Heinz weighs a tax move
The H.J. Heinz Co. is mulling repatriating as much as $1 billion in foreign earnings in response to business tax cuts passed by Congress in October, a move that could affect up to $60 million in income tax. The Pittsburgh ketchup company said it would need more details from regulators but the law would allow a deduction of 85 percent of certain foreign earnings.

Court rejects Mylan challenge
A U.S. appeals court in Washington yesterday rejected Mylan Laboratories' bid to start marketing a generic version of Johnson & Johnson's Duragesic pain-relief skin patch. The court upheld a June decision by the Food and Drug Administration and affirmed another court ruling that allowed Johnson & Johnson to retain exclusive rights to Duragesic until January as a reward for testing the effects of the drug on children. Mylan had challenged the FDA decision.

Good times for temps
Temporary staffing -- a key indicator of the labor market's overall direction -- reached its highest level in four years in the third quarter, according to an American Staffing Association survey. Staffing firms employed an average of 2.63 million workers per day, a 14 percent increase from the same period last year and just shy of the industry's best quarter in 2000. The survey did not break down what industries were hiring, or what jobs temporary workers were filling, nor did it make any fourth-quarter projections.

Also in business ...
The average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline at area self-serve pumps rose nine-tenths of a cent this week to $1.905 from the previous week, AAA East Central reported ... Bombardier Inc.'s credit rating was cut to junk status by Standard & Poor's, which cited "malaise" in the airline industry and an expected decline in train car sales. Moody's Investors Service dropped the company to junk on Nov. 11 ... The Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse added Philips Electronics' Center for Industrial Technology North America to its industry member roster. Philips, a division of the Netherlands-based Royal Philips Electronics, opened its development center in the summer in Houston, Pa.