Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. (Jonathan Ernst/Getty Images)
Some of the largest U.S. banks will be notified on Friday whether they passed a second round of stress tests conducted by the Federal Reserve, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Get the full story »
Ford’s Lincoln luxury car brand scored No. 1 in dependability in the latest annual survey from J.D. Power and Associates, its first time in the top spot.
The survey asks owners of three-year-old cars how many problems they’ve had with their vehicles. The results are then tallied in terms of the problems per 100 vehicles. Get the full story »
Federal officials found traces of radiation on United and American airlines jets that arrived at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport from Tokyo Wednesday, but later determined that the planes’ cargo and passengers were not at risk.
As concerns mount about the radiation spewing into the atmosphere from Japan’s crippled nuclear reactors, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it had begun monitoring airline and maritime traffic for radiation contamination “out of an abundance of caution.” Get the full story »
(Robert Caplin/Bloomberg News)
Kraft Foods Inc. said Thursday that it raised its U.S. list prices for Maxwell House and Yuban ground coffees by 22 percent and its instant coffee by around 10 percent.
The price hikes, which were effective on Wednesday, marked the company’s fourth coffee price hike in a year and came after arabica coffee futures soared to a 34-year high this month. Get the full story »
High prices for agricultural commodities will attract investment into the sector that could boost production and help increase global food supplies, according to David Lehman, managing director for research at exchange operator CME Group Inc. Get the full story »
Americans don’t seem to care whether a physician administers a vaccination in the doctor’s office.
An unofficial online poll of participants in a Tribune Web chat Thursday showed more than 80 percent prefer to get their vaccination from a pharmacist or another health professional. Just 15 percent said they preferred getting their vaccinations from a physician. Get the full story »
The Chicago Sun Times building at 350 N.Orleans Street. (Nuccio DiNuzzo/Chicago Tribune)
A day after the death of Sun-Times Media Chairman James Tyree, who led the effort to save the local media company from liquidation 17 months ago, the company’s flagship Chicago Sun-Times on Thursday laid off several newsroom employees.
“That was something that had been planned for a while. It certainly had nothing to do with yesterday’s news,” said Jeremy Halbreich, Sun-Times Media’s chief executive .
Sources said they believed the reduction affected four staff members, but Halbreich did not confirm an exact figure. The cuts, he said, were part of an ongoing effort to centralize certain operations among the company’s many area publications.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. sued three former executives of the failed Washington Mutual Bank, along with two of their wives, in a lawsuit filed on Wednesday.
The FDIC is seeking $900 million in damages, charging gross negligence and other failures by the former executives in the run up to WaMu’s collapse in September 2008, the largest U.S. banking failure. Get the full story »
Freddie Mac's offices in McLean, Va. (Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images)
A key Republican in the House of Representatives Thursday said he would try for the third time to eliminate mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac within five years.
“We have waited for years to do something. It is time to start doing something,” Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling, the fourth ranking House Republican, said in an interview with a small group of reporters in his office. Get the full story »
United Continental has announced the expansion of mobile check-in and mobile boarding passes to United customers traveling with international itineraries. Get the full story »
President Barack Obama said during a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny on Thursday that the United States would help Ireland recover from its economic problems and that he would visit in May. Get the full story »
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on March 11, 2011. (Reuters/Darren Hauck)
An Illinois company that makes items for trade shows is moving to Wisconsin.
Gov. Scott Walker announced Thursday that Catalyst Exhibits, Inc., will be moving from Crystal Lake, Ill., to Pleasant Prairie, Wis.
Walker says the company will employ 105 people and occupy a 144,000-square-foot facility. Walker says the company will invest $2.5 million in the state. Get the full story »
The New York Times Co. said it will launch a long-planned digital paywall this month to boost revenue at its flagship newspaper, as the media company seeks to reverse the effect of industry-wide declines that have pulled down its top line. Get the full story »
Kevin Willer, co-founder of Google’s Chicago office, has been named chief executive officer of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center, an affiliate of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce. Get the full story »
Mary Dillon at U.S. Cellular's corporate office in Chicago in June 2010. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Chicago-based wireless carrier U.S. Cellular plans to launch its 4G network by the end of the year, Chief Executive Mary Dillon said Thursday.
Responding to an audience question at a breakfast sponsored by the Executives’ Club of Chicago, Dillon said the company has recently finished trials for its 4G network, which uses a technology called Long-Term Evolution, or LTE. Verizon Wireless and AT&T use the same technology, though the latter company has yet to commercially launch its LTE network. Get the full story »
