(AP) — Cable TV operator Charter Communications wants to buy the much larger Time Warner Cable in a cash-and-stock deal that could be worth up to $38 billion.

The company says it is prepared to bring the offer directly to shareholders after determining there is “no genuine intent” from Time Warner Cable’s management to engage in merger talks.

Charter Communications Inc. said Monday that it has made repeated overtures to Time Warner for more than six months. In December, Charter was planning an offer below $135 per share, including $83-per-share in cash. That values Time Warner at up to $38 billion.

Time Warner Cable Inc. did not have an immediate comment.

Time Warner’s stock closed at $132.40 on Monday and is up 1.6 percent to $134.45 in after-hours trading.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles house fire that killed a man and his two children has now claimed the life of the mother.

Fire Capt. Jaime Moore says the woman died at a hospital at about 1:30 p.m. Monday — about nine hours after the blaze at a Sylmar home.

Smoke inhalation is suspected in the death of the woman, her husband, their 12-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son.

Moore says all four had no pulses and weren’t breathing when firefighters pulled them from the metal-sided barn that was built in the 1960s as a residence. The man and children were pronounced dead shortly thereafter.

Moore says the building was certified for residential use but lacked fire alarms and the owner could face criminal charges.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, but Moore says arson has been ruled out.

(AP) — A Southwest Airlines flight that was supposed to land at Branson Airport has instead landed at a smaller airport just outside of the southwest Missouri town.

Southwest Airlines said late Sunday in a statement that Flight 4013 was scheduled to go from Chicago’s Midway International Airport to Branson Airport. The flight instead landed nine miles north at Taney County Airport. It is also known as M. Graham Clark Downtown Airport.

Southwest spokesman Brad Hawkins said there were 124 passengers and five crew members on the flight. He also said the landing was “uneventful.”

Tony Molinaro, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman for its central region, says the FAA is investigating the incident.

The flight was scheduled to go from Chicago to Branson, and then on to Dallas.

Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg says the average U.S. price of gasoline is up 8 cents a gallon over the past three weeks.

According to the Lundberg Survey released Sunday, the average for a gallon of regular gas is now $3.35. Midgrade averages $3.54, and premium is $3.68.

Of cities surveyed in the Lower 48 states, the lowest price, $2.97 a gallon, was in Albuquerque, N.M.

Long Island, N.Y., had the highest, at $3.67.

Just a penny less was San Diego, with an average of $3.66.

The lowest price in California was in Sacramento, at $3.47.

The average price per gallon in Nebraska is just over $3.00.

(AP) — A Rhode Island woman wants answers after discovering the wrong body in a casket that should have contained her mother, who died unexpectedly in St. Maarten.

Warwick resident Lisa Kondvar and her family discovered another woman’s body in the casket at a New Jersey funeral home last month. The body of her mother, Margaret Porkka, had been prepared at a funeral home in St. Maarten.

The family believes Porkka’s body was confused with that of a Canadian woman who died on the island around the same time. They believe Porkka’s body was cremated in Ottawa.

St. Maarten Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams said Friday the government will do a DNA analysis to verify the bodies’ identities. The funeral home director there says he’ll give a refund if the government finds a mistake was made.

(AP) — Snapchat has released an update to its disappearing-photo app following a security breach last week that exposed the phone numbers of millions of users.

And for the first time since the New Year’s breach, the company said it’s sorry.

Snapchat had promised a more secure version of its app following the breach, which allowed hackers to collect the usernames and phone numbers of 4.6 million of its users.

The Los Angeles startup on Thursday released an update to its Android and iPhone apps that it says “improves Find Friends functionality.” The feature, which suggests Snapchat connections based on a user’s phone contacts, was at the heart of the breach. Users can now also avoid linking their usernames with phone numbers.

(AP) — Hunkering down at home rather than going to work, canceling thousands of flights and repairing burst pipes from the Midwest to the Southeast has its price.

One estimate from business weather intelligence company Planalytics puts the cost of the polar vortex that gripped much of the country during the past week at $5 billion.

But experts say those impacts aren’t as bad as they sound when compared against the overall economy. Planalytics’ Evan Gold notes $5 billion pales in comparison with an annual gross domestic product of about $15 trillion. It works out to maybe one-seventh to one-eighth of one day’s production for the entire country.

And, Gold says, there were bottom lines that benefited, including those of on-demand cable TV and restaurant delivery services.

(AP) — A quirky new study suggests patients’ expectations can make a big difference in how they feel after treatment for a migraine.

Boston researchers recruited 66 patients, and gave them either a real medication to use when migraines struck or a dummy pill. Sometimes they knew what they were taking; sometimes researchers secretly switched the pills.

The study found that it’s important for doctors to give a positive message along with a medication: Patients reported more pain relief when they accurately believed they were taking the real drug than when they were told, falsely, that it was a fake. But even the placebo offered some pain relief, more when patients thought it was the real thing.

The study was published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

SEASIDE, Ore. (AP) — A waitress at the Twisted Fish restaurant in Seaside, Ore., says she got an unusual tip — an envelope full of methamphetamine.

The waitress contacted police Friday after a couple included the envelope while paying for their drinks.

The responding officer identified the substance, and arrested 40-year-old Ryan Bensen of Beaverton and 37-year-old Erica Manley of Cascade Locks.

Police said they found more of the drug when searching Manley’s purse and the couple’s motel and vehicle.

The newspaper reports the two were taken to the Clatsop County Jail. Bensen was charged with meth possession and manufacture of meth. Manley faces the same charges as well as delivery of meth.

All seized evidence has been forwarded to the state crime lab for analysis.

(AP) — The government’s latest fitness data suggest young teens aren’t exactly embracing the Let’s Move mantra.

Only 1 in 4 U.S. kids ages 12 to 15 meet the recommendations of an hour or more of moderate to vigorous activity every day.

The results are based on about 800 kids who self-reported their activity levels and had physical exams as part of the 2012 National Youth Fitness Survey.

Government researchers won’t call the results disappointing, but the lead author says, “There’s always room for improvement.”

While few met the guidelines for activity that raises the heart rate and makes you breathe harder, most said they did at least an hour of exercise at that level during the previous week.

Data suggest obesity may have decreased slightly among some children, but the overall rate is 17 percent, or about 12.5 million obese kids.