Access our very best investigative reporting, opinion and commentary.
Welcome !
Look for the icon to access members-only premium content.
Wall Street dips at open on 'cliff' overhang
Wall Street dipped at the open on Friday as investors digested the latest round of economic data, while concerns about a lack of progress by...
Boeing CEO says 787 problems are not unusual for new plane
The failure of electrical generators on two new Boeing 787 planes are normal problems for a jet program that is just entering service, the...
U.S. consumer prices post first drop in six months
U.S. consumer prices fell in November for the first time in six months, pointing to muted inflation pressures that should allow the...
The day ahead in business
Reports: Consumer price index for November, 7:30 a.m.; Industrial production/capacity utilization for November, 8:15 a.m.
Smisek to replace Tilton as chairman of United Continental
United Continental Holdings, parent of United Airlines, said Thursday that CEO Jeff Smisek will at the end of the year replace former CEO...
Push for minimum wage hike intensifies as worker ranks swell
NEW YORK — Before the recession, Amie Crawford was an interior designer, earning $50,000 a year patterning baths and cabinets for...
Southwest settles class-action over drink vouchers
Southwest Airlines has settled a class-action lawsuit filed by a Chicago attorney over the discount carrier's decision to stop honoring...
Using smartphones to hail cabs is approved in New York City
Waving a hand to hail a cab in New York City could soon become passe.
Wal-Mart, Kroger among Hostess bidders: report
Hostess Brands Inc, the bankrupt Twinkie and Wonder Bread maker, has received bids for assets being sold by about two dozen parties...
Special deposit insurance to end after extension stalls in Senate
WASHINGTON -- The Senate on Thursday failed to extend a special unlimited deposit insurance program largely used by businesses that was...
UBS may pay $1B to settle rate-rigging probe, reports say
Swiss banking giant UBS may pay more than $1 billion to settle investigations into allegations that it conspired to rig key interest rates,...
Labor market brightens, consumers step up spending
The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits fell sharply last week to a near four-year low and retail sales rebounded...
Beer breweries hit American record
It’s getting crowded in the American beer market, with the most breweries in operation in the country’s history.
Sears adds baseball's DePodesta to board
Sears Holdings Corp. is reaching into world of "Moneyball" for guidance as the retailer tries to turn around its struggling business.
World airlines on track for safest year ever
Global airlines are heading for the safest year on record with an average by the end of November of only one accident of any type for...
Mortgage rates dip slightly, back to near record, Freddie Mac says
Fixed mortgage rates eased slightly this week, with lenders offering 30-year loans to solid borrowers at an average interest rate of 3.32%,...
Limit on volume of commercials starts today
TV viewers finally should get some relief from a major annoyance: excessively loud commercials.
Sprint offers $2.1B to buy rest of Clearwire
Sprint Nextel Corp., the majority owner of Clearwire Corp., has offered $2.1 billion to buy the rest of the wireless service provider but it...
McAfee arrives in U.S. from Guatemala
Computer software pioneer John McAfee, who is wanted for questioning in Belize over the murder of a fellow American, arrived in Miami on...
Google Maps makes its way back to the iPhone
Google's navigation tool has returned to the iPhone, months after Apple's home-grown mapping service flopped, prompting user complaints, the...
Illinois foreclosures rise for 11th month
Foreclosure activity in Illinois posted the 11th straight year-over-year increase in November, but compared with a month earlier, filings...
Aldermen approve Emanuel's energy switch to Integrys from ComEd
Chicagoans could find out as soon as Thursday exactly how much they will pay for electricity under a plan approved Wednesday that switches...
The day ahead in business
Reports: Initial jobless claims for week ended Dec. 8, 7:30 a.m.; Retail sales for November, 7:30 a.m.; Producer price index for November,...
European bank supervision beings March 2014
A new system to supervise banks in the euro zone will be up and running from March 1, 2014, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble...
Beef worker sues Diane Sawyer, Jamie Oliver over "pink slime"
A former employee of Beef Products Inc. is suing ABC News, anchor Diane Sawyer, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and others, saying that their...
American rolls out airfare 'upgrade' packages
American Airlines on Wednesday introduced packages of airfare upgrades that will be available on round-trip flights booked through its...
Redbox Instant streaming rentals coming this month
Kiosk operator Redbox will launch an $8-a-month instant video streaming service this month, in a challenge to dominant movie rental...
Fed adds another $45B per month in stimulus
The Federal Reserve ramped up its stimulus to the economy on Wednesday, expressing disappointment with the pace of recovery in employment as...
Apple iTV coming soon? Stay tuned
Apple iTV rumors are getting back into full swing following a report saying the company is checking out several designs for a high-...
Wealthy face 1st tax increase since 1993
Taxes will rise for wealthy Americans next year. It's still a question of how much.
States urgently press for authority to tax Internet sales
U.S. governors are urgently pressing Congress to pass Internet sales tax legislation in the coming weeks, saying states cannot afford to...
CBOE Holdings CEO Brodsky to step down in May
CBOE Holdings Inc. Chief Executive William Brodsky, who transformed the member-owned exchange into a publicly-traded company best known as...
Berkshire Hathaway buys back $1.2B of stock
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said on Wednesday that it had repurchased $1.2 billion of its own stock and raised the price at which it is...
Icahn ally joins Navistar board
Navistar International Corp. said on Wednesday it named the last of three board members chosen by its largest shareholders as part of a deal...
Facebook unveils new privacy controls
Facebook Inc. began rolling out a variety of new privacy controls on Wednesday, the company's latest effort to address user concerns about...
More than 1 million flock to Pope's new Twitter feed
Pope Benedict XVI hit the 1 million Twitter follower mark on Wednesday as he sent his first tweet from his new account, blessing his...
Illinois losing U.S. unemployment extension
About 90,000 people in Illinois will stop receiving unemployment benefits when a federal emergency program ends later this month.
The day ahead in business
Reports: MBA mortgage index for week ended Dec. 8, 6 a.m.; Import/export prices for November, 7:30 a.m.; Crude inventories for week ended...
BMW to collaborate with Boeing on carbon fiber
German carmaker BMW and U.S. aircraft maker Boeing are to exchange information about making carbon fiber, an emerging battleground among...
Obama, Boehner talk and exchange new offers on 'fiscal cliff'
Negotiations to avert the "fiscal cliff" ahead of a year-end deadline intensified as President Barack Obama and U.S. House of...
Fed ties rates to jobs recovery, adds to stimulus
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve, announcing a new round of monetary stimulus, took the unprecedented step on Wednesday of...
HSBC became bank to drug cartels, pays big for lapses
(Reuters) - In February 2008, Mexican authorities told the CEO of HSBC Holdings Plc's Mexico unit that a local drug lord referred to the...
Michigan weakens union rights in home of auto industry
Michigan enacted a ban on mandatory union membership on Tuesday, dealing a stunning blow to organized labor in the state that is home to U....
CEOs step up push for compromise on "fiscal cliff"
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of high-profile chief executives urged President Barack Obama and Republican congressional leaders on Tuesday...
ComPsych adds 200 jobs, mostly in Chicago
ComPsych Corp., a provider of employee assistance programs, said Tuesday that it has added more than 200 new employees this year, the vast...
Ex-MF Global trader pleads guilty to fraud
A Mississippi trader pleaded guilty to commodities fraud Tuesday after running up more than $141 million in losses by shorting wheat futures...
U.S. Treasury exits AIG as markets await rebound
(Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury's sale of its remaining stake in American International Group Inc will leave taxpayers with a profit of...
Facebook vote results: New policies are in, voting rights are out
SAN FRANCISCO -- Facebook has made it official: Its users will no longer get a vote in how the giant social network handles their personal...
A123 seeks bankruptcy court approval of asset sale
Failed battery maker A123 Systems Inc. is asking a Delaware bankruptcy judge to approve the sale of most of its assets to the U.S. arm of...
Delta buys 49% stake in Virgin Atlantic
Delta Air Lines agreed to buy a 49 percent stake in Virgin Atlantic, creating a joint venture that would expand Delta's access to London's...
Buying Groupon hard for Google with growth diminishing
Even at half the price Google bid two years ago, Groupon is no deal for potential buyers.
Blackhawk Sheldon Brookbank buys Roscoe Village house for $1M
Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Sheldon Brookbank and his wife have paid exactly $1 million to buy a four-bedroom, five-year-old house in...
Sporting News ceasing print publication
The Sporting News, a staple for generations of information-hungry sports fans, said Tuesday it is ceasing print publication after 126...
Yahoo to clean-up its email service
Yahoo Inc. Chief Executive Marissa Mayer on Tuesday introduced a new version of Yahoo Mail, making one of company's most popular products...
Election victory tweet tops on Twitter in 2012
An election victory tweet from President Barack Obama -- "Four more years" with a picture of him hugging his wife -- was the most...
HSBC to pay record $1.9B fine in money laundering case
HSBC has agreed to pay a record $1.92 billion fine to settle a multi-year probe by U.S. prosecutors, who accused Europe's biggest bank of...
JPMorgan Chase No. 1 in U.S. customer survey
JPMorgan Chase & Co. jumped to first in a U.S. customer satisfaction survey, as its three biggest rivals, including perennial leader...
U.S. makes $22.7B profit on AIG bailout
WASHINGTON -- The Treasury Department said Tuesday it would raise $7.6 billion in the sale of its final shares of American International...
Jewel says it has 'last' shipment of Twinkies
Jewel-Osco said it is getting what it believes is the final shipment of Twinkies in the country, with more than 25,000 boxes of Hostess...
Wells Fargo not modifying mortgages as required, lawsuit says
Accusing Wells Fargo & Co. of reneging on a sweeping mortgage-modification deal, a lawyer for troubled homeowners is trying to reopen...
Weak German PMI data send shares, euro into reverse
LONDON (Reuters) - Weaker-than-expected European economic data sent the region's shares and the euro into reverse on Friday, as hopes of a...
The day ahead in business
Reports: Trade balance for October, 7:30 a.m.; Wholesale inventories for October, 9 a.m.
Britain's Pace approaches Google over Motorola Home
British TV decoder maker Pace Plc said on Monday that it had made an early-stage proposal to Internet group Google Inc. to acquire its set-...
Holiday retail hiring could break record set 12 years ago
Holiday hiring by retailers is fast approaching a record set 12 years ago, according to a new analysis of government numbers.
Goldman cuts CME Group to 'sell,' cites volume struggle
CME Group Inc. will struggle to rebound from low trading volumes next year, Goldman Sachs said, as it downgraded its rating to "sell" for...
30 accepted into West Side entrepreneurial program
Thirty entrepreneurs on Chicago's West Side have been accepted into a new program in which they'll receive a year of small-business training...
D.E Master Blenders CEO to step down
Michael Herkemij is to quit as chief executive of D.E Master Blenders 1753, the Dutch company behind the Douwe Egberts coffee brand hit by...
McDonald's November restaurant sales beat expectations
McDonald’s took Wall Street by surprise Monday morning, with a November same store sales report that beat expectations and showed...
U.S. top court rejects taxpayer challenge to AIG bailout
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear an appeal by a taxpayer who claimed the government's 2008 bailout of the insurer American...
FTC: Most mobile apps for kids secretly collect and share information
SAN FRANCISCO -- A study from the Federal Trade Commission has found that most mobile apps for kids are secretly collecting information from...
Turkish Airlines finalizes order with Boeing
Turkish Airlines has finalized an order for 15 Boeing airplanes that will help it fly to more destinations globally.
Long-treasured mortgage interest deduction may face changes
WASHINGTON — At 70, Frank White isn't a typical first-time home buyer. But a key reason he ditched his Altadena apartment and bought a...
SEC testimony: Hefner not aware husband owned Playboy shares
Bloomberg News is reporting: Former Playboy Enterprises Inc. CEO Christie Hefner, didn't know her husband, William...
U.S., UK bank seizure plans focus on absorbing losses: regulators
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Both the United States and United Kingdom have developed viable approaches to seizing and unwinding failing global...
Apple, JPMorgan among Barron's top 10 picks for 2013
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Corporate giants Apple , JPMorgan Chase and Royal Dutch Shell all made it into Barron's top 10 stock picks for 2013,...
As 'fiscal cliff' nears, market complacency sets in
Investors' collective shrug marks a stark change from how they had behaved in the two weeks after the presidential election, when nearly...
Wanxiang wins auction for assets of battery maker A123
Chinese firm Wanxiang emerged as the winning bidder of bankrupt battery-maker A123's assets after a days long auction that lasted until...
Boeing's engineer union says strike is likely, prepares workers
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Saying a strike now appears likely, the union representing Boeing Co's 23,000 engineers held picket-line training this...
Integrys chosen for Chicago electricity deal
Integrys Energy Services, a sister company to Peoples Gas, is the city's choice to supply electricity to about 1 million residents, Mayor...
American pilots ratify contract; US Airways comes calling
Pilots at American Airlines ratified a new union labor contract, which among other terms provides pilots pay raises and a 13.5 percent stake...
Chicago condo of jailed Peregrine founder sells for $1M
Bloomberg News reports: The lakefront Chicago condominium of Russell Wasendorf Sr., convicted former head of Peregrine...
Report highlights education, job needs of Illinois veterans
More than 76,000 veterans who have served since 2001 live in Illinois, according to a new report for the Robert R. McCormick Foundation...
O'Hare affected by United's latest computer glitch
United Airlines experienced more computer problems Friday, causing systems to slow down.
Boeing reports net jet order cancellations of $1.2B
Boeing Co. said customers cancelled orders for six planes worth nearly $1.9 billion at list prices, and booked orders for two planes worth...
Samsung Galaxy S IV phone to have unbreakable screen, report says
Samsung's rumored flagship phone, the Galaxy S IV, may feature a new technology that will make its screen "unbreakable."
'50 Shades' nets Random House employees $5K bonuses
ABC News reports: Random House is giving all employees, from executives to their secretaries, $5,000 bonus thanks largely...
Consumer confidence falls sharply amid 'fiscal cliff' worries
WASHINGTON -- After displaying resilient confidence over the last few months, consumers are finally starting to show the pangs of the...
Ford issues second Fusion recall in 2 weeks
Ford Motor Co. is recalling 19,106 2013 Fusion sedans in the United States to replace faulty headlamps, federal safety officials said on...
McDonald's, stung by October sales decline, gets upgrade
McDonald's Corp., which has come under fire since its report in October that U.S. same-store sales declined 2.2 percent, was upgraded Friday...
Aetna in $120M deal in out-of-network payments suit
Aetna Inc., the third-largest U.S. health insurer, has agreed to pay as much as $120 million to settle nationwide litigation over how it...
With ties to ND, IrishAngels ready to back local startups
A new investment group with ties to the University of Notre Dame is launching in the Chicago area, adding to the number of funding sources...
146,000 jobs added in Nov., jobless rate at 7.7%
U.S. employment grew faster than expected in November, but a drop in the jobless rate to a near-four year low as people gave up the search...
Aldi supermarket heir dead at 58
German billionaire Berthold Albrecht, who became one of Europe's richest men after he and his brother Theo Jr. inherited the Aldi discount...
Report: Wages in developed countries barely pacing inflation
Average salaries in developed countries are expected to have risen by no more than inflation this year, the International Labour...
The day ahead in business
Reports: Unemployment rate for November, 7:30 a.m.; Michigan consumer sentiment for December, 8:55 a.m.; Consumer credit for October, 2 p.m.
Apple to return some Mac production to U.S. in 2013
SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple Inc plans to move some production of Macintosh computers to the United States from China next year,...
