Water Tower Place Chick-fil-A planned for 2011

Chick-fil-A is bringing its fried chicken sandwiches and waffle fries to downtown Chicago next spring.

Although the lease has yet to be signed, John E. Featherston Jr., Chick-fil-A’s senior director of real estate, said that a Chick-fil-A restaurant will open near Water Tower Place.

“I’ve been to a lot of intersections downtown, and this is the first one where I want to plant the flag,” Featherston said. “Hopefully this will lead to others.” Get the full story »

Enbridge restarts Chicago-area pipeline

Enbridge Inc. says it has restarted a pipeline that spilled oil in the Chicago area last week. Get the full story »

Prescription business brisk in 2Q

Prescriptions increased in the second quarter for some of the largest U.S. drugstores and pharmacy benefits managers despite the weak economy, an analyst for Fitch Ratings said Friday.

Analyst Bob Kirby said prescriptions for Medco Health Solutions Inc. and Express Scripts Inc. and for the drugstores Walgreen Co. and CVS Caremark Corp. rose 5.2 percent from a year earlier. Kirby said he expects similar growth for the rest of the year assuming economic conditions don’t change much. Get the full story »

Bedbugs bite Winston & Strawn in N.Y.

New York’s bedbugs don’t discriminate. They’ve infested dorm rooms as well as posh offices on Park Avenue, as Winston & Strawn discovered this week.

The Chicago-based law firm is dealing with an infestation of bedbugs at its New York office at 200 Park Ave., the MetLife Building. As of Friday morning, the landlord had not resolved the problem. Get the full story »

GM to put $483M into Tennessee engine plant

General Motors Co. will invest $483 million in its Tennessee plant and call back 483 workers to ramp up production of 4-cylinder Ecotec engines, the company said Friday.

The deal, however, is contingent on GM securing state and local incentives. Get the full story »

FDA looks into diabetes drug, bladder cancer

The Food and Drug Administration said Friday that it has started a safety review of Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.’s  diabetes drug Actos looking at links to bladder cancer.

The FDA said the review was prompted from preliminary, five-year data from an ongoing study involving the drug. The study, designed to follow patients for 10-years, is being funded by Takeda. Get the full story »

Car options, colors vary by region, Ford shows

New data from Ford show preferences for car options and colors vary by region. The results can be surprising.

Seattle may be rainy and cool, for example, but buyers there are the most likely to get moon roofs and air-conditioned seats. Seattle dealer Mark Scarff says his buyers tend to have higher incomes and like lots of high-tech options. Get the full story »

EU envoy nudges China on yuan

A faster appreciation of the Chinese yuan by Beijing would be “appropriate,” the head of the European Union delegation to the U.S. said Friday.

EU Ambassador Joao Vale de Almeida said there is greater potential for collaboration between the U.S. and Europe, particularly in Group of 20 nation negotiations, to press more rapid reform of China’s currency to a market-based rate.

CME says ban on ELX rule not anti-competitive

CME Group Inc. told the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that CME’s ban on a type of trade that would help rival ELX Futures LP easily capture business from CME is not anti-competitive.

In a 70-page letter posted on the regulator’s website on Friday, CME asked the CFTC to reconsider its endorsement of so-called exchange for futures trades, or EFFs, repeating its view that there is no compelling reason for it to allow them. Get the full story »

Americans’ wealth drops for 1st time since early ‘09

Americans’ wealth shrank in the spring for the first time since early 2009 as financial turmoil eroded stock portfolios.

The Federal Reserve says household net worth fell 2.7 percent — or $1.5 trillion — in the April-to-June quarter. The decline left Americans’ net worth at $53.5 trillion. Get the full story »

SEC votes to crack down on ‘window dressing’

Securities regulators voted unanimously on Friday to propose rules for companies to disclose more information about their short-term borrowings.

The agency is trying to crack down on financial companies that use accounting gimmicks to bolster their balance sheets, particularly at the end of a quarter. Get the full story »

United shareholders approve Continental merger

United CEO Glenn Tilton, left, and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley at a press conference on the United-Continental merger on May 4, 2010. (José M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune)

Chicago-based United Airlines shareholders on Friday overwhelmingly voted to approve a deal to combine with Continental to form the world’s biggest airline.

Meanwhile in Houston, Continental shareholders also gave the merger a thumbs up.

Shareholders of United parent UAL Corp. met in Elk Grove Township on Friday morning to vote on the $3 billion stock swap. The companies expect the deal to close in the next two weeks. Get the full story »

Walgreens, ‘Dr. Oz Show’ encourage flu shots

Deerfield-based Walgreens and the syndicated “The Dr. Oz Show” from Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions are teaming on a multi-platform campaign to encourage flu vaccinations.

Discover, Sallie Mae buy Citi student loan business

Citigroup says it is selling its student loan business and about $32 billion in related assets to Discover Financial Services and the student lender Sallie Mae.

Illinois Tool Works affirms third-quarter forecasts

Illinois Tool Works Inc. affirmed its forecast for third-quarter and full-year earnings on Friday.

The company said it expected to report a third-quarter profit of 72 cents to 84 cents a share from continuing operations.

For the full year, ITW said it expected to report earnings of $2.82 to $3.08 a share from continuing operations. Get the full story »