A federal judge approved a deferred prosecution

● A federal judge approved a deferred prosecution agreement with Toyota Motor that resolves an investigation into safety issues. U.S. District Judge William
Pauley’s decision, delivered at a hearing in New York, came a day after the Justice Department announced that Toyota would pay $1.2 billion to resolve the
investigation stemming from problems that caused cars to accelerate suddenly. The judge said the case presented a “reprehensible picture of corporate
misconduct.” Toyota faces almost 400
wrongful-death and personal-
injury lawsuits over the acceleration problem.
● Twitter users in Turkey reported widespread outages Friday, hours after Prime Minister Recep Tay-yip Erdogan threatened to shut down access to the social
media platform as he battles a corruption scandal. Some users trying to open the Twitter Web site were taken to a statement that apparently was from Turkey’
s telecommunications regulator. The statement cited four court orders as the basis for blocking the site, where some users in recent weeks have posted voice
recordings and documents purportedly showing evidence of corruption in Erdogan’s inner circle. “Twitter, mwitter!” Erdogan told thousands of supporters
late Thursday at a rally ahead of March 30 local elections, in a phrase translating roughly as “Twitter, schmitter!” Twitter spokesman Nu Wexler said that
the micro-blogging service was “looking into this now,” without saying whether an outage had occurred in Turkey.
● Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages declined last week, with the average rate for the 30-year loan falling from 4.37 percent to 4.32 percent, mortgage
buyer Freddie Mac said. The average for the 15-year mortgage eased from 3.38 percent to 3.32 percent.
● Sales of existing homes slipped in February to their lowest level since July 2012 as severe weather, rising prices and a tight supply of homes discouraged
buyers. The National Association of Realtors said sales declined 0.4 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.6 million. It was the sixth
decline in the past seven months.
● Time Warner Cable chief executive Rob Marcus stands to make about $80 million if Comcast’s deal to buy Time Warner Cable closes, according to a
regulatory filing. Marcus will receive about $20 million in cash, a $2.5 million bonus if certain targets are met and $56.5 million in equity. Comcast has
agreed to buy the No. 2 cable provider in the United States for $45 billion.
● The Arkansas Supreme Court tossed out a $1.2 billion judgment against Johnson & Johnson, reversing a lower court verdict that found the drugmaker engaged
in fraudulent tactics when marketing the anti-psychotic drug Risperdal. The high court ruled that the state’s Medicaid fraud law, which formed the basis of
Arkansas’s lawsuit, regulates health-care facilities and that drug manufacturers, including Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary, Janssen Pharmaceutical,
don’t fall under its scope.