Le Grand Reve mansion in Winnetka. (Tribune File/Chis Walker)
ELITE STREET | By Bob Goldsborough | A 26-room, 27,000-square-foot mansion in Winnetka whose owners once tried to sell it for $32 million saw its asking price cut by $5 million on Thursday, to $23 million.
Known as Le Grand Reve, the six-bedroom, chateau-style mansion, which commercial real estate executive Sherwin Jarol and his wife own, sits on 2.04 acres. Get the full story »
Amid criticism that the Better Business Bureau boosts ratings of dues-paying members, the chief executive of Chicago’s BBB acknowledged a “stigma” of “pay to play” but took pains to point out that 158 local businesses have been thrown out of the organization in the last three years and another 40 have been denied membership in the last 12 months.
“So you just can’t buy into the organization and write the check,” Chicago BBB Chief Executive Steve Bernas said in an interview. “You have to meet and maintain standards.” Get the full story »
The maker of the painkiller Darvon is pulling the drug off the market under pressure from U.S. health officials who say it causes dangerous heart rhythms.
The Food and Drug Administration says the drugmaker Xanodyne will halt marketing of Darvon and related brand Darvocet. The FDA has also called on generic drugmakers to stop marketing low-cost versions of the drug. Get the full story »
Britain’s information security watchdog says that Google Inc. has agreed to delete the personal data collected by the company’s Street View cars.
Get the full story »
Hoping to cut down on fraud and scams tied to the mortgage crisis, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is tightening rules for companies and attorneys who perform loan modification and foreclosure rescue services. Get the full story »
Greeting card maker American Greetings Corp. is considering two sites in the Chicago area for its corporate headquarters, which it may move from Brooklyn, Ohio.
The company said in a Friday statement it may stay in Brooklyn, which is in the greater Cleveland area. But it is also looking at six other sites, with four in Ohio and two in “greater Chicago.” American Greetings spokeswoman Patrice Sadd declined to be more specific about the Chicago-area locations under consideration. Get the full story »
Insurance Business Review | Insurance brokerage and risk management services firm Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has acquired Behnke & Co., an Illlinois-based retail insurance broker.
Air fares are up dramatically this holiday season — so there’s no point in waiting for last-minute deals because they’re not going to happen, experts say.
“You have a lot more pent-up travel demand chasing fewer seats,” said Rick Seaney, chief executive of Farecompare.com. “There’s just no incentive for airlines to lower fares.” Get the full story »
Tower Ticker | The reorganization of Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co.’s interactive division, recently rechristened Tribune Digital, is continuing to take shape under its new management and, according to a staff memo sent this morning, under new marching orders. Get the full story »
Deficit reduction commission co-chairman Erskine Bowles says he won’t “do a whitewash” on the call for austerity measures merely to get a bipartisan consensus among panelists.
Former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles and former Sen. Alan Simpson released recommendations last week calling for steep cuts in Medicare, lifting the Social Security retirement age and increasing taxes, including a 15 percent hike in federal gasoline tax. Get the full story »
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke hit back on Friday at critics of the U.S. central bank’s bond-buying program and issued a thinly veiled attack on China’s policy of keeping its currency on a leash.
Bernanke, facing a chorus of protests about the asset-buying spree from within and outside the central bank, said a more vigorous U.S. economy was essential to fuel the global recovery and dismissed charges he was debasing the dollar. Get the full story »
Harrah’s Entertainment, which operates two casinos in Illinois, canceled its initial public offering, citing market conditions.
The casino operator was expected to price the offering on Thursday and begin trading on the Nasdaq this week. Harrah’s had said it would raise as much as $531 million for casino projects and to help with its heavy debt burden. Get the full story »
A Malaysian man was charged on Thursday for hacking into the computer network of a U.S. Federal Reserve bank and for stealing more than 400,000 stolen credit card and debit card numbers, according to federal authorities.
Lin Mun Poo, 32, is suspected of accessing financial records at a Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland, Ohio, by “exploiting a vulnerability he found within their secure system,“ according to a statement by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of New York. At least 10 Federal Reserve Bank computers were affected by the breach, resulting in thousands of dollars in damage, the statement said. Get the full story »
