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 new package, SB397, would cost Illinois about $250 million per year and gives the companies, who have threatened to leave the state, about $100 million in combined tax relief. more ›

Apparently, CME Group is waiting for the legislature to come up with an amount that they feel like paying. more ›

An amendment to a bill that ironically reforms TIF practices in the state seeks to extend the Sears EDA for an additional 15 years. more ›

Among some of the Illinois big businesses looking into seeking new stomping grounds, Sears has jumped on the bandwagon. Unhappy with the tax increase, Sears has been courted by several states regarding the relocation of their headquarters. more ›

The new United We Work site - which just went public this week - seems to be catching on. Free for job seekers and employers alike through the end of the year, the site is expected to have 500,000 job openings posted by the end of this week. The incentive for employers to use the site, is a reduction in the cost of hiring because the responsibility for finding qualified candidates is shared across participating employers. “We believe that if we can break those [cost barriers] down, it may stimulate an employer to hire now instead of waiting six months,” Jason Kerr, founder of QuietAgent told the Tribune. more ›

Michelle Pike has a new understanding of drive-through service after she took her SUV to a Northwest-side Sears for a routine tire fix, but when she returned to pick up her car, it was gone. She purchased the car with only 14 miles on it in January, and now it’s been stolen from the repair shop. Pike told WBBM: more ›

This morning, Sears Holding Corp. announced a wider than expected quarterly loss - $146 million or $1.16 per share – resulting in the closing of eight more of its retail stores. This is a drastic difference compared to 2007’s third-quarter loss of $4 million, or three cents per share. These closings are in addition to 14 already in the third quarter. The Hoffman Estates-based company, which is controlled by hedge fund manager Edward Lampert, also approved a stock buyback plan of up to $500 million in common shares.

Revenue dropped eight percent to $10.66 billion from $11.62 billion as Sears' U.S. same-store sales slid 10.6 percent and Kmart same-store sales slipped seven percent. Total same-store sales – or sales at stores open at least a year, a key retail gauge – fell nine percent.

Sears announced yesterday that it will begin selling official U.S. Army-licensed clothing. The All American Army Brand's First Infantry Division collection will offer "vintage inspired design, intricate attention to detail, and supreme quality standards, inspired by Army technology," according to Sears's press release. The clothes, ranging in price from $12 for a t-shirt to $120 for coats, will be in stores in October. [Sears] more ›

What's it like to ride a skateboard from Chicago to New York? "Sometimes you get the finger." [Pioneer Pres] more ›

LL Cool J is designing a hip-hop clothing line for Sears, called "LL Cool J for Sears". (Really LL, that's all ya got?) The LL Cool J for Sears line will be available for purchase in most Sears stores by September. Mr. Cool J is said to have an emotional connection with Sears as he used to beg his grandfather to take him shopping there when he was a child growing up in Queens, which factored into his decision to launch the LL Cool J brand there. Sears is expecting another loss in profit this quarter and is hoping this line will appeal to the “urban” customers that they are not currently reaching. more ›

Sha na na na, sha na na na, Sears CEO Aylwin Lewis. Lewis's official last day is Saturday, but his bank account won't know the difference--he'll be collecting his $1 million salary and benefits through 2010. But that's just cause he did so well a godawful job that led to four quarters of net losses. Burn! more ›