From the Wires

USA Today: JPMorgan Chase must pay $1.7 billion to settle criminal charges from the Bernard Madoff case.

CBS: The 29-year-old will skip the Winter Games in Russia due to a right knee injury.

Forbes: Taxes on legal marijuana have made its prices much higher than its black-market counterpart.

Bloomberg Businessweek: December’s forecast shows uneven progress for the largest part of the United States’ economy.

Reuters: The top automakers in the United States did not meet December sales expectations, but 2013 still stands at the best year for the industry since the recession.

USA Today: General Mills says it will stop using genetically modified ingredients in its original Cheerios cereal.

Reuters: Construction spending in the United States is at its highest level in nearly five years. Construction spending increased 1 percent to an annual rate of $934.4 billion, the highest level since March 2009, the Commerce Department said on Thursday. It was the eighth straight month that construction spending increased. Read more here.

BBC: The first state-licensed marijuana industry opened in Colorado at the start of the new year. Blustery winter weather could not deter Colorado’s cannabis consumers from turning out in large numbers on 1 January, dubbed Green Wednesday, to see history in the making. Residents aged 21 and over can buy 1oz (28g), while those from … Read more

Toronto-based Sherritt International Corp. is selling its coal business for nearly $900 million to focus more on its core nickel and oil operations.

AP: American Express has agreed to pay at least $75.7 million to end an investigation by regulators into some discontinued card products.