Illinois officials have delayed borrowing $500 million for construction projects because the pension crisis makes the state's debt more expensive.

The Arkansas Teacher Retirement System hopes to invest $60 million in the $1 billion Big River Steel LLC mill planned for Osceola, officials announced Wednesday.

The Arizona Department of Corrections says it has severed ties with a Pennsylvania company and has hired a new contractor to provide health services for all inmates in the state prison system.

Aetna's fourth-quarter net income sank 49 percent as higher medical costs squeezed profitability for the insurer's commercial health coverage, and several one-time expenses chipped away at the bottom line.

Medicare is announcing a price cut.

A pair of labor bills in Maine that have been rejected in past legislative sessions, so-called right-to-work and fair share, are being introduced again this session.

Aetna Inc. will become on Thursday the latest big health insurer to report how it wrapped up 2012 and how it expects results to shake out this year, as the industry prepares for the start of expanded coverage and new taxes under the health care overhaul.

Economists are increasingly, but still cautiously, optimistic about growth in the year ahead with the hiring expected to pick up in coming months.