The head of Boeing’s commercial airplanes division says it could eventually increase the production rate of its new 787 jetliner beyond the previously announced 10 per month it plans to build by the end of 2013.
U.S. Cellular stock hit by 4Q results
Intense competition in the cell phone industry resulted in a difficult fourth quarter for Chicago-based U.S. Cellular Corp.
The company said Thursday that its fiscal performance in the quarter ended Dec. 31 fell below its expectations because the company had to step up promotions to retain and attract customers. U.S. Cellular lost 21,000 customers during the quarter. It finished 2010 with about 6.1 million customers.
The company gave a sneak peak at its results ahead of its earnings release on Feb. 24. Get the full story »
Boeing loses 32 orders for 737s; gains 10
Boeing Co. says it has lost orders for 32 of its 737s, though the update posted by the company on Thursday did not identify the customer or customers who dropped the orders.
Boeing also says it added orders for ten 737s from unidentified customers. Get the full story »
‘Stormageddon’ latest pain for city, state budgets
Wednesday’s massive winter storm is the latest pain in the budgets of U.S. cities, states and counties as it sweeps across the North American continent, freezing finances along the way.
In Chicago, which is flirting with records from the Tuesday-Wednesday storm, the costs could eat up much of the city’s $14.8 million allocated for snow removal and hurt its already fragile budget. Get the full story »
Sportscaster faces foreclosure on Evanston home
From Crain’s Real Estate Daily | Sportscaster Mike Adamle faces a foreclosure suit on his Evanston home after failing to pay off a $1.1-million loan that matured in August. According to a complaint filed by PrivateBank & Trust Co., Adamle and his wife, Kim, owe the bank about 30 percent more than the $920,000 than they paid in July 2005 for the home on Lincoln Street near Ryan Field.
Smurfit-Stone shareholders oppose Rock-Tenn deal
A group of hedge funds that owns a combined 9 percent stake in Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. said it would vote against Rock-Tenn Co.’s $3.5 billion deal to buy the packaging and paper company.
Third Point, Royal Capital Management and Monarch Alternative Capital said in a letter to Smurfit-Stone’s board on Wednesday that the company could go it alone and shareholders would be better off. Get the full story »
Walgreen sales up 6.1% in January
Walgreens said its same-store in January increased 6.1 percent, led by a 6.9 percent rise in same-store pharmacy sales. Pharmacy sales accounted for two-thirds of Walgreen’s total sales of $5.93 billion in January. Get the full story »
Productivity up most in 8 years, labor costs drop
The work force was more efficient last year with productivity rising at the fastest pace in eight years. Labor costs fell for a second straight year, something that hasn’t happened in nearly five decades.
Productivity, the amount of output per hour of work, rose a strong 3.6 percent in 2010 after a 3.5 percent gain in 2009, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Both years represented the best showing since 2002. Labor costs dropped 1.5 percent last year after a 1.6 percent decline in 2009. Get the full story »
Savoye acquires engineering firm
From the Rochester Business Journal | Retrotech Inc., a Rochester, N.Y. area engineering firm has been acquired by Savoye Inc., a Chicago-based subsidiary of Savoye of Dijon, France, for an undisclosed sum. Savoye, a logistics engineering firm with 550 employees and more than 1,000 customers globally, logged sales of $110 million in 2009, the company reported. Get the full story>>
Weekly jobless claims plunge to 42,000
The number of people applying for unemployment benefits plunged last week, following a week where bad weather contributed to a spike in applications.
The Labor Department says the number of people seeking benefits dropped by 42,000 to a seasonally adjusted 415,000 in the week ending Jan. 29. Applications had surged in the previous week after snow storms in the South disrupted work and led to temporary layoffs. Get the full story »
Pay gap between male, female doctors widens
Newly trained female doctors in the United States make nearly $17,000 less than their male counterparts, even though women increasingly are choosing careers in higher-paying medical specialties, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.
They said there has been a widening gender gap in starting salaries for female doctors, rising from a difference of $3,600 in 1999 to $16,819 in 2008. Get the full story »
CME Group 4Q profit falls 3%
CME Group Inc., the world’s biggest futures exchange operator, said quarterly profit fell 3 percent, hurt by a one-time charge for state taxes. CME’s fourth-quarter net income fell to $196 million, or $2.93 a share, from $203 million, or $3.04 a share, a year earlier. Get the full story »
Feb. 3 at 6:39 a.m.
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Filed under: Knight Foundation funds NU news innovation lab
Northwestern University has scored a four-year, $4.2 million grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation for an effort designed to improve the digital tools used by journalists and other information providers.
A marriage of journalism, computer science and market research that’s set to be formally announced Thursday. The new lab will partner with a several Chicago-area media organizations to test, deploy and refine its developments, t
World food prices hit record high
The U.N.’s food price index hit a record in January and recent catastrophic weather around the globe could put more pressure on the cost of food, an issue that has already helped spark protests across the Middle East.
Up for the seventh month in a row, the closely watched Food and Agriculture Oganisation Food Price Index on Thursday touched its highest since records began in 1990, and topped the peak of 224.1 in June 2008, during the food crisis of 2007/08. Get the full story »
