There was some good news this year. According to Mastercard Spending Pulse, retail shopping was up about 3% this holiday season compared to last year. 

The Times says that the companies are threatening its livelihood by effectively stealing billions of dollars worth of work by its journalists, in some cases spitting out Times’ material verbatim to people who seek answers from generative artificial intelligence like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

The extended hours come after more than three months since the temporary casino’s grand opening. The hours at the casino were originally from 8 a.m. to 4 a.m.

Some downtown businesses are seeing a slight dip in the average amount spent per transaction during this holiday season, indicating consumers might be more sensitive to prices due to factors like record high credit card debt and interest rates, according to the Chicago Loop Alliance.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection this week suspended international rail traffic at two Texas crossings “in order to redirect personnel to assist the U.S. Border Patrol with taking migrants into custody” as the agency strains to keep up with a surge of migrants at the United States’ southwestern border.

Friday’s report from the Commerce Department showed that U.S. consumer prices slid 0.1% last month from October and rose 2.6% from November 2022. The month-over-month drop was the largest since April 2020 when the economy was reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Remote working. A four-day workweek. Quiet quitting. A resurgent labor movement. These are just a few of the changes workers and employers have been grappling with over the last few years.

Originally budgeted at $8.5 billion, the expansion is now reaching $12 billion. The most extensive part of the project is the 2.2 million-square-foot O’Hare Global Terminal, replacing what is now Terminal 2.

There is a battle over a multi-billion dollar, decades-long project to upgrade Chicago’s aging natural gas pipelines.

Tribune Publishing journalists plan to picket and rally Saturday outside Tribune Tower, accusing the hedge fund that owns the company of brutally undercutting local news in service of a relentless thirst for profits.

The National Labor Relations Board is asking a judge to order Starbucks to reopen 23 shuttered locations around the U.S. – including at Bryn Mawr and Winthrop avenues in Edgewater – claiming the company closed the coffee shops as retaliation for employees unionizing or to hinder their organizing efforts.

The six-month delay means that workers in Illinois outside Chicago will have more flexibility to take paid time off than those in the city until July 1.

Google intends to bring the Thompson Center’s design into the 21st century “while maintaining its iconic form,” the company said.

Chicago utility Peoples Gas is requesting a multimillion-dollar bump to its already record-high rate increase approved by regulators last month. Consumer and environmental advocates have pushed back strongly against the request.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, when you spend $100 at a small business, $48 stays in the community versus when you spend the same $100 at a big-box store or national retailer, only $14 stays.

With CTA, Metra and Pace expected to have a combined $730 million budget deficit starting in 2026, state lawmakers passed a measure charging the regional planning agency CMAP to think big and come up with a plan.