Coffee bean idea brews up solution
You could almost smell the irony. Naperville's Karen Pomazal was seated in a local Starbucks to talk about her recently-launched coffee company. But it's because Starbucks has turned consumers into coffee connoisseurs that's led to a need for more upscale coffee at home.

Bar group welcomes new board grants awards
The DuPage County Bar Association recently installed new officers and handed out recognitions.

Cubs not helping WGN

As if WGN-AM (720) wasn't going through enough with the upheaval in its talent and program lineup, the May Arbitron ratings book out on Wednesday gave the station more issues to worry about.

Two heads together can stretch one income
Curtis Corbige got an unwelcome birthday surprise at work -- a call from his wife, Nancy, telling him her job was being cut. With the unemployment level nationally at 9.4 percent and 9.9 percent in the Chicago metropolitan area, the Rolling Meadows family is far from alone in dealing with the loss of a spouse's job. "It was like, well, we'll do what we have to do," said Curtis Corbige, who works as a misdemeanor probation officer for Cook County.

Summer hiring shows employer confidence
A forecast for Chicago-area hiring activity this summer suggests employers are feeling more confident about the economy. Manpower's quarterly hiring outlook shows 14 percent of metro-area public and private employers will add employees in the third quarter, while 12 percent expect to cut jobs.