Steve Grzanich has the business news of the day with the Wintrust Business Minute.

Discover Financial Services and Capital One face a proposed class-action lawsuit over their merger. The lawsuit claims the $35 billion dollar deal will hurt competition and raise prices for consumers. The complaint also claims the merger will mean fewer and less valuable credit card benefits and higher fees. The lawsuit also claims the merger violates antitrust law. Riverwoods-based Discover and Capital One announced their merger back in February. It’s also being scrutinized by the federal government. Capital One says the suit has no merit.

Also, catholic health system Ascension is selling most of its Illinois hospitals to a California company. Listen for more below:

Steve Grzanich has the business news of the day with the Wintrust Business Minute.

Scientists at the University of Illinois-Chicago are working on a new antibiotic that’ll make bacterial resistance nearly impossible. The new antibiotic attacks bacteria is two ways, which makes it 100 million times more difficult for bacteria to develop resistance. That resistance can make it difficult and sometimes impossible to treat infections. Bacterial resistance can sometimes be fatal and it’s considered to be a global health threat. The UIC scientists have been studying a class of synthetic antibiotics called macrolones that interfere with protein production within cells of bacteria and corrupt the structure of its DNA. Because bacteria would have to to fight off both attacks simultaneously, drug resistance would be nearly impossible. UIC researchers worked with Chinese scientists on the antibiotic but more study is needed before it becomes available for human treatment. 

Also, Northfield-based Medline Industries may be moving toward an initial public offering. Listen for more below:

Nationally syndicated financial columnist and author Terry Savage joins John Williams to talk about her recent column about applying for scholarships, why the markets are down today, how the lead up to the presidential election impacts the stock market, and if she was surprised that the markets didn’t move much after the RNC and when President Biden dropped out of the race. And as always, Terry answers all of your financial questions.

Segment 1: Tom Gimbel, job expert and founder of the LaSalle Network, joins John to talk about job interview tips and what you should or should not share during an interview. Tom tells John what we should know about political messaging at work.

Segment 2: Longtime Chicago radio veteran Harvey Wells, Founder, Lower Tech Bills, talks to John about how he helps customers lower their internet, cell phone, and television costs. Harvey offers some suggestions on easy ways to lower your tech bills including visiting a store in-person.

Segment 1: Ilyce Glink, owner of Think Glink Media and Best Money Moves, joins John to talk about the cost of last week’s global outage, and new homes being cheaper per square foot than existing homes.

Segment 2: Jim Dallke, Director of Communications, TechNexus Venture Collaborative, tells John about a new report finding that Chicago venture capital firms are increasingly investing in startups based outside of Chicago, a national coalition asking senators to pass a pair of bills in support of founders and investors of color, and the state of Illinois partnering with DARPA on a new quantum program.

Steve Grzanich has the business news of the day with the Wintrust Business Minute.

A new report says there are significant challenges accessing capital in Chicago’s tech ecosystem. A local nonprofit, P33, says early-stage startups are having trouble pulling in local capital, even though Chicago has the third-largest gross domestic product in the country. The analysis says Chicago’s exporting too much of its venture capital to other places. Only about 15% of early-stage capital involving a Chicago investor was invested locally from 2014 to 2023. In contrast, about 44% was invested by San Francisco investors into their own region. The report recommends creation of funds focused on keeping capital in Chicago to support local innovation. P33 was established in 2019 to foster the tech ecosystem in Chicago. One of its cofounders is Penny Pritzker. 

Also, A Chicago-based medical equipment company will acquire an artificial intelligence software business to enhance its innovation around AI. Listen for more below:

Steve Grzanich has the business news of the day with the Wintrust Business Minute.

United Airlines isn’t the only Chicago area company impacted by the CrowdStrike outage. McDonald’s and and Metra also reported problems. Three Metra-Union Pacific routes had delays that the transit agency blamed on on the CrowdStrike outage. An update of the cybersecurity program took down systems being run on Microsoft computers and devices. It’s unclear how McDonald’s was impacted but it reportedly involved customer service. 

Also, the North Michigan Avenue retail corridor is losing another business. Listen for more below:

Segment 1: Michael Miller, Economics Professor, Western Washington University and Professor Emeritus at DePaul University, chats with John about a recent opinion piece in the Washington Post comparing the economies of former president Trump and President Joe Biden.

Segment 2: Alison Rigsby, past president of The Lake Zurich Lions Club, joins John to talk about the 2024 (and 79th version!) Lions Club Alpine Fest in Lake Zurich!

Segment 3: David Grossman, CEO, Epic Burger, talks to John about how business has been going, how they are celebrating their 16th year in Chicago, the two new locations coming to Bloomington and Champaign, their plans for growth in 2025, and what separates their burgers from others. David also tells John about the Hallie225 Foundation, a non-profit charity dedicated to raising funds for rare cancer research and causes that were deeply important to David’s daughter Hallie Grossman, who fought bravely against a rare form of cancer for 10 months before passing away at age 25.

Segment 1: Steven Esposito, President of Yellowstone Wealth Management in Lake Forest, talks to John about the consumers willingness to spend, how we are starting to see a broadening of the market, good retail sales data, the signal that interest rates are coming down, and what would interest rate cuts mean for the market and economy heading into 2025.

Segment 2: Bree Fowler, Senior Writer, CNET, joins John to talk about Elon Musk moving X and SpaceX from California to Texas, Cybersecurity firm Kaspersky saying it’s shutting down all of its operations in the United States, and Major League Baseball possibly testing robot umpires as part of a challenge system in spring training next year.

Segment 3: Jeff Nydegger, Co-Founder & Innovator, JeffBuysYourHouse, tells John about how the business works, who typically uses the service, what they do with the contents of the house after it’s sold, where he comes up with the cash to buy homes, the average purchase price of the homes they buy, how it differs from the traditional broker route, and why he considers this to be a ‘relationship business.’

Segment 4: Dale Buss, Contributing Editor of Chief Executive Magazine and Founder/Executive Director of The Flyover Coalition, joins John to talk about inflation and how high food prices have impacted American consumers.

Steve Grzanich has the business news of the day with the Wintrust Business Minute.

Gas prices could spike in the Chicago area after a power outage impacted the ExxonMobil refinery near Joliet. Damaged transmission towers have been fixed but it’s unclear whether power’s been fully restored to the facility. It lost service for several days. Gasoline futures for the Chicago area shot up nearly 15 cents and GasBuddy.com says prices at the pump could jump 20 to 40 cents in the Great Lakes region as a result. There are three refineries in the Chicago area and when one of them goes down, analysts say there is little to no cushion of extra supply in the area. 

Also, United Airlines says its third-quarter profit will fall short of Wall Street expectations. Listen for more below: