BAE Systems made a $1.8 billion profit in 2007.

Shipley Energy wants to fuel a revolution in the credit-card industry.

Washington-based Trupanion began offering pet insurance in Pennsylvania this month.

Federal tax incentives enacted this year are opening up choices for Gregg Aversa, owner of a growing business that trains commercial truck drivers at sites around the country.

Dear Mr. Berko: My wife and I will be eligible for full Social Security benefits next month, and I will continue to work because we need the money. But I need to know how much of our Social Security income will be taxed when we begin receiving our checks, and I can't figure out all the stupid instructions on the tax form.

You're the leader of a large, profitable company that is ripe for expansion. You have operations in multiple states, and all of those states are lining up tempting offers to entice you to expand in their backyards.

Grants.

Tax breaks.

Low-interest loans.

If you're the leader of that company, what would you do? You'd probably sift through the offers and go with the best one, right?

Last week's question:

Manufacturer BAE Systems, which posted a $1.8 billion profit in 2007, received $4.3 million from Pennsylvania to expand its York County operations. Should this state and other states offer these types of incentives to large corporations?

NO — 57 percent

YES — 43 percent

Bankruptcies, disciplinary actions, mortgages, incorporations, liens

Sterling Financial Corp. shareholders today approved the Lancaster County financial institution's merger with The PNC Financial Services Group Inc. of Pittsburgh.

Select Medical Corp. reported fourth-quarter earnings of $11.2 million, a 65.8 percent drop compared with the same period last year.

For months, there has been hope that the economy could skirt a recession. Even while the data deteriorated, it was believed that job and income gains would allow consumers to continue to hold up their end of the bargain. But then we got the killer: a second month of U.S. job losses.

REAL ESTATE NEWS: openings, contracts, transactions, relocations

Bankruptcies, disciplinary actions, mortgages, incorportations, liens

M&T Bank Corp. is one of three major banks dropping out of the federal student-loan program for the 2008-09 academic year, according to an article in today's Wall Street Journal.

Midstate banks have largely avoided the turmoil on Wall Street, local financial observers said, after a weekend that saw the near collapse of a major financial firm and unusual interventions by the Federal Reserve System.