Japan stocks up as BOJ signals continued stimulus

HONG KONG -- Japanese stocks jumped on Friday as the central bank in Asia's second biggest economy signaled its lavish monetary stimulus could continue for longer than the two years anticipated by markets.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index vaulted 3 percent to 14,880.76 after the Bank of Japan released minutes of its January policy meeting.

According to the minutes, board members said that in order to avoid any misunderstanding about the BOJ's program of ambitious monetary easing, the bank needed "to provide a clear explanation that it did not strictly set this to end in two years," according to Kyodo news agency.

As part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's economic revival strategy, the central bank in April last year announced a policy overhaul that aimed to double the money supply and achieve 2 percent inflation within about two years.

"They need to provide the market with confidence that they're going to continue doing things," said Andrew Sullivan, director of Asian sales trading at Kim Eng Securities. "We haven't really seen money being spent in Japan yet. Companies are still holding on to capex funds, they're not paying higher wages."

Benchmarks in most of the Asia notched up smaller gains after a strong expansion in U.S. manufacturing offset pessimism from a downbeat China factory report.

The private survey by Markit found U.S. factory activity this month grew at the fastest pace in nearly four years. The report helped investors shrug off earlier concerns about China after a separate report found manufacturing in the world's second-biggest economy contracted for a second straight month in February.

South Korea's Kospi gained 1.1 percent to 1,951.90. Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.4 percent to 22,486.15 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.5 percent to 5,438.70.

However, worries about China's economy lingered among mainland Chinese investors. The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 1 percent to 2,118.13.

A moderate gain in the Conference Board's January index of leading indicators, suggesting continued economic expansion in the world's No. 1 economy in the first half, also helped shore up gains in major U.S. benchmarks.

The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 0.6 percent to 1,839.78 and the Dow Jones industrial average gained percent, to 16,133.23. The Nasdaq composite climbed 29.59 points, or 0.7 percent, to 4,267.55.

In energy trading, benchmark crude for April delivery was down 3 cents to $102.72 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 9 cents to $102.75 on Wednesday.

In currencies, the dollar edged higher to 102.50 yen from 102.48 yen in late trading on Thursday. The euro was little changed at $1.3719.

Mass. gives green light to gas-fired power plant

SALEM, Mass. -- Massachusetts environmental officials have signed off on all the state and local permits and approvals needed for construction of a proposed 692-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant at the site of the existing Salem Harbor Station.

The approvals come after plant owners Footprint Power and an environmental group settled a legal dispute this week that will allow the $800 million project to proceed.

Under the settlement with the Conservation Law Foundation, the Bridgewater, N.J.-based company agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions annually over the life of the plant to meet the goals of a state law aimed at addressing climate change.

Footprint also agreed to shut the plant by the end of 2049.

The settlement makes Footprint the nation's first gas-fired plant to be approved with such stringent environmental provisions.

Plan to restructure Detroit's debt expected Friday

DETROIT -- The office of Detroit's state-appointed emergency manager Kevyn Orr says the blueprint for the city's restructuring through and after bankruptcy is expected to be filed Friday in federal court.

Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes had set a March 1 deadline for the long-awaited plan of adjustment. The plan will spell out how individual creditors will be treated as Orr reduces the city's $18 billion debt.

Spokesman Bill Nowling says Orr's office plans to file the plan with the court Friday.

A draft given last month to creditors showed retirees and pensioners getting $4.3 billion in payments and bondholders about $1.1 billion over the next 40 years, leaving the city with a nearly $336 million surplus.

Orr had hoped to have the plan ready before January but was delayed by ongoing negotiations.

Delaware court affirms dismissal of Argentine suit

DOVER, Del. -- The Delaware Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the widow of an Argentine national who claimed he was exposed to asbestos at a DuPont textile plant in the South American country.

In a 4-1 decision, the justices said a Superior Court judge correctly dismissed the lawsuit in 2012 because Delaware was not the proper forum for Argentine asbestos claims to be heard.

The lawsuit, filed by Maria Elena Martinez, is one of about 30 such cases filed against Wilmington, Del.-based DuPont Co. by Argentine nationals who claim they were exposed to asbestos at textile plans in the cities of Berazategui and Mercedes. At the time of the alleged exposures beginning in the 1960s, the plants were owned by what is described in the Delaware court opinions as a "great-great grand-subsidiary" of DuPont, several levels removed from the parent company.

In their opinion Thursday, the majority of justices agreed that DuPont would face an overwhelming and undue hardship if forced to litigate complex and unsettled questions of Argentine law, including issues of parent company liability, in Delaware.

Justice Randy Holland, who wrote for the majority, noted that the plaintiff is not a Delaware resident, and that the injuries allegedly suffered by her late husband, Santos Roque Rocha, occurred in Argentina, not Delaware.

But in a sharply worded dissent, Justice Carolyn Berger accused the majority of ignoring long-standing Delaware law in upholding the dismissal and taking "an unsettling new approach to this court's decision-making."

Berger suggested that the real reason for the majority's opinion was a desire to protect Delaware's corporate franchise. She also noted that DuPont has never made a successful improper forum argument before.

"But the majority holds that it would be an overwhelming hardship for DuPont to defend a toxic tort claim if litigated five blocks from its headquarters," she wrote.

Tom Crumplar, an attorney for Martinez, declined to comment on the court's ruling.

Dan Turner, a spokesman for DuPont, said the company was pleased with the decision, "as we have long maintained that Delaware was not the appropriate venue for these cases."

Fannie May recalls 12,000 boxes of chocolates

NEW YORK -- Fannie May Confections is recalling 12,000 boxes of chocolates because one of the chocolates inside contains peanuts, a fact that isn't reflected on the packaging.

The company announced the recall Wednesday and it started pulling the red heart-shaped gift boxes off the market the same day. The boxes weigh four ounces each and contain eight chocolates, including the peanut/caramel candy. They had been sold since Jan. 10 in up to 450 stores, including Walgreens, Hallmark Gift Shops and Jewel Grocers, in Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Fannie May says it is aware of one customer who had an allergic reaction.

Fannie May Confections Brands Inc. is a privately held company based in North Canton, Ohio.

CEO: Venezuela blocks key app for protesters

LIMA, Peru -- The U.S. company whose "walkie-talkie" application Zello has become a wildly popular organizing tool for Venezuelan anti-government protesters says the country's state-run telecom company has just blocked its use.

CEO Bill Moore of the Austin, Texas-based Zello tells The Associated Press that Venezuela's main mobile operator and Internet provider — Movilnet and CANTV — blocked access on Thursday to Zello.com.

The push-to-talk application for smartphones and computers has been popular with protesters in Venezuela and Ukraine.

Moore said that on Thursday it became the No. 1 app in Ukraine for both the Apple and Android operating systems.

In one day this week, the company reported more than 150,000 downloads in Venezuela.

Zello was also popular in Egpyt and Turkey. Users can create discrete channels that support up to 600 users.

191K teething toys recalled over choking risk

WASHINGTON -- Toy maker Infantino is recalling 191,000 teething toys sold exclusively at Target because a child could potentially choke on one of its parts.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said Thursday that consumers should stop using the Go Gaga Squeeze & Teethe CoCo the Monkey toys. The toy is made of soft orange rubber, is shaped like a monkey and squeaks.

Infantino has received seven reports of infants choking or gagging on the monkey's tail. No injuries have been reported.

The toys were sold at Target stores from late 2012 through early 2014 for about $13.

Consumers were advised to keep the products away from infants and contact Infantino for a replacement toy.

More information can be found online at infantino.com or by calling the company by phone at 1-888-808-3111.

East Kentucky Power plan to upgrade unit gets OK

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- A plan to let a coal-burning unit at the East Kentucky Power Cooperative J.S. Cooper Generating Station in south-central Kentucky has won approval from the state Public Service Commission.

The agency said the project is "relatively inexpensive" at $15 million and the least costly of options the co-op examined.

The agency also approved a plan to recover the cost through the co-op's environmental surcharge, passing on the cost to customers of the 16 electric distribution cooperatives that buy power from East Kentucky.

The project at the plant near Burnside will add ductwork to redirect emissions from the 116-megawatt Unit 1 to emission control equipment already in place to handle emissions from the 225-megawatt Unit 2. The project will bring Unit 1 into compliance with stricter federal air quality standards.

Does WhatsApp deal show Facebook knows what's up?

SAN FRANCISCO -- If Facebook hopes to remain the social networking leader, CEO Mark Zuckerberg knows the company must follow the people. That realization compelled Zuckerberg to pay $19 billion for WhatsApp, a mobile messaging application that is redefining the concept of texting while its audience of 450 million users expands at an even faster clip than Facebook itself.

The deal sent shock waves through the technology industry because of the staggering price being paid for a four-year-old service that isn't as well known in the U.S. as it is overseas where WhatsApp has become a hip way to communicate instantaneously.

Although the amount of money involved is difficult to comprehend, the reason Facebook prizes WhatsApp is easier to grasp.

"This is a 'go big or go home' moment for Facebook," said Benedict Evans, a former cellphone analyst who is now a partner with the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

Just as he did nearly two years ago when Facebook bought photo-sharing service Instagram for $715 million, Zuckerberg is trying to ensure that his company doesn't get left behind as people move to the next trend.

And WhatsApp is what's hot now. The Mountain View, Calif., startup already has nearly twice as many users as the better known short messaging service, Twitter Inc. What's more, WhatsApp is adding about 1 million users each day — more than even Facebook.

The rapid growth has convinced Zuckerberg that WhatsApp is bound to exceed 1 billion users within the next few years to give Facebook even more telling insights into what matters to people. Even at its current size, WhatsApp is already handling an average of 19 billion messages per day. Those daily messages include about 600 million photos. Facebook believes that WhatsApp's messaging volume already exceeds all the traditional texts sent through the networks of cellphone carriers. Those short messaging services, or SMS, generate about $100 billion in annual revenue while WhatsApp charges just $1 annually after the first year of free usage.

By making a big bet on WhatsApp, Zuckerberg is trying to avoid the mistake that one of his heroes, Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, made during the late 1990s when the Internet began to trigger an upheaval in business and culture. Gates recognized that Microsoft's lucrative Windows software franchise could be undermined by a variety of new services made possible by the Internet, but didn't act on some his early instincts.

By the time that Steve Ballmer had succeeded Gates as Microsoft's CEO in 2000, Google Inc. was already way ahead in the lucrative field of Internet search and Apple was gearing up to develop the iPod music player that paved the way for the iPhone.

Zuckerberg, 29, is showing his savvy and moxie by moving quickly to adapt to fickle tastes, said David Rogers, a professor at Columbia University's business school and the author of the book, "The Network is Your Customer."

"User behaviors in these digital experiences evolve so rapidly that you can't afford to play the Windows game and say, 'We are the dominant platform so we are just going to hold our position by making little tweaks,'" Rogers said.

Zuckerberg signaled his interest in mobile messaging apps late last year when he offered to buy Snapchat for $3 billion only to be rebuffed, according to several media outlets and technology blogs that quoted unnamed sources. It took less than two weeks to pull of the WhatsApp deal, according to Zuckerberg.

Being nimble has become even more important as smartphones supplant personal computers as the primary way people interact with digital services.

The advent of smartphones has been accompanied by a seemingly bottomless well of free smartphone applications that make it easy for people to hopscotch from one service to the next. The phenomenon has made it more difficult for a single application to become a one-stop shop that fulfills everyone's digital desires.

"The smartphone is a social platform in ways that the desktop computer never really was," Evans said. "A lot of the winner-take-all dynamics don't apply on the smartphone."

Facebook has been adjusting to this reality more quickly than many other Internet companies that began to thrive while PCs still ruled. While Facebook remains the world's most popular hangout with 1.23 billion users worldwide, a lot of its audience turns to other mobile apps for reading news, sharing photos and sending messages.

The fragmentation is prompting Facebook to develop a suite of discrete apps. Besides acquiring Instagram for sharing photos on mobile devices, Facebook recently introduced a new app for perusing news and now is trying to become a bigger player in mobile messaging with the WhatsApp acquisition.

Facebook is "trying to keep its coolness factor with all these different products that could turn them into a mobile media conglomerate," said Virginia Commonwealth University journalism professor Marcus Messner, who studies social media.

Facebook already offers its own messaging app tied to its social network. Although that app is popular in its own right, Zuckerberg noticed that it increasingly had become more like email instead of real-time communication like WhatsApp is. Most WhatsApp users also give the service access to the personal contact lists stored on smartphones, providing Facebook with another potentially valuable source of data.

"This is not an investment in the current value of WhatsApp," Messner said. "This is an investment in the potential of WhatsApp."

US consumer prices rose 0.1 percent last month

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- U.S. consumer prices barely rose last month as a sharp increase in energy costs was offset by cheaper clothing, cars and air fares. The figures indicate inflation remains mild.

The Labor Department said Thursday that the consumer price index rose just 0.1 percent in January, down from a 0.2 percent gain in December. Prices have risen 1.6 percent in the past 12 months. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices also rose just 0.1 percent last month and 1.6 percent in the past year.

The year-over-year increase in core prices was the smallest in seven months.

The "mild uptick ... confirms the fact that inflationary pressures remain well contained," Martin Schwerdtfeger, an economist at TD Bank, said in a note to clients.

The small increase occurred even though cold weather pushed up the cost of natural gas, electricity and other home energy sources by the most in more than five years.

Yet other items fell or barely rose: Food prices increased just 0.1 percent, and the cost of men's clothing fell by the most in nearly five years. New and used car and truck prices also dropped, and airline fares declined 2.2 percent.

Inflation has been held back by sluggish growth and a tough job market, which makes it harder for retailers and other businesses to raise prices.

Consumer prices rose just 1.5 percent in 2013, down from 1.8 percent in 2012. Both figures are below the Federal Reserve's 2 percent target.

While most Americans prefer lower prices, economists warn that super-low inflation may slow economic growth. It can lead consumers to postpone purchases and makes inflation-adjusted interest rates higher, potentially discouraging borrowing.

Low inflation has enabled the Federal Reserve to pursue extraordinary stimulus programs to try and boost economic growth.

The Fed is now trying to unwind some of that stimulus. It cut its monthly bond purchases to $65 billion this month, from $75 billion in January and $85 billion last year. The bond purchases are aimed at lowering long-term interest rates to encourage more borrowing and spending.

But Fed policymakers have expressed concern about the persistence of low inflation. If it remains below target, the Fed could extend its stimulus efforts.

Money market fund assets fall by $47.2 billion

NEW YORK -- Total U.S. money market mutual fund assets fell by $49.17 billion to $2.664 trillion for the week that ended Wednesday, according to the Investment Company Institute.

Assets in the nation's retail money market mutual funds fell $2.5 billion to $920.12 billion, the Washington-based mutual fund trade group said Thursday. Assets of taxable money market funds in the retail category fell $2.3 billion to $725.33 billion. Tax-exempt retail fund assets fell by $210 million to $194.8 billion.

Assets in institutional money market funds fell $46.66 billion to $1.744 trillion. Among institutional funds, taxable money market fund assets fell $48.2 billion to $1.667 trillion. Assets of tax-exempt funds rose by $1.54 billion to $76.11 billion.

The seven-day average yield on money market mutual funds was unchanged at 0.01 percent from the previous week, according to Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet Inc. in Westborough, Mass. The seven-day compounded yield was flat at 0.01 percent.

The 30-day yield and the 30-day compounded yield were both unchanged at 0.01 percent, Money Fund Report said Wednesday.

The average maturity of portfolios held by money market mutual funds fell to 47 days from 48 days the prior week.

The online service Bankrate.com said its survey of 100 leading commercial banks, savings and loan associations and savings banks in the nation's 10 largest markets showed the annual percentage yield available on money market accounts was unchanged from the week before at 0.11 percent.

The North Palm Beach, Fla.-based unit of Bankrate Inc. said Wednesday that the annual percentage yield available on interest-bearing checking accounts remained steady at 0.05 percent.

Bankrate.com said the annual percentage yield on six-month certificates of deposit was unchanged from a week ago at 0.15 percent. One-year CD yields were also flat at 0.23 percent, and the yield on two-year CDs was unchanged at 0.37 percent. The five-year yield fell to 0.80 percent from 0.81 percent.

Top Democratic lawmaker proposes fuel tax

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The state Senate leader on Thursday proposed a tax on consumer fuel purchases of gasoline, oil, diesel, ethanol and natural gas, with the money raised diverted to mass transit projects and households making less than $75,000 annually.

The plan by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, would not create an additional tax, however. Instead, it would alter how money is raised and spent under a provision of California's landmark 2006 greenhouse gas emissions law, known as AB32.

Environmental and business groups immediately opposed Steinberg's plan, and Republican lawmakers questioned whether it could pass the Legislature.

It would impose an estimated 15-cents-a-gallon carbon tax on fuel next year, offsetting an indirect tax that will be imposed in 2015 under the existing law that helped establish the nation's largest carbon-trading marketplace.

The state's current cap-and-trade program applies only to industrial plants. It allows companies with higher emissions of greenhouse gases to buy pollution credits from companies that have found a way to lower their emissions below a certain threshold.

But next year, the cap-and-trade program is scheduled to be extended to the producers of carbon-based consumer fuels. In turn, that will raise prices at the pump by an uncertain level.

Steinberg said his proposal would raise the per-gallon carbon tax to an estimated 24 cents by 2020, which he said would still be lower than the 40-cents-a-gallon price hike that is possible under AB32. He acknowledged, however, that by 2029 his proposed carbon tax would be higher than the upper projected limit under the current law.

Either tax will sting motorists at the pump as a necessary way to lower fuel consumption and discourage the emission of gases blamed for causing global warming, Steinberg said.

"On the issue of climate change, we have no choice: We must reduce the amount of carbon we put in the air, and that will come with a price," he said. "Nothing is free."

Steinberg argued during a luncheon address before the Sacramento Press Club that his proposal is less volatile than basing the cost on the market rate. And he said it would be more honest with consumers, who would see the carbon tax reflected directly instead of through the cap-and-trade marketplace. Steinberg said a direct carbon tax also would be less vulnerable to price spikes, shortages and manipulation by the oil industry.

Officials: Obama drops budget cost-of-living trims

WASHINGTON -- The White House says President Barack Obama's upcoming budget proposal will not include his past offer to accept lowered cost-of-living increases in Social Security and other benefit programs. Those had been a central component of his long-term debt-reduction strategy.

Officials said Thursday that those potential reductions in spending, included in last year's Obama budget, had been designed to initiate negotiations with Republicans over how to reduce deficits and the nation's debt. One official said the offer would remain on the table in the event of new budget talks, but that it would not be part of the president's formal spending blueprint.

The officials were not authorized to comment by name on the budget plan before its March 4 release and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

My love affair with WhatsApp. Does it have to end?

NEW YORK -- When I used WhatsApp to tell my family about Facebook's $19 billion purchase of the company that makes my favorite app, I punctuated the message with a string of crying emojis (cartoon faces).

I'm paranoid that Facebook's massive data-gathering operation will enable advertisers to stalk me based on intimate conversations I have with loved ones on WhatsApp.

I started using the phone messaging service six months ago at the urging of my cousin, who was visiting New York from Israel. Since then, it's become the primary way I connect with friends and family across three continents — cheaper, easier and more fun than calls, texts, videoconferences or email.

What makes WhatsApp so great? Sending photos and videos that you take on your phone is simple and quick, just a few taps, even for my technophobe mother. It lets Android and iPhone users talk in groups, which doesn't work well with standard text messaging. A group chat is easy to set up, and once you create the group, it's always there. Conversations with people overseas are instantaneous and free. You don't need to remember a password or sign in after you've set up an account. It's always on, but the app doesn't bug you unless you have a message. It lets you know your messages have been delivered and seen. Also, there are no annoying ads.

WhatsApp is my respite from Facebook. For me, the world's largest social network has become a junkyard of updates from people I don't really know and ads for products I don't care about. It's all about people jostling for publicity and craving approval, seeking likes and comments from near-strangers.

But WhatsApp is the best stand-in for a conversation you have over dinner with people you love. It's intimate. It's personal. I rely on it.

I grew up eating dinner every night with my parents and two sisters. These days, the five of us live in three different cities. Even so, we have a running conversation, sometimes with dozens of chats, photos and videos a day. We send pictures of food we're eating or cooking. (A lot of those. We like food.) We've traded city views from the tops of mountains, thoughts on TV shows and movies we're watching, information on flights we've booked, and simple messages saying "hi" and "I miss you."

Of course, WhatsApp isn't perfect. To start talking to someone, you have to add him or her as a contact to your phone's address book: That's annoying. Even so, WhatsApp is faster than email, which my mother and sisters don't check that often, and easier to follow than a 5-person phone call.

What's more, my cousin in Israel sends videos of her toddler — who my sisters have never met — to our 10-person family chat. Everyone oohs and aahs in Hebrew and in English. I set up a subgroup that allowed my father and a cousin to discuss details of a family trip to Hungary. I used to keep up with my cousins in Argentina and a Turkish friend on Facebook. But chatting with them on WhatsApp saves me from logging on to Facebook and being inundated by its newsfeed.

And if a group of friends or family is all in the same place, a rare occurrence, arranging a meet-up is a snap. On WhatsApp, everyone has all the information at the same time.

I removed the Facebook app from my phone a few weeks ago. With WhatsApp, I don't need it. I still use Facebook's Messenger app, but WhatsApp is better. Will the two eventually merge, diluting WhatsApp's appeal?

Facebook says it won't run ads on WhatsApp. But I'm afraid they won't be able to help themselves. With all those food pictures, won't Facebook figure I want to see ads for restaurants and cookware? And will Facebook urge my "friends" to connect with me on WhatsApp? Facebook has done something similar with Instagram, the photo-sharing app it has owned since 2012.

After the Facebook deal was announced, I sent a WhatsApp text to a friend in San Francisco:

"Is whatsapp over"

"Ya, time to kill (your) acct," he responded a few hours later.

He was joking. Kind of. We're still chatting (and sending each other strings of emoji) on WhatsApp. For now.

Express Scripts 4Q profit, revenue fall

NEW YORK -- Express Scripts, the largest U.S. pharmacy benefits manager, said Thursday that its fourth-quarter net income slipped, hurt by the loss of UnitedHealth, a large customer.

Charges related to its $29.1 billion purchase of Medco Health Solutions in 2012 and other expenses also weighed on profit.

Pharmacy benefits managers run prescription drug plans for employers, insurers and other customers. They process mail-order prescriptions and handle bills for prescriptions filled at retail pharmacies. Express Scripts fills more than a billion prescriptions a year.

Express Scripts Holding Co. said Thursday that it earned $501.9 million, down from $504.1 million in the final quarter of 2012. On a per-share basis, earnings rose to 63 cents from 61 cents as the company bought back more stock, leaving fewer shares on the market.

Excluding expenses including those stemming from its combination with Medco, earnings came to $1.12 per share. That matched Wall Street's prediction.

Revenue fell 6 percent, to $25.78 billion from $27.37 billion. FactSet says analysts forecast $25.36 billion.

Insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc. started handling its own prescriptions in 2013 instead of having Express Scripts fill them. Express Scripts said its measure of prescriptions filled fell 12 percent in the fourth quarter to 360.7 million. Excluding UnitedHealth, it fell 5 percent.

Express Scripts counts 90-day mail order prescriptions as three one-month prescriptions.

Its net income rose 40 percent to $1.84 billion in 2013. Adjusted profit came to $4.33 per share. Revenue grew 11 percent to $104.1 billion.

The St. Louis company says it expects to earn $4.88 to $5 per share in 2014, while analysts expected $4.93 per share, on average. Express Scripts added that it is aiming for earnings-per-share growth of 10 to 20 percent per year for the next several years.

Shares of Express Scripts rose 74 cents to $77.12 on Thursday and lost $1.35, or 1.8 percent, to $75.77 in aftermarket trading. The stock has gained 35 percent over the past 12 months.

Haley says union jobs not welcome in SC

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Gov. Nikki Haley constantly stresses her efforts to bring jobs to South Carolina.

But Haley says she discourages companies from moving to the state if they will bring a unionized workforce.

Haley told The Greenville News (http://grnol.co/1eWpvWB) on Wednesday she does not want union jobs in the state. Haley was in Greenville for an automotive conference.

Haley says she's happy for the non-union jobs at BMW, Michelin and Boeing. But she would not like to see Ford, General Motors or Chrysler in South Carolina.

Haley's likely opponent in this year's election, Camden Sen. Vincent Sheheen, says South Carolina should remain a right-to-work state where employees decide whether to join a union. But Sheheen said the state should welcome any automotive manufacturer if they would bring 10,000 jobs.

Springfield fights repeal of Mass. casino law

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- Officials in Springfield, where voters backed a proposed $800 million resort casino, are asking the state's highest court to keep a proposed repeal of the Massachusetts casino gambling law off the November state ballot.

Mayor Domenic Sarno announced Thursday that he and nine other city residents filed a motion with the Supreme Judicial Court, which is expected to hear arguments soon on whether to allow the ballot question to proceed.

Attorney General Martha Coakley ruled last year that the initiative petition to repeal the law allowing up to three resort casinos and one slots parlor in Massachusetts could not go on the ballot. Coakley said the measure would violate the state constitution by amounting to an uncompensated taking of private property.

The group Repeal the Casino Deal, which collected more than 70,000 signatures statewide, has asked the SJC to overturn Coakley's ruling and allow the question to go on the ballot.

MGM Resorts International negotiated a host community agreement with Sarno that was approved by 58 percent of Springfield voters in July. The casino proposal is the only one remaining in western Massachusetts, putting it in a strong position to win a license from the state gambling commission later this year.

Edward Piluka, Springfield's city solicitor, said the motion was filed to protect the city's rights.

"Our efforts are aimed solely at assuring that the SJC gets the Springfield perspective as to the legality of the initiative petition," Piluka said in a statement.

Repeal the Casino Deal did not immediately comment on Springfield's motion.

NY regulators approve Con Edison rate freeze

ALBANY, N.Y. -- New York utility regulators have approved freezes on electricity, natural gas and steam delivery rates for Con Edison customers.

The state Public Service Commission says the decision covers the charges costumers pay for the delivery of electricity and gas, not the cost of the commodities themselves. Electric rates will be held flat for two years and gas and steam rates for three years.

Con Edison initially asked for an 8 percent increase in electricity delivery rates and a 2.5 percent increase for gas delivery.

The company is also investing $1 billion over four years to make its systems more resilient during extreme weather like Superstorm Sandy.

PSC Chairwoman Audrey Zibelman says Thursday that the combination of flat delivery rates and the infrastructure investment represents the best of two worlds.

Obama Buoys Democrats By Dropping Social Security Cut Idea

hide captionPresident Obama very likely made Democrats' midterm campaign messaging easier by dropping from his new budget a proposal that would have reduced the size of Social Security checks.

Matt Rourke/AP

For a political party already facing a difficult midterm election the way the Democrats are, the fewer internally divisive issues the better.

And few items were more divisive among Democrats than President Obama's previous proposal to reduce Social Security entitlement spending by using a less generous formula to calculate cost-of-living increases, so long as Republicans agreed to raise revenue by ending or reducing loopholes that would raise revenue.

So you could almost hear the sigh of relief from Democrats when the White House announced that the president was dropping from his 2015 budget his proposal to use the chained CPI method for measuring inflation. That method gives a lower measure of inflation, which reduces Social Security benefits. The White House is scheduled to release its budget in early March.

"President Obama's budget will be a powerful statement of Democratic principles," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a statement. "In particular, I commend President Obama for his commitment to keeping Social Security strong, and for rejecting Republican calls to cut badly-needed cost of living increases."

Economic experts at progressive groups like the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute also welcomed the president's decision.

Obama's move makes it easier for congressional Democrats to argue more cleanly and forcefully that it's their party that's protecting the middle class, including their entitlement benefits, and to simultaneously accuse Republicans of wanting to reduce such benefits. The Democrats' main argument to voters this year is the old organized-labor question: "Whose side are you on?"

They hope enough voters will answer that by deciding that it's Democrats, not Republicans, who best represent the interests of the majority of voters.

Midterm elections tend to be relatively low-turnout elections as well. The electorate that does go to the polls tends to skew somewhat older compared with those who turn out only for a general election. By dropping his cost-of-living proposal, Obama is taking off the table an issue that didn't play well with many of those older voters.

If the administration hadn't dropped it, Republicans could have more easily blunted Democratic attacks by pointing to the president's own budget.

Republicans reacted by depicting the president's action as a capitulation to fiscal irresponsibility and as dangerous, not helpful, to Social Security's long-term stability.

"This reaffirms what has become all too apparent: The president has no interest in doing anything, even modest, to address our looming debt crisis," said Michael Steel, a spokesman for Republican House Speaker John Boehner. "The one and only idea the president has to offer is even more job-destroying tax hikes, and that nonstarter won't do anything to save the entitlement programs that are critical to so many Americans. With three years left in office, it seems the president is already throwing in the towel."

The unlikely founders behind WhatsApp's rise

NEW YORK -- WhatsApp isn't your average Silicon Valley startup.

The company's founders Jan Koum, 38, and Brian Acton, 42, shun the media spotlight and are much older than your typical college dropout-turned CEO. And at a time when social media companies are focusing on advertising to generate revenue, WhatsApp rejects the idea of showing ads to the 450 million people who use its mobile messaging app.

The whopping $19 billion that Facebook is paying for the service is also unusual, even as other startups with no profit, or even revenue, are commanding sky-high valuations.

Koum and Acton are at the center of the largest buyout deal ever for a venture-backed company. How did two former Yahoo engineers who witnessed the late '90s dot-com boom — and bust — create the world's hottest app and make 10-year-old Facebook seem a tad grizzled?

"Jan keeps a note from Brian taped to his desk that reads 'No Ads! No Games! No Gimmicks!' It serves as a daily reminder of their commitment to stay focused on building a pure messaging experience," wrote Sequoia Capital partner Jim Goetz in a blog post about Thursday's deal. Sequoia is WhatsApp's sole venture capital investor.

The Ukraine-born Koum, WhatsApp's CEO, move to the U.S. when he was 16. Acton was born in Michigan.

"We're the most atypical Silicon Valley company you'll come across," Acton told Wired in a December interview that the magazine will publish next month in its U.K edition. "We were founded by thirtysomethings; we focused on business sustainability and revenue rather than getting big fast; we've been incognito almost all the time; we're mobile first; and we're global first."

The pair started WhatsApp in 2009, two years after they left their jobs at Yahoo Inc. and five years after Facebook got its start in Mark Zuckerberg's Harvard dorm room. The service is simple. People use it to send text, photo or video messages to their contacts, bypassing text messaging charges and other fees from wireless carriers.

"WhatsApp is simple, secure, and fast. It does not ask you to spend time building up a new graph of your relationships; instead, it taps the one that's already there. Jan and Brian's decisions are fueled by a desire to let people communicate with no interference," writes Goetz, who along with Sequoia also stands to reap a hefty sum from the deal.

Much like Zuckerberg did during Facebook's early years, WhatsApp's founders shun ads. But unlike Facebook, which now relies on advertisements for the bulk of its revenue, WhatsApp remains ad-free.

Users who download WhatsApp on their phones are greeted with a link that reads "Why we don't sell ads." The link leads to a quote from Tyler Durden, the anti-establishment character from the 1996 novel "Fight Club."

"Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy s-- we don't need," it reads.

A note from Koum follows with more details.

"These days companies know literally everything about you, your friends, your interests, and they use it all to sell ads," writes Koum. "No one wakes up excited to see more advertising, no one goes to sleep thinking about the ads they'll see tomorrow. We know people go to sleep excited about who they chatted with that day (and disappointed about who they didn't). We want WhatsApp to be the product that keeps you awake."

Koum then goes on to call advertising an insult to users' intelligence and an interruption to their train of thought. Take that, Facebook.

While WhatsApp rejects ads (it charges 99 cents per year after letting people use it free of charge for the first year), Facebook works to gather as much information as possible about its 1.23 billion users, their tastes for coffee and music, where they live and travel, their friendships, marriages and breakups. WhatsApp doesn't ask users their age, gender or where they live.

In a conference call with financial analysts, Zuckerberg talked about the acquisition and said he doesn't think ads are "the right way" to make money from messaging services. Koum agreed. Although WhatsApp is profitable, Koum told analysts on the call that making money "is not going to be a priority for us."

"This is why I actually respect Mark and his vision, is that he takes a very long term on everything they do at Facebook. They focus on something that is not just tomorrow, but something that's 5 or 10 years from now, and that's the same about with our company," he said. "We always talk about where mobile is going to be, not today, not next year, but in 2020 or in 2025. And as we look forward to the next 5 or 10 years, 5 billion people will have a smartphone and we have a potential to have 5 billion users potentially giving us money through the subscription model."

Koum, who is now a billionaire, at least on paper, lived on food stamps when his family first moved to the U.S. He told Wired of growing up in a communist country, where "everything you did was eavesdropped on, recorded, snitched on." That's another, more personal reason for his insistence on not collecting information about users. WhatsApp doesn't store your chats history on its servers because it doesn't need to, since it doesn't need it to target advertisements to you.

Though he's known Zuckerberg for a couple of years, the Facebook deal wasn't in the works yet when Koum spoke to Wired late last year. He brought up Facebook, Google, Apple and Yahoo as examples of "great" companies that never sold, and signaled that WhatsApp would like to stay independent.

Acton, meanwhile, expressed worry about what a bigger company would do with WhatsApp's users, to whom the company has made such an important promise of "no ads, no gimmicks, no games."

Arizona high court bars cuts to public pensions

PHOENIX -- The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Legislature can't cut cost-of-living increases promised to judges and state elected officials.

The court unanimously upheld a Superior Court judge's ruling in favor of retired judges who challenged the Legislature's 2011 decision to cut benefits increases for retirees in the state plan for judges and other elected officials.

The Legislature cut the cost-of-living increases after the judges' retirement system lost money in the Great Recession after gradually becoming underfunded in previous years.

Denying an appeal by state officials, the high court agreed the increases are part of a promised retirement benefit and are protected by the pension clause of the Arizona Constitution. That clause bars "diminishing or impairing" public retirement benefits.

Lawyers for the retired judges had argued that the clause protected both their retirement benefits and the increases to those benefits, while lawyers for the state argued that the protection only applied to benefits with increases calculated by current methods.

Arizona is not alone in grappling with the problem of underfunded public pensions. A proposed ballot initiative in California would allow cities to renegotiate public workers' future pension and retirement benefits. Oregon's Legislature passed a law similar to what Arizona passed in 2011 that cuts future cost-of-living adjustments.

As in other states, the Arizona dispute touches on contract law because a promised pension is a contract.

However, like the trial judge, the Supreme Court declined to base its ruling on constitutional protections for contracts and chose instead to base its ruling on the constitutional provision dealing specifically with public pensions.

The Arizona justices acknowledged that they have personal stakes in the outcome of the case because they will be eligible for benefit increases upon their retirements.

However, the ruling written by Justice Robert Brutinel said the justices handled the case because none of the parties asked the justices to recuse themselves and because no other judges were available to decide it.

Stepping aside would mean the issue wouldn't be decided, "and we must decide the matter," Brutinel wrote.

The retirement plan for judges and elected officials — called the Elected Officials Retirement Plan, or EORP — was closed to new members last year by the Legislature because it was so badly underfunded.

Three other state retirement plans are in better shape but are also underfunded.

Crocs shares jump as loss smaller than expected

NIWOT, Colo. -- Shoe maker Crocs Inc. on Thursday reported a wider fourth-quarter loss than a year ago, but the loss was smaller than what Wall Street analysts expected.

Shares of the footwear maker rose 76 cents, or 5 percent, to close at $15.81.

The company, which is based in Niwot, Colo., is known for its colorful plastic clogs. It has launched other products, but they haven't been as popular. In December, private equity firm Blackstone invested $200 million in the company

Crocs did not release earnings projections for 2014 because the business is in transition, said Thomas Smach, the company's board chairman. Crocs is working on finding ways to increase its profit and is looking for a new CEO to replace John McCarvel, who in December announced he is retiring.

Crocs reported a loss of $66.9 million, or 76 cents per share, in the quarter ending Dec. 31. That compares with a loss of $3.6 million, or 4 cents per share, in the same quarter the year before.

Excluding one-time charges, the company reported a loss of 20 cents per share. That's better than the loss of 22 cents per share analysts expected, according to FactSet.

Revenue rose 2 percent to $228.7 million from $225 million. That's above the $220.4 million analysts expected.

For the full year, the company reported an adjusted earnings of 82 cents per share and revenue $1.2 billion. That compares with earnings of $1.42 per share and revenue of $1.1 billion the year before. Analysts expected earnings of 78 cents per share and revenue of $1.9 billion in 2013.

Plan to restructure Detroit's debt expected Friday

DETROIT -- The blueprint for Detroit's restructuring in its historic bankruptcy is expected to be filed Friday, according to a spokesman for state-appointed emergency manager Kevyn Orr.

Orr's long-awaited plan of adjustment will spell out how pensioners, retirees, banks, bond insurers and other creditors will be treated as his team reduces Detroit's $18 billion debt load.

The plan will be filed Friday in federal court in Detroit, said Bill Nowling, Orr's spokesman.

Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes set a March 1 deadline for the filing. Orr had hoped to have the plan ready before January, but its release was delayed by ongoing negotiations with creditors.

A draft given last month to creditors showed retirees and pensioners getting $4.3 billion in payments and bondholders about $1.1 billion over the next 40 years, leaving the city with a nearly $336 million surplus.

How Detroit makes payments on municipal bonds and other city obligations should be changed under the plan, said bankruptcy attorney and St. John's University law professor Anthony Sabino.

"No doubt debt shall be restructured, giving the city more time to repay," he said. "A 90-day note may become a 180-day note."

Orr filed for bankruptcy in July. In December, Rhodes made Detroit the largest U.S. city to enter bankruptcy.

Who will get what has been a major question throughout the process. Lawyers representing the city have been negotiating with various creditor groups.

Pensioners likely will be treated better than other unsecured creditors, according to Michael Leib, a Detroit-area bankruptcy litigation attorney with Maddin, Hauser, Roth & Heller.

One question is whether older pensioners are treated differently than younger ones, and whether those with higher pension payments are treated differently than those with lower payments, he added.

The plan will be accompanied by a disclosure statement, which outlines the level of reinvestment in Detroit, including municipal services, planned during the next 10 years.

"I think it is not sufficient just to get the city's fiscal house in order," said Bruce Katz, director of the metropolitan policy program for the Washington-based Brookings Institution. "If Detroit is to become a functioning city economically, the plan must address improved service delivery — including public safety — and expanded infrastructure investment."

Report: More farms in Texas, age of farmer rose

LUBBOCK, Texas -- While the number of farms in Texas rose over a five-year span, the state lost about 200,000 acres of farmland, according to a new federal report released Thursday.

Texas leads the nation with 248,810 farms, up from 247,437 operations in 2007, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's preliminary 2012 Census of Agriculture report said. Farmland covers about 130.2 million acres in Texas, a negligible drop from about 130.4 million acres in 2007.

Though still in the throes of a multiyear drought during which ranchers sold millions of heads of cattle, Texas also led the U.S. in livestock sales with $18 billion. It was also in the top 10 in total agriculture sales — third with $25.4 billion — and in crop sales, $7.4 billion, good for eighth place.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples, a Republican who's running for lieutenant governor, said the report is proof Texas economy continues to be strong.

"Texas continues to lead the nation in farm and ranch acreage and even during times of extreme drought, the total market value of Texas agriculture grew by 25 percent from the previous census five years ago," he said.

The market value of all agriculture products sold in Texas rose by 21 percent over the five-year period.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's preliminary 2012 Census of Agriculture report provides national and state-based estimates on the number of farms, how many acres are farmed, the number of farmers and their average age and other statistics. The report, issued every five years, is used in evaluating and implementing agriculture policies and programs.

According to the census, a third of farmers across the U.S. were older than 65 in 2012. In Texas, the average age is 60.1 years, up from 58.9 years in 2007. A younger generation of Texan farmers helped with the age statistic, with 9,301 people ages 24 to 34 farming or ranching in 2012 compared to 9,246 in 2007.

More women are taking to the land in Texas, too, with 38,451 farming in 2012, a jump of 3,440. Male farmers declined by 2,067.

Most Texas farms are small, with 88 percent having sales of less than $50,000 in 2012. The average size of farms or ranches across the state in 2012 was 523 acres, down slightly from 527 acres in 2007.

The census defines a farm as any agricultural operation that had $1,000 in sales in the census year or had the potential to have $1,000 in sales in the census year.

Wealth gap is widest in some affluent US cities

WASHINGTON -- The gap between the wealthy and the poor is most extreme in several of the United States' most prosperous and largest cities.

The economic divides in Atlanta, San Francisco, Washington, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles are significantly greater than the national average, according to a study released Thursday by the Brookings Institution, the Washington-based think tank. It suggests that many sources of both economic growth and income inequality have co-existed near each other for the past 35 years.

These cities may struggle in the future to provide adequate public schooling, basic municipal services because of a narrow tax base and "may fail to produce housing and neighborhoods accessible to middle-class workers and families," the study said.

"There's something of a relationship between economic success and inequality," said Alan Berube, a senior fellow at Brookings. "These cities are home to some of the highest paying industries and jobs in the country."

At the same time, Berube noted, many of these cities may inadvertently widen the gap between rich and poor because they have public housing and basic services that make them attractive to low-wage workers.

The findings come at a delicate moment for the country, still slogging through a weak recovery from the Great Recession. Much of the nation's job growth has been concentrated in lower-wage careers. Few Americans have enjoyed pay raises. President Barack Obama is pushing for a higher minimum wage. Protesters in San Francisco have tried to block a private bus that shuttles Google employees from gentrifying neighborhoods to their offices in Silicon Valley.

Many wealthy Americans, from venture capitalist Tom Perkins to real estate billionaire Sam Zell, argue that the nation has tipped toward class warfare.

Incomes for the top 5 percent of earners in Atlanta averaged $279,827 in 2012. That's almost 19 times more than what the bottom 20 percent of that city's population earned. This ratio is more than double the nationwide average for this measure of income inequality. The top 5 percent of earners across the country have incomes 9.1 times greater than the bottom quintile.

Major chasms also appeared in the tech hub of San Francisco, the financial center of New York, the seat of the federal government in Washington and the home of the entertainment industry in Los Angeles.

"In San Francisco, skyrocketing housing costs may increasingly preclude low-income residents from living in the city altogether," the study said.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said in an editorial published Thursday that "working families cannot support themselves on the (city's) current minimum wage of $10.74 per hour" — already $3.49 above the federal minimum and 64 cents more than Obama's proposed increase. Lee has also announced plans to build and restore 10,000 homes for low and moderate-income families by 2020.

Not all tech hubs have witnessed rising inequality.

Seattle, where Amazon and Microsoft are based, saw its income disparity decline since 2007. So did Denver. Austin, Texas, experienced a mild uptick.

"Both the tech boom and energy boom are inequality-reducing," said Michael Mandel, chief economic strategist at the Progressive Policy Institute in Washington. "Tech introduces a path to good jobs."

The Brookings study also found that inequality increased across cities even though incomes often fell for wealthy households between the start of the recession in 2007 and 2012.

During that five-year period, average incomes for the top 5 percent in Jacksonville, Fla., tumbled $18,999 to $152,329. But the bottom 20 percent living in Jacksonville lost a greater share of their incomes over that period, so the level of inequality increased.

Significant gaps also exist in Miami and Baltimore. But that's largely because their poorest residents there earn so little. The lowest quintile of Miami residents earned just $10,348 in 2012, about half the national average for that group.

Of the nation's 50 biggest cities, just 18 experienced greater income inequality since the recession that was statistically significant. That was due primarily to falling incomes for the poorest residents. This occurred in places that suffered from the burst of the housing bubble — such as Tucson, Ariz., and Albuquerque — and Midwestern cities still reeling from the collapse of manufacturing such as Cleveland, Indianapolis and Milwaukee.

Not all the 50 largest cities are bastions of inequality. Some Western and Sun Belt cities with smaller downtowns had a noticeably smaller divide than the national average. These cities such as Mesa, Ariz., and Arlington, Texas, are essentially "overgrown suburbs," the study said. They tend to attract neither the highest-paying jobs nor the extreme poverty of the older cities.

Philly-area sports bar to pay $8M in back wages

PHILADELPHIA -- A popular sports bar chain will shell out about $8.5 million to compensate employees for failing to pay them minimum wage and improperly keeping a portion of their tips, federal officials and the company said Thursday.

Chickie's and Pete's agreed to repay $6.8 million in back wages and damages to more than 1,100 current or former workers in a settlement described by the U.S. Labor Department as the largest wage-and-tip violation case in agency history.

Separately, the restaurant announced it would spend nearly $1.7 million to settle private lawsuits with about 90 other employees who alleged unfair pay practices.

"Our employees are the backbone of our company, and they deserve our respect and appreciation," owner Pete Ciarrocchi Jr. said in a statement. "We believe these settlements are in their best interests."

The Labor Department began a yearlong probe of the Philadelphia-area eateries in November 2012. Officials wouldn't say what sparked the investigation, but at least one lawsuit was filed the following month.

Officials found the restaurant illegally paid servers and bartenders a flat rate of $15 per shift instead of $2.13 an hour, the federal minimum for tipped employees.

Staff members were also required to pay a portion of their tips into a pool. About 40 percent of that money went to bartenders, which is legal, according Brian W. Johnson, the department's enforcement director for the Northeast region. But he said the restaurant kept the rest, which is illegal. Employees called it "Pete's Tax," officials said.

"When employers exploit tipped workers, they not only harm their employees who are working hard to earn a living, but also take advantage of the trust of their customers," Laura Fortman, principal deputy administrator for the department's Wage and Hour Division, said in a statement.

In addition, officials said the restaurant illegally required employees to pay for their uniforms; failed to pay overtime; and didn't compensate staffers for time spent in meetings and training.

Kevin Feeley, a spokesman for Chickie's and Pete's, said many restaurants have trouble navigating the "complex regulations" on tip pools and tip credits, which help determine hourly wages.

Still, Johnson called the case "exceptional." During all of last year, he noted, the agency documented about $26 million in wage violations at nearly 3,900 restaurants.

The consent judgment with the Labor Department must be approved by a federal court.

Chickie's and Pete's operates about a dozen restaurants in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

BNSF plans to upgrade tanker fleet after accidents

BILLINGS, Mont. -- BNSF Railway Co. said Thursday it intends to buy a fleet of 5,000 strengthened tank cars to haul oil and ethanol in a move that would set a higher benchmark for safety within an industry that's seen multiple major accidents.

The voluntary step by the Texas-based subsidiary of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. comes as railroads in the U.S. and Canada are under intense pressure to improve safety for hazardous materials shipments.

There's been a string of recent train accidents involving oil and ethanol, punctuated by a crude shipment that derailed in Quebec last July and killed 47 people.

A boom in domestic oil drilling and rising ethanol production spurred a dramatic increase in shipments of the materials by rail. Much of it is being hauled by an old fleet of some 78,000 tank cars that are prone to split during accidents.

Thursday's announcement marks a potential major step in addressing that problem. However, it would not mean those older cars would go away, and there's already a two-year backlog on new tank car construction.

In announcing that it will ask manufacturers to submit bids for the new cars, BNSF indicated it was unwilling to wait for the U.S. Department of Transportation to finalize pending regulations on improved tank cars.

The company said it hoped to accelerate the transition to a new generation of safer tank cars and give manufacturers a head start in designing them as federal officials consider changes to the current standards.

Typically, railroads don't own the tank cars they pull, making BNSF's proposal somewhat unusual. But whether it will spur other shipping companies or railroads to follow suit was uncertain, said Tom Simpson, president of the Railway Supply Institute, a trade association representing tank car manufacturers and owners.

"Everyone has the right to go to a tougher standard," Simpson said. "We'll see how it plays out."

BNSF spokeswoman Roxanne Butler said the request for bids on new cars reflects the company's "commitment to crude-by-rail growth and improving the overall safety of crude transportation."

In addition to the older tank cars that are prone to fail, there are about 14,000 cars being used that were built according to a more stringent standard established by the industry in 2011. BNSF's proposal would go further still.

Among the added safety features being sought by the company are ½-inch thick steel shields that would go on either end of the tank cars to help prevent them from cracking open during accidents. The new cars also would have pressure-relief valves capable of withstanding an ethanol-based fire and a tank body made of thicker steel than existing cars.

Butler said she had no time frame on when the tank cars could be built and put into use.

A spokeswoman for the Association of American Railroads said the group does not comment on individual railroad business decisions, but urged federal officials to finalize work on new tank car regulations as soon as possible. Spokeswoman Holly Arthur said that would "provide certainty to the marketplace."

Michigan car insurance plan includes premium cut

LANSING, Mich. -- House Republicans are proposing a revised overhaul of Michigan's auto insurance system and to guarantee a 10 percent cut in premiums for two years.

The plan unveiled Thursday does away with unlimited medical benefits for people catastrophically injured in car accidents.

Most drivers could instead buy $10 million in personal injury protection, and proponents say nobody should reach the cap.

Low-income motorists could pick a cheaper option covering up to $50,000 in medical expenses. Motorists' health insurance or Medicaid could pay for treatment when caps are hit.

Gov. Rick Snyder helped unveiled a proposal to cap medical coverage at $1 million last April, but the legislation stalled.

Michigan is the only state that offers unlimited medical benefits for catastrophic injuries and rehabilitation. It costs motorists $186 a year.

Providence to help businesses improve storefronts

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Small businesses looking for a face lift in Providence are getting some help from city government.

Mayor Angel Taveras announced Thursday that the city has set aside $250,000 to help businesses make changes to their storefronts. Businesses can use the grants of up to $10,000 to improve their awnings, signage, doors, landscaping and facade.

The program is designed to help small businesses attract new customers while revitalizing neighborhoods and reducing urban blight.

Taveras, who is a running for governor as a Democrat, detailed the program Thursday during a visit to a local restaurant.

Groups to feds: Speed up sea turtle analysis

NEW ORLEANS -- Four conservation groups say they'll sue the National Marine Fisheries Service because it's taking too long to analyze shrimping's effects on threatened and endangered sea turtles.

The groups contend that shrimp nets in the Gulf of Mexico kill more than 45,000 sea turtles a year and want the agency to bar shrimp trawling there until it completes its analysis.

They also want to make Louisiana enforce federal rules requiring turtle escape hatches in shrimp nets, which shrimpers say let much of their catch escape as well. State law now bars agencies from doing so.

The letter sent Wednesday began a 60-day settlement period required before suing under the Endangered Species Act.

The division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration doesn't comment about pending or active litigation, spokeswoman Allison Garrett said in an email. She said the analysis is underway.

"NOAA has known there is a problem with the number of sea turtles stranding and being killed in the Gulf since the spring of 2010," said Eric Bilsky, an attorney with Oceana, one of the groups involved. "And so, when we are coming on the spring of 2014, 'We're working on it' is not enough.

"We need to know when it's going to get done and we need it done soon. And we need the analysis not just to be an analysis; we need to know what specific steps NOAA is going to take to make sure that sea turtles are not getting killed anymore."

Reports of turtle strandings increased from fewer than 100 a year from 2002 through 2009 to about 600 in 2010 and hundreds a year since. Last year 545 were reported through Aug. 25, according to the NOAA Fisheries website. However, because a closer watch has been kept since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, the significance of the numbers is unclear.

The Center for Biological Diversity, the Turtle Island Restoration Network and the Sea Turtle Conservancy joined the letter of intent sent Wednesday to Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and three NOAA officials.

Clint Guidry, president of the Louisiana Shrimp Association, responded by email: "Two words ... 'NOT GUILTY.' "

He said shrimpers do all they can to protect sea turtles without killing their own business.

In a telephone interview, Guidry cited a June 2013 report for the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission — which regulates fishing in the Gulf — about Kemp's ridley sea turtles, the bulk of those found dead in shallow waters since the 2010 spill.

The report said that although the number of nests at the turtles' main nesting beaches fell 35 percent from 2009 to 2010, when 12,377 were counted, they rebounded to preliminary counts of 19,368 in 2011 and 20,197 in 2012.

"Whatever we're doing is working," Guidry said. "The turtle populations are coming up unbelievably."

But Bilsky said, "There shouldn't be hundreds of sea turtles washing to shore if what we're trying to do is catch and eat shrimp. That's just wrong."

Kemp's ridleys had been nearly wiped out by the mid-1980s, when fewer than 1,000 nests were laid each year. All six sea turtle species found in U.S. waters are endangered or threatened.

Judge to hear arguments in Md. football death suit

WASHINGTON -- Lawyers, the NCAA, and a helmet company are asking a judge to dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of a college football player who died of a head injury.

The Maryland Attorney General's Office says the suit fails to show two coaches knew Frostburg State University fullback Derek Sheely was bleeding or had a concussion when they bandaged his head and sent him back into practice.

A judge in Montgomery County, Md., is expected to hear arguments on Friday.

The family's lawsuit claims the 22-year-old Sheely died in August 2011 after participating in high-speed drills that involved repeated blows to the head. The complaint says Sheely was never checked for a concussion or to see if his helmet was properly fitted.

Heart-shaped bummer: FDA announces recall of Valentine's Day chocolate

The Food and Drug Administration announced a voluntary recall Thursday of 12,000 gift boxes of assorted chocolates because the label failed to warn consumers that one piece of candy contained peanuts, a known allergen.

People with peanut allergies could suffer serious or life-threatening reactions if they come in contact with peanuts. So far, only one person has reported an allergic reaction after eating the chocolates, according to the FDA. That person received medical care and was released.

Coming less than a week after Valentine's Day, the recall affects 4 oz red heart-shaped boxes of assorted chocolates from Fannie May Confections Brands, Inc. The box has a rose motif with the name Fannie May in silver lettering, measures 5 1/4 inches by 5 ½ inches in size and contains 8 pieces of chocolates, including one filled with caramel and peanuts.

The boxes are labeled SKU #77202 with the UPC number of 0 52745 96000 2, and includes lot numbers 13344, 13345, 13361, 14010, and 14014. They were sold in drug stores, groceries and gift shops such as Walgreens, Hallmark Gift Shops and Jewel Grocers in the midwest starting on January 10, 2014.

The boxes were not available for sale at Fannie May stores or through the company's website.

More information on the recall can be found on Fannie May's website at: wwwfanniemay.com or by calling 330-494-0833 extension 193, or by emailing customerservice@fanniemay.com.