APPLE SAY NO TO ICAHN PLAN??

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Apple shareholders should vote against a proposal by activist investor Carl Icahn for the tech giant to aggressively expand its stock repurchase, proxy advisory firm ISS said in a report released on Sunday.

"(The Apple board) has returned the bulk of its U.S.-generated cash to shareholders via aggressive stock buybacks and dividends payouts," ISS said in the report.

"In light of these good-faith efforts and its past stewardship, the board's latitude should not be constricted by a shareholder resolution that would micromanage the company's capital allocation process."

(Read more: Apple drops 5%on weak iPhone sales, revenue outlook)

Icahn has been pushing the tech giant to aggressively expand its stock repurchase and has criticized the board for not doing so. He has filed a resolution proposing Apple commit to not less than $50 billion of share buybacks.

The activist investor has been gradually building up shares in Apple and late last month picked up another $500 million.

CALIFORNIA IS LOW ON GAS???!

Water isn't the only resource running short in California. The drought-stricken state is also low on natural gas.

With a move that usually comes in the height of summer when temperatures are soaring and air conditioners blasting, Californians were urged to voluntarily cut their electricity use after frigid weather across the U.S. and Canada caused a shortage of natural gas at Southern California power plants.

The so-called Flex Alert, in which residents are asked to turn off unneeded lights, avoid using large appliances or equipment, and turn off electrically powered heaters, was allowed to expire at 10 p.m. Thursday, nine hours after it began.

(Read more: Cold blast pushes record natural gas demand)

The shortage was only in Southern California, but the north was asked to do its part too.

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"Statewide electricity and gas conservation will help free up both electricity and gas supplies for Southern Californians," the California Independent System Operator, which runs the state's power grid, said in a statement.

There was no immediate call for an extension of the alert, but it wasn't clear whether more could be coming.

Stephanie McCorkle, a spokeswoman for the grid operator, said Southern California has become increasingly dependent on natural gas-fired plants since the decision last year to shutter the troubled San Onofre nuclear power plant, which is located between Los Angeles and San Diego.

HARD WINTER BAD FOR BUSINESS??

A Philadelphia resident clears snow near a downed tree

Unrelenting harsh winter weather is likely to show up as a slight drag on economic growth in the first quarter, even if there is a spring rebound.

The number and intensity of winter storms have stalled pockets of economic activity across the country, with another system dumping freezing rain on top of snow along the East Coast on Wednesday.

Ice paralyzed Atlanta late last month, bitter cold shut Chicago schools and snowstorms in the East halted travel. Add drought conditions in the West, and economists are attempting to determine how much they should deduct from first-quarter growth simply because of the weather.

"We already saw it in auto sales," said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial. "It literally freezes the economic activity, and you don't get the activity to resume until we get a thaw."

PLAY VIDEO

CNBC's Patti Domm discusses whether the severe weather will have an impact on jobs.

Disruption to air travel alone has been massive. According to FlightAware, 39,000 flights were canceled last month, the most since 21,000 in October 2012, when Hurricane Sandy pummeled the East Coast. Just Wednesday, there were already 3,300 flights cancelled by mid-morning, with many of them in New York, New Jersey, Chicago and Boston.

Those businesses most likely to blame weather for poor results don't get much sympathy on Wall Street, but they now won't be alone. The weather is expected to have been severe enough to affect activity across the broader economy.

Kraft Foods Wednesday temporarily closed the second biggest wheat flour mill in the U.S., when travel on the roads near its Toledo, Ohio facility was restricted due to heavy snow.

SAY NO TOO FRACK???

In his State of the Union address last week, President Obama promised to implement change with or without Congress, and called on the various states to take the initiative themselves on issues such as the minimum wage. But the president was a little behind the curve; states are already stepping in to take action where federal lawmakers have failed to act.

Across the country, many public policy issues that have traditionally been handled by federal-level regulations – minimum wage requirements, environmental regulations, even immigration – are increasingly the subject of state-level regulation. Often, this is because state officials simply got tired of waiting for Washington to address a problem, and took matters into their own hands.

"The states are picking up more, because they have to," said Dan Crippen, executive director of the National Governors Association. "The pace of change in states, and the recognition of having to pick up some of the slack from Washington is increasing."

USA oil boom will not lower prices??

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Oil tanker at the Port of Long Beach, Calif.

The United States is awash in oil, yet analysts at RBC Capital Markets don't expect that to pull benchmark crude prices much lower.

In its five-year outlook, published Thursday, RBC analysts said soaring U.S. production will be absorbed by the rest of the world "with only modest price impact" over the next year. The world's largest economy is churning out record amounts of crude, and is mulling whether to export some of it abroad—something it hasn't done in decades.

Last month, the Energy Information Administration said the U.S. would pump huge amounts of oil and natural gas through at least 2016, with annual crude production challenging the 1970 record of 9.6 million barrels per day.

BEWARE OF FLU SHOTS!!!

Natural gas spikes!!!!

Natural gas prices spiked to a three-and-a-half year high on Friday as a surge in demand for the heating fuel and extent of the extreme cold spell across much of the country has led to concerns about whether there will be ample U.S. supplies to last through this winter.

NYMEX natural gas futures for February delivery skyrocketed nearly 10 percent to $5.182 per million British Thermal Units, the highest settlement price since June 2010. The price continued to gain in after-hours electronic trading.

Natural gas futures have now rallied more than 5 percent in each of the past three trading days and have gained nearly 20 percent so far this year. Meanwhile, cash prices for natural gas in the Northeast hit record levels this week - topping $135 in the New York and New Jersey area -- due to pipeline issues.

Weather forecasts indicate that the severe cold that is blanketing much of the country will stretch into the first part of next month. Heating demand is already as much as five times higher than normal for this time of year, according to some reports. Traders say production "freeze-offs" at drilling sites, pipeline disruptions, delivery issues and a resulting "panic" in the cash market has provided a considerable boost to natural gas futures.