The Producer Price Index, or wholesale prices, rose at a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.4 percent in January, mainly due to a rise in energy costs, pharmaceutical costs and light trucks, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.

Is the “Whole Foods Boycott” impacting the company’s financials? Not yet. (Image via Creative Commons)

BY KATIE ROGERS – MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Nearly 29,000 people now subscribe to a Facebook group calling for a boycott of Whole Foods Market Inc. since CEO John Mackey wrote an op-ed against proposed methods [...]

Image via Jeremy Brooks/Flickr.com

BY KATIE ROGERS — MEDILL REPORTS

Shares of Downers Grove-based food company Sara Lee Corp. (SLE: 9.72 -1.08 (-10.00%) plunged despite a narrower loss in its fiscal 2009 fourth quarter, as it released lackluster guidance for the 2010 fiscal year.

Sara Lee posted a quarterly loss of $14 [...]

Roadsidepictures/Flickr.com

BY KATIE ROGERS– MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

By attracting weary, worried customers with dirt-cheap food options, there’s no doubt that McDonald’s Corp. became a corporate anomaly amid the severe recession.

But after such a rapid period of growth in the first quarter, some analysts think the fast food giant might not have anywhere [...]

Kramer’s Health Food Center has been experiencing lower sales as customers stick to the basics. (Tian Huang/Medill)

BY TIAN HUANG - MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Whole Foods. Trader Joe’s. These two national chains have made organic food the “in” thing to do, but as the economy continues [...]

BY BENJAMIN MIRASKI, MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

The Hershey Company [[HSY]] announced today that it will raise prices on its instant consumable, multi-pack and packaged candy lines by 11 percent.

This is nothing new in the food industry. Companies have been raising prices to keep pace with commodity price inflation [...]

BY CONOR O’TOOLE, MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

Sara Lee Corp., a Downers Grove, Ill.-based food company, suffered a loss for the fourth quarter Thursday due to goodwill write-downs at [...]

Emerald ash borer to cost Chicago-area homeowners, arborists say
by Maisie Ramsay
June 5, 2008

The emerald ash borer has killed 25 million ash trees in Michigan since it was discovered there in 2002 and arborists in the Chicago area are bracing for similar losses as the invasive insect spreads. 

Midwest law firms ride the [...]

As inflation motors on, can your portfolio keep pace?
by Patrick Temple-West
May 13, 200

Chicago-area investors are looking to shift their portfolios into higher gear—with greater risk—to keep pace with rising inflation.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average are in the red [...]