Business News in Brief

Philadelphia Orphans' Court Judge John W. Herron said at a hearing Tuesday that he would sign a consent order allowing the Temple University Health System to complete its previously announced purchase of the nonprofit Fox Chase Cancer Center. The judge's responsibility was to ensure that none of Fox Chase's $40.9 million in restricted charitable assets would be diverted in the deal, which is expected to close July 1. The next step for Temple is the sale of $318.2 million in bonds, of which $83.88 million will be paid to Fox Chase's bank lenders to settle all outstanding financial obligations of Fox Chase. — Harold Brubaker

Exelon Corp. is stabilizing its bond prices with a pledge to retain investment-grade ratings while reducing the likelihood of a dividend increase after its $7.3 billion takeover of Constellation Energy Group Inc. Exelon is the parent of Philadelphia's Peco Energy, Exelon's $500 million of 5.35 percent bonds due January 2014 have risen 0.2 percent since March 9, the last trading day before Exelon completed its acquisition of Constellation. Its stock dropped 3.6 percent in that time. The company bought Constellation as natural-gas prices hover at about an 11-year low. Gas prices are used to set wholesale energy rates, pressuring profit at Exelon, which generates most of its power with nuclear energy. — Bloomberg News

Two Eastern Pennsylvania companies were among the businesses and organizations that received U.S. Energy Department investments to help manufacturers increase energy efficiency, the White House said in a statement. Lyondell Chemical Co., Newtown Square, was awarded $4.5 million. Air Products & Chemicals Inc., Allentown, received $1.2 million. The Energy Department awarded a total of more than $54 million for 13 projects across the country. — Inquirer staff

Members of Teamsters Local 628 rallied outside the offices of The Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com on Tuesday, protesting the layoffs of 20 building-services employees and 12 security guards as of July 1. In a statement sent to all employees, Robert J. Hall, Interstate General Media L.L.C. publisher and chief executive, said the layoffs are connected to the company's relocation later this month from 400 N. Broad St., which it sold last year, to leased office space at 801 Market St. Hall noted that it is common practice for landlords to provide maintenance and security services in Center City buildings, and that provision of those services is part of the company's lease with building owner Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust. In an interview, John P. Laigaie, president of Local 628, said he was not happy with how management has handled these latest layoffs. All labor contracts with the company will expire in October, except for the one that covers Local 10 of the Newspaper Guild, which extends into 2013. Formal negotiations on new collective-bargaining agreements between the company and the Teamsters and eight other unions have not begun. — Mike Armstrong

US Airways said Tuesday it is contributing $150,000 to help build a new food center in Chester, as part of $325,000 in grants to nonprofit agencies in communities served by the airline's hub airports. The contribution to Philabundance will be for a center that will offer free and low-priced food items, with extended hours to make it more accessible to the working poor, the airline said. Other donations, totaling $175,000, were made to nonprofits in Charlotte and Phoenix. — Paul Nussbaum

Despite a recent easing of medical costs, U.S. health-care spending will outpace economic growth for the foreseeable future, government experts said. President Obama's health-care overhaul will add $478 billion in spending over the 2011-2021 period covered by the projections, expanding coverage to 30 million uninsured people. But the issue of rising costs will not go away even if the Supreme Court overturns Obama's law or his Republican foes repeal it. By the beginning of the next decade, health-care spending will be growing roughly 2 percentage points faster than the overall economy, "which is about the same differential experienced over the past 30 years," said the report from Medicare's nonpartisan Office of the Actuary. — AP

The federal budget deficit is approaching $1 trillion for a fourth straight year even though the government is collecting more tax revenue than last year. The Treasury Department said the deficit grew by $124.6 billion in May. That put the deficit through the first eight months of the budget year at $844.5 billion, or 8.9 percent below last year's imbalance for the same period. Still, the Congressional Budget Office forecasts that the deficit for the entire 2012 budget year, which ends Sept. 30, will total $1.17 trillion. That's only a slight improvement from the $1.3 trillion deficit recorded in fiscal 2011. So far this year, government receipts are running 5.3 percent higher than a year ago. A better job market and modest economic growth have led to higher tax revenue. — AP

Lawyers for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. have identified Brazil, India, China and South Africa along with Mexico as areas having the biggest risk for corruption, according to a letter from two congressmen who are conducting their own investigation into the allegations of bribery in its Mexico operations. The letter, dated Monday, from Democratic Reps. Elijah Cummings of Maryland and Henry Waxman of California, shed light on a May 21 briefing with outside lawyers from Wal-Mart, who said they had been retained to perform a global anti-corruption compliance review of its operations in 2011. Dave Tovar, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said the review of its anti-corruption program was worldwide. The New York Times reported in late April that Wal-Mart's Mexican unit allegedly paid millions of dollars in bribes to speed building permits and gain other favors. The Times said executives didn't notify authorities even after Wal-Mart found evidence of the scheme. — AP

The Times-Picayune said 200 employees would lose their jobs when one of the nation's oldest daily newspapers shifts its focus to online news and publishes just three days a week starting this fall. The paper said 84 of the newsroom's 173 employees were cut at the 175-year-old paper. Advertising, circulation and other departments also were affected. New Orleans will become the largest U.S. metro area without a daily paper in the digital age. In Alabama, three major dailies — the Birmingham News, the Press-Register in Mobile and the Huntsville Times — laid off about 400 employees. All four papers will continue to publish on their websites, and online access will remain free. The newspapers' parent company, Advance Publications, is shifting its focus in the digital age. — AP