Owners

CLEVELAND - Browns owner Jimmy Haslam pledged to continue running his family's business - and NFL team - amid a federal investigation into fraud within his company. Haslam said Friday he had no plans to step aside as president of Pilot Flying J despite federal authorities' alleging he was aware of a widespread scheme to defraud customers of the truck-stop chain. According to court documents, sales team members said Haslam was aware that employees withheld diesel price rebates and discounts from Pilot customers to boost the company's profits and sales commissions.

THE PLAYER who cost the organization much of its future in a trade last summer didn't play one game and recently had surgery on two deteriorating knees. He becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1. There is not much room under the salary cap, perhaps about $12-13 million, to try to make a splash in free agency. The draft pick will be just out of the top 10, in a draft that is filled with players who appear to be peripheral pieces, not ones to build a team around. There could be some front-office moves and now, as of Thursday morning, 76ers owner Josh Harris is heading a group to find a new head coach.

INDIANAPOLIS - When Josh Harris and his ownership group took control of the 76ers two seasons ago, the hedge-fund billionaire refused to characterize the team as a "distressed property," which is usually the favorite kind to buy in his line of work. Well, what about now? The Sixers finished their miserable 2012-13 season Wednesday night with a 105-95 win over an Indiana Pacers team that rested almost all of its starters. The Pacers have the playoffs to look forward to, starting with a first-round series against Atlanta that begins this weekend.

The owners of the SugarHouse Casino have agreed to pay $650,000 to settle claims that their workers illegally dumped construction materials into the Delaware River near the Philadelphia casino, prosecutors said Monday. Under the settlement, announced by U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger, SugarHouse HSP Gaming will pay a $25,000 civil penalty and donate $625,000 to the Brandywine Conservancy, a nonprofit agency dedicated to protecting natural resources. "This case reinforces our commitment to protecting the environment by ensuring that corporations either follow environmental laws or face serious sanctions," Memeger said in a statement.

The partners buying Pittsburgh's H.J. Heinz Co. have chosen one of their own to take over as chief executive officer after the $28 billion sale goes through. Bernardo Hees, who has been CEO of Burger King Worldwide Inc. and who previously ran a railroad and logistics company, will succeed Bill Johnson, according to an announcement Thursday. Johnson's role after the sale of the company to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital isn't clear. He has led Heinz for 15 years and will continue as chairman, president, and CEO through the transaction.

Louis W. Yellin, an enterprising businessman who started in the 1960s with a used press in the basement of his parents' Philadelphia grocery and built a busy South Jersey printing and graphics firm, died Wednesday, April 3, at his Mount Laurel home. He was 71 and had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. With his wife, Annette, Mr. Yellin took A.E. Litho Group from its subterranean beginnings in the city's Tacony section, over the Delaware and into a roomier facility in Riverside.

Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia on Wednesday accused the owner of an ambulance company that operated in Philadelphia Huntingdon Valley, and Camp Hill, Pa., of submitting $3.6 million in fraudulent bills to Medicare for the ambulance transport of dialysis patients who didn't need it. The loss to the government was $1.5 million, the indictment said. In addition to the owner, Anna Mudrova, the indictment also named the company, Penn Choice Ambulance Inc., and six operators. Individuals who answered the phone in Huntingdon Valley and Camp Hill said the company had no comment.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A federal judge will seek to unravel an art mystery and determine the rightful owner of a napkin-size painting by French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir that a Virginia woman says she bought at a flea market for $7. The ownership is in dispute after documents were uncovered showing that a Baltimore museum reported the painting stolen more than 60 years ago. The painting has been seized by the FBI, and the federal government...

John Reece hasn't figured out a way to deliver his latest ice cream creations directly through the Internet, so he relies on Facebook to give his customers a taste. "Beautiful day here in the Philly area," Reece wrote this fall on the page he has created for his Exton and West Chester shops. "Time to enjoy some Scooped Ice Cream. Our new flavors in stock: Pistachio, Mocha Toffee, Pumpkin Pie. " Through the computer screen, Reece has the ability to make customers feel as if they're enjoying a free waffle cone on the front stoop of Scooped, his homemade ice cream, gelato and sorbet business - even before they've left the house.

S HANA HEIDORN, 42, of Pennsport, owns Society Hill Dance Academy, which she started in 2002 on 2nd Street near Pine. She opened a second location in Manayunk in 2008. The school specializes in ballroom and Latin dance. Heidorn also runs a nonprofit called the Philadelphia Dance Foundation, which brings ballroom and Latin dance to inner-city schoolchildren in Philadelphia. Q: How did you come up with the idea for the academy? A: I moved here in 1995 to work for a dance school.