Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell speaks during a news conference, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023, at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington. (AP Photo / Jacquelyn Martin, File)

The Federal Reserve extended its year-long fight against high inflation Wednesday by raising its key interest rate by a quarter-point despite concerns that higher borrowing rates could worsen the turmoil that has gripped the banking system.

(Christina Morillo / Pexels)

Talks of a four-day workweek are heating up nationwide. A lawmaker in California has reintroduced a U.S. House bill that would make a 32-hour workweek the national standard. A bill in Maryland proposes tax incentives for companies that try out a four-day workweek.

File - A hiring sign is displayed at a grocery store in Arlington Heights, Ill., Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2022. On Thursday, the Labor Department reports on the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits last week. (AP Photo / Nam Y. Huh, File)

Applications for unemployment benefits are seen as a barometer for layoffs in the U.S.

 The seal of the Board of Governors of the United States Federal Reserve System is displayed in the ground at the Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building in Washington, Feb. 5, 2018. (AP Photo / Andrew Harnik, File)
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Over the last three days, the U.S. seized the two financial institutions after a bank run on Silicon Valley Bank, based in Santa Clara, California. It was the largest bank failure since Washington Mutual went under in 2008. How did we get here? And will the steps the government unveiled over the weekend be enough?

A hiring sign is displayed at a grocery store in Arlington Heights, Ill., Friday, Jan. 13, 2023. (AP Photo / Nam Y. Huh, File)

America’s employers added a substantial 311,000 jobs in February, fewer than January’s huge gain but enough to keep pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates aggressively to fight inflation.

Attorney General Merrick Garland, accompanied by Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, left, speaks during a news conference, Tuesday, March 7, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo / Alex Brandon)

The Justice Department said the tie-up would especially hurt cost-conscious travelers who depend on Spirit to find cheaper options to JetBlue and other airlines.

(WTTW News)

Will County is home to the largest inland port in the United States, taking in an array of products that just about all of us depend upon. But serving as a major logistics hub has made its mark on the community: traffic jams, potholes, open land converted to warehouses.

FILE - The Ram 1500 Revolution electric battery powered pickup truck is displayed during the Stellantis keynote at the CES tech show Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo / John Locher, File)

The factory, which employs about 1,350 workers, officially was placed on “idle” Tuesday; that term means the company intends to shut down the plant. Belvidere’s future is likely to be an issue in national contract talks coming up with the United Auto Workers union, one that could bring a strike.

(WTTW News)

State labor officials are investigating an Illinois-based pharmaceutical company’s decision to abruptly close all of its operations, including its out-of-state locations in New Jersey, New York and Switzerland, and to lay off hundreds of workers with almost no warning.

(WTTW News)
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Ratings agency S&P on Thursday moved Illinois’ bond rating up a notch, from BBB+ to A- on general obligation bonds. It’s the agency’s third upgrade since the summer of 2021.

In this image from video, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks during an interview with The Associated Press on Jan. 21, 2023, in Dakar, Senegal. (AP Photo / Yesica Fisch, File)
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The Bipartisan Policy Center, which forecasts the approximate “X-date” when the government will no longer be able to meet its financial obligations on time, said the U.S. will reach its statutory debt limit as soon as the summer or early fall of 2023.

(WTTW News)

If homeowners are delinquent more than a year on making property tax payments, they’re at risk of owing large interest payments to private investors who buy up that debt. “It’s the poorest people paying the richest people,” Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas said.

Cashiers process purchases at a Walmart Supercenter in North Bergen, N.J., on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. (AP Photo / Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Consumer prices climbed 6.4% in January from a year earlier, down from 6.5% in December. It was the seventh straight year-over-year slowdown and well below a recent peak of 9.1% in June. Yet it remains far above the Federal Reserve’s 2% annual inflation target.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle speaks about the county’s cash assistance program on May 18, 2022. (WTTW News)

More than 233,000 Cook County residents applied to be part of the $42 million program, and 3,250 households won a lottery to participate in the two-year program.

President Joe Biden delivers his State of the Union speech to a joint session of Congress, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)

President Joe Biden checked those boxes, and a few more, during his speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night. In part, he seemed to be laying the foundation to run for a second term. “We’ve been sent here to finish the job,” he said.

President Joe Biden delivers his first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol, March 1, 2022, in Washington. (Jim Lo Scalzo / Pool via AP, File)

His speech before a politically divided Congress comes as the nation struggles to make sense of confounding cross-currents at home and abroad — economic uncertainty, a wearying war in Ukraine, growing tensions with China among them — and warily sizes up Biden’s fitness for a likely reelection bid.