Business news in brief

Citing regulatory delays, Comcast Corp. says it now doesn't expect to close on its deal with Time Warner Cable Inc. until mid-2015. Company officials previously said they thought they could close the deal in early 2015. Even after months of exhaustive review, none of the main state and federal regulatory agencies have made a decision on the $45 billion deal that would combine the nation's largest and second-largest cable companies. David Cohen, Comcast executive vice president, disclosed the new timetable in a blog posting Wednesday. - Bob Fernandez

Production workers at Boeing plants in South Carolina will decide next month whether they want representation by the machinists' union. Boeing has a helicopter facility in Ridley. The union announced Tuesday that the machinists and Boeing had agreed to the National Labor Relations Board's conducting a one-day vote April 22 at five locations on the company's North Charleston campus. The union last week petitioned for an election for production workers at the company's 787 Dreamliner assembly plant and the nearby Interiors Responsibility Center, which provides interior parts for the 787. The vote also includes production workers at its new propulsion plant. Boeing must provide the exact number of those eligible to vote to the board. Union officials said they estimate that 3,000 of the company's approximately 7,500 workers in South Carolina will be eligible to vote. - Associated Press

King of Prussia-based MRO Corp., which produces computer programs to transmit health information between providers such as doctors' offices and hospitals, said Wednesday in a statement that it had acquired United Record Solutions, a Syracuse-based company. Financial details of the sale were not released. - David Sell

Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel Corp., the country's second-biggest producer of the metal, will temporarily idle an Illinois factory making flat-rolled steel, citing adverse market conditions including cheap imports and lower oil prices. The company has notified 2,080 workers at the Granite City plant about potential dismissals. Flat-rolled demand has been hit by the drop in steel-pipe demand from energy companies that has followed the slide in oil prices in recent months. - Bloomberg News

Greece has until Monday to show how it will follow through on reform commitments after the euro area ruled out speedy access to aid funds, three officials said after a conference call of finance ministry deputies. The eurozone's 18 other members were adamant on Wednesday's call that Greece needs to deliver specific plans to see any more bailout cash, the officials said. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras needs to show that Greece can rebuild trust in its promises, they said. Finance deputies left the door open to 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) that has been allocated to aid the banking system, as the deputies concluded that Greece can't tap those funds on a technicality. - Bloomberg News

Ford is recalling about 213,000 police vehicles in North America to fix springs that may not keep doors closed in a crash. The recall affects Ford Explorer and Police Interceptor utility vehicles from the 2011 through 2013 model years. Ford traced the problem to a spring that controls the interior door handles. Ford also is recalling about 6,500 Super Duty ambulance and emergency vehicles from 2011 through 2015 with 6.7-Liter diesel engines. The exhaust gas temperature sensors can malfunction. - AP

One of the three remaining Howard Johnson's restaurants still in business has been sold and will close after a nearly 60-year run in Lake Placid, N.Y. Owner Mike Butler says his family-run eatery was purchased by local restaurant owners who plan to move their business to the property after the Howard Johnson's closes March 31. Butler's father, Ron, opened the restaurant with the chain's signature orange roof 58 years ago. There were once hundreds of Howard Johnson's restaurants in the U.S. Two are still operating. One is attached to a hotel in Bangor, Maine, and the other is in Lake George, a tourist destination 60 miles south of Lake Placid. - AP

The U.S. Agriculture Department is revising its definition of what it means to farm, meaning some people who receive farm subsidies but don't do any of the work would receive less government cash. Congress charged USDA last year with creating a new definition for what it means to be "actively engaged" in farming, the criteria to receive some subsidies. USDA proposed that farms must document that their managers put in 500 hours of substantial management work annually or 25 percent of the time necessary for the success of the farming operation to qualify. - AP