The firing is a loss for Chicago bread lovers, and may signal a rocky future for the River North gourmet store. more ›

So how's are stock markets reacting to the debt ceiling compromise? not so well. more ›

Back in November we wrote a post helping you to understand your property tax bills and why they're increasing in a recession. First installment property tax bills are due to go out soon, if they haven't already. Which means you that are homeowners are going to pop the same blood vessels you popped three months ago. more ›

As a sign of the continuing difficulties transitioning out of the current economic recession, a handful of Chicago suburban communities are making deep cuts in their police departments to bring citywide costs down. Arguing that police department budgets are some of the highest around the city of Chicago, officials have reduced the number of police officers on duty all around. Prospect Heights recently laid off six police officers, and Naperville also let go of six police officers recently, right after its city council approved a new police union contract. Additional cuts are pending in places like Aurora, Arlington Heights, and Palatine. more ›

Despite speculation that Mayor Daley's impending retirement from the position of Mayor for Life™ might lead to City Council meddling with his budget, it was instead approved by the City Council’s Budget Committee Monday. With only one amendment, restoring $3.5 million in funding cuts to local chambers of commerce and other neighborhood planning groups, the budget passed committee. A final vote on the budget by the entire council is set for November 17th. more ›

McDonald's continues to give its stockholders reason to squeal. The Oak Brook-based company saw its profits for the third quarter increase by 10 percent, exceeding expectations and outpacing the company's performance for the same time frame last year. more ›

Much hay was made in the news yesterday on Mayor Daley's 2011 municipal budget, including headlines heralding his ability to "balance" said budget without "raising taxes." Unfortunately for Chicagoans, neither is true. more ›

Illinois doesn't need more bad economic news, but bad news just keeps coming. According to the 2010 Illinois Manufacturers Directory, the state lost 51,925 industrial jobs and 709 manufacturers last year, the sharpest decline since Manufacturer's News, Inc began publishing statistics. Twenty years ago, Illinois had over 1.1 million manufacturing jobs, compared to just over 800,000 the state has currently. more ›

Despite all of the financial hardships and setbacks for most Americans in 2009, a recent poll by AP-GfK finds that a massive 82 percent are still optimistic that 2010 will be a good year, even if they fear that the U.S. economy and their personal financial circumstances won't improve in the new year. more ›

This week, we're counting down the top 9 stories of 2009 according to the Chicagoist staff. more ›

In a recessionary holiday season, one expects a few cuts here and there as many engage in more discretionary spending. But this season Chicago retailers are seeing an increase in behavior that cuts into their bottom-line: theft. more ›

Even though some reports are painting the slight dip in the unemployment rate rosier than others, the Chicago Metro area still could be in for even tougher times. Manpower, one of the largest employment services companies, released their quarterly employment outlook survey yesterday, predicting slow hiring in the first quarter of 2010. more ›

The US Department of Labor released the national unemployment numbers today, showing a slight dip in the amount of jobs lost, from 10.2% to 10%. That translates to near 11,000 jobs lost, which was fewer than projected. President Obama appeared optimistic, saying, “Overall, this is the best jobs report we’ve seen since 2007.". Unfortunately, parts of Illinois fair worse than the national average. Rockford is among 15 cities nationwide with an unemployment rate over 15%, with 4,400 fewer jobs than last year. California has the hardest hit metropolitan areas, with nine major cities that have jobless rates above 15%. more ›

The USDA released its annual report on Household Food Security (which is a sanitized way of saying "hunger") yesterday and the results were sobering. An estimated 17 million households, or 14.6 percent of the population, has experienced "food insecurity" at one point in the past twelve months. These figures are the highest since the USDA started tracking numbers in 1995. more ›

Whether we’re hanging our heads at Chicago’s Olympic fail, shaking our fists at our state’s budget woes or rolling our eyes every time our former governor appears on a talk show, Illinoisans could at least take comfort in the platitude “it could be worse - we could be California.” Not so fast, says a new Pew Study. In a report titled “Beyond California: States in Fiscal Peril,” Illinois is rated one of the nine states “most like California,” meaning we’re teetering on the brink of fiscal ruination. more ›

Today wrapped up the “Showdown in Chicago,” a three day long protest aimed at the American Bankers Association conference at the Sheraton Hotel this week. The umbrella organization sharing the “showdown” moniker staged several rallies and actions throughout the loop beginning with a rally on Sunday at the Hyatt. Senator Dick Durbin called out bankers at the rally, saying “We need to ensure that the robber barons that are responsible for this recession don't get away with creating it and then declaring themselves a dividend." more ›

The city's loss of the 2016 Olympic bid isn't the only thing probably causing Oprah to cringe today. There's the news that the last year has not been financially kind to the big O. Yes, even Oprah suffers from the recession. According to this year's Forbes' 400 Richest Americans list, Oprah lost $400 million though she actually went up in the rankings (from No. 155 to No. 141). Overall, Oprah is worth $2.3 billion. [Sun-Times] more ›

We couldn't believe our ears this morning when we heard that editor-in-chief and CEO of Chitown Daily News, Geoff Dougherty, laid off his staff of five yesterday afternoon, effective immediately. We (and the rest of the Twitterverse) thought that meant the end of the website, which has been responsible for several important local stories lately. In actuality, the site, which was started with a Knight Foundation grant, is merely headed to the for-profit realm. In a statement posted today, Dougherty said: more ›

There may be a little gleam of sunshine poking through the gloom of the current recession if the latest unemployment numbers are to be believed. While unemployment throughout the state inched up last month, based on numbers from the Illinois Department of Employment Security, the city of Chicago's July jobless rate actually dropped to 10.7 percent, down from 11.3 percent in June. Granted, that's like saying the flood waters just receded from 10 feet to 8 feet and it's still well ahead of the national average of 9.4 percent, but - hey - progress! Illinois is likely to be slower to see those numbers drop compared to the rest of the nation, according to IDES Director Maureen O’Donnell: “The country felt the pain of this recession many months before it was felt in Illinois, and it is likely that the same pattern will hold true as the economy recovers." [Crain's] more ›

At the end of this year, Chicago could be short 800 cops compared to last year the police union told the Sun-Times. The shortage is attributed to vacancies, attrition rates, and Mayor Daley’s 2009 budget which has significantly slowed down hiring. Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis told the Sun-Times last week that the CPD hopes to use federal grant money to hire 150 new officers this year. In the short term Weis will manage the officer shortage by shifting officers from desk jobs, or pay officers overtime with federal grants to cover the streets this summer. more ›

Other findings from the report worth noting include
• There was 1 job opening for every 5 Midwesterners seeking a job in February 09;
• 936,259, or 11.3 percent of Chicago area residents live at or below the poverty level;
• The growth of the overall senior population in the Chicago area has increased 3.4 percent, but the growth of seniors in the labor force in the Chicago area has grown by 14.6 percent since 2000;

Known for their stark religious beliefs and refusal to use certain modern conveniences such as electricity, automobiles and insurance, the Amish population in Goshen, Ind. -- a town located 120 miles east of Chicago with population just under 32,000 -- might be making a few exceptions to get by during the recession. more ›

With the current recession pushing local and national unemployment levels to new highs, it's hard to take more trivial casualties of the recession very seriously. Yet, sometimes it's the small things that help ease - if only temporarily - our worries and fears in a tanking economy. And one of those things are fireworks. The loud, sparkly explosions still leaves many a Chicagoist staffer in wide-eyed awe. But for some areas, budget cuts in the current recessions mean events like 4th of July fireworks are among the first to go. For example, North Aurora has reportedly already canceled theirs and Batavia is considering doing the same unless they can find more money. more ›

Mars Inc. is closing five of its six Illinois Ethel's Chocolate locations by the end of the month. Fans of Mars's haute chocolate salon will have to travel to Skokie to get their fix. [Crain's] more ›

Second base, center field and the hot corner aren't the only vacancies the White Sox are looking to fill. Sara Lee's announcement last year they were getting out of the kosher hot dog game by cutting its Best Kosher line left a void at hot dog stands inside a Sox Park. more ›

So apparently the news that unemployment around the nation is at its highest in 25 years isn't enough for City Hall. Mayor Daley's chief of staff Paul Volpe announced today that, not even a week into March, the city is already short $33 million for the year and the city could fall behind by as much as $200 million before we roll into 2010. Per the Trib's Clout Street: more ›

Tonight, President Obama will address the nation in what is essentially a State of the Union speech. Sure to take centerstage is the economy. Of course, there are many out there (including us) who still have issues grasping some of the more complex parts of the current recession/depression/economic clusterf*ck. This nifty video, however, definitely helps explain the current credit crisis, however, and might be a good primer going into the President's speech tonight. more ›

As promised, Chicagoist checked out the 2009 Chicago Auto Show over the weekend. And as suspected, the show was a smaller event than in recent years. While most auto makers still had their wares on the show floor -- Porsche was the noticeable exception -- the brands clearly scaled back their displays in both decor and in terms of the numbers of cars on the floor. This was especially evident for the larger brands, who used to feature a number of their most popular models for attendees to check out in all the various trim levels. In booth after booth this year, however, just one of each model beckoned people to check it out. more ›

The job cuts keep getting deeper. The University of Chicago Medical Center announced this morning that they will be eliminating 450 jobs (with hundreds more being lost through attrition) as well as cutting $100 million from its annual budget. On Friday, Dr. Skip Garcia, chairman of the University of Chicago Department of Medicine since May 2005, resigned his position but plans to stay on as a faculty member. more ›

The recession has prompted people low on cash to do all kinds of wacky things - such as roaming the streets with “Hire me” signs - but the latest craze? Selling your body parts to make ends meet, says a CBS 2 report. For example, Chicagoans - and others across the nation - are increasingly selling their hair using sites such as TheHairTrader.com. Sellers looking to make a quick buck on their locks can rake in anywhere from $150 to $2,500. more ›