Business news in brief

With the slow winter months setting in, Atlantic City's 11 casinos reported a 12.5 percent decrease in gambling revenue last month compared with a year ago. The seaside resort generated $261.7 million in revenue, down from $299.3 million in November 2009. Nine casinos reported monthly revenue declines, ranging from 5.5 percent at Trump Taj Mahal to 28.6 percent at Resorts. Only Tropicana and Trump Marina reported increases, of 11.2 percent and 1.7 percent. By contrast, Pennsylvania's 10 casinos reported a nearly 8.4 percent increase in gross slots revenue last month compared with a year ago, when the state had only nine casinos. SugarHouse on the Philadelphia waterfront debuted Sept. 23. - Suzette Parmley

Federal regulators are focusing on online video as their review of Comcast Corp.'s proposed purchase of General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal unit nears completion, Comcast, Philadelphia, said in a filing. The Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice are considering requirements for the combined company's treatment of Internet video, provision of high-speed Web service, and the Hulu online service that NBC shares with other companies, according to the filing posted on the FCC's website. Details were not provided. - Bloomberg News

Clay B. Lifflander, a hedge fund manager who in 2008 muscled his way onto the board of Unisys Corp. in an attempt to boost its stock price, resigned his board seat Tuesday, Unisys said in a regulatory filing. Lifflander's company, MMI Investments L.P., owned as much as 9.1 percent of the Blue Bell company, or 32.3 million shares. The New York investors unsuccessfully pushed Unisys to spin off its profitable government-contract business. As of Sept. 30, MMI held 750,000 shares of Unisys stock. Unisys shares were up 29 cents to $25.42 at Friday's closing. - Harold Brubaker

Johnson & Johnson said it is extending its recall of Rolaids Softchews into Canada. The company's McNeil Consumer Healthcare business in Fort Washington said it is voluntarily pulling all Rolaids Ultra Strength Softchews and Rolaids Ultra Strength Softchews plus Gas Relief off the market because consumers reported finding metal and wood particles. The recall includes all production lots. On Thursday, McNeil recalled all Rolaids Extra Strength Softchews, Rolaids Extra Strength plus Gas Softchews, and Rolaids Multi-Symptom plus Anti-Gas Softchews from the U.S. market. - AP

Bengal Paper & Converting, an Eddystone company that warehouses, distributes, and cuts paper to custom sizes, is moving to a 150,000-square-foot building in Linfield, Montgomery County, and plans to hire 15 to 20 people in the next eight months, said Scott H. Korn, Bengal's chairman and chief executive officer. The company, which moved into a former Scott Paper warehouse in Eddystone in 1999, employs 38 people. Korn said the company bought the building in Linfield, which is between Royersford and Pottstown, in July for $2.4 million. - Harold Brubaker

Topper Ray, chief communications officer of the Blank Rome law firm and a principal there, was named president of Bravo Group Communications, effective Jan. 3. Ray will lead the firm's communications practice and be responsible for expanding its operations in the Mid-Atlantic region. The Bravo Group provides communications, public affairs, and government-relations services. Ray joined Blank Rome in 2003 as a founding principal of its lobbying arm. Prior to that, he was a senior vice president for Tierney Communications and a press aide to former President George H.W. Bush. - Chris Mondics

The U.S. government posted a wider budget deficit in November as spending swelled compared with the same time last year when a shift in the timing of payments for programs such as Medicare and Social Security damped 2009 outlays. The deficit was $150.4 billion last month, compared with $120.3 billion in November 2009, according to the Treasury Department's budget statement. For the first two months of the 2011 fiscal year, the shortfall narrowed to $290.8 billion from $296.7 billion in the same period last year as revenue improved. Revenue climbed 12 percent last month as the recovery in the job market began boosting individual tax payments. - Bloomberg News

TJX Cos. says it is shuttering its A.J. Wright discount stores by mid-February, cutting 4,400 jobs and converting some stores to other brands, such as T.J. Maxx. Ninety-one stores will be converted into T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, or HomeGoods stores, and 71 will close entirely, along with two distribution centers. About 3,400 staffers will remain employed at the converted stores. In the Philadelphia area, the stores at Park West Shopping Center on North 52d Street and Cedarbrook Plaza in Wyncote will close. - AP

The Supreme Court will decide whether makers of generic drugs can be sued for not warning about potentially dangerous side effects despite federal rules that their labels match those of their brand-name equivalents. The high court on Friday agreed to hear an appeal from PLIVA Inc. and other drug manufacturers. Gladys Mensing took metoclopramide for four years and developed tardive dyskinesia. She sued, saying the generic drug's maker should have placed a warning on the label. But PLIVA argued that federal regulations require it to use the same label as its brand-name equivalent, Reglan. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, in St. Louis, said PLIVA should have done more to warn consumers about the possible risks. - AP

The trustee seeking to recover money for investors who lost billions of dollars in jailed financier Bernard Madoff's fraud has filed civil charges seeking nearly $20 billion in damages from 56 defendants, including banks. Trustee Irving Picard accused a principal shareholder of Bank Medici of being in a 23-year "criminal relationship" with Madoff that enabled him to hide the operation of his massive Ponzi scheme from thousands of investors. Madoff is serving a 150-year prison sentence after admitting the fraud in late 2008 to his family and later the FBI. - AP

General Electric Co. raised its dividend for the second time in five months as the conglomerate unlocks cash hoarded during the financial crisis. In February 2009, GE cut its quarterly dividend to 10 cents from 31 cents, about 68 percent, as the global financial crisis deepened. The new quarterly payout will jump to 14 cents from 12 cents, after GE raised it from 10 cents in July. The new dividend will be payable Jan. 25 for shareholders of record Dec. 27. - Bloomberg News