March 5, 2012The past year’s housing market was not for the faint-hearted. Five years after Chicago-area home prices peaked, values are about a third off their highs, and new additions of distressed short sale and foreclosure listings have continued to press prices down. Mortgage rates are at lows not seen since federal agencies began tracking them, but [...]
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February 28, 2012When Ida Matalavy sells a Lazaro wedding gown to an east side bride at Arena Bridal & Formal in Shelby Township, or Edward Hanna nudges a customer into purchasing a $15 bottle of cabernet at Busch’s Fresh Food Market in Plymouth, they’re doing more than ringing the registers for their family-owned employers. These longtime retail [...]
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February 13, 2012Ecommerce sites are a dime a dozen these days, and it’s not difficult to see why. The overhead is low, the potential is high and the market is thriving. But if you’re considering or are in the early stages of launching an online shopping site, you should take the time to review your options. As [...]
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February 4, 2012All it took for former state Rep. Robert Molaro to nearly double his public pension was spending one month as an aide to Ald. Ed Burke, the powerful chairman of the Chicago City Council’s Finance Committee. Among Molaro’s duties: Write a 19-page white paper about Chicago’s ailing pension funds. For his services, the former lawmaker [...]
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January 22, 2012Jerry Ferrara, who played the pot-smoking gofer Turtle on “Entourage,” needs a bigger shell to hide from the tax man. The IRS just hit the 32-year-old Brooklyn native with a $648,000 delinquent tax bill. The tax lien landed two months after the end of “Entourage’s” eighth and final season. Interesting local connection: In 2004, “Entourage” [...]
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