Factory workers at General Motors have overwhelmingly approved a new four-year contract with the company that includes profit-sharing instead of raises for most workers and promises thousands of new jobs.

State insurance regulators are wrestling with questions about whether the benefits insurance company employers have offered employees are promises or heartfelt wishes.

Some Rhode Island lawmakers predicted Wednesday that plans to overhaul the public retirement system will set off long, expensive legal battles with public worker unions.

The Obama administration has unveiled a deficit reduction package that could impose a $6 billion hit on corporate-owned life insurance arrangements and raise $866 billion by turning the federal estate tax clock back to 2009.