A Bronxville, N.Y.-based broadcasting company is buying a struggling affiliate of the ABC broadcast network in Rhode Island for $4 million.

A Superior Court judge in Providence approved the bid by Citadel Communications LLC to buy WLNE-TV on Tuesday because it was the only bidder that had struck an affiliation agreement with ABC. The station's expired affiliate agreement had been extended to April 1.

Court-appointed receiver Matthew McGowan says the deal with ABC was decisive because ABC could yank its signal. Three bidders who had not reached a deal with ABC were required to put the money upfront and competitively bid for the station, but they declined to do so.

Global paid $14 million for WLNE-TV in 2007. The firm went into receivership in 2010. Owner Kevin O'Brien did not respond to a call for comment.

U.S. authorities say the shipping company Horizon Lines LLC has agreed to plead guilty to fixing prices and to pay a $45 million fine.

A Justice Department statement Thursday says the company was accused of conspiring to fix rates and surcharges for freight transportation between the United States and Puerto Rico from May 2002 until April 2008.

Five former executives have been sentenced after pleading guilty in 2008 to charges related to the shipping conspiracy.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based company has a fleet of 20 U.S.-flagged cargo ships that carry items including heavy equipment, medicines and consumer goods.

In June 2009, the company agreed to pay $20 million to settle a class action price-fixing lawsuit.

A federal judge in Maine says 40 residents with cerebral palsy, epilepsy and other conditions can join a lawsuit seeking to force the state to provide opportunities for them to live outside nursing homes.

On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge John Woodcock granted class-action status to a lawsuit filed by three men with cerebral palsy who want to live on their own but retain services provided by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.

In the lawsuit filed in December 2009, the three argued the state violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Nursing Home Reform Act because it failed to make it possible for them to live outside nursing homes.

The Bangor Daily News says state officials couldn't be reached Wednesday because of the storm.

Bank of America Corp. is the subject of a lawsuit that accuses the bank of hiding foreclosure problems that contributed to a drop in its share price.

The suit, filed by a union benefit plan, says Bank of America concealed problems in its recording of mortgages, Reuters reported. This damaged investors when the company suspended foreclosure proceedings last year, the suit says.

"We are reviewing the lawsuit and have no further comment at this time," said Bank of America spokeswoman Shirley Norton.

Attorneys general in all 50 states are investigating foreclosure practices after accusations that lenders were using flawed paperwork to foreclose on homes.

The suit is a proposed class action suit. The plaintiff purchases almost 25,000 Bank of America shares in a three-month period last year.

The suit proposes a class made up of all who bought the stock between January 20, 2010 and October 19, 2010.

Wal-Mart is trying to halt the lawsuit, with the backing of many other big companies concerned about rules for class-action cases — those in which people with similar interests increase their leverage by joining in a single claim. Class actions against discount seller Costco and the tobacco industry are among pending claims that the high court's decision might alter.

The suit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. contends that women at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores are paid less and promoted less often than men. The case the high court accepted on Monday will not examine whether the claims are true, only whether they can be tried together.

Estimates of the size of the class range from 500,000 to 1.5 million women who work or once worked for Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., is appealing a ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco that the class-action lawsuit could go to trial.

Tobacco giant Altria Corp., Bank of America Corp., Dole Food Company Inc., General Electric Co., Intel Corp., Pepsico Inc. and United Parcel Service Inc. are among the companies that also called for high court review of the case.