Employee-Paid

Democrats are mostly satisfied with a compromise bill extending payroll tax cuts and benefits for the long-term unemployed through 2012, and it should be pushed through Congress quickly, the party's House leader said Thursday.

Attorneys for the NFL Players Association are arguing a lawsuit by a group of retirees alleging unfairly reduced benefit payments is "fatally flawed" because the complaint lacks legal backing.

New York's State Senate will not wait for Washington's go-ahead to restore a commuter benefit that allows workers to save more pre-tax money for their transit expenses.

Anxious to avoid a bruising election-year fight, negotiators on Capitol Hill worked into Wednesday night ironing out final details of an agreement to extend a cut in the payroll taxes paid by most Americans. The legislation also would renew jobless benefits for millions more.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.'s fourth-quarter profit sank 34 percent as an acquisition by the world's largest generic drug maker improved revenue but raised expenses.

Aides to participants in House-Senate talks on renewing President Barack Obama's signature payroll tax cut say negotiators have made significant progress and that an agreement could come as early as Tuesday.