold up their end of the bargain." – Billy Hirsch ([15:02])

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5. Timestamps Reference

• AI and Iran: [00:03] – [10:23]
• Cyberattacks following Iran conflict: [10:24]
• Homeowners vs. State Farm: [12:06] – [21:27]
• Headlines roundup: [23:19] – [27:43]

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Tone

Conversational yet probing, with the host voicing empathy for guests’ personal stories and a healthy skepticism regarding institutional claims—whether military, corporate, or political.

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Summary:
Today’s episode delivers a clear-eyed look at the high-tech hazards of war, the lived reality of insurance battles after catastrophe, and how both are reshaping American life—underscored by policy questions with far-reaching implications.

Transcript

[Yasmin Vasughi]

Hey, everybody. And welcome to here's the scoop from NBC News. I'm Yasmin Vasugiim. Coming up on the show today, homeowners in Oklahoma are suing State Farm saying that the company has a secret scheme to deny coverage. Plus, how much the Iran war has cost taxpayers so far. And what is in a name a years long lawsuit if your name is Katy Perry. Up first, though, our top story Today on day 13 of the Iran War, US strikes in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz continue to escalate. And lawmakers have questions about how much artificial intelligence is playing a role in decisions about where the US Is choosing to strike. We know that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has been working to put AI at the heart of American combat operations. So what kind of a role is it playing? And are humans still in the loop? I want to bring in Jared Perlow for more on this. He covers artificial intelligence intelligence for NBC News here.

[Jared Perlow]

Hey, Jared, thanks for having me. Great to see you.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

Great to see you. So U.S. central Command posted an update about Operation Epic Fury on their X account on Wednesday. And I want to play a bit of what Admiral Brad Cooper said about the use of AI in Iran.

[Commercial/Advertisement Voice]

These systems help us sift through vast amounts of data in seconds so our leaders can cut through the noise and make smarter decisions faster than the enemy can react. Humans will always make final decisions on what to shoot and what not to shoot and when to shoot. But advanced AI tools can turn processes that used to take hours and sometimes even days into seconds.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

So there's a couple of things that stand out to me in that statement that I want you to help us understand here. Right. He says, quote, unquote, sifting through data. He says cutting through the noise. But at the end of the day, the person that is actually pulling the literal and false figurative trigger is a human making the last and final decision. Walk us through exactly what we know about how AI, the intricacies of how AI is being used in this war.

[Jared Perlow]

Absolutely. So I think it's very important to note right off the bat that AI is playing a central role in the current war in Iran in various ways. But I think that point that the admiral made right at the end is, is that AI is not ultimately pulling the trigger. So we shouldn't be thinking about lethal autonomous weapons or killer robots. That's not how AI is being used here. Instead, we can think about how AIs powers to sift through or crunch massive amounts of data. Huge data sets could empower soldiers, analysts to Basically make targeting decisions, operational decisions that otherwise would have taken much longer or would have otherwise been impossible. So you can kind of think about it like a military application of maybe how people use ChatGPT or tools like Copilot, sort of generative AI tool, even in their own work. So say I have some huge spreadsheet, and I just want to figure out, like, what the trends in that spreadsheet are over time. I can now ask, with generative AI, I can use a tool and basically say, what's going on in this spreadsheet? Show me the different trends. The same thing is basically happening in this military context. But you can think about, instead of one spreadsheet, think about, like, 20 million different data sources, different sensors, either satellites, either. Either audio feeds, either talking about, like, surveillance cameras trained on different parts of different buildings in Tehran, for example. So if you can centralize and combine all those different data feeds into one kind of console, one data center, and then use AI to basically ask what different trends are going on in those different images, then you can really get some insights that you wouldn't be able to otherwise.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

So help me understand, for instance, if they were to go in and say, okay, we want to know all of Iran's military bases inside the country, right? Or tell us where it is that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is visiting most from all of the surveillance footage we have throughout Tehran. Are those the sorts of things that they would use AI for?

[Jared Perlow]

Exactly, yeah. You can identify different travel patterns. You can basically compare two different images. Say there is an image taken on February 25 and an image taken on March 3 showing different cars that might be outside of buildings. Or another example is identifying missile launchers, because this hunt for missile launchers has been a central part of the war. So you might be able, with computer vision, a certain type of AI algorithm to identify a couple missile launchers in one area of the country.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

The location of them.

[Jared Perlow]

The location of them. Yeah. But basically, once you see 5, 10 of these missile launchers, because you have access to all this other satellite data, the feeds, that would just take hours, days, years for human analysts to comb through. You can now use AI to say, where do you see similar images? Where do you see similar objects that look like missile launchers throughout the rest of the country? And then the AI systems can basically flag those to the human analysts, the human operators, and say, okay, well, identified 10 missile launchers in the east, but here are 25 missile launchers in the west that you hadn't previously identified.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

So I Want to talk about something that we have been reporting on since, you know, the early days of this war, and that was about a strike on a school in MANOB. It killed 170 people, many of which were children. The US military has said that it is still investigating that strike, but preliminary information shows that outdated intelligence may have been to blame for picking that target. As we all know at this point, the school actually used to be part of a nearby military compound. What do we know about whether or not AI actually informed the targeting of that school?

[Jared Perlow]

So I would say we don't know a lot about exactly how AI was used in this case. Actually, just this morning, we saw that over 100 Democratic representatives in Congress sent a letter to the Defense Department asking that specific question. Was it used in the targeting of this school? Was it responsible for the decision to target? Did a human ultimately make the targeting decision itself? But I want to reiterate that AI is now in almost every part of, as I've heard from my sources of how the Pentagon is fighting this war. I would say it's almost seen as standard operating procedure, that if you're not using AI in some way to turbocharge your work, then you might not be fulfilling the mission as best you could. So now, this point of outdated data, I think, is critical. So, AI systems, if you're using outdated data, the database that's going into this AI model, then it's not unreasonable to think that the AI model would flag this building as being part of a compound that's part of the Navy base. I think it's important to highlight, though, at the same time, that the ultimate decision to target the base, that same decision might have been taken by a human operator without AI as well. So we saw this in the 1999 bombing of the Chinese embassy by the US this was a mistake based on outdated data. So we've seen this sort of outdated data informing erroneous strikes before. I think the key thing to pay attention to is the trend of whether this increased reliance on AI, this increased utilization of AI, causes more human error. Exactly. More human error, more incorrect strikes.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

Members of Congress, as you mentioned, are calling for more guardrails. Right. When it comes to the use of AI, what are they calling for, and how likely is it that they could get some guardrails here in place for the use of AI, especially in wartime?

[Jared Perlow]

I think it's a fascinating question, and I think it's very live matter. And we're frankly going to see as this plays out in the next couple of weeks in the next couple of months. I would say if you look at the past six months, the past year, very few people on Capitol Hill were really interested in AI, specifically AI in military context. That's totally changed, I would say, in the past month, in the past three months. So what they're calling for is, I think, primarily more transparency in exactly how the military is using AI. As I said, there are a lot of just concrete details we don't know, and a lot of this is because they're classified confidential operations that are happening. But the members of Congress are saying, we want to know exactly how the Pentagon, the Defense Department is using AI. There are so many different programs now that are using AI, well beyond the targeting, the logistics stuff that we talked about before. So they're calling for more transparency, and then they really want to make sure that a human is always making the ultimate decision, especially for lethal strikes. The technical term there is that a human is in the loop. So you're not just having. You're not having a military analyst totally delegating the responsibility to an AI system. Instead, a human is overseeing what the AI is doing. The human, to whatever extent, overseeing, though.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

And I think that's a really key point there. Right, because the human is still dependent on what the AI systems are compiling.

[Jared Perlow]

Yeah, absolutely. And I think, again, this is just an ongoing issue. And a lot of the people that I talk to who are in the Pentagon or used to be in the Pentagon, they say that AI is just advancing so quickly, and we don't know exactly how these systems work.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

And yet they are using it in wartime.

[Jared Perlow]

They are using it in wartime. And I think, honestly, building the plane as we fly it, trying to understand exactly what. How these models should be used in the human versus AI, basically the interaction, what that should look like in real time. I would also stress, though, that a lot of the Defense officials I've talked to understand to some extent the limitations of this technology. We heard from the admiral that they want humans involved in making the ultimate decision. But I think, frankly, I'm confused, and I think a lot of the people I talk to are confused. If you don't understand how a model gets from an input to an output, you don't understand the reasoning that's actually going on inside this AI system. How can you fully trust it to be using information, the latest information, and not be hallucinating? And I think that's just an unanswered and open question.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

And how do they even find the human? Who's going to oversee what the AI systems are doing.

[Jared Perlow]

So this is again, it's an ongoing issue. Yesterday there is news that broke that the Pentagon is investing millions of dollars more in training analysts and there's all sorts of these training logistics exercises to get people who have never used these AI systems before. They've been conducting warfare, they've been serving the military without touching these AI tools. They're trying to basically onboard them to this new AI assisted paradigm that we're in. Pete Hegseth at the beginning of January said that he's going to try to remold the Pentagon into an AI first war fighting force. What does that mean for the hundreds of thousands of service members who before haven't been using AI? I don't really know. I think again, we're kind of making it up as we go.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

Yeah.

[Jared Perlow]

And depending on who you talk to, there's different levels of caution involved.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

Jared Perlow, thank you.

[Jared Perlow]

Thanks so much.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

And the effects of the Iran war are now being felt stateside. A hacker group linked to Iran has claimed responsibility for a cyber attack on the medical technology company Stryker. It is unclear how exactly the attack was carried out, but an employee told NBC News that work issued phones stopped working, bringing work and communications to a standstill. All right, we're going to take a very quick break, but before we go, I want to tell you about a special episode that we're going to drop in your feed this Saturday, pulling back the curtain on the Academy Awards ahead of Oscars night. We are talking best Picture, Best Actor and what to expect from Conan's monologue. Plus how the movie industry and the Academy is evolving. With new platforms and AI on the horizon, you won't want to miss it. So be sure to subscribe to here's the scoop. Wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back in a minute.

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[Yasmin Vasughi]

You can listen to Jeff Lewis. Live at home or anywhere you are. Download the SiriusXM app for over 425 channels of ad, free music, sports, entertainment and more. Subscribe now and get 3 months free offer details apply. And we are back with. Here's the scoop from NBC News. This week, tornadoes tore through Illinois and Indiana. Homes collapsed, hail the size of golf balls. One man looked up and saw the sky where his kitchen used to be. 62 million people still in the danger zone. When the storm passes, you call your insurance company. State Farm has spent decades telling you they're your good neighbor, that when it matters most, State Farm is there. But for more than 600 Oklahoma homeowners, that promise is now being put to the test. They are suing State Farm, saying that the insurance company cheated homeowners out of reimbursements. And now the state is getting involved. I want to bring in NBC News senior legal correspondent Laura Jarrett, who's been talking to people involved in these lawsuits. Hey, Laura.

[Laura Jarrett]

Hey, good to be with you.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

This is a really interesting story. So you got hundreds of families in Oklahoma who are suing State Farm because they were denied coverage. What is going on here? Give us the backstory.

[Laura Jarrett]

So we met Billy Hirsch. He's a police officer outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma. He lives on a sweet little cul de sac with his wife Lacey and his five year old son. And he brought his first home during COVID They were so excited to be homeowners.

[Commercial/Advertisement Voice]

Yeah.

[Laura Jarrett]

A storm hits and Billy would tell you, look, I live in Oklahoma. Storm is in hail, wind. That's just part of living in the state. Storm hits in 2023. He does not notice that there is a hole in his roof. But some tree trimmers were up, like, you know, just doing some regular maintenance. And the tree trimmer tells him, hey, Billy, you got a hole in your roof.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

This is after the storm.

[Laura Jarrett]

After the storm, Billy says, okay. He gets some contractors to come look at it. Both contractors say you need a full roof replacement. State Farm says, no, the roof is in fair condition. That was sort of his first signal that this is gonna be tough. And I asked him, did you think this was gonna be a fight right away? And he would say, I had no idea. Eight months later, another hailstorm hits like hail the size of golf balls.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

And roof, roof still hasn't been fixed.

[Laura Jarrett]

Roof hasn't been fixed. Cause they said it was in fair condition. Second storm comes, more damage. State Farm takes a look at it and they acknowledge the damage, but they say it's, quote, minor. And this is when he knew like, okay, we're gonna have a real fight on our hands. And Billy would say he did what he was supposed to do, but it

[Jared Perlow]

makes you feel like a sucker, you know, Like, I was foolish to have thought that the insurance company would hold up their end of the bargain.

[Laura Jarrett]

He appealed. He went through all of the process that you're supposed to do, and he still wasn't gonna get reimbursed. But he's got a five year old. Okay. Right. He's got this young family, and so they say, I think we're gonna have to get this roof fixed ourselves. Getting a roof fixed. I did not realize this. I don't have a home.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

It's expensive.

[Laura Jarrett]

Getting a roof fixed, Yas is crazy expensive.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

My mom just had to get her roof replaced.

[Laura Jarrett]

It's to the tune of $22,000. Right. This is a modest family. He's a police officer. They don't have $22,000 laying around in cash.

[Jared Perlow]

We had to borrow against the equity in our house.

[Laura Jarrett]

You had to borrow against the equity in your house to get your roof replaced?

[Commercial/Advertisement Voice]

Yeah.

[Jared Perlow]

It forced us to reevaluate our financial planning by decades.

[Laura Jarrett]

Now, State Farm would say they have done nothing wrong. Right. They deny all of the allegations in this laws. But then we found out Billy is not the only one.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

Right?

[Laura Jarrett]

Right. There are hundreds, literally hundreds of other families that are now in the same position. And after this piece aired on Nightly. Yes. I have had more people reach out to me than any story I have ever done at NBC News.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

Wow.

[Laura Jarrett]

My inbox right now is flooded with people in Texas, in Florida, in Ohio telling me this is the same situation. I have had. This exact same story is my story.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

So it turns out that the lawsuit now alleges that State Farm developed this, quote, unquote, hail focus initiative. Right. And the idea was essentially narrowing the definition of hail damage. To reduce the amount of payouts. Yes, to reduce the amount of money that State Farm actually had to pay. How were they able to do this? Why did they do this now? And do we even know how much money they were paying out before this initiative was put into place?

[Laura Jarrett]

No, no, no. And part of why we don't know is because it turns out State Farm has been settling with families. And so there's like 125 families, we think at least, maybe more, but at least those that have settled and those confidential settlements.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

Let me stop you for a second, by the way. So if you are State Farm Insurance and you're settling with families, you know that you are likely going to be held liable in a court of law. So you're going to settle outside of court.

[Laura Jarrett]

Maybe, maybe you think you will, maybe you think you won't, but you hedge your risk and so you settle because it's not worth the risk of going through. Right. So they wouldn't say that it was an admission of liability. But what we have found is at least some of those families have settled and we don't know what, if anything, they've admitted. But the Attorney general of the state has now taken notice of this. And I sat down with him. His name is Gantner Drummond. And he told me that it's, you know, his job as the law enforcement officer of the state and one who enforces consumer protection laws to look at this on a holistic level on behalf of all Oklahomans. And so he's trying to get right now discovery into those settlements to figure out what's going on. And he did not hold back when talking about what he has found already.

[Commercial/Advertisement Voice]

There may be a scheme inside of State Farm's leadership to intentionally defraud Oklahomans. And if that can be proven, that RICO will cross into the criminal world.

[Laura Jarrett]

He's only been involved since late last year when he was able, he got the right to actually intervene in the lawsuit. State court said he could intervene.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

And does he feel as if there is someone specifically to point to at State Farm who is kind of pulling the lever on these decisions and or finding the company as a whole culpable if he has?

[Laura Jarrett]

He hasn't told me that he hasn't pointed the finger at any one executive or anything like that. And I'm not sure yet he knows that because he's still in the beginning of his investigation and is still fighting it out in court because State Farm, maybe not that surprisingly, is fighting having the AG involved at all. State Farm is saying the attorney general doesn't belong here at all. This is just a sort of a one off dispute with a homeowner. What does the AG have to do with this? And so they're actually fighting in court right now because the AG is trying to stay involved.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

So I want to note though, State Farm has declined NBC News request for an interview, but in legal filings they denied any wrongdoing, as you mentioned earlier. And in a statement to us, the company said that, quote, over the past two years State Farm has paid more than $1 billion to Oklahoma customers for wind and hail damage to their homes and property. Do you have any IDEA if that $1 billion includes those settlements as well?

[Laura Jarrett]

We don't Know what I think is

[Yasmin Vasughi]

so interesting about this story, Laura, is yes, we are telling it from the perspective of this one family that you spoke to in the state of Oklahoma who had this small hole in their roof and had to subsequently get their roof replaced. But we are hearing stories, as you mentioned like this across the country every time there is a natural disaster. And as we full well know, these natural disasters, these weather events are getting worse and worse by the day. Right. The tornadoes, the hail across major parts of the country that we have been seeing. Most recently, we've had a huge fire out west, the Palisades fire, the Eaton fires in California. We have seen these types of complaints before that insurance companies aren't reimbursing policyholders. What is the solution? What is kind of the way forward when more and more of these types of things are piling up?

[Laura Jarrett]

I think the only, the only thing that could really be done is for there to be some sort of legislative fix. Right.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

And so state lawmakers, so guardrails basically in place.

[Laura Jarrett]

Yeah.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

Things that these insurance companies cannot do

[Laura Jarrett]

legally because the incentives are too high on behalf of the insurers to try to figure out ways to deny or limit claims. And that's what the Hail Focus initiative is. Right. Realizing, okay, in Oklahoma there's gonna be storms. And so if we decide preemptively before we even get a claim submitted to almost like do a pre denial, then we'll have to pay out less. And unless legislatures, I think, figure out ways to be more active and affirmative in like addressing this, there's no reason for the insurance companies not to do this because they, they want to be able to pay out as little as possible.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

Laura Jarrett, thank you, thank you. And by the way, thank you for filling in for me tomorrow so I can take a day off and spend

[Laura Jarrett]

the day with my kids anytime, really.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

We're gonna take a very quick break and when we come back, a new poll reveals the trade offs Americans are making to pay for the rising cost of healthcare. Stay with us for the headlines. And while you're waiting, why don't you go ahead and subscribe to here's the scoop. Wherever you listen to your podcast, we just wanna make sure we're right there. Feed as soon as we drop.

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[Yasmin Vasughi]

And we are back with here's the scoop from NBC News. Let's get some headlines. Officials in Michigan say the suspect is dead after an apparent vehicle ramming and shooting at a Jewish synagogue today. The Oakland county sheriff says a member of the security team at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township was hit by the suspect's car and is being treated in the hospital, but no one else was hurt. Investigators are reportedly looking into the potential motive and whether anyone else was involved. In his first statement since taking power, Iran's new supreme leader, Mujtab Al Khamenei said that Iran would keep the Strait of Hormut closed, continuing to exert pressure on the world's oil supply. NBC News senior business correspondent Christine Romans explains why even the announcement that the US and other countries would tap into 400 million barrels of oil in strategic reserves, including 172 million barrels here in the US hasn't moved the needle much on prices.

[Christine Romans]

That huge release hasn't really moved the needle because frankly, the best case scenario is it just slows how quickly gas and oil prices are rising. It doesn't fix what's happening in the Gulf. At the same time, you've had wild moves in oil and in the stock market because of mixed messaging from the White House about how long this conflict will last and even mixed information. You even had the energy secretary release a tweet saying that a ship had gone through with the US Navy, a tanker had gone through with the US Navy, and then that turned out not to be true. So. So there's a little bit of concern about just exactly when the end of this conflict will be.

[Yasmin Vasughi]

The first six days of the Iran war cost American taxpayers $11.3 billion. That is, according to sources familiar with a closed door Senate briefing by the Department of Defense earlier this week. But Senator Chris Coons, ranking member of the Senate Defense Appropriations subcommittee, told reporters that he believes the total number is probably much higher. The Trump administration has yet to ask Congress for supplemental funding for the conflict. Rising health care costs are forcing Americans to make financial trade offs, and it is becoming a major issue for the midterms. According to a poll out today from West Health Gallup, one in three adults say they have rationed or skipped medications or borrowed money in the past year to afford health care. Another survey showed that 1 in 10Americans say they have postponed retirement because of the cost. Others reported delaying a job change, buying a home or having a child. According to kff, a nonpartisan health policy research group, health care costs now outweigh food, rent and utilities as the top voter concern heading into the midterm elections. And finally, a 15 year lawsuit has finally ended in Australia between Katy Perry, the American pop star, and a Sydney based fashion designer also named Katy Perry but with an ie. For years the two have been fighting over the Australian trademark to their mutual name, despite the different spelling. So you're going to have to follow me closely on this one. It all started back in 2009 when Katy Perry with a wise lawyers sent Katie with an ie a cease and desist letter demanding that the Australian withdraw her trademark application to sell her clothes under her own name. Head of the singer's Australian tour. Then Katy Perry the singer filed her own trademark in Australia and said it would exclude clothes, but she started a fashion line anyway. And so Australian Katie filed her own lawsuit against a celebrity. Now Australia's Supreme Court is ruling in favor of the fashion designer, saying she can sell her clothes under her own name or her old name because she's now married and goes by Katy Taylor. I know it's a lot that is going to do it for us at here's the scoop from NBC News. I'm Yasmin Vesugin. We'll be back tomorrow with whatever the day may bring. And if you like what you heard, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And you can also subscribe to our daily newsletter, the Inside Scoop. It is a deeper dive on the main stories of the day that comes out every weeknight straight to your inbox. Sign up for the Inside Scoop as part of our paid [e-mail] we'll see you tomorrow.

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Pandora makes it easy for you to find your favorite music. Discover new artists and genres by selecting any song or album, and we'll make you a personalized station for free download on the Apple App Store or Google Play and enjoy the soundtrack to your life.