Mayor Richard Daley’s administration unveiled a plan Friday for police and fire pension reform that would increase employee contributions as part of a package it hopes would save Chicago property taxpayers $240 million per year compared to a bill Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law earlier this month.
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Oil prices surge on Egypt unrest
Oil prices surged Friday as thousands continued to riot against the government in Egypt, and unrest threatened to spread across the Middle East.
Benchmark oil rose $3.56, or 4.2 percent, to $89.23 a barrel in afternoon trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was as high as $89.73 a barrel. Get the full story »
AIG, Treasury, Fed complete recapitalization deal
The Treasury on Friday said it completed a massive recapitalization of bailed out insurer American International Group, paying off the New York Federal Reserve Bank and giving the U.S. government a 92 percent equity stake in the company. Get the full story »
Gov. Quinn signs income tax increase
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn today signed a major income tax increase the Legislature passed earlier this week.
Student who hacked into Palin e-mail enters prison
David Kernell, 23, the former University of Tennessee student convicted of hacking into Sarah Palin’s e-mail account, has begun his term in a dormitory-like, unfenced federal prison, a Bureau of Prisons spokesman said on Thursday. Get the full story »
Illinois business leaders bristle at tax hike plan
Caterpillar is one of Illinois' biggest employers. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, file)
Illinois companies hit by an extended economic downturn say the state’s proposed remedy to its own financial crisis — a beefy tax increase — will deplete investment in local businesses, trigger job losses and force companies to leave the state.
The state is home to some of the biggest and best-known U.S. companies, including three components of the Dow Jones industrial average — Boeing, Caterpillar and McDonald’s.
An income tax increase that passed the Illinois Legislature Wednesday would raise the individual income tax rate temporarily to 5 percent from 3 percent and the corporate tax rate to 7 percent from 4.8 percent. Get the full story »
Geithner gauging support for big U.S. tax change
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner speaks at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies on Jan. 12, 2011. (Tim Sloan/AFP/Getty Images)
The Obama administration is exploring ways to boost tax incentives for corporate investment in the United States, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Wednesday, ahead of his meeting with chief financial officers from some of America’s biggest companies.
“We’re examining whether we can find political support for a comprehensive tax reform — revenue neutral — but that would improve incentives for investing in the United States,” Geithner said in comments after a speech at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.
Geithner is expected to meet with CFOs of major U.S. companies including Microsoft Corp and Cisco Systems on Friday to hash out ideas for simplifying and trimming the corporate tax — nearly the highest in the industrialized world. Get the full story »
Second coal-to-gas bill passes Senate
In one of its final votes of the session, the state Senate passed a controversial bill this morning that would force state utilities to purchase synthetic natural gas from a plant proposed for downstate Illinois.
The bill paves the way for Power Holdings of Illinois LLC’s to produce gas from Illinois coal in Jefferson County by guaranteeing that the plant would have a market for the gas it produces for the next 10 years: Illinois consumers.
The vote follows a similar bill that passed last week that forces utilities to purchase the total output of a coal-to-gas plant proposed for Southeast Chicago by Leucadia National Corp. for the next 30 years. Get the full story »
Obama approval rating rises as economy improves
President Barack Obama returning from his vacation in Hawaii with his family, Jan. 4, 2011. (Reuters/Jason Reed)
President Barack Obama is getting a bump in his approval ratings from an improving economy, but Americans want him to focus on reducing debt and spending, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Wednesday.
The poll found reasons for optimism for Obama as he searches for areas of compromise with newly emboldened Republicans this year and lays the groundwork for his 2012 re-election bid.
Obama’s job approval rating went up to 50 percent from 45 percent in December, the first time Obama has achieved 50 percent approval in this poll since last June. Get the full story »
U.S. to press China on yuan ahead of Hu visit
The United States wants a “real, demonstrative commitment” from China that it is serious about shifting away from export-led economic growth, a U.S. official told Reuters on Tuesday ahead of next week’s state visit by China’s Hu Jintao. Get the full story »
Bill Daley resigns from Boeing board of directors
From The St. Louis Business Journal | Following his appointment as President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, William Daley has resigned from Boeing’s board of directors. Daley had served on the board since 2006. The resignation was effective Friday.
Fed turns record profits over to Treasury
The Federal Reserve is turning over a record $78.4 billion to the U.S. Treasury Department after its swollen securities portfolios generated big profits in 2010, the central bank said on Monday. Get the full story »
