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Transportation and distribution, a bright spot of Chicago industry for more than a decade, is fading along with the broader economy. Business is slowing for local trucking companies, railroads, freight [...]

As the grandson of the founder of Radio Flyer, Robert Pasin always knew how important the company was to his family. What he didn't realize was how much the bright-red [...]

Global recession fears are chasing down Deere & Co. Shares of the Moline-based farm- and construction-equipment maker have plunged 60% from a record $94.69 in January, including a 23% drop [...]

With an Oct. 14 deadline approaching, a Chicago developer intends to pursue Illinois' long-dormant 10th casino license for south suburban Country Club Hills. Prime Group Inc. CEO Michael Reschke's application [...]

Gov. Rod Blagojevich faces long odds on reaping $10 billion or more from leasing the Illinois Lottery, as credit market turmoil drives up borrowing costs for prospective buyers. The governor's [...]

At least four suburbs, including Des Plaines and Rosemont, are angling for Illinois' long-idle 10th casino license as an Oct. 14 application deadline looms. Officials with those two cities, as [...]

Boatmaker Brunswick Corp., trying to fend off a market glut as the economy sputters, wants to buy up the inventory of its largest West Coast dealer. Brunswick is expected to [...]

Navistar International Corp. and Ford Motor Co. are working harder to repair their relationship after Navistar failed to strike a truck-building deal with General Motors Corp. Executives with Navistar and [...]

Job: President, Rio Tinto Alcan's Alcan Food Packaging Americas and Global Pharmaceutical Packaging, Chicago, since April. Vitals: 49 years old; bachelor of science degree in packaging, Michigan State University, 1981; [...]

Illinois will get $366 million less in federal money for road repairs next year as a reduction in driving slashes gas tax revenue, estimates show. As motorists cut back on [...]

Surging oil prices are stalling road repairs across Illinois. Rising prices this summer for petroleum-based asphalt have boosted road construction costs by 30% from a year ago, according to the [...]

Activist shareholder Warren Kanders is grabbing for the wheel of Federal Signal Corp. Last month, Mr. Kanders said he had amassed a 5.7% stake in Federal Signal and announced his [...]

A Vernon Hills-based maker of ice-cube machines is turning into a hot commodity. Scotsman Ice Systems and Denver-based Ice-O-Matic, both divisions of London-based Enodis PLC, will draw the interest of [...]

Money problems have delayed the U.S. military's $40-billion plan to replace its Humvee utility vehicle fleet, prolonging a waiting game for Boeing Co. and Navistar International Corp., both vying for [...]

Arlington Park race course aims to resuscitate its off-track betting operations by expanding the number of parlors and partnering with locally known restaurants to draw in new customers. Arlington President [...]

The state's largest business groups are out to convince voters that the devils they know-corruption and paralysis in Springfield-are preferable to the Pandora's box of taxes and regulations that a [...]

Job: President of global market development for Lincolnshire office products maker Acco Brands Corp., since April. Vitals: 54 years old; bachelor's degree in business and management, Indiana University, 1976; master's [...]

Illinois could become the first state to own a casino as part of a massive gambling expansion that Gov. Rod Blagojevich wants to use to pay for new public works [...]

Illinois Tool Works Inc. CEO David Speer will have to dig deeper into his pockets if he wants to pull off his company's biggest acquisition in almost a decade. Analysts [...]

New York investment bank Bear Stearns & Co. is in line for its first contract with the state of Illinois since becoming embroiled in government contracting scandals here earlier this [...]

R. R. Donnelley & Sons Co., which wrote down $752 million last year related to acquisitions, is on the hunt for more deals. CEO Thomas Quinlan III, who runs North [...]

Job: President of Chicago railcar pool operator TTX Co., effective June 1. Vitals: 48 years old; bachelor's degree in business and communications, Muskingum College, New Concord, Ohio, 1981; master's degree [...]

Caterpillar Inc. aims to fortify its construction equipment rental business with help from retail giant Home Depot Inc. Caterpillar, the world's largest maker of bulldozers, excavators and other earth-moving equipment, [...]

It took Caterpillar Inc. three decades to reach $1.5 billion in annual sales in China. The Peoria-based construction-equipment maker now aims to more than double that in the next three [...]

The Chicago hotel industry's ambitious expansion is about to meet an impending recession head-on. Several local hotel managers say there's been a noticeable drop in business-related guests so far this [...]

Mid-West Wire Specialties Inc. has an interesting response to its battle with low-cost Chinese manufacturers: Wave the white flag. The Northwest Side company has been bending wire into magazine racks, [...]

Gov. Rod Blagojevich has proposed a 30% hike in state gambling taxes to fund education spending, a move that would squeeze casinos already grappling with declining business as the economy [...]

Job: Chief financial officer, Archer Daniels Midland Co., as of March 1. Vitals: 52 years old; bachelor's degree in mathematics, Illinois College, Jacksonville, 1977; passed certified public accountant exam, 1981; [...]

After riding an expanding global economy much of this decade, Amcol International Corp. has developed clay feet. Shares of the Arlington Heights-based producer of industrial clays have fallen 30% from [...]

E. Hunter Harrison thought he'd be cheered for breaking Chicago's railroad bottleneck. Instead, the CEO of Canadian National Railway Co. is under attack. Frustrated by the slow-moving and convoluted routes [...]

Boeing is taking aim at Navistar's new military truck business. The Chicago aerospace titan is competing for a coveted contract that Warrenville-based Navistar International Corp. also hopes to win. The [...]

Carl M. Birkelbach, 67, founder, chairman and CEO, Birkelbach Investment Securities Inc., Chicago Experience: 43 years Assets under management: $200 million Crain's: Whither the U.S. economy? Mr. birkelbach: We're probably [...]

LKQ Corp., riding a boom in the used auto-parts business, is steering toward trouble. Shares of the Chicago-based company, the nation's largest provider of used transmissions, fenders and other components [...]

Electrical hardware maker Square D Co. is hunting down hundreds of thousands of counterfeit circuit breakers that bear its logo and could cause explosions in household electrical systems. The Palatine-based [...]

Whether she's just arrived back from a week of meetings in China or getting ready to jet to Germany or California, Sara Greenstein always finds time for the Bagel. The [...]

Navistar International Corp.'s plans for life after the loss of its biggest customer, Ford Motor Co., include moves into new overseas markets and even new lines of business, such as [...]

Caterpillar Inc. isn't the only company busy building big yellow trucks in Downstate Illinois. Komatsu America Corp., the Rolling Meadows-based subsidiary of Japan's Komatsu Ltd., will assemble 45 giant dump [...]

R. R. Donnelley & Sons Co. CEO Thomas Quinlan III is thinking inside the box-specifically, big-box retailers-with his first acquisition as head of the country's largest commercial printer. Chicago-based Donnelley, [...]

Mayor Richard M. Daley's dream of a city-owned casino won't be a financial jackpot for Chicago. Much of the debate around the current proposal has focused on the $1 billion [...]

CenterPoint Properties Trust wants to build another massive distribution center in Will County, but the plan is running into opposition from Joliet's city leaders. The industrial developer has acquired or [...]

CF Industries Holdings Inc., with its investment in Swiss trading firm Keytrade A.G., aims to expand its reach in the global fertilizer market as high corn prices boost demand for [...]

Construction of new ethanol plants in Illinois has stalled, a sign that the ethanol boom that's fueled a Farm Belt renaissance has peaked. Falling ethanol prices, combined with rising costs [...]

The most powerful steel executive in the Western Hemisphere is a bearded former government economist and consultant who spent two decades chronicling the industry's dysfunction. From his office in the [...]

Caterpillar Inc.'s free-trade drive has hit a brick wall on Capitol Hill. Trade pacts with Panama, Peru, Colombia and South Korea have been at the top of the Peoria company's [...]

Congress appears close to approving $2 billion in spending to replace seven locks and dams on the Mississippi and Illinois rivers. Engineers and shippers say the new locks could vastly [...]

Ethanol mania has made Illinois farmland such a hot property that even the world's richest man is snapping it up. Microsoft founder Bill Gates spent $14 million on Illinois farmland [...]

Rising global steel demand has Metal Management Inc. looking to add to its scrap heap. Expansion ambitions have backfired before for the Chicago-based company, which spent seven months in bankruptcy [...]

Cornfed profits are providing a bountiful harvest for investors in fertilizer maker CF Industries Holdings Inc. Shares of the Deerfield-based company have more than doubled this year as an ethanol [...]

A year ago, Mike Volpentesta threw in the towel on his 15-year-old masonry contracting business. Despite a booming construction market in Chicago, Mr. Volpentesta, a career mason, was getting consistently [...]

Brunswick's second-largest shareholder, New York hedge fund Eminence Capital, has sold its entire stake in the Lake Forest boat maker. Eminence said in an SEC filing that it sold its [...]