Quinn appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" yesterday, and host Joe Scarborough asked why he gave tax breaks to Sears, the Chicago Board of Exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to keep them in the state. more ›

Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan called the House back into session on Monday to put together new legislation for tax breaks for CME Group, CBOE and Sears. The House voted 99-8 last week to reject a tax package for the three for more than $100 million in tax breaks. more ›

The money keeps rolling in at CBOE and the Mercantile exchange even as their managing groups lobby to pay less in state income taxes. more ›

Business Week has launched its latest title: BW Chicago. And the first story heralds Mayor Daley as "The CEO of City Hall." At Business Week, this is high praise. According to story, Mayor Daley is hugely popular with business leaders because he gives them huge tax breaks and privatizes city operations. Quoth Charles P. Carey, vice-chairman of CME Group (CME), parent of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, "[Daley] takes a... more ›

Chicagoist doesn't usually dabble in business news. Normally, we find talk of mergers and acquisitions a suitable substitute for Ambien. But we've found ourselves all wrapped up in the hoopla surrounding the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's buyout of the Chicago Board of Trade. After an October announcement of intent, the directors of the CBOT scheduled an April 4 meeting to vote on CME's $8.6 billion bid. Presuming it was a done deal, the CME was all set to rock back on its collective haunches and merge slow and steady into the CBOT's love nest. more ›

Last year a 10-year-old kid fell 30 feet to the ground when boarding a CTA train. Guess who's getting sued now? The Tokyo Stock Exchange and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange: BFF? This cold weather does more than just chafe your hands, it also breaks water mains and shuts down major intersections. Just in time for Super Bowl Sunday: Binge eating is a big-time health problem in the US. Forget about anorexia or bulimia, binge... more ›

Chances are you have a friend with a bit of a gambling problem. It's probably a guy, someone you know from college who likes to hit the casinos, maybe play the ponies, but his real addiction is the sports book. Fantasy football and office pools aren't enough for this guy--he was the one betting on the coin toss for the Super Bowl last week, the one who had $50 on the over-under for how many penalties were called. On the surface it might seem like this guy has a problem, but a quick read of the business section will tell you that he's not much more than a product of his culture. Anything is fair game for a little wagerin'. more ›

One the best sources for all-things-food is Michael and Jane Stern's Roadfood.com. In fact, word around the Chicagoist office is that one of us has planned entire vacations around the suggestions found in the Sterns' book and Web site. more ›

It's highly unlikely that any Web site has talked as much about Cereality Cereal Bar & Cafe's impending arrival than Chicagoist. more ›

Six men were taken to the hospital yesterday, complaining of nausea, light-headedness and shortness of breath caused by an unusual odor in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange building. The odor was in the telecommunications department on the second floor of the south tower at 30 South Wacker. One trader said that he didn't smell anything on the trading floor and trading at the Merc wasn't disrupted. Investigators took air samples and no toxic chemicals were reported. more ›