Business news in brief

President Obama's proposed budget for fiscal year 2015 that begins Oct. 1 includes $35 million for continued deepening of the Delaware River navigation channel, three U.S. senators said. Deepening the channel from 40 feet to 45 feet would put ports between Philadelphia and the Atlantic Ocean in line with other major East Coast ports. The proposed $35 million is $15 million more than $20 million allocated in the current 2014 fiscal year, U.S. Sens. Robert P. Casey Jr. (D., Pa.), Tom Carper (D., Del.), and Chris Coons (D., Del.) said in a statement. The deepening project, which began in March 2010, received $42 million in federal funds in fiscal year 2013, and $16.9 million in fiscal year 2012. The entire $300 million deepening is expected to be completed in 2017, said Ed Voigt, Army Corps of Engineers public affairs chief in Philadelphia. - Linda Loyd

Airgas Inc., of Radnor, said it bought Welding & Therapy Service Inc., a company that distributes industrial and medical gases and welding supplies through five locations in Indiana and Kentucky. The price was not disclosed, but Airgas said Welding & Therapy Service had more than $10 million in annual revenue and 51 employees. The deal was Airgas's 11th in the fiscal year that ends March 31. In total, the acquired companies have annual revenues of nearly $82 million, according to Airgas, which had $3.4 billion in revenue in the nine months ended Dec. 31. - Harold Brubaker

Data-center operator Steel ORCA, based in Newtown, Bucks County, said it was starting work Wednesday on a $650 million commercial data center at a former Pfizer plant in Monmouth Junction, N.J. Construction manager will be Gilbane Building Co., of New York. The center is 40 miles from both Philadelphia and New York, where data can be shipped by phone- and cable-fiber-based connections "in less than a millisecond," fast enough to attract financial, Internet service and factory users, said Dave Crocker, Steel ORCA's chief executive and chairman. - Joseph N. DiStefano

Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc., of Blue Bell, said it closed a previously announced public offering of 21.8 million shares at $2.90 per share. The company will use net proceeds - about $59.2 million - for general corporate purposes. - Reid Kanaley

President Obama's $3.9 trillion budget for next year suggests that the U.S. economic recovery that began in 2009 will continue to gain momentum over the next few years but that the unemployment rate won't fall to prerecession levels of below 6 percent until 2017. The administration projected the unemployment rate, 6.6 percent in January, will continue to slowly decline over the next five years, stabilizing at 5.4 percent by 2018. That's down from a high of 10 percent reached during the 2008-09 recession. - AP

Federal safety investigators said they closed an investigation that could have led to a recall of about 1.6 million Ford Motor Co. sedans and crossover vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigated Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan sedans and Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner crossovers from model years 2009 to 2013 after receiving reports of possible fuel system problems that could cause a sudden loss of engine power. NHTSA received about 12,000 complaints on the issue, most of them first reported to Ford. There was one report of an injury but no crashes or deaths related to the issue, NHTSA records show. The agency said closing the investigation did not constitute a finding that a safety-related defect does not exist. - Reuters

Real estate data provider CoreLogic said that U.S. home prices rose 0.9 percent in January after dipping 0.1 percent in December. Over the last 12 months, home prices have risen 12 percent, the biggest year-over-year gain in more than eight years. Such outsize price gains might not continue much longer. Some economists say January's price gains reflect conditions several months ago, when buyers first made offers. The sales were completed in January. Since then, more homes have come on the market - dropping prices and slowing sales. - AP

Facebook Inc. is in talks to buy Titan Aerospace, a maker of solar-powered drones, to step up its efforts to provide Internet access to remote parts of the world, according to reports from technology blog TechCrunch and financial news outlet CNBC. Both websites cited anonymous sources who are familiar with the deal and put a purchase price at $60 million. Facebook spokesman Tucker Bounds said that the company does not comment on rumors and speculation. Titan Aerospace representatives did not respond to requests for comment. - AP

The U.S. Supreme Court expanded the reach of a federal law enacted in response to the 2001 Enron Corp. collapse, saying it protects people who work for a public company's contractors, including law firms and auditors. The justices, voting 6-3, allowed whistle-blower claims by two former employees of a privately held company that provides investment advice and management services to the Fidelity mutual funds. The case centered on protections that watchdog groups and President Obama's administration say are important to prevent another Enron-like catastrophe. - Bloomberg News