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Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., the world's fourth-largest insurance broker, acquired Nourse Insurance Brokers Inc. to expand sales of coverage to businesses and wealthy individuals on the U.S. West Coast.

Boeing Co., the second-largest U.S. defense contractor, "repositioned" itself to compete for government work in anticipation that some programs would be reduced or eliminated.

Abbott Laboratories lost its appeals court bid to stop generic-drug makers Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Novartis AG's Sandoz unit and Lupin Ltd. from selling copies of the antibiotic Omnicef.

Sixty-eight U.S. congressmen, including St. Charles Democrat Bill Foster, and Illinois Republicans Aaron Schock and John Shimkus, released a letter Monday to the Treasury Department's Auto Task Force, asking the group to help reverse the closing of GM and Chrysler auto dealerships.

A group representing Chrysler dealers says it's in talks with the automaker it hopes of getting it to scale back its plans to terminate the franchise agreements of about a quarter of its dealers.

Allstate Corp., the largest publicly traded U.S. auto insurer, and Warren Buffett's Geico Corp. are re-entering the Massachusetts car market after the state deregulated pricing for the coverage.

A University of Illinois football player from Batavia has been charged with felony battery after a bar fight in Champaign, police said Monday.

Chrysler LLC has expanded early retirement and buyout offers for workers at six of the eight factories that it plans to close as part of its bankruptcy restructuring.

Monster Worldwide Inc., which runs the Monster job search Web site, has agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle federal civil charges that it secretly backdated options for its executives and employees.

Homebuilders are growing more optimistic about the state of housing and say they see signs that the end of the housing market's three-year downward spiral may be near.

Caterpillar Inc. said it will cut hours at least in half for nearly 1,000 workers at its Lafayette engine plant in its second work reduction announced this month and third in two months.

Paulette Blough loves animals so when a frantic quacking erupted outside her Carol Stream house recently, she had to investigate.

Critical concession talks between General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers are being overshadowed by a public spat about the automaker's plans to import vehicles from other countries while it closes 16 U.S. factories.

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider media executive Conrad Black's appeal of his fraud conviction. Black is serving a 6½ year prison term.

Criminals running free. Fewer police to catch them. Emergency rooms overflowing with the uninsured. Classrooms jammed with kids. No more preschool. More students who can't afford college. Oh, and skyrocketing transit fares, too.

Elk Grove Village-based Tasty Catering announced today that it's acquiring the assets of Rosanne's Catering Services, a 21-year-old catering and events company based in Bloomingdale.

Although yellow-page publisher R.H. Donnelley Corp. obtained a forbearance agreement when the 30-day grace period expired on the $55 million interest payment it didn't make April 15 on one issue of unsecured notes, the company failed to make another $78 million of interest payments due May 15.

Although the reorganization of shopping-mall owner General Growth Properties Inc. is the largest real-estate bankruptcy in U.S. history, the company doesn't need two large law firms, the U.S. Trustee said in an objection last week to the retention of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP and Kirkland & Ellis LLP.

The price of gasoline in the U.S. jumped 25 cents a gallon during the past three weeks, but remains well below prices from a year ago. That's according to the national Lundberg Survey of fuel prices released Sunday.

Insurer American International Group Inc. said late Sunday it plans to spin off its Asian life insurance unit in an initial public offering to help repay billions of dollars in U.S. government loans.