DALLAS The Texas Supreme Court on Friday said it will again hear arguments in the nearly 15-year legal battle over accusations that Exxon Mobil Corp. loaded abandoned wells with junk, sludge and even explosives to keep other companies from drilling there.

NEW YORK The U.S. is finally becoming a nation of savers. Now if only we could get something for our money.

RALEIGH, N.C. North Carolina's state treasurer has unveiled rules banning employees from taking gifts from companies that do substantial business with the agency.

NEW YORK Moody's Investors Service said Friday that it downgraded ratings for Sprint Nextel Corp. because it is taking longer than expected to stanch a deterioration in its profit.

CHICAGO Sun-Times Media Group, which was recently sold out of bankruptcy to an investor group, said Friday it named John Barron to the newly created group publisher position and as senior vice president of news and editorial operations.

WASHINGTON Florida banking regulators on Friday shut down Commerce Bank of Southwest Florida, marking the 124th U.S. bank to succumb this year to the struggling economy and rising loan defaults.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. Community colleges have joined Missouri's four-year colleges and universities in agreeing to freeze tuition next school year if state officials promise to nick and not slash their budgets.

ST. PAUL, Minn. Lawyers for the Minnesota House spell out in a 34-page brief why they believe Gov. Tim Pawlenty misused a state law to enact budget cuts without legislative consent.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. Asian carp may have breached an electronic barrier designed to prevent the giant invaders from upsetting the ecosystem in the Great Lakes and jeopardizing a $7 billion sport fishery, officials said Friday.

BATON ROUGE, La. First-time claims for jobless benefits in Louisiana fell last week after a spike attributed to a temporary layoff in the transportation equipment industry.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. Just two years after hitting a record low, the unemployment rate in Alabama climbed to 10.9 percent in October, the highest it has been in more than 25 years, state officials announced Friday.

NEW YORK The safe-haven dollar further strengthened Friday and Treasury yields hovered around their lows for the year as worries about the economy in 2010 diminished traders' appetites for risky bets.

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. More than 1,300 people have already voted on whether to let the Charles Town Races & Slots put table games in its casino.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. Tennessee's new law allowing people with handgun permits to be armed in bars and restaurants that serve alcohol is unconstitutionally vague, a judge ruled on Friday.

NEW YORK Hershey Co. may make a $17 billion bid for UK candy company Cadbury PLC, topping the recent $16.5 billion hostile offer by Kraft Foods Inc., the Wall Street Journal reports Friday.

CHICAGO Fitch Ratings boosted its rating outlook for Flowserve Corp. on Friday citing the pump making and fluid handling company's low leverage, good operating performance and other factors.

JOHNSTON, Iowa Former U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt pushed Friday for Iowa to expand its focus on public health, arguing the state has the medical infrastructure in place to make it a leader in the field.

WASHINGTON Chiropractors get a lift in the Senate health care bill, thanks to a senator from the state practitioners consider the birthplace of their profession - Iowa.

DIMOCK, Pa. Pat Farnelli says there's something in the water at her house. The last time she drank it, she says she vomited four times. It's made her children sick, too.

LOS ANGELES California is investigating several companies suspected of bilking churches nationwide of hundreds of thousands of dollars through fraudulent computer leasing schemes, authorities said Friday.

MINNEAPOLIS Holiday travelers waited a little longer to book their flights this year, likely holding out for better deals and waiting to see if they would still have a job. And some aren't going at all.

WASHINGTON Senators are calling on General Motors and Chrysler to release more details on ongoing talks over the automakers' plans to close thousands of auto dealerships as part of their bankruptcies.

FRANKLIN LAKES, N.J. Becton Dickinson and Co. said Friday it bought molecular diagnostic test maker HandyLab Inc. for $275 million.

PIERRE, S.D. The state has decided not to appeal a judge's decision that allows South Dakota's new smoking ban law to be referred to a public vote in the 2010 election.

LIVONIA, Mich. Car parts maker TRW Automotive Holdings Corp. said Friday that it completed a previously announced private debt offering.

DENVER At a time of budget cuts, Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter's administration last year paid employees and outside contractors $1.1 million to lobby Colorado lawmakers on legislation ranging from renewable energy tax credits to increasing motor vehicle license fees.

CUPERTINO, Calif. Shares of Verigy Ltd. rose Friday after the maker of chip testing equipment turned in a stronger-than-expected performance in the fourth quarter.

ATLANTA UPS Inc., the world's largest shipping carrier, is hiking 2010 rates for ground packages by an average of 4.9 percent.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. West Virginia's Legislature ended its special session Friday with tweaks to the gas tax and state energy policy among the final bills to pass.

BOSTON JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Friday it is dropping a clause from its credit card contracts that required disputes with customers to be handled through binding arbitration, a move that could lead to consumers filing class-action and other lawsuits.