One Liberty Square sold to Dallas realty company

Macquarie Real Estate Inc., of Chicago, has sold One Liberty Square, a 157,467-square-foot midrise office building in Boston's Financial District, to Invesco Real Estate of Dallas, according to the real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle, which represented the seller. The price was about $50.3 million. Jones Lang LaSalle managing director Michael G. Smith said about 40 possible buyers toured the Classical Revival-style building, which opened in 1926, was renovated in 1981, and is 93 percent leased. (Thomas C. Palmer Jr.)

Mayor Thomas M. Menino filed legislation that would allow police officers to arrest ticket scalpers on the spot for violating the antiscalping law. Amy Ambark , legal adviser to the Boston Police Department, said officers currently can only issue a court summons to street scalpers. The mayor's bill does nothing to address the reluctance of officers to make arrests under the law, which requires ticket resellers to be licensed by the state and to charge no more than $2 above face value, plus certain service charges. Police officials say a 1999 court injunction made street arrests nearly impossible unless they conduct a sting to buy tickets from a scalper. (Bruce Mohl)

Boston Scientific Corp., the number two maker of implantable defibrillators, said it will cut 500 to 600 research and development jobs at its electronic heart device plant in St. Paul. Most of the employees to be dismissed work at the campus of the former Guidant Corp., which Boston Scientific acquired for $27.5 billion last year. The cuts will result in a $70 million after-tax charge and help streamline the new product development structure, said chief executive Jim Tobin. The Natick-based company also reported that defibrillator sales grew 13 percent to $356 million in the fourth quarter from the preceding period. (Bloomberg)

Raytheon Co., the world's largest missile maker, and union officials will meet separately with a federal mediator this week in an effort to resolve a two-month-old strike at the company's Tomahawk cruise missile plant in Tucson. Raytheon, which will meet with the mediator Friday, has begun to hire replacement workers, including assembly technicians and custodians, a company spokeswoman said. Roughly 40 percent of the 1,200 strikers have returned to the job plant, she said. (Bloomberg)

Genzyme Corp.'s Renagel tablets, used to control blood phosphorus levels in chronic kidney disease patients, were linked to fewer deaths in a 127-person study than similar calcium-based treatments. Eleven new dialysis patients using Renagel died over a 44-month follow-up period, compared to 23 deaths for those treated with so-called calcium-based phosphate binders, Cambridge-based Genzyme said. The company said the difference in mortality risk between the groups as described in the study is statistically significant.(Bloomberg)

The Treasury Department auctioned $17 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 4.940 percent, up from 4.930 percent last week. Another $14 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 4.920 percent, up from 4.900 percent last week. The discount rates reflect that the bills sell for less than face value. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,875.13 while a six-month bill sold for $9,751.27. Separately, the Federal Reserve said the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for making changes in adjustable rate mortgages, slid to 4.98 percent last week from 4.99 percent the previous week. (AP)

State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. is negotiating a multimillion dollar settlement in Mississippi on thousands of lawsuits and other disputed policyholder claims from Hurricane Katrina, people with direct knowledge of the negotiations said. State Farm lawyers met with Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood as recently as Friday to discuss a possible settlement, which would resolve a civil lawsuit Hood filed against the company for refusing to cover damage from Katrina's storm surge almost 16 months ago. A mass settlement would be the first of its kind to follow the wave of litigation spawned by Katrina. Hood, through a spokeswoman, declined to be interviewed. (AP)