Ask Farmer’s Fridge CEO Luke Saunders about raising money from investors for a startup, and he’ll tell you it’s a numbers game: A company founder might have to talk to a hundred venture capital firms before one says yes. The hardest part? Finding that many firms with an investment strategy that...
The U.S. Postal Service is seeking to increase the price of its first-class stamp by 5 cents to 55 cents to help stem its mounting red ink. If approved by regulators, the 10 percent increase to the cost of mailing a 1-ounce letter would be the biggest since 1991. The price of each additional ounce...
Airlines have been pouring money into amenities that making flying nicer for high-paying customers while economy-class passengers endure cramped quarters and higher fees for extra services. That strategy might anger budget travelers, but it makes sense for the airlines, judging from Delta 's latest...
Starting next year, United Airlines will make it more difficult to reach the MileagePlus plans’ most elite status level — Premier 1K — but the carrier is offering a new perk for such top-tier flyers. Starting Jan. 1, members of the loyalty reward program must spend a minimum of $15,000 and accumulate...
The world's longest direct commercial flight is back and taking travelers from Singapore to the New York region. Operated by Singapore Airlines, the city-state's national carrier, the trip takes slightly under 19 hours. Skipping a stopover in Frankfurt will save hours of traveling time, the carrier...
Tens of millions of Social Security recipients and other retirees will get a 2.8 percent boost in benefits next year as inflation edges higher. It's the biggest increase most retired baby boomers have gotten. Following a stretch of low inflation, the cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for 2019...
Walgreens beat fourth-quarter earnings expectations with an assist from some recently acquired Rite Aid stores, and the nation's largest drugstore chain started fiscal 2019 with a largely better-than-expected outlook. But sales from established U.S. stores grew only slightly. Walgreens said Thursday...
World stock markets sank Thursday, extending losses from Wall Street as investors worried that higher interest rates will dent company earnings and a trade war will crimp global business. European shares sank after Asia closed sharply lower, auguring another drop in the U.S., which saw its major...
Treasure Island Foods stores closed Wednesday afternoon, officially ending a 55-year run in Chicago. The Gold Coast store on Elm Street was the last of the six remaining stores to close, a store employee said. High Ridge Partners, the liquidation firm managing the company’s assets, confirmed that...
A week ago, Sears celebrated the grand reopening of its Oakbrook Center store after a remodeling that cut the store’s size in half, part of a plan to make the retailer a smaller but profitable company. Now, with a $134 million debt payment due Monday, it’s unclear whether Hoffman Estates-based...
The real estate company owned by the family of presidential son-in-law and White House adviser Jared Kushner is selling a 30-story office tower in downtown Chicago that came under scrutiny earlier this year when it was refinanced. Kushner Cos. has agreed to sell the building at 225 W. Randolph...
Consumers who buy health insurance on Illinois’ Obamacare exchange for next year will see slightly lower prices, on average, for the most popular plans — but it’s unclear whether the decline in premiums will be enough to keep people buying them. Starting next year, consumers no longer will face...
Amazon, facing a backlash from longtime warehouse employees who say its $15 hourly minimum wage wouldn't benefit them, will now provide a bigger raise to those workers. The company said Wednesday that "slight adjustments" are being made this week, and workers who already made $15 an hour will get...
After beefing up its parental leave policy this year, Starbucks will now offer subsidized child care for all of its U.S. employees too. The new benefit, a partnership with child care provider Care.com Inc., will provide 10 subsidized days of backup day care for parents for instances when regular...
CVS Health Corp. and Aetna can go ahead with their about $68 billion deal, the Justice Department said, clearing the way for a merger that will create a health care giant with a hand in insurance, prescription-drug benefits and drugstores across the U.S. A previously planned sale of Aetna's Medicare...
U.S. stocks plunged Wednesday as investors, fearful that rising interest rates and trade tensions could hurt company profits, ramped up their selling of high-flying technology and internet stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 831 points, its worst loss in eight months. The losses were...
The Trump administration is moving to allow year-round sales of gasoline with higher blends of ethanol, a boon for Iowa and other farm states that have pushed for greater sales of the corn-based fuel. President Donald Trump announced he is lifting a federal ban on summer sales of high-ethanol blends...
Unequal access to economic opportunities is holding the Chicago area back, a planning agency said Wednesday. The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning’s “On to 2050” plan, approved by its board on Wednesday, called for investment in the Chicago-area’s infrastructure that would give residents...
America's recycling industry is in the dumps. A crash in the global market for recyclables is forcing communities to make hard choices about whether they can afford to keep recycling or should simply send all those bottles, cans and plastic containers to the landfill. Mountains of paper have piled...
Sears Holdings Corp. has hired an advisory firm to work on a bankruptcy filing that could come as early as this week, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday night. Citing people familiar with the situation, the Journal said employees of M-III Partners have spent weeks working on a potential filing...
American cheese will never die. It has too many preservatives. But it's melting away. One by one, America's food outlets are abandoning the century-old American staple, with many replacing it with fancier cheeses. Wendy's is offering asiago. A&W's Canada locations switched to real cheddar. McDonald's...
Applications to MBA programs at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and other elite schools are down for the first time in years, thanks to a booming economy and waning interest from international students. The 9-year-old bull market — a potential disincentive to pursue graduate...
Medical marijuana company Cresco Labs is moving forward with a plan to go public in Canada, a step that will give it access to additional funds to grow its business in Illinois and nationwide. Cresco announced Wednesday that it entered into a reverse takeover agreement with Randsburg International...
Amazon is hiring more than 6,000 seasonal, part- and full-time employees at its fulfillment centers and delivery facilities in the Chicago area, but a north suburban job fair it conducted Tuesday failed to draw large crowds. Several of the applicants that trickled into the hiring event seemed underwhelmed...
Ikea plans to expand to about a dozen new markets in the coming years, including branching into South America, as the Swedish furniture giant aims to reach a total of 3 billion potential customers by 2025. The company will in the coming years open stores in Chile, Colombia and Peru through a new...
Work is accelerating on a planned $40 million redevelopment of the former Sears store in Ravenswood after the building’s owner said it signed a tenant for most of the ground-floor rspace and lined up construction financing. Springbank Real Estate Group is on track to complete the conversion of...
Jeffrey Yordon, who founded Sagent Pharmaceuticals, in August paid $2.2 million for a three-bedroom, 3,500-square-foot condominium unit in a Gold Coast building on Lake Shore Drive. Yordon co-founded Schaumburg-based Sagent in 2006 and was the generic biopharmaceutical company’s chairman and CEO...
An abortion clinic that’s attracted attention for its bold ads in other states has opened in Skokie — a move that comes amid both efforts to destigmatize the procedure and discussion about how a newly reconfigured Supreme Court might reshape abortion laws. On a recent day, Carafem employees bustled...
Shares of American Airlines are sinking to their lowest level in more than two years as the carrier warns about rising fuel prices and lost revenue from Hurricane Florence. The shares fell $1.90, or 5.3 percent, to $34 in Tuesday afternoon trading. American says it canceled 2,100 flights during...
Sears Holdings Corp. is adding a restructuring expert to its board, suggesting the ailing retailer may be preparing to take significant actions to survive or to protect its remaining assets. The Hoffman Estates company, which also owns Kmart, said Tuesday it was bringing on board Alan Carr, managing...
Goodbye brewed tea, hello beer brewery. Ravinia Brewing Company in Highland Park has announced plans to open a taproom and taco bar at 582 Roger Williams Ave. on Saturday in the space formerly occupied by Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan’s Madame ZuZu’s tea shop. The new restaurant will...
A major U.S. telecommunications company discovered manipulated hardware from Super Micro Computer Inc. in its network and removed it in August, fresh evidence of tampering in China of critical technology components bound for the U.S., according to a security expert working for the telecom company....
The CEO of Wheaton-based money manager First Trust Advisors, a firm that quietly manages about $130 billion in assets — making it one of the Chicago area’s largest investment managers — is thinning out his real estate portfolio. Jim Bowen, 63, and his wife, Marisa, have listed a never-occupied,...
Once upon a time, Cadillac and Lincoln were the pinnacle of luxury vehicles in America. The fairy tale ended in the ’70s, when economic circumstances such as an oil embargo or two and the dawn of globalization started to reshape American tastes. Baby boomers rejected full-boated luxury in favor...
Google's new Pixel phones mirror an industry trend toward lusher, bigger screens and add twists on the camera for better pictures. The third generation of Pixel phones unveiled Tuesday at an event in New York features screens that span from one edge to another. It's the first time Google has embraced...
Workers at some of Hawaii's most iconic hotels are joining a national strike. About 2,700 Marriott employees on Oahu and Maui on Monday joined the strike that began last week in Boston, San Francisco and other cities. They work at five properties operated by Marriott. The properties are all owned...
Thousands of former Toys R Us employees face an uncertain future after hundreds of stores were closed. But Geoffrey the Giraffe is back to work. The mascot made a surprise appearance last week at one of the largest wholesale events in the toy industry. That was just days after court filings showed...
A few dozen former Treasure Island Foods workers chanted and marched down North Broadway on Monday morning, demanding pay and benefits they say they are owed after being laid off recently from the longtime grocery chain. Sandra Roman, 41, said the letter informing her that she was laid off immediately...
Walgreens is changing the benefits it offers employees and eliminating health insurance for most of its eligible retirees, just months after announcing it would boost hourly wages for store employees. Starting in 2019, employees of the Deerfield-based drugstore chain won’t qualify for paid time...
The PR firm FleishmanHillard came out with a study the other day intended to help companies navigate “an issues-laden environment that quickly tests corporate values.” The idea is that we live in turbulent times, and businesses need to demonstrate that what consumers care about, they care about...
Google kept quiet for more than six months its discovery of a bug that put at risk the personal data of hundreds of thousands of Google+ users, the company said Monday, a delay that could spark a new round of regulatory and political scrutiny. The decision to not immediately report the software...
Even Mattress Firm now acknowledges that a particular street on Chicago’s North Side has more than enough spots to buy a mattress. The Houston-based retailer, which filed for bankruptcy protection last week, plans to close 209 stores nationwide by the end of the month, including 29 of its 211 locations...
The Chicago Bears are winning, and ticket prices on the secondhand market are jumping up with the fans. As of Monday, demand for Bears tickets is up 20 percent on StubHub compared with last year, and the team sold more tickets on the online exchange in September than any other team in the National...
American Airlines is telling employees to think twice before rebooking stranded customers on rival airlines, and regular economy-class passengers are the most likely to suffer when there are long delays or canceled flights. A new policy at American directs airport agents not to rebook economy passengers...
Amazon is opening two more of its cashierless convenience stores in Chicago — including one that opened Monday. Amazon Go, which sells grab-and-go food items in a store designed to let busy shoppers skip the checkout line, opened its first Chicago location in the Loop last month. It was the Seattle...
Illycaffe is teaming up with Mondelez International and one of Europe's richest families to sell branded capsules that work in Nespresso machines worldwide, seeking a boost that will allow the Italian brand to stay independent. Illy, one of the most prized brands in coffee, said it's refusing to...
A three-bedroom, 1,800-square-foot condominium unit in Oak Park that actor John Mahoney had owned until his death in February has been listed for $375,000. Mahoney lived for decades in Oak Park, including long before his turn as Martin Crane in the popular sitcom “Frasier,” which aired from 1993...
The country's growing partisan divide isn't confined to the shoutfest over Brett M. Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation: Republicans and Democrats also hold increasingly divergent views about the basic underpinnings of the economy. For the first time since the question was asked in 2014, a clear...
The VHS tapes are gone, but the familiar quirks remain at the Family Video store in Glenview: The army-green carpet; the rows of “must see movies”; the staff recommendations (“Mother!” — “this controversial film will leave you praising or boycotting me”). The Family Video chain, which is headquartered...
The Nobel prize in economics was awarded Monday to one American who has studied the economics of climate change — and to another whose research on technological innovation has raised hopes that human beings are creative enough to do something about it. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded...
The Portal is a sleek new video camera and screen that makes chats with family and friends look great. It has just one problem: It was made by Mark Zuckerberg. On Monday, Facebook unveiled the $200 Portal, the first-ever consumer hardware from the world's largest social network. The toaster-size...
If things had gone differently for the Cubs in Tuesday night’s National League wild-card game, Wrigleyville sports bar Sluggers would have spent Wednesday gearing up to do what owner Steven Strauss called “a month’s worth of business in a week.” Instead, after a 2-1 extra-innings loss to the Colorado...
Imagine getting a free week’s stay in a far-flung location you’ve long wanted to visit — Bali, Sri Lanka, maybe Mozambique. Here’s one way to go about it: Offer up your own home to strangers from those locales. That’s what hundreds of thousands of people do via a home exchange. Let travelers stay...
Sears will close its store in north suburban Niles in mid-December and lay off 75 workers there, according to a report from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. The Niles store at Golf Mill Shopping Center wasn’t among the 46 Sears and Kmart locations Hoffman Estates-based...
Chicago-based medical marijuana company Cresco Labs has raised $100 million in private funding to fuel continued expansion nationally and in Illinois. Cresco Labs, which operates three cultivation centers in the state, just finished an expansion of its Joliet facility to more than double the amount...
If Sears, once the nation’s largest retailer, declares bankruptcy, it could cause one of the biggest pension defaults in U.S. history, but the government would step in to keep checks coming to more than 90,000 retirees. The company’s long-term pension obligations, which have been underfunded by...
Tens of millions of Social Security recipients and other retirees will get a 2.8 percent boost in benefits next year as inflation edges higher. It's the biggest increase most retired baby boomers have gotten. Following a stretch of low inflation, the cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for 2019...
Bucking the recommendation of police oversight officials who called the shooting “unprovoked and unwarranted,” a divided Chicago Police Board voted 5-3 Thursday night to clear an officer of all wrongdoing in fatally shooting a teen in the back of the head during a foot chase nearly six years ago....
Christine Blasey Ford, married and in her 50s, reluctantly came forward recently to say she’d been sexually attacked by a now-famous man many years ago. She didn’t remember the date of the attack, she hadn’t reported it to police at the time and certain incongruous details gave rise to doubts that...
This is the fourth in a series of position-by-position analyses about the Cubs entering the offseason. 1. Does Kris Bryant stay with the Cubs? If so, at third base? Relax, folks. The Cubs, like most teams with plenty of young talent several years away from free agency, attempt to sign those players...
Growing up on Chicago’s South Side, Donna Alexander dreamed of creating a safe space for people to release anger and stress, in the hopes of quelling violence and unnecessary pain. She opened Anger Room in Dallas in 2008, allowing clients to smash household objects to blow off steam, and the business...
The persistent inconsistency of the Cubs’ offense in the second half of the season cost hitting coach Chili Davis his job after only one season. Davis, 58, was informed of his dismissal Thursday — nine days after the Rockies eliminated the Cubs in the National League wild-card game. The Cubs scored...
You may have noticed that I didn’t write my column for Thursday. A note in the paper on page 2 said “John Kass has the day off,” but nobody really believes that. Nobody. Some speculated that I’d finally been silenced by an angry political mob of leftists, or perhaps by “the powers that be.” “No...
Shari Goldberg held Toby, a 3-year-old American bulldog mix, in her arms when he took his last breath on Sept. 30. That was one of the only kind gestures the dog had experienced in months, maybe longer. Other kindness came from veterinarians who cared for him for four days before he was euthanized...
Stymied by all those unfamiliar names at the bottom of your ballot? We’re here to help. Vote “no” on three judges by punching 228, 232 and 314. In Illinois, circuit court judges are elected to the bench. After that, they face a yes-or-no vote for retention every six years. It takes a 60 percent...
A central Illinois pork-processing plant last year discharged more nitrogen from animal waste into waterways than any other slaughterhouse in the country, according to a report published Thursday. In an assessment of water pollution produced by 98 large meat-processing facilities across the United...
It was less than 45 minutes after the Bears’ 48-10 throttling of the Buccaneers and yet somehow Tarik Cohen’s usually sharp recall was short-circuiting. The Bears running back had been asked to detail his touchdown catch — a 9-yarder from Mitch Trubisky in the second quarter. But alas, Cohen was...
A Cook County judge set bond for a Florida man accused of cutting off another man’s penis in a March attack in Des Plaines. Justin Foster, 28, of Tallahassee, has been held without bond since he was brought to Cook County in September on an attempted murder charge, but Thursday’s decision by Judge...
Libertyville police allowed a Waukegan officer to call for a ride home even though he registered a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit during an early morning traffic stop, video and audio recordings obtained by the Lake County News-Sun show. The case is the third example of law...
A Cook County Circuit Court jury granted a Michigan family $50 million on Tuesday, agreeing that the severe brain damage suffered by the family’s oldest son was a result of negligence and bad decisions by a doctor and attending nurse who delivered him at NorthShore Evanston Hospital in 2009. “The...
Controversies surrounding the major candidates for governor cast a long shadow over the final broadcast debate of the campaign Thursday, with Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democrat J.B. Pritzker defending accusations of wrongdoing and trying to cast the other as having engaged in criminal conduct. The...
It’s time to make plans for this year’s Open House Chicago, which will showcase interiors ranging from a grand banking hall to a former firehouse that’s now the home of a custom men’s hatmaker. For the uninitiated, Open House Chicago, now in its eighth year, offers free access to a wide array of...
Saying he declined to address reporters late Wednesday because he “just wasn’t prepared to answer questions” about his demotion, Bulls forward Jabari Parker answered almost all of them before practice Thursday. It’s the one he didn’t answer that seemed the most telling. Asked if, after two left...
Kanye West made his first visit to the Oval Office. And he had a lot to say about Chicago. President Donald Trump and West — but mostly West — spoke with reporters before a private lunch on Thursday. West launched into a one-man show of sorts on social policy, mental health, why he wants to abolish...
It’s October and there are still 78 games to play. Doesn’t matter. This one is going to leave a bruise. “It hurt,” Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. The Hawks blew a 2-0 first period lead and a 3-2 lead in the third period before the Wild beat them 4-3 in overtime Thursday night at the Xcel...
Starting next year, United Airlines will make it more difficult to reach the MileagePlus plans’ most elite status level — Premier 1K — but the carrier is offering a new perk for such top-tier flyers. Starting Jan. 1, members of the loyalty reward program must spend a minimum of $15,000 and accumulate...
It had been just days since someone inexplicably killed two people in Rogers Park, and the woman was looking for a neighbor to walk her home from the Red Line stop — a daunting prospect for people now afraid to leave their homes. So she posted her request on Rogers Park Safe Walk, a private Facebook...
Jose Torres passes the busy commercial intersection on his way to and from work most days. The area on the Southwest Side has changed a lot since that night four years ago when fate brought him and his son there moments before a Chicago police officer fatally shot Laquan McDonald. But the violent...
Kurt Sutter, the television screenwriter who created the shows “Sons of Anarchy” and “Mayans M.C.,” placed a full-page open letter in Thursday's Chicago Tribune in which he expresses hope to his daughters Esme and Sarah that “the future is female.” The paid advertisement was meant as “a thoughtful,...
A group of activists interrupted dinner at the popular Purple Pig on Wednesday night to shout out demands that the restaurant address a sexual harassment complaint. The activists, who posed as dinner guests, got up from their table and chanted “Hey hey, ho ho, sexual harassment has got to go” and...
If you own or manage a coffee shop, bakery or restaurant, or if you’re thinking about opening one, you may want to consider supporting a social mission. Serving more than food or a cup of coffee can nourish your community and the lives of you and your staff. A restaurant owner/manager has a lot...
LinkedIn reveals what company culture means to employees, and the factors companies must prioritize in order to win the talent war.
Should I lease or should I buy? It’s a question everyone eventually stumbles upon. Most of the time there is no one-size-fits-all answer. With the pace of technology moving faster than ever, and leasing options becoming more available, the prevailing wisdom is changing. The sharing economy makes...