Monday Afternoon Business Brief

The Dow Jones industrial average is going for a seventh straight day of gains. Boeing has led the Dow higher after a company executive reportedly said he's confident the aircraft maker has figured out a fix for the battery problems that have grounded the 787 Dreamliner. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are little changed.

• Illinois is settling a federal securities-fraud charge that it misled investors about the health of its pension system. Gov. Pat Quinn's office has agreed to a cease-and-desist order. The Securities and Exchange Commission says that Illinois admitted no wrongdoing but has made more complete disclosures since 2009. The case revolved around more than $2 billion of municipal bonds sold from 2005 to early 2009 to pay state obligations to public-employee pension programs.
• A French drug maker says the U.S. Justice Department is investigating its disclosures to the Food and Drug Administration on its blood thinner Plavix. Sanofi says in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the investigation centers on differing responses to the drug. In 2010, the FDA warned that certain patients with a genetic variation cannot metabolize Plavix, increasing their risk for heart attack and stroke. The drug is jointly marketed with Bristol-Myers Squibb.
• Research In Motion will launch its new BlackBerry touchscreen smartphone in the U.S. with AT&T on March 22. AT&T says the Z10 will be available for $199.99 with a two-year contract. Sales of the device began in the U.K. and Canada shortly after RIM unveiled the phone in late January.
• A bid by the world's largest online poker website to buy an Atlantic City casino is touching off a nasty battle with brick-and-mortar casinos. PokerStars' parent company, The Rational Group, wants to buy The Atlantic Club Casino Hotel in what would be the first ownership of an American casino by a solely online gambling company. But The American Gaming Association is urging New Jersey regulators to reject the bid, claiming that PokerStars "was operated as a criminal enterprise" for years.