First Data and Hong Kong-based China CITIC Bank International Limited announce a partnership with the launch of a comprehensive range of merchant acquiring solutions including point of sale terminals, eCommerce solutions and other value-added services in Hong Kong. Through this partnership, CNCBI clients will have access to a full range of flexible payment acceptance methods in-store, on mobile devices, and online. Clients with physical stores, for instance, can take advantage of First Data's latest all-in-one point of sale terminals which accept all major payment types in Hong Kong, while they can also ride on First Data's global eCommerce solutions to facilitate the convenience of payment via card, mobile wallet or e-wallet, online and offline. The partnership with First Data provides CNCBI clients with more channels to accept payments and inject funds directly into their CNCBI Business NOW account with a shorter settlement time.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company submitted its supplemental report to the California Public Utilities Commission, or CPUC, about two incidents on its electric system near the Camp Fire. PG&E is also releasing the report publicly. PG&E submitted two Electric Incident Reports to the CPUC; one on Nov. 8 and one on Nov. 16. Today, PG&E publicly released a letter to the CPUC supplementing those reports. The cause of the fire is still under investigation. The previous preliminary incident reports noted outages on the Caribou-Palermo 115kV transmission line at 6:15 a.m. and the Big Bend 1101 12kV at 6:45 a.m. on Nov. 8. On Nov. 8, PG&E was able to conduct an aerial patrol of the Caribou-Palermo site and observed damage on the line at a tower. As noted in today's letter to the CPUC, a suspension insulator supporting a transposition jumper had separated from an arm on the tower. Once PG&E could access the site on the ground, it found a broken C-hook attached to the separated suspension insulator that had connected the suspension insulator to a tower arm. PG&E also observed a flash mark on the tower. With regard to the Big Bend 1101 distribution circuit, PG&E conducted a patrol on Nov. 9. and observed a pole and other equipment on the ground with bullets and bullet holes at the break point of the pole and on the equipment. On Nov. 12, another PG&E patrol observed wires down and damaged and downed poles. PG&E also found several snapped trees, with some on top of the downed wires. Beginning on November 13, 2018, CAL FIRE requested that PG&E assist it in collecting evidence related to the Big Bend outage. These incidents remain under investigation, and this information is preliminary. The causes may not be fully understood until additional information is available, including information that can only be obtained through examination and testing of the equipment retained by CAL FIRE. PG&E is cooperating with CAL FIRE.

Realty Income Corporation announced its board of directors has declared an increase in the company's common stock monthly cash dividend to 22.1c per share from 22.05c per share. The dividend is payable on January 15, 2019 to shareholders of record as of January 2, 2019. The ex-dividend date for January's dividend is December 31, 2018. The new monthly dividend represents an annualized dividend amount of $2.652 per share as compared to the current annualized dividend amount of $2.646 per share.

Black Hills Corp. announced that its power generation subsidiary, Black Hills Electric Generation, LLC, completed the purchase of a 50% ownership interest in the 29-megawatt Busch Ranch I Wind Farm located near Pueblo, Colorado, for approximately $16M from AltaGas Power Holdings Inc. Black Hills Colorado Electric, an affiliate utility company doing business as Black Hills Energy, owns the remaining 50% ownership and operates the wind farm. The Busch Ranch I Wind Farm is located 30 miles south of Pueblo, Colo., in Huerfano County, and consists of 16 wind turbines. All of the energy from the wind farm has been serving the 96,000 customers of Colorado Electric since operations began in October 2012. Black Hills Electric Generation will provide its share of energy from the wind farm to Colorado Electric through an existing long-term power purchase agreement that expires in October 2037. Black Hills Electric Generation recently received approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to purchase the Busch Ranch I ownership interest. In addition, Black Hills Electric Generation is currently constructing the 60- megawatt Busch Ranch II wind project at an adjacent location, which is expected to begin serving Colorado Electric customers by year-end 2019 through a 25-year power purchase agreement.

Edwards Lifesciences (EW) commented a federal jury's decisions in patent litigation between Edwards and Boston Scientific (BSX): "The jury awarded $35M in damages to Boston Scientific for infringement of U.S. patent number 8,992,608 (the '608 patent) for a transcatheter heart valve sealing skirt. Edwards does not expect to pay the jury award since, earlier this year, the U.S. Patent and Trademark office determined that all asserted claims of the '608 patent were invalid. The jury found that Edwards' foundational U.S. Spenser Patents for transcatheter heart valves are valid, but not infringed by the Lotus devices. Edwards plans to appeal. Boston Scientific initiated litigation that now involves multiple patents in multiple venues, and will likely yield court actions over an extended period of time."

Heartland Financial USA announced that its board of directors declared a special cash dividend of 5c per share on the company's common stock at its meeting today. The special dividend is payable on December 28 to stockholders of record at the close of business on December 21. Together with the four regular cash dividends paid in 2018, the special dividend brings the total dividends paid this year to 59c per common share.

Boston Scientific (BSX) announced that a jury in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware determined that the Boston Scientific U.S. patent 8,992,608 is valid and that Edwards Lifesciences' (EW) Sapien 3(TM) Aortic Valve infringes this patent and that Edwards owes Boston Scientific infringement damages through the end of 2016. Additional damages and interest incurred from 2017-2018 will be determined by the court in post-trial motions.The jury also found that the Boston Scientific LOTUS Aortic Valve System does not infringe Edwards' Spenser patents U.S. 7,510,575, U.S. 9,168,133, or U.S. 9,339,383. "We continue to be encouraged by the sustained record of positive legal rulings, first in European courts and now in the U.S., which upholds our company's intellectual property," said Desiree Ralls-Morrison, senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary, Boston Scientific.

In a regulatory filing, Microsoft Chief Marketing Officer Chris Capossela disclosed the sale of 4K shares of common stock in a transaction dated December 10th with estimated value of $420K.